Mott Haven Restaurants in the Bronx: What Saved This Spot

Walk down Bruckner Boulevard past the old Clock Tower building on a weeknight this August and the windows are still glowing where Chocobar Cortés used to be, just under a different name and a different kitchen. According to the Bronx Times, Nourish, the cafe and restaurant that replaced it, started full dinner service on August 8, 2025. If you've lived in Mott Haven long enough to remember the buzz around this exact address two years ago, the change raises an obvious question: what was actually different this time?

The story centers on a debt purchase and a change in ownership.

The local restaurant promotion and what followed

The Bronx Times reported that in October 2024, a coalition led by the nonprofit Oyate Group launched something called Taste of Mott Haven: a free monthly Wednesday crawl where registered guests got a complimentary drink and appetizer at up to three participating restaurants in one night. It wasn't a vague neighborhood-boosting gesture. The stated goal was specific: drive customers to Chocobar and its neighbors, including Beatstro, Hudson Smokehouse, and Rosa's At Park, at a moment when several South Bronx spots were struggling. The first event ran October 30, 2024, with two more dated for November 20 and December 11.

Taste of Mott Haven brought together named partners (Oyate Group, Mott Haven Rising, the Hoodspitality Group, Canon Strategy Group) and offered a recurring event intended to direct customers to Chocobar and nearby restaurants. Chocobar closed by the end of 2024.

That's the part worth sitting with if you live nearby. Foot traffic and debt are two different problems; a promotional series and a restaurant's longer-term finances are different parts of the story.

How the restaurant changed

After the restaurant closed, Oyate Group bought Chocobar's outstanding debt, which kept the previous owner out of bankruptcy while giving the nonprofit control of the space itself. The changes included a full remodel into an airier, window-lit dining room, a new operating model where all profits fund the nonprofit's own programs (including a scholarship in Brandon Hendricks's name), and a kitchen that stays open until 1 a.m. on weekdays other than Friday and 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, filling what founder Tomas Ramos has pointed to as a real gap in the area. He's said the goal is for people here to be able to bounce between a drink at one spot and dinner at another the way you can on the Lower East Side. The plan at the time of the relaunch was for the building to also become a workforce development center that fall, using the larger downstairs kitchen and prep tables the space already had in place.

Here's the timeline side by side, to show when each part of the story happened:

Less than a year separated the campaign from the changes to the space. The promotional series came before the debt purchase, remodel, and new operating model.

A nearby waterfront project

A separate example of neighborhood change is visible if you walk east toward the Harlem River. For most of the past decade, planning documents for the Port Morris and Bruckner Boulevard corridor have promised a "vibrant 24/7 neighborhood" with improved waterfront access as rezonings brought thousands of new housing units to the area. Housing lotteries have indeed opened steadily for buildings like Bruckner House at 40 Bruckner Boulevard and One38 down the block. What's been slower to show up is the actual waterfront part of that promise.

One completed part of the waterfront plans is a public promenade between the Third Avenue and Lincoln at Bankside buildings, with benches, lounge chairs, bistro tables, and an accessible walking path along the river, open to anyone who wants to read outside, talk with a friend, or let a dog stretch its legs. It's a modest stretch of waterfront, while further work remains proposed. The next phase depends on money again: local advocates have applied for a federal Environmental Protection Agency Climate Justice grant that could bring as much as $20 million toward further waterfront work, with a decision still pending as of this writing.

Together, the restaurant and waterfront accounts show different stages of neighborhood change: a restaurant's ownership and operating model changed, while the promenade is one completed part of longer-term waterfront plans.

What's actually different if you live here this September

• Nourish is a year into operation with a kitchen still running later than almost anywhere else in the immediate area, useful if you've wanted a sit-down option after 11 p.m. on a weeknight.
• The Harlem River promenade near Third Avenue and the Bankside towers is built and open now, not a rendering. It's a short walk for anyone in the Bruckner corridor and a legitimate answer if you want to sit outside or let a dog stretch its legs without driving to a park.
• Taste of Mott Haven launched in 2024 on a one-Wednesday-a-month rhythm through Oyate Group and Mott Haven Rising, and the program page still frames it as an ongoing monthly series. Check Mott Haven Rising's page for the current date before you plan around it; it offers a way to sample a few spots in one night.

If you've watched this stretch of the South Bronx change since 2024, useful context is how restaurant ownership, operating models, planning, and funding relate to the changes residents experience. That context can help you consider whatever gets announced next.

Legacy Group tracks these shifts across the neighborhoods we cover because the story behind a new opening usually explains more about a block's direction than the opening itself. If you're curious what else is moving in the Bronx or want a grounded, locally informed read on any block in the borough, Legacy Group is a click away, or start with our Bronx neighborhood page for more.