NYC diner Gertie’s planned expansion to Piazza Alta in Northern Liberties is called off
Gertie's New York-based owner and Post Brothers, the landlord at Piazza Alta, would not discuss the disagreement that led to the breakup. Meanwhile, Gertie's original location has closed.
The deal has fallen through for a Philadelphia location of Gertie, the Brooklyn diner that was to be a part of a new restaurant row at the Piazza Alta development in Northern Liberties.
Gertie co-owner Nate Adler declined to elaborate on what happened, citing a settlement agreement with the landlord, Post Brothers. “The expectations of this project were just different, and as the process went on, the expectations that I had were different than the expectations that the Post Brothers had,” Adler said. “Ultimately, we couldn’t find a middle ground.”
Adler said he and his team spent a significant amount of time, along with financial and social capital, on bringing Gertie to Philadelphia. Losing this project, which was close to completion, was a “devastating blow to the brand,” he said. “It really took the legs out from underneath us.”
It also, he said, was the straw that broke the back of Gertie’s original location, in Brooklyn, which closed Sunday, Adler said.
When Gertie opened in 2019, the online food site Thrillist named it as one of its best new restaurants. More recently, Adler said, the daytime-only brand had been suffering from low foot traffic and lack of revenue.
Adler and his wife and business partner, Rachel Jackson, are still eager to open a restaurant in Philadelphia. For him, it would be a homecoming, as he got a taste for the restaurant business while a student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, when he started a delivery restaurant called Kitchen at Penn.
The couple also own Gertrude’s, a New York Jewish-themed bistro, with chef Eli Sussman in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights neighborhood, which opened two years ago. That restaurant is doing well, he said. They also just secured a lease for a new concept in Brooklyn, and are close to a deal to reopen Gertie with a smaller footprint in Prospect Heights, near Gertrude’s, Adler said.
Meanwhile, development continues at Piazza Alta. A representative of Post Brothers did not address the scuttled Gertie deal in a statement to The Inquirer, but said the company is “exploring many promising options for this key space, which is ready to deliver to an operator. Our expectation is to have an operator in place to open this year.”
Among restaurant projects on the way to Piazza Alta are Scusi, a pizzeria expected to open this summer, and Terra Grill, an American grill, due shortly after. Chef Laurent Tourondel is attached to both.