Il Cibreo, an Italian restaurant on 2888 Broadway between 112th and 113th that lasted about a year and a half closed this week to make way for a new concept: Mexican food! A new restaurant called Amigos is expected to open in the same spot on Friday, offering mid-priced Mexican fare, an employee told us. “There aren’t a lot of Mexican places around here,” he said.
Employees told Stephanie Keogh, our tipster, that the new place will feature food from “different chefs every month and will offer a different Mexican themed menu.”
That location has seen numerous restaurants come and go in recent years. Il Cibreo replaced Campo, which lasted about three years after replacing Pertutti. Il Cibreo hired hotshot chef Ryan Skeen, but clearly couldn’t break the curse. The restaurants tended to offer drink specials to thirsty Columbia students.
Does this switch mark a trend toward Mexican food on the Upper West Side? American restaurant Recipe on 81st became Mexican spot Cocina Economica. Rigoletto pizza on 69th and Columbus became El Mitote. Thai Nam on 80th just became Oaxaca. And now…Amigos!
For other recent openings and closings, click here.
Thanks to Stephanie Keogh for the tip and photo.
Massive armies of jock girls in cheap tube dresses and hooker heals mysteriously disappeared into this darkly lit shack after blocking the sidewalk as they were slowly carded. Recently they fired the male bartenders to replace them with babes. As Campo, the management were all young guys who focused merely on getting laid, big smiles plastered on their faces as I waited 15 minutes for another glass of wine. As Pertutti a favorite dish was easy to find but one day they ruined the chicken soup, enthusiastically, replacing slow stewed boned pieces with dry cubes of breast meat, host Gino celebrating that they “added more chicken.” Later Gino disappeared after telling customers the great news that he had bought the place, but, uh, he hadn’t. I met a female MIT professor at the bar of Campo. At one point she exclaimed with a smirk that if she dated me she would “crush” me. I did not offer her a matching pimp daddy response. I hadn’t even noticed the change to Italian from Italian, so Mexican is good news though unlike Chinese, Thai, Indian and French, it may be impossible to avoid carbs.
I miss Pertutti. That was a great place to have lunch after church on Sundays. I guess the place is cursed — sort of like the Curse of the Bambino.
Pertutti was probably pushed out by a greedy landlord. What else is new on the Upper Westside?
and lime leaf on 109 (or 8th, i forget) became cascabel taqueria about a year ago. there’s mexican next to hungarian pastry shop on amsterdam and 110th, and taqueria y la fonda a little ways down from that. there’s actually PLENTY of mexican in morningside, i for one won’t miss il cibreo but wish this was something else
Hello, this used to be the spot, where my grand-grandparents (immigrants from Germany) ran their Deli “King’s Kitchen”. If anyone has additional info on it please let me know.
Many greetings, Susanne L. Born