NYC’s spectacular Aqua restaurant — with a 70-foot sushi bar — joins the thriving Flatiron corridor

Restaurant watchers may be surprised by Monday’s opening of Aqua New York, a block-long leviathan at 902 Broadway between East 20th and 21st streets.

If they’ve never heard of it, it’s because it was hidden in plain sight during more than 18 months of construction, with no advance publicity or social media hype.

The bold launch is the brainchild of Aqua Restaurant Group founder and owner David Yeo. The company owns a thriving downtown Hutong Chinese restaurant (in Vornado’s Bloomberg Tower) and 19 other locations in London, Miami, Hong Kong, Beijing and Dubai.

Aqua New York is a unique dual cuisine concept with Italian and Japanese dishes – not “fusion”, but separate menus prepared in different kitchens. Customers can choose from either option.

Aqua spans 25,000 square feet, including kitchen and housewares — much larger than the year’s other secret restaurant, Grand Brasserie at Grand Central Terminal.

The two-level 432-seat Aqua spans the entire eastern block. It’s visible through the windows of Broadway at the south end and snakes behind an Okta “Experience Center” on East 21st Street, where large Japanese masks will soon cover the windows.

The design by Robert Angell and Yeo himself refers to Italian and Japanese traditions. A flying hemp rope tower rises above the large oval grass installation called Aqua Spirits. A 70-meter-long sushi counter with cushion seating is said to be the longest in the city.

Yeo coveted the space for six years, but nearly deals with landlord Rosen Group, a family-owned commercial realtor with properties in 12 states, were stymied when other tenants, including WeWork, beat him to the punch by subleasing portions of the space. of Retail Yeo. cursed.

Aqua is the latest addition to Broadway’s thick restaurant and hotel corridor north and south of 23rd Street. (A new Scarpetta is coming to the building south of Aqua).

Yeo is confident despite Aqua having little name recognition in town. When we mentioned that road traffic on Broadway in the area had increased tremendously in recent months, he laughed, “Yeah, they heard we were coming.”