Street-smart Queens kid turned Nobu managing partner Richie Notar has a full plate of projects: He’s opening three restaurants, said to include a fast-casual concept and an oyster bar at the Lombardy. He’s reportedly also bringing cult New Orleans doughnut shop Buttermilk Drop to Harlem and has applied for a liquor license at the historic Lenox Lounge space on Lenox Avenue. Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York even hears that Robert De Niro is involved, and the space may be called Notar Jazz Club. Meanwhile, Alvin Reed, who has owned the club for the last 24 years and is responsible for preserving the space, says he is being forced out, Black Enterprise reports, by a rent that is currently $20,000 a month, up from $10,000 a year ago. “I am Lenox Lounge, and I will be Lenox Lounge for quite some time,” says Reed. “And if they want Lenox Lounge, they want me.” [Black Enterprise, Earlier, Earlier]
