Turney and Safran Are Opening Two New Restaurants

New broke yesterday that Marcie Turney and Valerie Safran added the former Fish space to their roster, ending the dramatic roller coaster that's been playing out at 1234 Locust St. since early 2012. Today, Eater caught up with Turney and Safran who discussed some details about the new location and what we can expect.

"First off, we're opening two new restaurants," Safran told Eater. "The smaller one that ended up being Fish will open first, while we do serious demo and construction on the larger space, which was Rhino Bar. That one will open later."

When asked about concept, Safran said they didn't have one completely figured out, because it all happened so fast. "This came out of left field and was way too good a deal to pass up, so we figured we'll buy it and then figure out what to do with it."

The timing of chef George Sabatino leaving Stateside, and his long history with the ladies of 13th Street got people talking about the possibility that he was headed back to work with them, but Turney immediately shot that down. "No, that's a rumor. We read that one, too. It's just not true," Turney told Eater. "We never spoke to Geroge about the space, and that's all there is to it."

Turney added that while Lolita is undergoing renovations in July, the crew working there will move down the street to the smaller restaurant in the Fish/Rhino Bar space and work in that concept.

"There's so much going on right now, it's exciting," Turney said. "We got this great deal on the restaurant and just had to do it. And right now we're constructing my dream above Barbuzzo. It's just amazing."

· Turney and Safran Take Over Fish Space [~EPHI~]
· All Marcie Turney Coverage [~EPHI~]
· All Fish Coverage [~EPHI~]