Given its prominent location, it's amazing that 208 S. 13th St. has been sitting empty for several years- the building's last tenant was Letto Deli, which closed in 2009. According to Hidden City, a one story building was constructed here in 1955 as a Dewey's Famous, and got remodeled after a fire in 1969. It became a gay bar in the late 1970s into the 1980s, and for a time was a Middle Eastern restaurant called The Pyramids. Half a decade ago, Jose Garces had a plan to open a German sausage and beer hall called Froman's Wursthaus here, but that plan fell through. Two years ago, Michael Klein reported that Sylva Senat of the now-shuttered Tashan had signed a lease for the space but would be tearing down the building.
On the one hand, we were excited to see what Senat would do with a French bistro at this location. On the other hand, we were a little sad that this unique building would be no more. But alas, the building came down in late 2014 and construction began for the new two-story restaurant. Last September though, a 3-alarm fire broke out at the construction site, ruining most of the new building and severely damaging the Gramercy building next door. Since the fire, the construction site has seemingly sat dormant, at least as far as we could tell. But when we passed by the other day, it looked like some framing had occurred at the site somewhat recently.
Looking at the permits, we see that contractors pulled a new plumbing permit last month, another strong indication that construction should soon be moving forward. The permit specifically references Maison 208 by name, which suggests that the concept should still land here, despite the long delay. With any luck, the repairs to the Gramercy next door will move more quickly. You can see, the upper floors were damaged because of the fire and repairs are still ongoing.
Though the apartments are still not usable, a Wishbone opened on the first floor of the building earlier this year. They're cleverly using the dumpster out front for marketing purposes. Give 'em credit for making lemons out of lemonade!
Soon enough, we expect, the Wishbone will have a new restaurant neighbor to the north.