After 16 Months, Galli Restaurant on Rivington Street Wants to Cash Out
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Sixteen months after debut, the Lower East Side outpost of Galli Restaurant is apparently on the rocks. Just like Rouge Wine Bar down the block. Proprietor Michael Forrest, the Board Chair of the Lower East Side Partnership (nee BID) who also happens to own 98 Rivington Street, just placed the space on the open market. Listings to that effect have already gone live.
Boy, it’s a doozy. Forrest seeks $25K in monthly rent for the 3,200 square-foot space, plus key money of an additional $375K. That’s $10K more than the asking price from just a few years earlier after ‘inoteca left. The advert is quick to note the full liquor license, sidewalk cafe, and eighty feet of “all glass frontage.”
In retrospect, this impending sale is exactly what neighbors feared would happen back when the liquor license was considered in April 2014. It was at the SLA subcommittee meeting of Community Board 3 that the opposition, namely the LES Dwellers, warned that the added value of a liquor license would be incentive enough for Forrest to sell the business down the line. Guess what…
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Of course, how could we forget that 98 Rivington Street was previously home to the popular Italian joint, ‘inoteca. They lasted more than a decade on this corner, but folded in February 2014. Almost two years to the day. Crazy.