Cheese stakes up in Village

SIDE DISH

Murray’s Cheese has finally found a natural pairing — the opening of its own wine and cheese bar and the West Village.

A New York institution founded in 1940, Murray’s Cheese has signed a lease to take over the space of Bin on Bleecker Wine Bar & Kitchen, Side Dish has learned.

Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield of The Spotted Pig, The Breslin and The John Dory had also expressed interest in the space.

“It’s still very early on,” said Deena Siegelbaum, Murray’s director of marketing. “We are really excited about this. We intend for it to be a really accessible and approachable cheese and wine bar.”

Murray’s Cheese, at 254 Bleecker St., will remain in its spot, where it sells more than 300 types of cheeses and boasts of “subterranean cheese caves” where cheeses age and ripen.

The new wine bar will be in the Bin location at nearby 264 Bleecker, a 1600-square-foot restaurant with 64 seats.

Listing broker Rafe Evans of Walker Malloy & Company could not be reached for comment.

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A new Italian restaurant, Corvo Bianco, will be opening in the old Calle Ocho space at 45 West 81st St., where Ed Brown’s “81” once stood in the Excelsior Hotel.

Construction begins today.

Corvo Bianco means “white crow” in Italian.

About one percent of crows are white, said Luis Gonzalez Rul, a co-owner of the restaurant — his first in the US after three in Mexico.

“We like the mystery of the name,” Gonzalez Rul told Side Dish. “It’s an unusual concept to think about it and we will use it to help find our identity.”

Corvo Bianco’s chef is Andrea Cobbe, from Northern Italy, who has worked as Gonzalez Rul’s executive chef in Mexico.

Gonzales Rul said the restaurant, expected to open in mid-July, will be a mix — an action-packed, dynamic front seating area with two bars, and a more “calm and peaceful” dining area in the back — with an upper level that will feature a resurrected skylight.

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WE HEAR ... that restaurateur Zach Erdem, of 75 Main in Southampton, opened 75 Main in Delray Beach, Fla., this month.

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