At 10 a.m. on a weekday, the counter in the lobby of 425 Lafayette Street is already selling $5.50 cornetti. Before September, the Public Theater's food and drink happened mostly upstairs, in a mezzanine supper club called the Library that the NoHo Business Improvement District's directory described as "open late nightly for dinner and cocktail service." Now the building serves something from midmorning to 11 p.m., every day of the week.
That change came on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, when the Public and NoHo Hospitality Group opened two new spaces at once. The Astor took over the mezzanine where the Library used to be, and Bar Torino opened in the lobby. The Public is the north anchor of Lafayette Street, and its day now runs on a longer clock than its stages do.
Two Rooms, One Building, Thirteen Hours
| Room | Where in the building | Hours | How to get in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bar Torino | Lobby, with extra seating under the mezzanine | Daily, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. | No reservations, first come, first served |
| The Astor | Mezzanine, behind the lobby | Daily, 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. | Reservations open 14 days ahead |
| Joe's Pub | Inside the Public | Show nights | Tickets by performance |
Bar Torino at the Public is the second location of the café, after the original in Hudson Yards. The Public Theater menu runs from pastry to panini to aperitivo. The cornetto is $5.50, a cinna-cruffin $6.50, an olive oil snacking cake $6, and a chicken Caesar salad $17. The turkey club, with bacon, cherry pepper and basil pesto, is $16. In the evening, a Hugo Spritz is $19.
Those prices matter because of what the rest of the building charges. A standard ticket to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in the Newman Theater is listed at $149. The lobby counter now sells the cheapest thing at 425 Lafayette by a wide margin, and it runs on a walk-up basis that the rest of the building does not.
Upstairs, the Library Became a Tavern
The Astor is the bigger change. The team behind it goes back to 1998, when Serge Becker, Josh Pickard, Paul Salmon and Kevin Abbott launched Joe's Pub with the theater. Andrew Carmellini, Luke Ostrom and Pickard of NoHo Hospitality now oversee the new spaces, and EV Grieve reported that chef Angel Monge leads the Astor's kitchen. Eater NY also named managing partners Jersey Katz and Michelle Cunha, bar director Darryl Chan on cocktails, and Josh Nadel on wine.
The room is a record of the building itself. Red banquettes and white tablecloths sit under walls covered with posters, playbills, letters and photographs from the Public's archives. EV Grieve's list includes a photograph of Meryl Streep with founder Joseph Papp, a telegram from Jacqueline Kennedy, a handwritten note from Samuel Beckett, and gold records from A Chorus Line. Around the island bar, a mural by André Carrilho shows 32 people tied to the Public, among them Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alicia Keys, David Byrne, Ntozake Shange, Suzan-Lori Parks, Sam Shepard and Tony Kushner.
The dinner menu leans on old New York tavern cooking:
- To start: Devilish Eggs with sweet drop pepper, $14; Chips & Dip with avocado and "Valley ranch," $19; Clams Casino with hickory bacon, $20
- Savories: the Crown Daisy Caesar with "snowy cheese" and a "near-perfect anchovy," $18; Pigs in Wellington, $21
- Entrées: French Mushroom Dip with au jus, $25; Baked Maccheroni with harvest pumpkin and three cheeses, $28; Heritage Chicken with bullhorn peppers and showbiz sauce, $35; Hot Buttered Lobster Roll, $38; Steak Diane with prime filet and cognac jus, $65
At the bar, the House Martini is $20 and the Charlie Chaplin is $21. There's also a $18 Faux Daisy for anyone skipping alcohol.
Grub Street put the Astor on its October list of best new restaurants. Its critic, Shay Cohen, singled out the Caesar, the roasted half-chicken with its "garlicky and peppery" showbiz sauce, the pumpkin-and-cheese macaroni, and a strawberry split that "reads like a nostalgic nod to ice-cream-truck shortcakes." Joe's Pub is a separate space, and Eater reported that it stays unchanged.
What the Stages Are Running While the Kitchens Stay Open
The longer food hours line up with a dense stage season. Here is what's playing in the building from mid-November through the holidays.
Theater
- The Verge by Susan Glaspell, directed by Jessie Austrian, in LuEsther Hall through November 22. Tickets are $99, or $79 for supporters and partners.
- We'll See, written and directed by Richard Nelson, in the Barbaralee Theater through November 29, at the same $99 and $79 prices. It is the latest play in Nelson's Rhinebeck Panorama and follows the Apple family on midterm election day.
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in the Newman Theater through December 20.
Joe's Pub, late November
- Bridget Everett & The Tender Moments, November 17 through 20
- Salty Brine, November 19 through 21
- Murray Hill, November 21
- Sophie B. Hawkins and CHRISTEENE, November 23
- Willie Nile, November 24
- The Lost Stop, starring Kaitlin Becker, November 28 and 29
- Amber Iman, November 30
Joe's Pub, December
- Joe McGinty & The Loser's Lounge, ABBA, December 2 through 5
- Tony Trischka's Holiday Show: Of A Winter's Night, December 8
- Mx Viv's Holiday Glaze, December 9 through 13 and December 16 through 20
- Murray Hill: A Murray Little Christmas, December 15 through 19
- Meow Meow: Feline Festive, December 21 and 22, with shows at 7:00 and 9:30 p.m. both nights
After that, the Under the Radar festival runs January 6 to 24, 2027, at venues across the city.
On any of those show nights, the lobby café serves until 10 and the Astor until 11.
Down Lafayette, the Corner at Great Jones
Farther down Lafayette, at 372 Lafayette Street on the corner of Great Jones, the same pattern is playing out in another space. Enrique Olvera's all-day Mexican restaurant Atla closed on May 31 after nearly a decade. Olvera kept the address for something new.
That project is Bar Cosme, where drinks come first. The cocktails are developed by Sebastián Tollius, formerly of Clemente Bar. Its Resy page calls it "a secluded and intimate space made for late nights." It lists counter and window seating, a $135 prix fixe dinner, and walk-ins as space allows. The drinks list centers on classic cocktails, older vintage wines and a hand-picked selection of spirits. When Time Out New York first reported the plan in July, it pitched Bar Cosme as a place for anyone who "ever wished Cosme had somewhere to continue the night after dinner."
Atla served all day. The new tenant in that space is aiming at the late end of the evening. Up the street, the Public has added the daytime hours it never had.
Next Up, Around the Corner on the Bowery
The next arrival is on the Bowery. HAGS, the restaurant from chef Telly Justice and sommelier Camille Lindsley, served its last day at 163 First Avenue on Sunday, October 18. Eater NY reports it will reopen at 334 Bowery at East Third Street in January or February 2027.
The NoHo space will be larger, with about 60 to 70 seats compared with 20 on First Avenue. It will serve an à la carte menu instead of tasting menus and will have a full liquor license for cocktails. The pay-what-you-can Sunday brunch is staying. Justice told Eater that the team wants to lean into "this Bowery, jazz, punk, rock and roll, Great Jones art community cinematic universe," and that a two-bite tuna melt, built on rice brioche, is the dish she is most excited about.
By early 2027, the stretch from Astor Place to Great Jones and over to the Bowery will have a lobby café open from 10 in the morning, a tavern serving until 11, a bar at Great Jones built for late nights, and a 60-plus-seat HAGS on the Bowery with Sunday brunch.
If you own near Astor Place, Great Jones or the Bowery and want a read on where your home stands as this corridor fills in, Josue Gonzalez can put real numbers behind it. Get your instant home valuation, and we'll follow up with a data-backed view of your block.
