45th Street's Mini-Restaurant Row Finally Coming Down?

It's been more than two years since the tiny, humble restaurants along the north side of W. 45th Street between Broadway and Eighth began folding one by one. Barrymore's, BAM! Sam's, BAM! Puleo's, BAM! And then they just sat there, boarded up, among the din of rumors that they had died that a coming hotel tower might live.

There were signs today that the low-slung building may soon finally bite the dust. The door to Barrymore's was open for the first time since the restaurant shuttered (see above). There were also openings in the shedding leading to the stoops of a couple of the buildings, with rat poison signs pasted on the doors of each—a sure sign of the coming end of a building. There were spray-painted squares on the buildings that I hadn't notice before. A few construction typed milled about, talking on cellphones and eating lunch.

An application to demolish Barrymore's was filed with the DOB back on Feb. 29. Ditto the other structures. Meanwhile, the nearby old-school steakhouse Frankie and Johnny's continues to mysteriously do business, having escaped the ax somehow.