Happy Corner Hospitality, the restaurant company behind the growing, Miami-born Motek brand, has nailed down its happiest corner yet.
Motek signed a lease at 60 W. 57th St. — the coveted southeast corner of Sixth Avenue and 57th Street that was home to Rue 57 for a quarter-century, The Post has learned.
The new, 6,700 square-foot Mediterranean/Middle Eastern cafe will open next spring, a spokesperson said.
It will be the Manhattan flagship for Motek, which already has two thriving locations in Flatiron and Williamsburg and will soon replace a Serafina outpost on the Upper West Side.
All eyes were on the heavily-trafficked Rue 57 corner after the French-themed brasserie closed last spring. Sources said Motek bested several other high-profile eatery empires that also bid on the space.
Terms of Motek’s lease weren’t disclosed.
Happy Corner founder Charlie Levy, a former New Yorker, said the planned opening “is deeply personal to me. New York has always represented possibility, energy and culture, everything Motek stands for. To bring our food and spirit to the former Rue 57 feels like coming full circle.”
The new Motek will blend Mediterranean and traditional New York design elements. The menu will feature “kosher-style” dishes that are 100% seed oil-free because, according to its website, “These industrial oils don’t align with the fresh, wholesome cooking that defines who we are.”
The menu hasn’t been announced. The lunch and dinner offerings at always-mobbed Flatiron Motek at 928 Broadway lists hummus, mezze, shawarma plates, street food such as crispy chicken schnitzel, salads, kebabs and steakhouse cuts, among other categories.
The launch will put much-needed life back in the long block of West 57th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, where stores have closed and buildings were demolished in preparation for major new development projects.
The rendering shown with this story has Motek’s facade without the sidewalk bridge that shrouded Rue 57’s entrance for years.
It wasn’t immediately known whether it will be taken down in time for the opening.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
