Richie Notar is headed back to the future. The Nobu guru is planning to take over and restore Harlem’s historic Lenox Lounge. And he will also launch Notar Hospitality next year, with a restaurant slated to open mid-January that’s located on East 56th Street, off Park Avenue. The building is where actress Marion Davies — the paramour of William Randolph Hearst — personally entertained guests in the 1930s. The building was a gift to her from Hearst.
Lenox Lounge, meanwhile, was originally founded in 1939, and rumors are that Robert De Niro will also be involved with the relaunched space. Busy Notar is also partnering with New Orleans baker Dwight Henry on Mr. Henry’s Bakery, a Harlem spinoff of Henry’s popular Buttermilk Drop Bakery and Café in the Treme neighborhood of the Big Easy. Henry also starred in the critical darling and awards contender “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” Lenox Lounge and the new bakery are slated to open in March.
GrubStreet says “The space may be called Notar Jazz Club. Meanwhile, Alvin Reed, who has owned the club for the last 24 years and is responsible for preserving the space, says he is being forced out, Black Enterprise reports, by a rent that is currently $20,000 a month, up from $10,000 a year ago. ‘I am Lenox Lounge, and I will be Lenox Lounge for quite some time,’ says Reed. ‘And if they want Lenox Lounge, they want me.’”
Read more about Mr. Notar here.
Related articles
- Lenox Lounge To Close December 31st, 2012 (harlemworldmag.com)
- Richie Notar Sees Value In Lenox Lounge (harlemworldmag.com)
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