LOWER EAST SIDE — A French and Mexican fusion restaurant is coming to East Houston Street.
Houston and Allen, named after the surrounding streets, plans to open by the end of April, said co-owner Terry Dunne, who also owns the eatery One and One, located at 12 First Ave.
The restaurant will take over the space vacated by Preserve 24, an eatery that opened last year with an elaborate visual concept — filled with antique tools from a voyage to Greenland — that took two years and $5 million to build, according to the New York Daily News.
Preserve 24 closed over the summer, according to Bowery Boogie.
Chef Augustin Sanchez will head Houston and Allen’s kitchen, combining his French culinary training with his Mexican roots, Dunne said. Specific items on the menu had not yet been set, he added.
“We have a top-notch chef,” he said, noting Sanchez’s tenure at the New York Athletic Club in Midtown for the past six years. “He’s just creative and wonderful.”
The space will include a restaurant on the ground floor and a lounge bar in the basement, where DJs will play music, Dunne said.
Houston and Allen will include 58 tables that can seat about 152 people, according to paperwork filed with Community Board 3, with an additional 10 bar seats on the ground floor and an extra 16 bar seats in the basement. Proposed hours are from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday through Tuesday and from 11 a.m. to 4 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
The owners are expected to make their case for a full liquor license at the community board’s SLA committee meeting on Jan. 12 at 59 E. Fourth St.
