The restaurateur behind Midtown’s Smith & Wollensky is looking to secure the space formerly occupied by Bluebird London Restaurant on the third floor of Columbus Circle Mall for a new concept.
Michael Stillman and his father Alan, who founded TGI Fridays in 1965, co-founded a hospitality group called Fourth Wall Restaurants, now called Quality Branded, in 2007. The duo have since opened numerous concepts including Italian and Mediterranean steakhouses, restaurants and cocktail bars. Prior to opening his own group, Michael worked for Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality, as well as working stints in restaurant kitchens.
The group is proposing a high-end Mediterranean menu for their yet-to-be-named concept, including crudité and bazlama bread with dips, salads and mezzes, main courses and sides.
A sneak peak into the menu items shows signature dips, from chickpea to ember-roasted eggplant and green tahini with crudité and bazlama for $35, a raw bar with hamachi for $22, kumamoto oysters for $24 and tuna tartare for $24, salads and mezzes from fattoush for $21 to grilled artichokes for $21, and main courses from grilled branzino for $39 to smoked cherry baby lamb chops for $51, as well as sides from wadi rum jeweled rice for $14 to roasted sweet potato for $16.
It also includes specials such as a grape leaf black sea bass for $95 and fire-roasted leg of lamb for $130
Its proposed hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily, offering 66 tables with 212 seats, as well as one service and two stand-up bars, the latter of which will have 12 seats.
Quality Branded’s flagship concept is Smith & Wollensky, which is billed as “America’s premier steakhouse” with dry-aged steaks, premium seafood and award-winning wines.
The other concepts it owns and operates includes Quality Italian, a modern Italian steakhouse; Quality Bistro, a steak-centric whimsical brasserie; Quality Meats, a rustic steakhouse; Don Angie, a modern Italian-American restaurant helmed by chef’s Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli; Zou Zou’s, a modern Eastern Mediterranean restaurant helmed by chef Juliana Latif; Chez Zou, a “lush and luxurious” cocktail lounge; and Bad Roman, a “playful and maximalist” Italian restaurant in Columbus Circle.
It also has three concepts in Denver, a coastal Mediterranean restaurant called Kini’s, a Moroccan cocktail bar called Chez Roc, and a Mediterranean cocktail bar called Cretans.
