Restaurateur Shelly Fireman, who loves show business as much as food, believes that a second act should be better than the first.
Four years ago, his popular theater-district eatery Bond 45 faced its final curtain. The landlord at 154 W. 45th St. wouldn’t renew its lease. He sadly lost the trattoria he had filled with Art Deco flourishes and his own art collection that evoked the Times Square of the 1940s.
But today, the new Bond 45 — at 221 W. 46th St., one block north but sticking with its old name — is the toast of Broadway. Its 7,800-square-foot, two-level confines with 270 seats, more than at the single-floor original, is theaterland’s new celebration venue for cast parties and holiday celebrations. Customers are delighted by the sight of Broadway performers who might pop in on any day or night.
Fans are legion for the moderately priced, something-for-everyone Italian menu like the ones Fireman perfected at Trattoria Dell’Arte and Fiorello. Celebs gravitate to nine cozy leather booths on a slightly raised section behind the bar. They mingle with a 7 a.m.-to-midnight crowd of showgoers, tourists and neighborhood media and finance executives...
The restaurant is just half a block west of Times Square between Broadway and 8th Avenue and across the street from the Richard Rogers Theatre -- home to Hamilton since 2015.