BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER | There soon will be a restaurant at the Christopher St. Pier serving breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week through mid-October. How soon will depend on the Hudson River Park Trust, which has jurisdiction. A proposal from restaurateur Paul Hurley is going through internal reviews, said a Trust spokesperson.
“I’m optimistic that we’ll hear very soon,” Hurley said.
He said he could open his restaurant, PD O’Hurley’s, within five to 10 days after receiving a permit from the Trust.
On June 14, he appeared before Community Board 2’s State Liquor Authority Licensing Committee to request a wine-and-beer license. The committee didn’t vote on his request, but Hurley thought his presentation was well received.
“As long as I can get the restaurant open, I’m not worried about the beer and wine,” Hurley said. “My concept is good food in a great neighborhood.”
Nicole Dooskin, the Trust’s assistant vice president, supported the application at the meeting. The restaurant would be a community amenity, she said, and would bring revenue to the park, which is intended to be self-financing.
The restaurant would seat 69 people in two outdoor areas, would offer takeout, and would employ up to 24 people in high season.
Hurley plans to offer breakfast dishes from $8 to $16. Lunch and small-plate dinner dishes would cost $9 to $12, with large dinner entrees, $13 to $19. Wine by the glass would cost $8 to $11.
Dinner entrees would include beef and tuna burgers, fish and chips, char-grilled chicken with microgreens and seared tuna Niçoise.
“The cooking will be done on site,” Hurley said. The building out of which the restaurant would operate is 310 square feet. According to the terms of the Trust’s request for proposals (R.F.P.), the Pier 45 concessionaire is required to provide and install all kitchen equipment. All equipment must run on electrical power, for which the concessionaire must pay.
Hurley has applied for a three-year lease with two one-year options to renew. After the first year, he would have to reapply to Board 2 for a wine-and-beer license.
“I want to be very family oriented,” he said. His plans include a kids’ menu with breaded chicken fingers, sandwiches and “goujons of cod with crispy fries, ‘Nemo’ style.”
A Dublin native, Hurley started as a bartender in Ireland. He emigrated to New York in the 1980s, and became a bartender at Kennedy’s pub on Second Ave., now one of several restaurants he owns. There are three PD O’Hurley locations, with two more planned for 2012. He also owns O’Casey’s Bar and Restaurant, The Purple Fig and Desmond’s Steak House and Grill in New Rochelle, where he lives.
Hurley is president of the New York Bar, Restaurant and Tavern Owners Association.
