Beatrice Inn Reopening With A Little Help From Graydon Carter

The Beatrice, after the fall.

The hot-for-a-hot-second Beatrice Inn has been closed since 2009 and the names that made it famous have moved on to other hot-for-a-hot-second restaurant-cum-nightspots. So naturally it is time for the Beatrice, which was once a restaurant and before that a speakeasy for many a year, to make a comeback. And, since he's already got one Village Inn on his resume, you probably won't be shocked to know that Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter is involved in the new Bea.

Last week Grub Street noticed Carter's name on a liquor license application for the space and today Eater gets confirmation that the editor and restaurateur (besides the Waverly Inn Carter also has the just-two-starred Monkey Bar in Midtown) is a minority partner in the space. But despite that, don't expect the new Beatrice to to be the exclusive nightmare it once (briefly) was.

Principal owner Emil Varda says that he hopes the new Beatrice will be for the locals. "We are going to serve comfort food and the restaurant is going to be very comfortable and inviting, continuing the tradition of the people who owned it for so many years," he said. The new incarnation of the 90-seat restaurant (which may or may not be called the Beatrice Inn) will serve basic comfort food, take reservations (including on OpenTable) and have "accessible" prices when it opens in January or February.

One thing we suspect it won't have? Chloe Sevigny. We're sure the neighbors won't mind.