Lévy. (Courtesy Patrick McMullan Company)

The Upper East Side continues to sprout new galleries. This spring, Dominique Lévy, formerly a partner in the gallery L&M Arts on East 78th Street, will open a new, three-floor gallery, called Dominique Lévy, at 909 Madison Avenue, on the southeast corner of East 73rd Street. Joining her in the 9,000-square-foot former bank building will be the Paris-based dealer Emmanuel Perrotin, who is opening a New York branch.

When she was looking for a space for her new gallery a few months ago, Ms. Lévy told The Observer in a telephone interview, she happened to be buying a pair of jeans at Rag & Bone, which has a pop-up shop in 909 Madison, and learned that its lease ended in December. She began negotiations with the Friedland family (Friedland Properties) which owns the building (as well as many others along Madison Avenue) and invited her friend, Mr. Perrotin, the Paris dealer, to join her there.

The architect designing her space is Belgian-born, New York-based Francis D'Haene, founder of D'Apostrophe Design, who has also done spaces for the dealer Per Skarstedt and the Calder Foundation. Construction is to begin in January, and if it proceeds on schedule, Ms. Lévy plans to open in late spring.

For the past seven years, Ms. Lévy, a former international head of private sales for Christie's, has run a gallery, L&M Arts, in partnership with Robert Mnuchin. In September the two dealers announced that they would split, with Mr. Mnuchin keeping the present gallery space on East 78th Street. (In January it will become the Mnuchin Gallery.)

Ms. Lévy's gallery, which will specialize in post-war and contemporary art on both the primary and secondary markets, will be located on the building's second, third and fourth floors. Mr. Perrotin, who runs several spaces in Paris and opened a gallery in Hong Kong in May, and works with artists like Takashi Murakami, Maurizio Cattelan, Paola Pivi, Xavier Veilhan and Elmgreen & Dragset, will occupy the ground floor, as well as a floor below street level.

Ms. Lévy says she will focus on exhibitions that pair living artists with historical art, as she did at L&M with exhibitions like "The Complexity of the Simple," which paired artists like Mark Rothko with contemporary artists Liza Lou and Anselm Reyle. "My passion—and hopefully how I set myself apart in this business—has been to put living artists in context of classic post-war work," she said. She will also continue working as a dealer and art advisor and will continue working with estates, such as that of Yves Klein.

Gagosian, coming to a cafe near you. (Wet Jet)

For decades, Larry Gagosian has been a fixture at Sant Ambroeus, the Upper East Side cafe around the corner from his flagship gallery 980 Madison Avenue, which he opened in the late 1980's. He even has a regular table, where he can watch the rest of the art world stream by, many stopping to pay their respects before taking their own seat inside the eatery that has long been the art world's living room.

But soon Mr. Gagosian will be sipping his espresso closer to home—and it will be curious to see how many of his fellow connoisseurs will follow him.

As Gallerist reported in February, Mr. Gagosian plans to open a cafe in one of the storefronts at 980 Madison, and work is now underway on the project, which will include space for a gallery. In April, permits were filed with the Department of Buildings for demolition, plumbing and renovation work to the storefront previously occupied by the Spot Shop, where tchotchkes connected with the Damien Hirst show (books, prints, cufflinks) had been on sale.

Last week, the construction permits were approved by the city, and they reveal that the new cafe will be designed by Annabelle Selldorf. Additional city records filed with the Landmarks Preservation Commission provide definitive proof that Gagosian Gallery is opening a cafe in the multi-story storefront, along with additional gallery space.

Ms. Selldorf is a frequent collaborator with Mr. Gagosian (as well as with other gallerists for that matter, like David Zwirner), having designed layouts for various Gagosian Gallery shows, everything from the Picasso show in London to Monet and Francesco Vezzoli shows in New York. The latter was widely panned but for the exception of Ms. Selldorf's installation work, which won plaudits for the convincing darkened chapel she created within the gallery to showcase Mr. Vezzoli's kitschy paintings of weeping models.

Ms. Selldorf's office declined to discuss the project, or even whom its client for the space was, citing confidentiality agreements.

Records reveal Mr. Gagosian is creating the cafe with help from Steven Kamali, the 30-year-old hospitality impresario who has worked on projects for the likes of Jeffrey Chodorow, Giuseppe Cipriani and Stephen Starr, as well as helping to open Colors, the failed restaurant created by the Windows on the World staff. Mr. Kamali is a partner in three East End hotels, Surf Lodge, Capri and Ruschmeyer's, for which has been widely credited with Manhattanizing the Hamptons.

Mr. Kamali's name appears as a restaurant consultant on an application filed with the city's Landmark's Preservation Commission. Any alterations to the exterior of the space have to be approved by the Commission—980 Madison lies within the Upper East Side Historic District. Ms. Selldorf's plans call for alterations to the door and the storefront windows, according to architecture drawings on file, changes that would have to be approved by the commissioners.

The only signage on the storefront, according to the drawings, is a monolithic GAGOSIAN. No CAFE GAGOSIAN or, to Gallerist's great disappointment, CHEZ LARRY.

While the building permits do not mention Gagosian Gallery by name—they are filed by RFR Realty, the landlord of 980 Madison that is controlled by fellow art world big shot Aby Rosen—the documents on record with the Landmarks Preservation Commission do.

A spokeswoman for Gagosian, which runs 11 galleries around the world, was unavailable to comment when reached by Gallerist. Mr. Kamali was also unavailable for comment.

The tri-level space, which includes the ground floor, a mezzanine and the basement, will also include room for a gallery, according to DOB records, but it was not clear what would go on where at this point. Still, what better way to enjoy that Richard Prince Nurse or a Cy Twombly sketch than with a warm cappuccino in hand?

And the shopping may not be gone, either, as zoning would allow for a retail kiosk in the space as well, familiar territory for Mr. Gagosian, who used to run a shop on the corner of the building. He vacated that space so that he might move into his current one, which may not have the prime frontage in the building but is bigger, pricier, grander and perhaps a little more discreet. Just like Mr. Gagosian.

Cafe Gilbert?

For the past month, fashionable New Yorkers and art world connoisseurs have been streaming through a storefront at the 980 Madison Avenue building to pick up spotty souvenirs from a Gagosian-branded "spot shop" that was opened to coincide with the globe-spanning 11-gallery "Complete Spot Paintings" exhibition by Damien Hirst. With the spot show upstairs closing in less than two weeks, the Upper East Side may soon trade spots for espresso as Larry Gagosian is in talks with his landlord, Aby Rosen's RFR Realty, to open a cafe in the space (call it Cafe Gilbert).

In an interesting twist, Gagosian traded spaces with lady's fashion line Lisa Perry, who used to occupy the larger mid-block space Gagosian now controls. Her shop will open this spring on the northern corner of 980 Madison, where Gagosian ran a bookshop, which closed unexpectedly in the fall. It was shortly before then that Art+Auction reported rumors of a Gagosian restaurant (Chez Larry?) opening in the former Lisa Perry shop (its full address is 976 Madison), so this latest news jibes with the morsels Gago watchers have already been nibbling at.

Art+Auction reported that plans were in the works for "a retail concept called Art Market" that would also feature "high-end limited editions and coffee-table tomes." (The abandoned safe in the basement of the current spot shop could also allow for some exciting decorating options.)

Representatives for RFR declined to comment and Gagosian Gallery declined to comment.

"It makes total sense," retail broker Faith Hope Consolo of Prudential Douglas Elliman said of the hunger for more eateries on the Upper East Side. "It's in great need up there. Sant Ambroeus can't hold everything together. And have to ever been to Via Quaddrono? You can't even get in the place."

One observer pointed out that with three floors of galleries upstairs, a cafe at 980 Madison was a good fit, one that does not even need to turn a profit but could simply function as a clubhouse for Gagosian regulars. But when the local Greek diners can charge $2.50 for dreck, it should not be too hard for Cafe Gilbert to turn a tidy profit on a decent cup of Joe.

It could be his own version of the ever-popular, often-profitable museum cafe.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC