Restaurant Corners NY Times Building

Published on January 19, 2007

The Hale & Hearty Soup brothers staked their claim on Eighth Ave. to open a restaurant in the style of a modern burger stand.

Andrew and Jonathan Schnipper, the brothers who gave New York the Hale & Hearty Soup chain, have staked their claim on the fifth and final retail space in the New York Times building, at 620 Eighth Ave., between West 40th and West 41st streets.

The Schnippers signed a 20-year lease for a 3,200-square-foot corner space on West 41st. Asking rent in the building was $150 to $200 a square foot.

The entrepreneurs plan to open a restaurant in the style of a modern burger-stand. The as-yet-unnamed eatery will serve casual fare such as fish tacos, salads and burgers, as well as beer and wine.

“It’s an evolution of the roadside stand we all knew growing up,” says Andrew Schnipper, chief executive of The Schnipper Restaurant Group. His brother will serve as executive chef.

The restaurant, scheduled to open by August, will also have use of a 1,000-square-foot outdoor area and a 1,400-square-foot basement for cooking and storage. It will seat about 150 patrons inside and 50 outside.

Candice Dobbs of Dobbs Associates Inc., who represented the Schnippers in the deal, searched for a year to find the right location.

“For a brand-new concept, you want to make an impact and show it off beautifully,” says Ms. Dobbs, who also placed gourmet store Dean & DeLuca in the building last year.

The property’s other retail tenants will include Muji, a Japanese purveyor of housewares and clothes; Japanese restaurant Inakaya; and Italian restaurant Montenapo, a new concept from Bice Restaurant Group.

Miriam Harris, a vice president at Forest City Ratner Cos., negotiated the Schnipper deal in-house. Her company co-owns the 1.5-million-square-foot building with The New York Times Co.