WEST VILLAGE — The landlords of the former Commerce Restaurant are keeping a promise made to their neighbors — 50 Commerce St. will once again hold an eatery.
The space was home to the beloved neighborhood joint Grange Hall before becoming the equally popular Commerce Restaurant.
The next iteration will be run by Alex Kingman, the 26-year-old son of the owners of the building.
"I grew up in New York City so I have a strong attachment to the neighborhood," Kingman said at a community board meeting Thursday night.
Kingman, currently a graduate student at the New York University Stern School of Business, is partnering with a chef from Blue Water Grill, Luis Jaramillo, to open a 91-seat restaurant with a "seasonal seafood focus," he said.
He described the venture as an "American restaurant with a South American influence" courtesy of Jaramillo, who is from Ecuador and has a "love and passion for South American cooking."
Commerce had been there for seven years before it was evicted last year after a legal battle with Judith and Richard Kingman, Alex's parents. The iconic murals that adorned the restaurant's walls for years were removed by the artist in October.
► READ MORE: Artist Reluctantly Removes His Murals From Closed Commerce St. Restaurant
Kingman's aim is for the restaurant to be open from 9 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday, and until 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
A draft menu provided to Community Board 2's liquor licensing committee includes a raw bar offering two different kinds of clams, oysters, gulf shrimp cocktail, Maine lobster with crab dressing, tuna tartare and a calamari salad with cilantro.
Appetizers include a seasonal daily soup with toast, a fish taco with kohlrabi and avocado, charred octopus with potato and pickled jalapeno, seafood salad, homemade burrata with sourdough toast and a "little gem" Caesar salad with tapioca. Prices range from $10 to $22.
Entrees range from $25 to $29 and are largely seafood, such as Catskill smoked trout with broccoli and fennel salad, seared tuna with avocado and sweet potato, arctic char with locally harvested wheat berries and braised black kale and pan-roasted skate wing with spring pea, mint and burnt leek.
Non-seafood options include roasted chicken with mashed red bliss potatoes and truffle cream and a cote de boeuf with frites and au poivre sauce for two — priced at $40 per person.
The restaurant spans 2,200 square feet across two floors. The basement level is used for storage and all the dining is on the first floor, Kingman said. He plans to have 27 tables and a 13-seat bar.
The restaurant has two entrances but Kingman said he plans to only use the one on Commerce Street because of "the atmosphere as you approach."
"It's a nice visual look with the lights flickering inside," he said.
His parents still live on the top floor of the building. They have experience in the restaurant industry themselves, having operated a speakeasy-style place in the 1990s in Chelsea called Alley's End.
Former Commerce Restaurant chef Harold Moore is opening a new restaurant in the Tommie Hotel downtown later this year, Harold's Meat + Three, as well as a five-seat cake-and-chicken joint called Commerce Sweet Shop at 72 Bedford St., where Commerce Restaurant's famous fried chicken and coconut cake will make a comeback.
Harold's Meat + Three will offer an upscale version of a cafeteria-style restaurant offering protein plus three sides, complemented by cocktails and a high-end salad bar.
The chef will debut some of his menu items — beer can chicken, prime rib and whole roasted fish — at a fundraiser for Greenwich House on March 14.
