Beast

When we listed BEast, we admired the subversive symmetry of a meat market beneath a vegetarian restaurant. It was the intimate lounge underneath Broadway East, at 171 East Broadway on the edge of Chinatown^{1, 2}, from the folks behind the Manhattan disco Santos Party House³. Downstairs it offered organic infused liquors, an eclectic beer menu and a rotating collection of specialty cocktails³.

The subterranean lounge became a big hit with hipsters and celebrities⁴. The symmetry didn't last: by May 2009 a former Mas chef had given the onetime vegetarian restaurant upstairs a meaty makeover, then parted ways with it⁵. By 2010 Time Out found the lounge had lost a bit of its hipster edge¹; in 2009 we'd said the edgiest thing about it was the easy parking.

Broadway East closed its doors first⁶. In February 2011 the owner, Ron Castellano, decided to close BEast too⁷.

The address kept busy. A later Castellano project there, Rosette, closed eight months after opening⁸, and Danny Bowien moved his wildly popular Mission Chinese Food into the space⁸, relaunching it at 171 East Broadway in December 2014⁹. It was a big hit when it opened, and the pandemic forced its closure in 2020¹⁰. Casino opened quietly in December 2022 as Aisa Shelley's first restaurant, with a dining room in the back that seats 70^{10, 11}, and a February 2026 guide still lists it at 171 East Broadway¹².