At some point, Mori befriended a novice architect, Raymond Hood, gave him a house tab and an apartment upstairs and in 1920 had him design a new facade for the building to include 146 Bleecker. Hood gave the buildings a row of Doric columns across the first floor, imitation Federallintels over the windows and a setback penthouse studio.[1]
The restaurant began as a small bar and eatery and expanded to fully occupy a "rambling, old-fashioned" five-story[3] building near Sixth Avenue (Manhattan).[2] It survived the Prohibition era and the worst years of the Great Depression, when it was temporarily padlocked.
Mori closed in 1937,[1] and Placido Mori filed a petition for bankruptcy in early January 1938, stating that the corporation had no assets and liabilities totaling $70,000.[2] The building formerly occupied by Mori was sold by Caroline Bussing through A.Q. Orza, broker, in October 1943.[3]