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Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Selects Six Coasts by Smor­gas­burg to Oper­ate Water­front Restaurant

Feb 24, 2026 2:30 pm

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced today the selec­tion of a new food & bev­er­age oper­a­tor in response to a Request for Pro­pos­als that was issued in Feb­ru­ary of 2025. Open­ing in May 2026, Six Coasts by Smor­gas­burg will occu­py 32,000 square feet of water­front on Gov­er­nors Island. Draw­ing on six coastal iden­ti­ties across the Amer­i­c­as — from Nova Sco­tia to Baja to Bahia and the Caribbean — Six Coasts will fea­ture a menu of sea­son­al seafood and trop­i­cal cock­tails. Designed as a fam­i­ly-friend­ly gath­er­ing place with curat­ed music and cul­tur­al pro­gram­ming, Six Coasts will be a water­front des­ti­na­tion for Gov­er­nors Island cen­ter­ing tra­di­tions shaped by life near the sea.

“We are thrilled to wel­come Six Coasts by Smor­gas­burg to Gov­er­nors Island, paving a new path for a beloved water­front space to be filled with a cre­ative and for­ward-think­ing type of restau­rant that will serve New York­ers vis­it­ing the Island,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent & CEO of The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Today’s announce­ment is an excit­ing mile­stone in our efforts to add diverse and acces­si­ble ameni­ties and food options for all Island vis­i­tors, and we look for­ward to wel­com­ing the Six Coasts team to the Island’s com­mu­ni­ty of ten­ants begin­ning this spring.” 

“At Smor­gas­burg, we’ve always believed that food is a gate­way to cul­ture, and Six Coasts brings that to life in its own vibrant and unique way. Six Coasts is a place where vis­it­ing chefs, live music, and the fla­vors of six dis­tinct coast­lines come togeth­er against the back­drop of New York Har­bor. We’re grate­ful to the Trust for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to reimag­ine this icon­ic water­front space and can’t wait to wel­come New York­ers and vis­i­tors this sea­son,” said Gas­ton Becher­a­no Cohen, CEO of Smorgasburg. 

Beyond food and drinks, immer­sive cul­tur­al pro­gram­ming for all ages will acti­vate the water­front space with unique expe­ri­ences such as vis­it­ing chef res­i­den­cies from glob­al coasts, col­lab­o­ra­tions with arts groups and Island part­ners, coastal film nights, sun­set DJ series, and live music. The new restau­rant will also fea­ture spec­tac­u­lar unob­struct­ed views of the Low­er Man­hat­tan sky­line, the Brook­lyn Bridge and New York Har­bor that vis­i­tors know and love. Addi­tion­al­ly, Six Coasts will pri­or­i­tize sus­tain­abil­i­ty in line with the Trust’s cli­mate goals through uti­liz­ing sus­tain­able food sources and oper­at­ing an all-elec­tric facility. 

Six Coasts by Smor­gas­burg joins a live­ly food cul­ture on the Island that, between the spring and fall sea­sons, boasts more than a dozen small busi­ness­es from across the five bor­oughs. Six Coasts will take over a beau­ti­ful water­front site locat­ed next to Sois­sons Land­ing, the Island’s fer­ry land­ing for ves­sels depart­ing from Man­hat­tan. The site was pre­vi­ous­ly occu­pied by Island Oyster. 

Gov­er­nors Island has under­gone a tremen­dous trans­for­ma­tion over the last decade, includ­ing the cre­ation of a resilient 43-acre park, a grow­ing arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram, and remark­able growth in audi­ence. Since the Island’s trans­fer to local con­trol, the Trust has over­seen the ren­o­va­tion and leas­ing of more than 500,000 square feet of his­toric build­ings. The Island is home to diverse num­ber of year-round ten­ants, includ­ing the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School, Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil, Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, Beam Cen­ter, the Insti­tute for Pub­lic Archi­tec­ture, and QC NY, as well as the soon-to-open But­ter­milk Labs, a new mul­ti-ten­ant hub for coastal cli­mate solu­tions, and The New York Cli­mate Exchange, a research and edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion led by Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty and a cross-sec­tor con­sor­tium of uni­ver­si­ties, busi­ness­es, and non­prof­it organizations.