F R E S H

The highly visible restaurant and bar space in New York at the W Times Square hotel’s getting a makeover.

Early next year, the W’s Blue Fin restaurant – with its hard-to-miss entrance on Broadway in the heart of Times Square – is set to to shrink to make room for a location of a popular Mexican restaurant chain, Crain’s New York reports.

The restaurant (1567 Broadway at 47th Street) will be cut in half so that Dos Caminos can open with an entrance on Broadway and a dining room below street level, Crain’s tells us. The dining room will replace Whiskey Bar, which is run by the Gerber Group, the story says.

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At least one other Dos Caminos location lures people in with an interesting ground-floor location and then seats a good portion of customers in a basement location. (825 Third Avenue at 50th Street, which has outdoor seating near the main entrance.) 

Both Dos Caminos and Blue Fin are part of BR Guest, a restaurant company with locations in Las Vegas, New Jersey, Florida (a Dos Caminos in Fort Lauderdale) and New York. There is a hotel connection! t’s part of the empire of Barry Sternlicht, the CEO of Starwood Capital Group and the former CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

If you’re a Blue Fin fan, don’t expect it to play second fiddle at the W. Crain’s says it’s getting a separate entrance and its first renovation in 13 years.

Readers: I’ve stayed at that hotel at least twice but have never eaten in Blue Fin. If you’ve been, tell us your thoughts.