On the last Friday evening before the end, the narrow climbing gym inside Manhattan Plaza Health Club filled with people who knew its walls by heart. W42ST reported that some came to climb and others came to eat together and say goodbye. Manager Ryan Shaefer said the farewell drew people he hadn't seen there in 14 years. The wall on West 43rd Street closed on Wednesday, September 30, after 34 years.
Three weeks later and eleven blocks north, a 22-seat bar opened on West 54th Street. Its back room is a laboratory for testing drinks. The two events show the shape of Hell's Kitchen this fall. Most of the new places are cocktail-focused rooms grouped on one stretch of Ninth Avenue, and some come from teams that already work there. The places closing are older rooms that people spent decades returning to.
Ninth Avenue, Address by Address
Most of the fall's arrivals sit on Ninth Avenue at 51st Street and above. One sits half a block off the avenue.
| Address | Name | What it is | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 754 Ninth Ave, just south of W. 51st | Monkey Thief | Asian-inspired cocktail bar with three bars under one roof | Opened in August |
| 756 Ninth Ave, at W. 51st | Rita's | Margarita and taco bar, formerly 'ritas | Under Monkey Thief's team as of October |
| 359 W. 54th St, between Eighth and Ninth | Cocktail Test Kitchen | 22-seat bar with a cocktail R&D lab in back | Opened October 21 |
| 852 Ninth Ave | The Tiger Club | Jazz, martinis and French-inspired dining | Open since at least October 2 |
| 858 Ninth Ave | Le Yard | New restaurant in the former Route 66 Bar & Grill space | Aiming for December 1 |
The one exception is farther south. The Gyro Project opened its tenth location at 600 Ninth Avenue on October 15. It's a fast-casual counter, not a cocktail room.
One Team Now Holds the Corner at 51st
The biggest change on the list is a change in who runs the corner. Monkey Thief spent about ten months moving through openings, closings, pop-ups and reinventions before it settled at 754 Ninth Avenue in August. Its new home is the large space the neighborhood bar Hell's Kitchen occupied for many years. Sources disagree on the exact day. W42ST's August 5 item said it was opening that Wednesday, and Eater's August roundup dates the return to August 14.
Next door, the Mexican spot on the corner of Ninth and 51st that diners knew as 'ritas now goes by Rita's. The Infatuation added an editor's note saying that, as of October 2026, it is run by the people behind Monkey Thief. The restaurant's own site calls it a neighborhood margarita-and-taco bar. The Infatuation's review describes it as quick, generous and affordable, a pre-theater stop known for nachos and strong margaritas.
As a result, two neighboring addresses at one of Ninth Avenue's busiest pre-theater corners now share one operator. One is built for a long evening across three bars. The other is built for a fast meal before an 8 p.m. curtain.
The New Rooms Are Designed Around the Drink
Head north from that corner and the openings take the same approach in different ways.
Cocktail Test Kitchen comes from Major Food Group veterans Patrick Wert, Brad Nugent and James Kaspari. Eater describes a 400-square-foot space with a glowing neighborhood bar up front and a research-and-development lab in back. The team's beverage management company, Innovative Beverage Strategies, debuts drinks here first and uses customer feedback to shape the final recipe before it goes on a menu anywhere else. Expect frozen martinis, takes on classic cocktails and small bites like pizza bagels. The lab means that drinks served on West 54th this fall may appear on menus elsewhere later.
The Tiger Club at 852 Ninth Avenue leans toward old-school glamour. W42ST's profile names managing partner Matthew Doers and partners Dorian Gashi and Maggie Bertisch. Its reservation listing promises live jazz and French-inspired dining. It shares the building with Kashkaval Garden, which has been on that block since 2004.
Le Yard is two doors up at 858 Ninth Avenue and is still under construction. The owners are writing about the build as it happens. In the first entry of their journal, they say they took possession on September 3. They're aiming for December 1, 2026, and the date depends on the work being ready. Walnut is the direction they've chosen for the tables. Hoodline reports that the space was previously home to Route 66 Bar & Grill.
Taken together, the stretch is gaining operators who think hard about the glass, the room and the order of the evening. A 22-seat lab bar, a jazz room and a restaurant that publishes its table samples are all small, designed spaces. The places closing this fall worked on a different model.
What Closes on Tenth Avenue and West 43rd
Scruffy Duffy's at 639 Tenth Avenue, between West 45th and West 46th Streets, has set its last call for November 29. The bar's history goes back further than its current address. Pat Hughes ran the original Scruffy Duffy's on Eighth Avenue until February 2008, when it closed during the Times Square redevelopment. The bar came back on Tenth Avenue in 2019. According to W42ST's report, the bar's Instagram announcement thanked everyone who helped make it feel like home:
"It's been a blast to be a small part of the Hell's Kitchen community."
The Manhattan Plaza Health Club climbing gym was the other kind of fixture. It opened in 1992 in a former racquetball court. The club says it was New York City's first commercial climbing gym. Time Out New York reported that it covered about 5,000 square feet and changed routes weekly. Membership was advertised at $49 a month, women climbed free on Fridays, and youth programs used the wall. A petition to keep it open drew thousands of signatures, and supporters rallied outside the club on September 26. In a public reply to an online review, the club said the wall would need a complete renovation and would still be too small to compete with newer, larger gyms.
The rest of the club is still open, including the pool, weight room, group fitness classes and tennis facilities. Climbing-only memberships were canceled automatically at the end of September, according to Vertige Media. Neither the club nor its owner, Related Companies, has publicly said what the space will become.
Both closings remove rooms that took decades to build up. Scruffy Duffy's history covers two avenues and nearly two decades of relocation. The climbing wall had a monthly price that, according to Time Out's account, kept regulars coming back for years. Neither has an announced successor of the same kind. The new places on Ninth Avenue are adding a different sort of evening.
Dates Between Now and December
- Friday, October 30. Hudson Yards shows Beetlejuice outdoors on Public Square & Gardens as part of its free fall Backyard program. Food vendors are scheduled through October 31.
- Saturday, November 7, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Hudson River Park holds its annual Pumpkin Smash at Pier 84. Bring your leftover pumpkins, and park staff provide the tools to break them down for compost.
- Sunday, November 29. Last call at Scruffy Duffy's, 639 Tenth Avenue.
- Tuesday, December 1. Le Yard's target opening at 858 Ninth Avenue, depending on the buildout.
Between the pumpkin compost and the final pour on Tenth Avenue, the two lists overlap for a few weeks. For now you can still order a drink at Scruffy Duffy's and at Cocktail Test Kitchen's new bar in the same neighborhood.
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