By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
TRIBECA — New York Rangers star Henrik Lundqvist is trading goal tending for bartending at a new restaurant venture downtown.
The Swedish hockey player is working with teammate Sean Avery and local restaurateur Matt Abramcyk to launch the new TriBeCa bistro, called Tiny's, a publicist confirmed to DNAinfo.
But the project has hit a few setbacks, Abramcyk said at a meeting this week. Construction on the landmarked three-story building at 135 W. Broadway took more time and money than any of the partners had expected, because the structure was in such bad shape, Abramcyk said.
"We basically rebuilt the entire building from top to bottom," Abramcyk told Community Board 1 Wednesday night.
To make up for the extra expenses, Abramcyk is applying to add a bar and 19 seats to the building's second floor, bringing the restaurant to 59 seats total, so that it will be financially viable, he said.
Lundqvist told the New York Post in November that he was already looking forward to going to Tiny's after games.
"It's gonna be a local restaurant/bar — nothing special — with good food and good atmosphere," Lundqvist told a Swedish journalist during a tour of the space late last year. "It's just for fun with a couple of friends. It's not like I'm gonna make money on it. It's too much of a risky business."
A spokeswoman for Lundqvist declined to comment Friday.
Abramcyk, who did not mention the hockey star partners during his presentation on Wednesday, said he named the establishment Tiny's for the size of its diminutive, pink-painted building, which previously housed Vietnamese restaurant Hoi An.
The restaurant will serve light, modern American food with Italian influences, including a Tiny's Burger with pickled beets, a fried egg and blue cheese, and Long Island Blackfish with celery root puree, sunchokes, new potatoes and carrots, according to a preliminary menu.
Tiny's also plans to tap into the neighborhood's bustling lunch crowd, offering sandwiches with house-made cold cuts for under $15, Abramcyk said.
Cocktails on the preliminary menu include a Hemingway Daiquiri with white rum, maraschino liqueur, fresh grapefruit and lime, and a White Lady with muddled strawberries and champagne.
CB1's Tribeca Committee gave advisory approval Wednesday to the liquor license alteration, which will allow for the extra seating.
