LOWER EAST SIDE—Some good news for fans the oft-mobbed Frankies 17 on Clinton Street: they're expanding. Though we've heard rumblings for awhile, the deal is now official, lease signed. They will take over the space (formerly an antique store) next door this December and project to open it up by the spring. Managing partner Travis Kauffman tells us the space is a mirror image of their current sliver of a restaurant, but they won't have to use any of it for a kitchen or fridge:
"It'll just be seating. We're going to take a couple of tables out of the current spot to give a little elbow room and then add more probably slightly larger tables next door. All in all we'll probably double our seating capacity to a still modest 50 seats or so.
The kitchen we have can easily handle the load and hopefully it'll give our patrons the opportunity to have a more leisurely meal. And it'll allow us to accommodate all those people that either bounce off because the wait is over an hour or those who don't even come in because they know we're packed every night."
And a note to you event planners looking for a scaled down spot: since the Spuntino hardly ever closes for events, the space will also double as a private dining room.
— photoFor more stories from Eater, go to eater.com.
