Despite MTA promise, Grand Central Madison still doesn't have a restaurant 2 years in

The MTA faces yet another setback at Grand Central Madison, which opened in January 2023 after more than a decade of delays and billions in cost overruns.

Nearly two years after the debut of one of the country’s most expensive train stations, its 32 retail spaces remain vacant. MTA officials promised that would begin to change this fall through the opening of a new outpost of Tracks Raw Bar & Grill on the station’s concourse. But fall came and went, and there’s still no bar and no grill near the tracks set 10 stories underground.

Renderings of the plans for the bar remain posted on the glass near the station’s Long Island Rail Road ticket window, where the transit agency said it plans to locate the dining area. After showing no signs of progress this year, construction barricades finally went up for the new space this week, MTA officials said.

Tracks Bar owner Bruce Caulfield wrote in a text to Gothamist that he plans to open a “pop up” version of the space by St. Patrick’s Day, to serve “beer and wine and non alcoholic beverages as well as some snack items.” He said the subterranean space still doesn’t have kitchen exhaust.

An MTA spokesperson declined to say whether gas hookups or hot water were available for Tracks or any other prospective food service tenant.

This summer, the MTA put out a formal call for contractors to finish “miscellaneous remaining work” on the terminal, which included fire alarm installation and “provisions for the utilities for the retail spaces.”

The planned opening of the bar at the station will come as the MTA still struggles to build out any retail at the station, which serves roughly 100,000 daily riders. The station was part of the agency’s East Side Access project that federal documents show cost more than $12 billion, which includes loan interest. When the project was first planned in the late 1990s, MTA officials estimated it would cost $2.8 billion and take less than 10 years to finish.

MTA managers rushed to open Grand Central Madison after its debut was delayed several weeks in late 2022 because the station’s ventilation system was not up to code.

For commuters waiting for trains at Grand Central Madison, which sits 150 feet below Grand Central Terminal, there are scant places to find refreshments or seating before. (The MTA did install 14 new benches back in October.)

“I guess it’s a little bit annoying, because the restaurants are at [Grand Central Terminal]. ... You’d have to take a taxi to get there from here, basically,” said Daniel Pagan, an artist from Bayside, Queens who was waiting for a train early Tuesday afternoon.

Up and down the concourse — which the MTA says contains 25,000 square feet of retail space — stock images of diner stools, pantry shelves, wine bottles and eyewear displays cover the windows of empty storefronts. On Tuesday, only small kiosks selling water bottles, candy and coffee were open.

But despite Grand Central Madison’s retail ghost town, the terminal is still gaining fans. It recently received a UNESCO prize for having the “World’s Most Beautiful Passenger Station” interior.

“I love coming into Grand Central, because it’s beautiful. I like it so much better than Penn Station,” Amelia Sheldon, a literary agent from Oyster Bay, said. “You could always have more bars and restaurants, we’re not going to argue with that, but I really love this station, I have to say.”