Mermaid Inn to reopen on Upper West Side this year

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By Steve Cuozzo

April 3, 2023 | 7:13pm

They’re breaking out the Chardonnay and cocktail sauce on the Upper West Side.

The Mermaid Inn, which made a splash on Amsterdam Avenue for 15 years before it closed last year, is taking the plunge again nearby.

The new Mermaid will reopen later this year at 335 Columbus Ave. at West 76th Street, a former Chase bank branch. Danny Abrams, who owns the popular seafood-driven Mermaid mini-empire with Cindy Smith, said it will have an impressive 6,500 square feet.

“The lease took longer than we expected, but we got a really good deal” from landlord Olshan Properties, Abrams said. Talks for the vacant space began last June, but Abrams declined to discuss terms.

The Amsterdam Avenue Mermaid was long one of the area’s favorite restaurants. The owners  made what Smith called the “super sad”  decision to close it last fall due to uncertainty over  the landlord’s plans for the building.

She said they were already searching for a new location — which sometimes prove to be empty words after any popular place closes.

The reopening marks a boost for the limping Columbus Avenue and Upper West Side retail scenes where many storefronts have fallen vacant.

Neighborhood resident Linda Alexander, who is a member of Community Board 7, called the Mermaid return “awesome. They have always been some of the best restaurant operators we have.”  

Meanwhile,  the first phase of Adams’ and Smith’s jumbo Mermaid Oyster Bar at 127 W. 43rd St., a collaboration with Alicart Restaurant Group CEO Jeffrey Bank,  has been “taking off” as more people flock to Broadway theaters and Times Square, Abrams said.

The venue’s second half will open in a few months, he said.