Danny Meyer's New Restaurant Opening Way Downtown

Danny Meyer is hopping the train and heading way downtown. The New York restaurant king is planning to open a 12,000-square-foot restaurant on the 60th floor of a building (880 feet up), just a couple blocks north of Wall Street, the New York Post reports. The restaurant uses only a third of the space Meyer will be taking over. The rest will be dedicated to private event spaces, including the largest ballroom in Downtown Manhattan, which Meyer's team announced last year.

All told, the project, which will have a 360-degree view of the Manhattan skyline, will cost $30 million with the design work headed up by Woods Bagot, the firm that outfitted the luxury Baccarat Hotel.

There's no word yet on what concept Meyer will bring to the space, but diners should know soon enough, as the restaurant is slated to open in a year. When it does, it will be joined by a slew of the city's most established chefs and restaurateurs who are marching downtown to open their own projects, including David Chang and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who are working on projects at South Street Seaport, and the Eleven Madison Park team, who is planning a restaurant at 3 World Trade Center.

Keith McNally and Tom Colicchio are already paving the way with Augustine and Fowler & Wells, their projects that opened last year at The Beekman.

Update: Meyer is also catching the train to D.C., Washingtonian reports. Sometime next year, he will open an outpost of New York's Union Square Cafe in the capital, not far from Union Station.