HELL’S KITCHEN — After Hell’s Kitchen restaurant Eatery closed after 15 years, its owners reinvented the spot under a new name just a few storefronts down from its former location at the corner of Ninth Avenue and 53rd Street.
The Jones, a “cocktail-centric, food-oriented, highly stylized establishment” serving New American cuisine with a focus on comfort food, was expected to open for dinner at 5 p.m. Sunday at 788 Ninth Ave., manager Cat Johnson said.
“[Eatery] closed because we lost our lease. [The old location] is a huge space, and the owners decided, they’d had 15 years, they wanted to do something different,” Johnson said Friday as she prepared for an evening “soft opening” for friends and family at the restaurant.
Patrons who frequented Eatery might sense something familiar about The Jones — much of the bar and dining room at the new site has been built with materials repurposed from Eatery, including its wood and stainless-steel furniture, Johnson said.
But while Eatery offered a broad spectrum of menu items ranging from vegetarian and vegan fare to burgers, The Jones will have a “more refined menu” devised by Executive Chef Robert Hackimer, who most recently worked at Superfine in DUMBO, she said.
Entrees on Eatery’s menu ranged in price from a $13.95 sirloin burger with hand-cut fries to $25.95 for pearl-crusted Yellowfin tuna with sides.
The Jones had not posted its new menu online as of Friday, but Johnson said it would be “balanced and innovative” while remaining “accessible and familiar.” She declined to go into specifics.
The restaurant, which occupies the space that formerly housed Q2 Thai restaurant, will be open only for dinner in its first week of operation, but will expand into lunch hours in its second week, followed by brunch the third week, she added.
