"This was not a decision taken lightly," Wasabi wrote on Instagram in July, when it announced its last day of service after 26 years at 638 Manhattan Avenue. The sushi restaurant served its final meal on Monday, July 27. Over the next six weeks, the blocks of Manhattan Avenue near the Nassau Avenue corner and down toward Driggs filled with new signs.
Most of those signs were put up by people who already run businesses in Greenpoint. The owners of Wasabi, Five Leaves, Goldie's and Greenpoint Fish & Lobster are behind three of the five openings below. The summer brought new rooms, new menus and new names. Many of the people running them are the same ones who were already here.
Five storefronts, one summer
| Address | Previously | Now | Opened | Behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 560 Manhattan Ave. | Enid's, then Bar Bruno | Matches | Aug. 14 | Greenpoint Fish & Lobster team |
| 626 Manhattan Ave. | Pizza Prince, then Viva La Pizza | Loco Cafe | Aug. 29 | Coffee shop |
| 632 Manhattan Ave. | Ponyboy | Limousine | Aug. 28 | Owners of Five Leaves and Goldie's |
| 664 Manhattan Ave. | Botbar | Ayune | Sept. 2 soft opening | Owners of Wasabi |
| 669 Manhattan Ave. | — | Lucky Creamery | Aug. 1 | Team behind Philadelphia's Sunny Scoop |
The one storefront in this story without a new name is 638, where Wasabi used to be. The July report on its closing named no incoming tenant.
Wasabi moved into a room it already ran
Robby and Cristin Wijaya told Greenpointers they lost their lease because the landlord wanted to sell the building. They had been on a month-to-month lease since 2023. The family had recently renovated the restaurant inside and out, including a hand-painted mural.
Their next spot is up the block at 664 Manhattan Avenue, and they already knew the space. 664 was Botbar, which opened in 2023 as a robot-run coffee shop. In 2024 it rebranded with a vegan food menu from the Wasabi owners, and the robot stayed. So when Wasabi closed, the family moved its Japanese cooking into a room on the same avenue that it had already been running.
The new concept is called Ayune, and it soft-opened on September 2, about six weeks after Wasabi's last service. The team's Instagram announcement described the plan like this:
"bring its own spin on the flavors and care you've come to know from us back in Wasabi, in a fresh new space."
The menu centers on hand rolls, from tuna and salmon to shiitake mushroom and Japanese pumpkin. Sets of three, four, five or six rolls cost $19 to $38. The Wijayas say a simplified version of the old Wasabi menu will run alongside them. Drinks include a spicy mango cooler, a yuzu shiso fizz, homemade lemonade and teas. Ayune has applied for a beer and wine license, which the owners hope will be approved within a few months.
Limousine took over Ponyboy's room
Six doors down from Wasabi's old address, 632 Manhattan Avenue had been empty since Ponyboy, a restaurant and nightclub, quietly closed about a year ago. On August 28 it reopened as Limousine. Two Greenpoint bar owners teamed up on it: Zander Brezinsky, who owns Five Leaves at 18 Bedford Avenue, and Michael Petersen, who owns Goldie's at 195 Nassau Avenue. The team said the project took about nine months, with fabrication by Allsorts Inc., a Brooklyn company.
Limousine is mainly a cocktail bar, and the food menu leans on oysters. Choices include raw oysters with an apple and celery mignonette, broiled oysters with sausage and parmesan, and fried oysters with halloumi-stuffed olives. There are also deviled eggs, beef tartare with potato chips, and a steak Diane with coriander crumble and mushroom pan sauce. The bar is open daily from 3 p.m. to 2 a.m., and the kitchen serves until midnight.
The private karaoke room is the detail most worth planning around. It holds up to 15 people. It's booked through the "Book Karaoke" page on Limousine's website. Listed rates start at $200 and up during happy hour, which runs Sunday through Thursday from 3 to 7 p.m. Evenings cost $400 and up Sunday through Thursday and $500 and up on Fridays and Saturdays. For a birthday group, booking a Tuesday at 4 p.m. costs less than half of booking a Saturday night.
The Enid's paint came back at 560
At the Driggs Avenue end, the Greenpoint Fish & Lobster team opened Matches at 560 Manhattan Avenue on Friday, August 14. According to Eater, the team restored the old Enid's paint on the outside. Enid's ran in that space for 20 years. Bar Bruno, a Mexican restaurant, moved in 2022 and closed earlier this year. The name Matches seems to nod to Matchless, the dive bar across the street that closed in 2018 and was later torn down for a high-rise residential building.
The opening menu at Matches had $16 cocktails, pan-seared shrimp, steak frites, and a burger topped with Gruyère, caramelized onion sauce, pickled onions and matchstick potatoes. The Infatuation reviewed it in September and called it a casual, reasonably priced American-ish restaurant that turns into a dance floor at night.
Wasabi, Limousine and Matches follow the same pattern. Each room went to people who had already earned regulars a few blocks away, and in two cases the new name points back to an older one.
Where the newcomers landed
Two of the five openings don't come from Greenpoint's own restaurant scene. One of them took over the corner that has changed hands most often.
Loco Cafe opened Saturday, August 29, at 626 Manhattan Avenue at the Nassau corner. It's a 500-square-foot space that was Pizza Prince and, more recently, the short-lived Viva La Pizza. Eater describes the new shop as minimalist, with a winking cup-of-joe logo. Before the opening, Greenpointers reported that Loco planned to serve specialty coffee with pastries and breakfast options. In the last few years, this small corner has gone from slices to slices again to coffee.
Across the street at 669, Lucky Creamery opened on Saturday, August 1. The Infatuation reports that it comes from the people behind Sunny Scoop in Philadelphia. The flavors are Asian-inspired. Greenpointers listed black sesame, Earl Grey, oolong white peach and pandan. Eater also listed ube brownie, mango sticky rice and Thai tea.
The biggest name from outside Greenpoint opened off the avenue. Kirbee's, from Texas pitmasters Jonny White of Goldee's and Chuck Charnichart of Barbs B Q, opened at 55 McGuinness Boulevard South. Customers order at one window and pick up trays at a second window.
Still unsettled
The open questions are about timing more than identity. The July report on Wasabi's closing said the landlord wanted to sell the 638 building. It didn't name a buyer or say what would replace Wasabi. Ayune's beer and wine license was still pending in early September, so for now the drink list is cocktails, lemonade and tea.
Elsewhere in the neighborhood, the summer also brought closures. Ashbox Cafe, the Japanese-leaning breakfast and lunch spot at 1154 Manhattan Avenue, closed after 18 years. Blue Light Speak Cheesy at 158 Green Street served its last day on July 19.
October on the same few blocks
The streets around these storefronts have two dates coming up:
- Greenpoint StoopFest, Sunday, October 4, 1 to 5 p.m. It takes place on stoops along Lorimer Street between Norman and Nassau avenues and at Bedford Slip, with a closing party at McCarren Parkhouse. The same day, Socrates Restaurant, which operated in Greenpoint from 1965 to 2010, returns for one day with free tastings.
- Nassau Avenue Halloween open street, Saturday, October 31, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. NYC DOT lists it on Nassau Avenue between North 15th Street and Lorimer Street. The event is scheduled, but DOT notes that events can be delayed or canceled.
Matches is the old Enid's room under a new name, and on Halloween the Nassau Avenue open street runs a few blocks from the corner Loco Cafe now occupies.
If you own on these blocks and want to know how the summer's turnover on Manhattan Avenue fits into your building's numbers, Michael Molina can walk you through it. Request a free home valuation, and we'll start with the street you already know.