Buddy & Son, from Gjelina alums, sets Oct. 26 opening at the Public Hotel

A long-quiet hotel dining room on the Lower East Side is getting a brasserie reboot. Buddy & Son, from chef Jake Epstein and former Gjelina Group CEO Shelley Armistead, is set to open Monday, Oct. 26, inside Ian Schrager's Public Hotel at 215 Chrystie Street, Eater NY reported.

Caper first reported the partnership earlier this fall, describing Epstein's "New York brasserie" as covering the ground-floor restaurant and lobby cafe while the upstairs bar stays separately run. Eater said Armistead left Gjelina in 2025 after shepherding the group's New York opening; Epstein was Gjelina New York's opening executive chef.

What's on the plate

Epstein told Eater he sees an "ingredient-driven French-American brasserie," with Cajun notes as one influence rather than the whole menu. Expected dishes include a seafood tower with oysters, littlenecks and fluke crudo; Dover sole in beurre blanc; a deboned half chicken over red wine jus; crab cake with gribiche; and beef tartare with colatura. Pastry chef Kimberly Limoncelli — joining with chef de cuisine Dan Everhart from Epstein's longtime orbit — will handle chocolate mousse, coconut cake, brioche doughnuts and daily ice cream, Eater reported.

The bar will pour Sazeracs and French 75s plus house drinks such as Le Métro (Beefeater, Suze, lemon, soda). A cafe next door is planned for coffee, juice and lunch.

A fast build on Chrystie Street

Armistead told Eater she has talked with Schrager since late 2019, but serious New York restaurant talks only started this spring; construction began Aug. 10. Schrager offered her an ownership stake after she consulted on the Public hotel's West Hollywood restaurant, Louis. The LES name honors Epstein's father, Buddy, who "remembered people's names, what they were drinking and how their kids were doing," Epstein said in a statement quoted by Eater.

Public Hotel has never been a destination restaurant for walk-ins, Eater noted, even when Jean-Georges Vongerichten ran Public Kitchen. Armistead is betting a neighborhood-facing brasserie can change that.