NOLITA — Longtime SoHo stalwart Spring Street Natural is just about ready to open at their new location on Kenmare Street, the owner told DNAinfo New York.
Owner Rustam Schoenfeld said his team is "finishing up construction and getting set to open (hopefully) late next week."
The restaurant dished up healthy eats at 62 Spring St. for 30 years, before the owner of the building hiked the rent for the space to six times what Schoenfeld had been paying.
"The neighborhood is changing," landlord Evelyne Wassman said at the time.
The new space at 98 Kenmare St. was designed by Kananshree Interiors, Schoenfeld said, and spans two floors. Each floor holds a full bar, and the lower level — walled in exposed brick with steel beams — will be used for private events.
The main dining room gets a lot of natural light and has towering grids of greenery, Schoenfeld said.
The new Spring Street Natural will serve brunch, lunch and dinner, each with options from a "wok station" and old favorites like spring rolls and warm spinach-artichoke nachos.
The brunch menu includes dishes a breakfast burrito and chilaquiles, and jerk chicken with sweet potato waffles.
Lunch offers an array of large salads, vegan options and burgers, and the dinner menu adds seafood and meat dishes, including seared ahi tuna and steak frites with chimichurri sauce.
Schoenfeld had to persuade one of the neighborhood's most powerful tenants' associations that he could be trusted not to replicate previous occupants' transformations from benign restaurants by day to rowdy clubs by night.
The 86 Kenmare Tenants' Association demanded additional construction, including dropped ceilings and soundproofing.
Another restaurant opposed by the same tenants' association, Pasquale Jones, by chef-owner Ryan Hardy of West Village hotspot Charlie Bird, is also slated to open next week at 86 Kenmare St., right next door to Spring Street Natural.
