After fifteen years in business, Café Colonial shut down after owner Luciane Gilan found herself unable to afford a staggering rent hike. She told Grub Street in March she had been paying $10,000 a month, and her landlord had found a lessee willing to pay $30,000. She understood that her landlord was hoping the new Pulino’s nearby would attract a high-end boutique. Gilan told Grub, “I don’t think we, as people who live here, gain anything by having these kinds of things here. Because you know what, who’s going to shop in a high-end boutique? I can’t and any local people can’t.” Gain or not, it looks like that high-end boutique is moving in, after all: Construction workers hauling over the site told bloggers the space would become a rag & bone store. Slated to open July 1, this would be the label’s third stand-alone store in the city, rounding out their Soho and West Village locations. The changeover prompts a question we so often ponder, which is whether omelettes made with full eggs and real cheese matter more to us than justifying expensive tight pants with thin thighs. Normally the omelette wins.
Rag & Bone Outpost to Replace the Closed Café Colonial [Racked NY]
Related: Café Colonial Owner: McNally Inspired Landlord to Pull Plug After Fifteen Years [Grub Street]
