Rue 57's Old Corner on 57th Street Is Serving Again, This Time From Miami

For about 17 months the southeast corner of Sixth Avenue and 57th Street had no restaurant in it. That ended on Friday, September 25, 2026, when Motek opened its Manhattan flagship at 60 West 57th Street. It has 275 seats across the two levels Rue 57 used to fill. The room is close to its old size. Rue 57 had 300 seats on two floors. The hours are what changed. Motek opens at 11 a.m. and closes at 10 p.m. on most nights. That makes it a brunch room, a place for a long table, and somewhere to eat before a concert. Anyone a few blocks away on Billionaires' Row will find it fits some evenings well and others not at all.

How a quarter-century on the corner ended

Rue 57 was already open in March 2000, when the New York Post reviewed it as the new brasserie at Sixth Avenue and 57th Street. Marc Packer was named as the owner. Over the years its menu mixed sushi with eggs Benedict and cocktails, the kind of range a Midtown corner draws when office workers, shoppers and concertgoers all walk past the same door.

The ending came through the lease. In January 2025, the West Side Spirit reported that the restaurant had filed a WARN notice with the state Department of Labor. The notice named April 9 as the expected closing date and said all 60 employees would be laid off. The restaurant's chief financial officer told the paper the cause was lease-renewal talks with the building's landlord. "The entity was negotiating for lease renewal, and it doesn't look like we're going to get the lease," he said. In April 2025, Eater NY reported that the restaurant had closed earlier that month and that the lease was not renewed.

So the corner didn't empty out because people stopped coming. It emptied because the two sides couldn't agree on a renewal, and that set up a contest over who would take a two-level room at one of the busiest crossings in Midtown.

From closing to first plate

The timeline shows how long it took a space this size to change hands and reopen.

1. Early April 2025. Rue 57 closes after about 25 years.
2. October 30, 2025. The New York Post reports that Motek has signed a lease for 60 West 57th Street, and that sources said it beat several other high-profile restaurant groups that bid on the space. A spokesperson says it will open the next spring.
3. Friday, September 25, 2026. The flagship opens, later than the spring target, with walk-in service only.
4. Monday, October 5, 2026. Reservations open.

The new tenant comes from Happy Corner Hospitality, founded by Charlie Levy, a former New Yorker. Levy started Motek in downtown Miami during the pandemic, serving Levantine food, and according to Eater NY it now has nearly 10 locations in South Florida. When the lease was announced, he told the Post that opening in the former Rue 57 "feels like coming full circle."

A room built for the big table

The space covers 6,700 square feet. BizBash lists it as an event venue that can be bought out entirely for up to 275 guests, with a downstairs private dining room for up to 120. The downstairs room alone holds more people than many neighborhood restaurants seat in total.

The house rules follow the same logic. Motek's 57th Street page sends parties of 10 or more to a private-events inquiry form instead of the regular booking tool. Its lunch and brunch menu adds a 20% service charge for parties of six or more. A family of five books a table like anyone else. A group of six should expect the charge, and a group of ten fills out a form.

The design brief, as described to the New York Post before the opening, mixed Mediterranean and traditional New York elements. The Post also reported that the menu would be "kosher-style" and free of seed oils, a policy the company explains on its website.

What the menu costs, low to high

The restaurant's own page names its signature dishes as shakshuka and its award-winning burger, along with house-baked pita and hummus. Other dishes on the current menu include arayes, chicken schnitzel and shawarma, kebabs, malawach, branzino, Moroccan fish and a set of steakhouse cuts.

A dip, pita and the burger make a weekday lunch for well under $50 a person. The tomahawk costs about as much as a full dinner for three ordered from the middle of the menu. Menus and prices change, so these are the figures posted as of late October 2026.

There's no critic's review of this location yet. The first reviews of the brand in New York covered Motek's Flatiron branch: Time Out New York gave it four out of five stars and singled out the dips, pita, arayes, kebabs and the brunch malawach.

A day that runs from 11 to 10

These are the posted hours at 60 West 57th Street.

• Monday through Thursday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• Friday and Saturday: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
• Sunday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Brunch dishes are served all day, but nothing opens before 11 a.m., so there's no early breakfast service. The restaurant's own page has an online reservation link and lists its phone number, (212) 895-4797.

The closing time matters most on concert nights. Carnegie Hall is one avenue west at 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, and the restaurant markets itself as steps from the hall. How that works out depends on the night. Here's how the hours line up with two upcoming programs.

An 8 p.m. weeknight concert works the other way. Dinner has to come first, because the kitchen's 10 p.m. close comes before most such programs let out.

The same clock suits the park two blocks north. Wollman Rink opened for the season on October 28 and lists skating sessions every day in November. A morning skate followed by an 11 a.m. shakshuka at 57th and Sixth is a weekend plan the corner didn't offer before September.

Where the Motek name goes next

The 57th Street room is meant to anchor more locations in the city. Eater NY reports that Levy plans to open Yalla Motek in December, a more casual Mediterranean street-food spin-off at 1147 Broadway between 26th and 27th streets in Nomad. Its menu will center on rice bowls, falafel, crispy eggplant, hummus and sandwiches such as lamb shawarma. Eater's October report also lists an Upper West Side Motek as on the way, and the Post reported in 2025 that it would take over a former Serafina location there. For now, 60 West 57th Street is the largest Motek in Manhattan and the one closest to the park.

Satinder Kaur pays the same attention to corners like this one when advising clients on a home near 57th Street: which spaces change hands, why they do, and how a new tenant's hours shape the blocks around it. If you're thinking about what's changing near your own address, Satinder Kaur is glad to talk it through. Contact Us.