The ever strategic Danny Meyer has remained relatively quiet about the future of Union Square Cafe since he announced that the restaurant's lease is up and he won't be signing the new, much more expensive one. He's always promised to relocate the restaurant, and today he reiterates the restaurant will return. "Union Square Cafe will survive because it's just too important to me, our staff members are too important to me, and as my very first restaurant, it's the mother yeast of our company," he tells the Commercial Observer.

Meyer and his team have been looking for a space in the neighborhood for six months, but so far nothing has yielded a lease. Meyer wants to stick to the neighborhood because of the name, but also "because of the 30-year-old relationships we have with Greenmarket farmers and regular guests who dine with us several times each week." He's aiming for a space that's no more than "a five-minute hand truck push from the Greenmarket."

The restaurant's lease, however, is up December 31 and the difficult search may mean that "There may very well be a small gap in time between closing up the restaurant and opening up the new one, but not a large gap in time."