Beloved Fort Greene & Clinton Hill Restaurants Expand To Manhattan

Good news for your friends in Manhattan–area restaurants Madiba (195 Dekalb Avenue between Carlton Avenue and Adelphi Street) and Speedy Romeo (376 Classon Avenue at Greene Avenue) are bringing their goods across the river with offshoot locations in Harlem and on the Lower East Side.

Eater was the first to get tongues wagging about Speedy Romeo’s expansion, having spotted “Speedy Romeo LES” on the agenda for a Manhattan Community Board 3 meeting last Thursday. The next day, Bowery Boogie confirmed the news with Chef Leah Tinari that Speedy, along with partner Adrian Grenier (yes, Entourage‘s Adrian Grenier), would be taking over the space currently occupied by Tinari’s Fatta Cuckoo (63 Clinton Street between Rivington and Stanton)–as well as the Cube 63 Sushi restaurant next door.

“I am super excited to hand off the space to these guys,” Chef Tinari told the site. “It hasn’t always been easy on Clinton, but I really believe that Speedy will be a great fit and keep the block full of life and great food.”

Farther uptown, The Daily News covered Madiba’s teaming up with the owners of My Image Studios (MIST) to launch an outpost within MIST’s theater/studio/coworking concept space at 46 W 116 Street (between 5th Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard). MIST was blindsided in early 2013 by the sudden death of managing partner Roland Owen Laird Jr.–but now, having undergone $1 million in renovations and collaborating with the Madiba crew, MIST executive producer Andre Robinson tells the paper that the venue is “a completion of the owner’s original vision.”

Madiba’s Chef Mark Henegan calls Madiba Harlem “a cultural space for everyone to come in and be a part of,” while the restaurant’s site likens their new digs to Fort Greene. While both neighborhoods have “recently attracted more diverse and affluent stakeholders,” the site reads, Madiba Harlem hopes to replicate Fort Greene’s ability to “[connect] long term stakeholders, new residents, and a sophisticated African national and diplomatic clientele.”

“Where the Brooklyn location seats approximately 150, MIST Harlem will seat up to 250 patrons for catered events or cabaret style events in the studios while simultaneously seating 136 in the restaurant and up to 150 combined in the café, bar and terrace with the help of Architect Jack Travis,” says a Madiba Harlem press release.

Chef Matias Delsart is heading up the kitchen at Madiba Harlem. You can check out their menu here.