CHELSEA — The Empire strikes back.
The iconic Empire Diner on 10th Avenue, which closed for a third time late last year amid struggles paying its rent, is reopening under new management in November.
Bedford & Co chef John DeLucie, along with the owners of popular 24/7 restaurant Cafeteria on Seventh Avenue, plan to resurrect the restaurant at 210 10th Ave., between West 23rd and 22nd streets, a spokeswoman for the team confirmed.
It has been a tumultuous few years for the restaurant, which closed after more than three decades in 2010 and reopened as an eatery called “The Highliner” the following year before closing again soon after.
A team including celebrity chef Amanda Freitag revived the diner again in 2014, but it fell behind on rent after Freitag left the venture in July 2015 and ultimately shuttered this past December.
The facade of the diner — which appeared in Woody Allen’s “Manhattan” and has served a host of celebrity customers over the years — will remain unchanged given its landmark status, DeLucie told Untapped Cities.
DeLucie, who was a founding chef at the Waverly Inn, recently opened Bedford & Co inside the Renwick Hotel in Midtown, Eater reported.
Two of the chef’s other ventures, The Windsor in the West Village and Crown on the Upper East Side, closed after his hospitality group lost a class action lawsuit filed by waiters at a third eatery claiming they were stiffed on tips, the New York Post reported.
A spokeswoman for the diner’s new management team said she couldn’t provide additional details about their plans for the eatery.
