Joanne Lucas shocked the New York restaurant world last week with an extraordinary announcement.

After months of searching for some deep-pocketed tenant to replace the hugely celebrated restaurateur Florent Morellet, whom she infamously booted from her building at 69 Gansevoort Street amid a lengthy dispute over rent and taxes, Ms. Lucas had finally decided to leave well enough alone.

She would reopen Mr. Morellet’s famous Florent restaurant on her own, less than 48 hours after its highly publicized June 29 closure. Same menu. Same staff. Same iconic green storefront. Only without the eccentric Mr. Morellet at the helm. Or his neon pink “Florent” sign in the window.  read more »

Meatpacking district stalwart Novac Noury has graciously asked neighborhood restaurateur Florent Morellet to move into his underutilized building on Little West 12th Street once Mr. Morellet's iconic Florent diner closes for good because of a huge rent hike this summer.

"I gave him a call yesterday and we may be in talks to continue his stay in my building," Mr. Noury told The Villager this week.

But Mr. Morellet apparently isn't interested, according to the article.

Instead, the flamboyant restaurateur is planning to go out "with a bang," kicking off the “Final Five Weeks of Florent" over Memorial Day weekend, with each following week given a theme to represent a stage in the "grieving process he’s undergone over losing his restaurant....Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and, finally, Acceptance."

Eater is reporting today that iconic Florent diner is now officially on the market.

Winick Realty is shopping the space for $700,000 per year.

That's roughly $58,333 per month -- a substantial increase from the restaurant's current $6,018 monthly rate and quite higher than even the $43,000 estimate that one broker gave The Observer last week.

Read our previous coverage here.

UPDATE: Eater is now reporting that Lansco is marketing the Florent space -- not Winick. Oh, and the asking rent is more like $50,000 per month.

Restaurateur Florent Morellet called today to clarify something from last week's Observer article on the fate of his iconic Florent diner on Gansevoort Street.

That $150,000 he's seeking from landlord Joanne Lucas in court? "What we're claiming is not really damage," he said. "It's being overcharged."  read more »

Michael Angelo, the artistically named owner of the Wonderland Beauty Parlor on West 13th Street, has a far better idea for sprucing up old cobblestone-lined Gansevoort Square than, say, installing a fountain, or opening a farmer’s market, as others have suggested.

“A great statue of Florent,” he has proposed, “dressed up as Marie Antoinette, spitting water out and surrounded by pigs. I think that would be fucking fabulous.”

Mr. Angelo was referring to Florent Morellet, flamboyant owner of the iconic Florent diner at 69 Gansevoort Street, who has been known to dress up as the famous French monarch at his annual drag-queen-themed Bastille Day parties—though he might as well sport a coonskin cap, given his reputation as a neighborhood pioneer.  read more »

Florent Morellet just called to chat about today’s news that his eponymous eatery may, before too long, close its doors for good.

“It’s funny, the Internet, it’s like SARS,” Mr. Morellet joked, referring to the way today’s news has spread on the Web. “It’s going to be a process. I’ve been a fighter all my life—for my rights, people’s rights,” he said. Mr. Morellet, who is HIV positive, told us that the possible closing has nothing to do with his health. In fact, the restaurateur said he’s in fine shape these days, pointing to a healthy T-cell count (over 800), which is updated on a board in Florent.  read more »

In 1985, when Florent Morellet opened his eponymous restaurant on Gansevoort Street, the space, he said, “screamed at me 24-hours.” With its warm, buttery lighting and cheerful servers, Florent remains a perfect place to linger over a plate of roasted chicken and whipped potatoes at two in the morning. Today, however, brings the sad news that Florent, the iconic meatpacking-district restaurant, may soon close its doors forever. In November, we spoke to Mr. Morellet about his always-open francophilic eatery.  read more »

69 Gansevoort Street

212-989-5779  read more »