Same Doors, New Kitchens: Who Moved Into the Upper East Side's Familiar Storefronts This Fall

On East 64th Street between First and York, the backyard behind number 408 still has tables. The menu has changed. Bayon served its last Cambodian dinner on Monday, August 3, and a Korean restaurant called Bon Ga now cooks bulgogi in the same small room.

The same thing happened up and down the avenues east of Lexington this fall. Most of the season's notable openings took over spaces that were already restaurants or shops. The new tenants kept the size, seating and even some of the staff, and they changed the food. If you know what used to be at an address, you already know a good deal about the place that replaced it. These are the handoffs, roughly south to north:

• 408 E. 64th St.: Bayon became Bon Ga
• 1479 First Ave. at E. 77th: Spice became Ob Uan
• 1556 Second Ave., between 80th and 81st: Adria became Bluestone Lane
• 1547 Second Ave.: Ania Rybka Salon became Myka
• 1614 Third Ave. at E. 91st: Kaia became La Sardine

Bayon's room, Bon Ga's menu

The room on East 64th has a longer history than either of its last two names. According to East Side Feed's account of the closing, Minh and Mandy Truong opened Angkor Cambodian Bistro there in 2015 and closed it in 2020. The landlord contacted them when the storefront came free again. They returned with Bayon in the winter of 2024: 14 tables inside and a small seasonal backyard. Michelin added Bayon to its guide in November 2024, and it later earned a Bib Gourmand. The inspectors singled out the fried chive dumplings and the nyoam, thick rice noodles in a red curry made with ground fish. The couple's farewell post said the chef/owner was retiring after 45 years in the city's restaurant community. That figure covers the owners' whole career, which also included about two decades at Royal Siam in Chelsea. The Bayon name itself dates only to 2024.

Bon Ga kept the room's scale. Eater NY describes a 10-table dining room and an open-air area out back that seats 26, with bulgogi and seafood pancakes making up much of a Korean comfort-food menu. The Infatuation's listing notes that the back patio is covered, which helps now that the evenings are cooler.

A Thai corner that stayed Thai

The handoff at First Avenue and 77th Street was closer to a succession. Patch reported in August that the owners of Spice Corner had decided to sell the business. One member of the six-person team taking it over had worked with the existing operation since 2016. "This is a continuation of fine Thai dining at this spot that's been there for 16 years," the team's representative, Anthony Caraballo, told the community board, which approved the liquor license application on August 4. The plan called for 16 tables with 34 seats and a six-seat bar.

The new restaurant, Ob Uan, keeps the corner Thai but organizes its specials by province. East Side Feed's opening report lists khao soy gai from Phrae in the north at $25 and somtum gai yang from Khon Kaen at $26. From the south come gaeng pu, a Surat Thani crab curry at $30, and slow-braised massaman beef from Songkhla at $32. The everyday side of the menu is still there: pad Thai is $19, and the weekday lunch special of appetizer, entrée and house drink starts at $17. Ob Uan is open Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and 5 to 9:30 p.m., and from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on weekends. Reservations go through OpenTable.

Neighborhood teams take the next storefront

Several of this fall's newcomers came from people already cooking nearby, which follows the same pattern. Rather than starting over, they took another familiar room a few blocks away.

La Sardine opened on Wednesday, September 9, at 1614 Third Avenue at East 91st Street. It comes from the team behind Bar Vivant, also in the neighborhood, and Alison, which has locations in East Harlem and the East Village. It took over the former Kaia space, and The Infatuation's review says it "fills a very similar hole in the east 90s" as "a chic, date night-worthy wine bar with reasonably priced bottles," citing a $70 cabernet franc. The menu leans toward seafood: towers, lobster rolls, brioche sliders with fried oysters or lobster, and crab-and-jambon beignets, plus cheese, charcuterie and merguez meatballs for anyone who doesn't want fish. The Infatuation suggests going for a couple of glasses and a snack rather than a full dinner.

Kuriya, at 219 East 85th Street between Second and Third, comes from the neighborhood team behind the Japanese rice-bowl restaurant Suki Desu. It debuted on Sunday, September 6. The room is built to look like a street stall, with one table and some bar seating, according to The Infatuation. The most expensive soba sets are $22: one comes with an assortment from the seafood case, and the other is topped with raw salmon and scallops. The Infatuation lists it as good for walk-ins, lunch and eating alone.

Second Avenue at 80th, a block that keeps changing

The handoffs around Second Avenue and 80th Street have been more frequent. According to East Side Feed, 1556 Second Avenue was Gray Hawk Grill, then Adria, a coastal Italian restaurant that opened in 2024 and closed in September after two years. It is now Bluestone Lane. Adria's chef and co-owner, Endri Qalliu, told the outlet at the time that he was exploring a move elsewhere in the neighborhood, with no timeline.

Bluestone Lane is calling this one its Yorkville café. The all-day menu includes lemon ricotta pancakes with citrus curd, an egg-and-bacon BL Burrito with sheep's milk feta and guajillo sauce, flat whites, and a Hot Milo, the malted chocolate drink the menu calls an Aussie favorite. It is the chain's second café in the neighborhood. The first is at 1085 Fifth Avenue, between 89th and 90th, at the Church of the Heavenly Rest.

A few doors away, Myka opened on Saturday, October 24, at 1547 Second Avenue, the former Ania Rybka Salon. The Madrid-founded frozen yogurt shop uses Greek yogurt and goat's milk kefir, with toppings that include baklava, praline crunch, fig and orange compotes, pistachio sauce, and honey with olive oil. Patch notes that it is the third new froyo shop on the Upper East Side since June, after Mythos at First Avenue and East 68th and Mimi's at Lexington and East 72nd, which opened in September.

Two openings that started fresh

Not every new table came with a predecessor attached. La Collina, a bright-orange Italian restaurant and pizzeria at 1431 First Avenue at East 74th, opened on Tuesday, August 18, for lunch, dinner and brunch. Eater NY lists red and white pies, Mediterranean sea bass with celery root purée, and a $34 two-course weekday lunch. That lunch starts with thinly sliced eggplant, followed by tonnarelli cacio e pepe or tagliatelle Bolognese.

At the neighborhood's northern edge, Creola opened on Wednesday, September 9, at 1261 Park Avenue between East 97th and 98th. Chef Lana Lagomarsini, a Gramercy Tavern alum who grew up in the Bronx, named it for her grandmother. The $125 tasting menu centers on the Black culinary diaspora, with courses like potlikker consommé and oxtail pâté en croûte, and wine pairings are $65. These two openings show how the other kind of opening works. Without an old tenant to take after, a new place has to set its own expectations on the first visit, and both of these did so through clear pricing.

Still behind brown paper

Two more storefronts are mid-handoff, and both are worth watching on the next walk down Third or East 86th:

1. BloomBar Café et Fleurs, 1226 Third Avenue. Patch reported on October 21 that the café and flower shop was aiming to open by the end of October. It plans to serve espresso, Japanese ceremonial matcha, vegan soft serve, salads and pastries alongside flowers and home goods.
2. T.J. Maxx, 150 East 86th Street. The 29,000-square-foot store is planned for the former H&M space, and Patch's October 12 report gave no opening date.

When a long-held Yorkville apartment or a family townhouse an heir is now responsible for changes hands, we help with the preparation and the sale. If one of these openings has you wondering what your own address would bring this fall, Valois-Lopes & Robert is glad to talk it through over coffee at whichever new counter is closest to you.