Foundation work is advancing at 219 West Broadway, the former site in TriBeCa of El Teddy's, the tex-mex restaurant whose entrance, topped by a large sculpture modeled after the crown of the Statue of Liberty, was a popular and unofficial local landmark that appeared often in the opening credits of the "Saturday Night Live" television program.

Steve Elghanayan of Epic L. L. C., is erecting a new six-story building designed by Richard A. Cook, on the mid-block site that will contain 6 condominium apartments.

"Liberty's" crown was erected in 1985 and was created by Antoni Miralda, a artist who owned the restaurant, then called El Internacional, with his partner, Montse Gullien, a chef.

The restaurant had previously been known as Teddy's, named after owner Teddy Bartel, who ran it as a German eatery from the 1920s through World War II. In the 1950s, it became an Italian restaurant operated by Sal Cucinatta and in 1984 Miralda and Guillen, a chief, took over the property and created El Internacional, and added the 2,500-pound, 40-foot-wide, steel crown the next year. It was renamed El Teddy's when it was subsequently acquired in 1988 by Christopher Chesnutt, who added a stained glass, Art Nouveau-style canopy beneath the crown in 1992.

After unsuccessful attempts to have the building made a city landmark and to save the crown, the crown was demolished last year. The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission voted not to designate the two-story building, which was built in 1915, in 2001. Elghanyan bought the building in 2000 from Mr. Cucinatta for about $3 million and the landmarks commission approved his new building plans in 2001. Mr. Chesnutt signed a new 10-year lease for the property in 2001 but closed the restaurant in 2004 because of a decline in business following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center September 11, 2001.