Damn, that is some powerful Hauntology.
Per NYguy:
JANUARY 12, 2021
More of Moynihan is opening up, and it’s starting to look like the renderings…
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Per NYguy:
Moynihan Food Hall brings artisanal — and democracy — to Penn Station area
By Steve Cuozzo
January 23, 2022
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Hungry and thirsty Moynihan Train Hall users no longer have to trudge outside to neighborhood joints to eat and make merry.
Vornado Realty Trust just launched the Moynihan Food Hall, a 25,000-square-foot cluster of a dozen, “curated” vendors on Penn Station’s ground floor, all chosen for their Big Apple connections. The names include Sauce Pizzeria, E.A.K. Ramen and Jacob’s Pickles.
The centerpiece is The Bar, an elegant venue in dark walnut and polished brass run by HPH, the hospitality outfit that owns Harry’s steakhouse, French market Le District, and “World’s Best Bar” award-winner Dead Rabbit, and manages the Financier patisseries.
The Bar — not to be confused with Amtrak’s nearby Metropolitan Lounge, which is open mainly to select Amtrak ticket-holders — is for everyone, including tens of thousands of local residents and workers en route daily to and from Madison Square Garden, Manhattan West and Hudson Yards.
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HPH operates The Bar under a management contract, while other, smaller vendors lease their spots from Vornado.
Danny McDonald, a partner in HPH with Peter Poulakakos and Paul Lamas, said that Vornado “paid for the whole buildout.” The bar itself is topped with American black walnut like the one at Dead Rabbit downtown.
The Bar and a few other vendors opened without fanfare a week ago. The area was quiet, much like the adjoining Moynihan Train Hall’s carved out inside the James A. Farley Post Office building. But traffic will likely grow when Amtrak, LIRR and subway ridership increase with the end of Omicron, as now appears insight.
The planned February and March openings of more food kiosks, such as Alidoro and Burger Joint, are also certain to draw more customers.
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McDonald said, “We only got our liquor license this month and we didn’t put the vodka on the bar until last Friday [Jan. 14]. We’ve seen a steady stream of more people every day.”
Food isn’t served at the bar itself or at nearby tables. But as the eateries around it open, Bar customers will scan a QR code to order dishes from them, McDonald said. (Several food spots are also open in the Vornado-owned Train Hall, including Magnolia Bakery and H&H Bagels, but they are separate from the Food Hall.)
HPH previously operated Vornado’s now-closed Pennsy food hall on Seventh Avenue, which served as kind of a test kitchen to gauge foot traffic in the area. But the Moynihan hall’s rich furnishings and decor are a far cry from the Pennsy’s industrial motif.
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Manhattan has scores of food courts, of course, but the Moynihan Hall stakes are high for Vornado.
It’s part of the developer’s 125,000-square-foot retail presence at Moynihan-Penn Station, which it controls under a 99-year lease from the Empire State Development Corp.
The publicly traded real estate giant regards the Food Hall as key to its entire, enormous West Side commitment. The investment includes the Farley Building, where Facebook leased 750,000 square feet of offices, as well as neighboring office towers Penn 1 and Penn 2.
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Vornado also has rights to develop five new office towers in the immediate vicinity as part of the planned $306 billion Empire Station Complex, which was proposed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and has been only slightly scaled down by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
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im trying to think of all of the seating that Grand Central has. I can’t think of any. Maybe the food hall.
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Isn’t something going up on that parking lot corner?
Pizza suprema is an institution thooooo
I’m for this ugly block staying just for that slice
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I imagine that there used to be a ton of seating in the waiting rooms that now sit mostly empty.
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The seating is reduced and fenced off ( show your ticket ) because they don’t want to deal with homeless moving in
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Nice. Good to see this getting started.
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I took a train here yesterday, and saying it was chaotic would be an understatement.
Lines of hundreds of people to get to one single escalator, people running around because they don’t tell you what track the train is on until minutes before it arrives
Nice station though
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That’s why I still use the lower level of the old Penn Station. They have monitors down there for the track announcements and you will always beat the escalator people. Been doing it for years before Moynihan was finished.
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“Could Penn Station’s Fancy New Food Hall Actually Make Us Miss the Old One?”
I don’t know, but the panzerotti in the article looks like a sea cow.
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is that the same as a manatee?
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Yes. “Sea cow” is just more fun to say.
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