Evan Sung for The New York Times
Hugue Dufour and Sarah Obraitis, the married couple who owned M. Wells — the wildly popular diner-style restaurant in Long Island City, Queens, that lost its lease and closed last summer — plan to open a new restaurant in the same neighborhood in late fall.
But it will not be a diner. M. Wells Steakhouse, with about 80 seats and outdoor seating, will occupy a vacant garage at 43-15 Crescent Street (43rd Avenue). “We wanted to do something totally different from what we were doing before, even though our food was always meat-driven,” Ms. Obraitis said.
She explained that she and her husband, the chef, visited a Georgia farm, White Oak Pastures, that raises meat and poultry and has its own slaughterhouse; Mr. Dufour was so inspired that he decided to try opening a steakhouse.
Ms. Obraitis said the new restaurant would be fairly classic, with sides and sauces, but also with unusual cuts, including meat butchered European style. “It should be welcome in this neighborhood,” she said. “There are office buildings and no place for executives to eat.”
The deal for the garage came about after Justin Elghanayan — a principal at Rockrose Development, which owns the garage and is developing residential and commercial projects in the area — dined at M. Wells and thought it “fantastic.” “It sparked my interest in them,” he said, “and when I found out they were losing their home I knew this would be a great fit for us, so I reached out to them.”
Ms. Obraitis said that the restaurant would feature concrete, brick and dark wood, and that she and her husband would use part of the space to build a catamaran with the help of some experts and friends.
Their former restaurant had a French-Canadian lilt; Mr. Dufour had been a partner at Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal. And it drew high praise from critics, including The Times’s Sam Sifton, who gave it two stars last April.
