De Niro to Open Nobu Hotel; Start Stockpiling Food TodayRobert De Niro will put an outpost of the Japanese restaurant in his financial-district hotel, ‘Law and Order: SVU’ featured a locavore villain this week, and consumers are starting to stockpile food again.
House Mix
Burger Shoppe Is Bad to the Bone MarrowPop Burger was the original burger joint–cum–party spot, so when partner Kevin O’Connell opened Burger Shoppe in the financial district a couple weeks ago, we were curious to see what would be on the house sound system.
Neighborhood Watch
It’s Pancake Month — Where to Celebrate; New Fresco FinancialAstoria: Igloo, at 22-26 31st Street, serves brunch, and the fries are “hot and crisp, not soggy at all.” That would describe the ideal fry, no? [Joey in Astoria]
Financial District: A second Fresco on the Go is set to open in May at 10 Hanover Square, only this version will be 8,000 square feet and “combine elements of a retail store, restaurant, and party space.” [Zagat]
Morningside Heights: It’s Pancake Month! And it’s no surprise that some of the best hot cakes in town can be found at Clinton Street’s sister restaurant, Community Food & Juice. [Gridskipper]
Tribeca: The new sommelier at Cercle Rouge, Jorge Riera, comes from the late 360 in Red Hook, and he’s hosting a biodynamic-wine dinner on Monday with Loire Valley winemakers Chateau Tour Grise. [Grub Street]
West Village: Le Gamin has been rechristened the New French now that one of the owners is out and there’s a new chef and a reworked menu. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Neighborhood Watch
Wing Woes on First Avenue; French Bistro Tougher Than Gun Shots in BrooklynDitmas Park: Patois and Sweetwater owner Jim Mamary is opening a French bistro at the corner of Newkirk Avenue and Argyle Road, and his progress hasn’t been hampered by a recent shooting nearby: “You can’t open up a flower shop on a strip nobody would walk on. It’s us guys who take the risks. Restaurants take the risks.” [NYT via Eater]
East Village: Despite having encouraged wing reservations for yesterday’s big game, Atomic Wings lost track of orders and left customers waiting one to two hours for what turned out to be cold Buffalo not-so-goodness. [Grub Street]
Financial District: A new Mexican cantina called Mad Dog and Beans has brought fish tacos and chiles rellenos to Pearl Street. [Zagat]
Soho: Palacinka has lost its lease. [Eater]
West Village: L’Impero alum chef Michael Genardini will be in the kitchen of a rustic Italian eatery called I Sodi, which should be ready this March in the former Puff & Pao space. [TONY]
NewsFeed
The Palm Coming to Chambers Street
The Palm, having launched satellite steakhouses everywhere from Atlanta to Atlantic City, will soon have a third restaurant right here in the 212. The restaurant confirmed a tip that a third Palm is coming to the financial district — Chambers Street, to be exact. We’re still working on the address but thought you would like to know, because there aren’t enough steakhouses popping up in Manhattan these days.
Related: Can Downtown Support Another Steakhouse?
NewsFeed
Four Seasons Bringing Hotel and Restaurant to Ground-Zero AreaWith the hype starting to swirl over which restaurateur will snag space in the Freedom Tower, Crain’s brings news that the Four Seasons will be erecting an 80-story structure designed by Robert A.M. Stern to contain a hotel, condos, and a restaurant. The city’s tallest residential tower will open in 2011 at 99 Church Street, a block from ground zero. Taking inflation into account, we predict the martinis will be at least $30 by then.
Four Seasons Inks Deal for Downtown Hotel [Crain’s NY]
Related: Robert A.M. Stern Likens New Larry Silverstein Development to the ‘Titanic’ [Daily Intel]
NewsFeed
Can Downtown Support Another Steakhouse?Grimly optimistic developer Larry Silverstein announced today that Capital Grille, the steak chain with a midtown location, has signed a ground-floor lease in his 120 Broadway tower. By luring the D.C.-based operation to join neighbors like Bobby Van’s Steakhouse, Silverstein said, “downtown has become a true beckon for foodies.” (We think he meant beacon, but he said “beckon.”) In the same speech, Silverstein said 86 percent of lower Manhattan’s new businesses have come from outside the financial sector. But since there are already at least six other steakhouses in the neighborhood, can all those new nonfinancial (and presumably, more edamame-inclined) sectors keep them all in business? Silverstein argues that the influx of spendthrift apartment owners around Wall Street will attract more prominent retail, which will make the area a perfect business hub. Hmm. Sounds like Soho to us, a neighborhood that has yet to open, much less support, even one fratty meatery. —Alec Appelbaum
NewsFeed
Chinese Restaurant, After-hours Spot Finally Goes to Sleep
The China Room, known to financial-district lunchgoers as a humdrum Chinese restaurant and known to hipsters as the location of a popular after-hours techno party, will close tomorrow. A manager tells us it’s because business has dropped off. The restaurant’s poor location — practically hidden away in the basement of an office building — better served the early-morning revelers than the deeper-pocketed lunch crowd. Yes, there are still other places to score a 5 a.m. bottle of Tsingtao, but nevertheless, we’re sad for the loss.
Earlier: Blind Item: Name That After-hours!
Openings
Yet Another Haru Opens, Appropriately on Wall StreetWhether Haru’s reputation as the Dos Caminos of the sushi trade is deserved, the chain keeps growing: This week the latest sushi megastore opens up, with all its ridiculous (and surprisingly good) specialty cocktails intact. This one is in the Beaver Building downtown and will likely mint money as fast as the other Harus. Like its parent, Benihana, Haru has found the perfect formula: good sushi, big menu, big bar, and lively atmosphere. Even though the food is better at Chanto, the dull atmosphere keeps people away (in a bad-for-business cycle). Successful Japanese restaurateurs know that Americans prefer big cocktails to kaiseki or soba noodles. All you have to do is ask Rocky Aoki, if you can find him behind his mountains of yen.
*Correction: Haru does not yet have a liquor license. The restaurant’s reps say it should come “any day now.”
Neighborhood Watch
Gusto Now Going to Look and Taste Like Centro VinotecaChelsea: It doesn’t look good for those who are just getting used to the belly; pig’s ears are the latest trend, and even the version at stellar tapas spot Tía Pol was described by Peter Meehan as “crunchy and sticky with a funky pigskin flavor.” [Mouthing Off/Food & Wine]
Financial District: Don’t forget, the trial run for the proposed year-round seasonal market at South Street Seaport starts on December 16 (and Molto Mario will be there). [Grub Street]
Park Slope: Tempo Presto is closing this Friday because the restaurant can’t keep up with the pricey rent. [Gowanus Lounge]
Upper West Side: Dovetail‘s opening next week. [Zagat]
West Village: Sasha Muniak must feel really good about the Centro Vinoteca formula; after tapping chef Anne Burrell to take over for Amanda Freitag, he plans to redesign the Gusto space by next year with help from Centro Vinoteca and Jean Georges designer Thomas Juul-Hansen. [Restaurant Girl] Andrea Strong unveils renderings of Jason Neroni’s new gig, 10 Downing. [Strong Buzz via Eater] Magnolia Bakery will be open regular hours every day this holiday season except for Christmas, and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on December 24, kids can pick up a cupcake that comes with a note to Santa. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Williamsburg: A benefit party at Supreme Trading tomorrow night promises an open Bass Ale Beer bar from 7 to 8 p.m. and “one of the most difficult cuisines to find in New York City: Rwandan.” [Cakehead]
neighborhood watch
Urban Outfitters to Bring Freshman-Dorm Furniture to Cobble HillCobble Hill: Urban Outfitters is “coming soon!” [BK11201]
Downtown Brooklyn: After endless outrage, the city will spare the little Duffield Street house believed to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. [DDDB via Gowanus Lounge]
Financial District: Maybe, in time, all the pretty old buildings in Manhattan will be reduced, like this one, to Hollywood-set-style façades for the big new buildings behind them. [Curbed]
Neighborhood Watch
Chris Cheung Swings in to Monkey Bar; Astoria’s Greek Restaurants ChallengingAstoria: The nabe’s Greek tapas offer a light respite from overstuffing on leftovers. [NYT] A & D Meat on 31st Street now sells organic beef. [Joey in Astoria]
Hell’s Kitchen: Not only does Bis.Co. Latte on 47th at Tenth Avenue make over 40 varieties of biscotti, but the bakery also offers seasonal soups and daily gelati. [Blog Chelsea]
Financial District: Flames Steakhouse is now an Italian restaurant called Giardino D’oro, though the chef hasn’t changed. [Restaurant Girl]
Midtown East: After dispensing with Patricia Yeo, the Monkey Bar has installed promising chef Chris Cheung, who so memorably left Almond Flower this past summer. [Eater]
Prospect-Lefferts-Gardens: Lime might not be open yet, but the bar is planning a fund-raiser for a nonprofit preschool. [Across the Park]
neighborhood watch
Coney Island: The New Blackpool, England?Astoria: Everyone’s all excited about this new apartment building, but doesn’t it kind of look like a seventies computer or TV set? [OuterB]
Brooklyn Heights: Now that Norman Mailer’s dead, the hood’s most famous resident could well be right-wing scribe Peggy Noonan. How depressing. [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
Coney Island: If new visions for the amusement zone ever take hold, it may end up looking something like … Blackpool, England! Check out that twister coaster beside the tram. [Kinetic Carnival]
Neighborhood Watch
Brooklyn’s Top Bed-and-Breakfasts; Free Cupcakes in the Financial DistrictBedford-Stuyvesant: Akwaaba Mansion at 34 Macdonough Street made it to the top of this list of Brooklyn bed-and-breakfasts. [Gridskipper]
Financial District: Crumbs has opened a bakery at 87 Beaver Street between Hanover Street and Wall Street, and to celebrate the shop will give away 1,000 cupcakes this Friday starting at 7 a.m. [Snack]
Harlem: Among its other delicacies, Fairway sells flagels, which are “to the bagel what nuggets are to fried chicken. When toasted, they are delightfully crunchy, but the inside still has the chewiness a bagel should — “just less of it” — because they’re flattened, of course. [Eat for Victory/VV]
Jackson Heights: The city’s first Tibetan street-food cart is up and running near the 74th Street stop. [Gothamist]
Lower East Side: Six Point Ales debuted a new flavor called 8 Days of Wheat at the Whole Foods Beer Room last night, and the first impression is that “it’s pretty darn good.” [Down by the Hipster]
Upper West Side: Senor Swanky’s has put its space on Columbus Avenue between 84th and 85th up for rent. So line up, if you just happen to have a business plan that incorporates giant chile peppers and underage drinking. [Eater]
NewsFeed
Blind Item: Name That After-hours!
What Chinese restaurant by day sometimes operates as an after-hours club, complete with smoke machines and vest-wearing barkeeps? A couple of clues: It’s hidden away in the basement of a Financial District office building and LCD Soundsystem front man James Murphy was spotted there late Saturday morning. Click on the headline and leave your suggestions in the comments.
Neighborhood Watch
‘Top Chef’ Open Call to Be Held in SohoAstoria: French-Asian restaurant Bistro 33 serves beer, wine, sake, and cocktails now that its liquor license has gone through. [Joey in Astoria]
Boerum Hill: Smith Street may be getting a McDonald’s. [Curbed]
Financial District: For $10, you can add an illegal lap dance to your lunch at Cordato’s Deli. [WCBSTV]
Hell’s Kitchen: Port Authority’s 7-Eleven has transformed into a Kwik-E-Mart for the remainder of July to promote the new Simpsons movie and is even selling Blue Woo Hoo! Vanilla Squishees and KrustyO’s cereal. [7-Eleven]
Soho: Pinkberry open at 41 Spring Street! [Eater] Open call for the next season Top Chef will be held at the French Culinary Institute on July 22 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. [Bravo]
in other news
Downtown Gets Rich and Popular, Upending Neighborhood Stereotypes
This week, humanity was shocked by the news that downtown Manhattanites have a higher median household income than any other population center in the country. (Meanwhile, journalism professors were shocked by the fact that Daily Intel took this information directly from a press release sent out by a real-estate developer that operates primarily in downtown Manhattan.) “Downtown” is defined as the financial district and Battery Park City, as well as the “Civic Center region,” which we’d never heard of but apparently refers to the area around City Hall. This means it’s time for New Yorkers to revise our cherished wealth-related neighborhood stereotypes. After the jump, some suggestions.
neighborhood watch
Splasher Sighting at Dumbo Gallery?Carroll Gardens: With little legal recourse at this point, desperate locals are circulating this petition demanding that out-of-scale development stop at once. [Gowanus Lounge]
Dumbo: Was the duo trying to set off a stink bomb at an art opening last night actually the Splasher, or is that too obvious? [Gothamist]
Financial District: Has a little Greek church been bribed into not squawking that the forthcoming Chase tower’s cantilevered middle will block all its light? [Curbed]
Harlem: So it looks like Trump won’t be building at 110th and Central Park West after all … “for now,” that is. [NYO]
Prospect Heights: A man slept this week in the window of a Dean Street art gallery to make a statement about the controversial Atlantic Yards project soon to happen across the street. [Brooklyn Paper]
West Village: As though its chattering, chain-smoking 12-steppers don’t make enough ruckus out on the sidewalk, the gay community center on West 13th will enjoy a $50-million expansion. [365gay via Kenneth in the 212]
Neighborhood Watch
An Ice-Cream War Breaks Out in AstoriaAstoria: A new dessert contender triggers ice-cream price wars. [Joey in Astoria]
East Village: S’MAC is celebrating its first birthday Tuesday with $1 macaroni and cheese. [S’MAC]
Financial District: As a follow-up to its winter chocolate weekends, the Exchange Hotel has introduced sundae-themed packages that include pints of ice cream delivered to your room nightly. A sundae bar, tonight only, kicks off the gluttonous launch. [NewYorkology]
Flatiron: Shake Shack closed at 3 p.m. today for a private fund-raiser and will reopen in the morning. [Eater]
Greenwich Village: Grey Dog Coffee’s second location, on University Place, should be up and running by July. [Eat for Victory/VV]
Prospect-Lefferts-Gardens: New bar Lime hopes to attract a Caribbean following once it opens. [Across the Park]
in other news
Snobby New York Parents Destroy New Private SchoolWhen last we checked in on Claremont Prep, the absurdly well-appointed new private school in the financial district, Andrew Marks profiled it late last year for New York as “the Next Dalton,” the start-up school with the city’s best student-teacher ratio, 125,000 square feet of space, a full-time nutritionist, three chefs, and a gym “the Reebok Sports Club would love to have.” The strategy was to snare the affluent families who now see lower Manhattan as a legitimate living option. So how’s Claremont doing after year one? In a word: Awful! In 2006 there were only 54 students instead of the projected 1,000, says today’s Sun; now enrollment is up to a more palatable — but still dire — 125. The school remains a last-ditch choice. “I couldn’t find too many, if any, families who were genuinely interested in Claremont,” school consultant Victoria Goldman told the Sun. Apparently, Claremont has no name-drop value yet, and Manhattan parents are loathe to send their kids to a school whose mere mention doesn’t make brunch partners choke with envy. Because, you know, that’s what’s best for the kids.
Snobbery Is Surprise Issue for a New School [NYS]
Related: Building the Next Dalton [NYM]
NewsFeed
Will Goldfarb Is Changing the World, One Kiosk at a Time
The last time we checked in, Will Goldfarb, the Room 4 Dessert chef, had just begun convincing restaurants around town to outsource their dessert program to him. Now the ultracaffeinated cake whiz has colonized Battery Park, beating out some major rivals to develop and operate two lunch kiosks there. The stands won’t be open until late summer, but Goldfarb has typically high-concept plans for both. Former Thor chef Kevin Pomplun will run the kitchen, producing high-end sandwiches (a sous-vide chicken club; an oil-packed Sardinian tuna with tarragon mayo on ciabatta) and Goldfarbian desserts (pistachio panna cotta, hot chocolate mousse).
Mediavore
Hello, Five Guys Burgers; Bush Versus OverfishingThe Five Guys burger chain, which has fanatical adherents in Washington D.C., came to New York without anybody knowing it. And the burgers at its Queens location are outstanding. [Serious Eats]
All we have to do to replenish the ocean’s devastated fish populations is to leave them alone, which is well within the power of our unpopular president. [NYT]
Shock jocks JV and Elvis have, predictably, been fired for their idiotic Chinese-restaurant phone prank, in which they called up live to ask for “shrimp flied lice” and “some old dung.” [WNBC]
Mediavore
Restaurant High Trains Chefs of the Future; Les Halles Takes a BeatingWelcome to Food and Finance High, which trains New York’s future chefs and restaurateurs. They diligently study the work of Dave Thomas, the origins of pizza, and read Fast Food Nation in preparation for the job market. [NYT]
Les Halles is taking a beating: They’ve got a Department of Health closure uptown and construction troubles downtown . [NYP]
The Red Hook ball fields, home to one of the city’s greatest gatherings of Central and South American food vendors, may finally see the trucks roll in this Sunday. [Eat for Victory/VV]
developing
South Street Seaport: Some Fresh Food With Your Towers?
The old Fulton Fish Market never caused such a stink. Word leaked last week that the new owner of South Street Seaport, General Growth Properties, wanted to create a tower and open space over what’s now the morose “festival marketplace” of Pier 17 — and last night, area residents attempted to slap down the idea. “People in this room are terrified at the idea of towers,” declared Jeffrey Schneider, head of the 117 Beekman Street condo association. General Growth’s architect, Gregg Pasquarelli, whose firm SHoP worked on the city’s plan to build pavilions and parkland on nearby East Side piers, promised that squeezing the mall’s square footage into a tower was just one of “25 plans” he’s mustering for the new owner. Neighbors want playgrounds and schools; Pasquarelli mentioned the possibility of an outdoor market. Indeed, civic types have proposed New Amsterdam Public, which would be a year-round healthy-food cornucopia. Locally grown kumquats near historic vessels sounds lovely, but General Growth rep Michael McNoughton tells us he expects “several more months” of public talks before his firm proposes a plan. Talks, indeed. As a 119 Beekman resident said: “If you think we’re difficult, wait until you deal with Brooklyn Heights.” —Alec Appelbaum
vu.
Battery Park City Is a Health Nut’s ParadiseFor years, Manhattanites viewed Battery Park City as being so inconvenient, so sleepy, so far west — you even have to cross the West Side Highway to get there — that it might as well be in New Jersey. Many grumbled about the lack of services and stores. But slowly people have discovered this downtown neighborhood’s appeal: enviable parks, great schools, harbor views, and an admirable cache of ecofriendly apartments — old and new, and of all sizes — featuring paint and carpets that don’t give off sickening fumes as well as “filtered” air and water systems. That makes it a haven for health freaks — which is ironic considering that Battery Park City is built on landfill. But families love it these days, as do Wall Street types — hence the glut of one-bedrooms on the market there — who want to be able to walk to work but feel as far away from it as possible when they need the psychological distance. After the jump, some of this weekend’s interesting Battery Park City open houses. — S. Jhoanna Robledo
buy low
A Financial-District 2BR Dips Under $1 MillionThree weeks ago, the price of this financial-district two-bedroom co-op at 176 Broadway was reduced by $30,000, according to Streeteasy.com, dipping its asking price below the million-dollar mark. At $995,000, it’s $105,000 cheaper than a similarly sized unit in the same building and considerably less than what another one of equal square footage went for early this year. Not bad for a space that comes with ten-foot ceilings, central air, and a wraparound terrace — all the better to appreciate that kicking downtown vista. The building has a part-time doorman and a landscaped roof deck, too, and falls within the coveted P.S. 234 school district. Yet there are still no takers. (Could a tough board be the reason? If so, be sure your finances are airtight.) Here’s where you try to negotiate an even sweeter deal with the seller. After all, the maintenance, at $2,060 per month, is a little on the high side. Even more significant, it’s been on the market for 270 days and counting, which could make the owner open to any decent offers. How decent you want to be is up to you.
— S. Jhoanna Robledo
NewsFeed
Downtown Restaurants Pandering to the Plebian MassesThe financial district, of course, bustles during the day and turns into a ghost town at night. That’s bad news for its many restaurants and good news for people who like ghost towns: Tonight through Thursday, 38 downtown restaurants — including MarkJoseph Steakhouse, SouthWest NY, and Harbour Lights, among others — will be offering $30 prix fixe dinners (not accounting for tax, tip, and drinks). Do like the hedge-funders do and light your after-supper cigar with all the money you save!
To see a list of participating restaurants, visit the Downtown Alliance’s Website.
neighborhood watch
Condos and Beer (Which Could Well Be New York’s New Motto)Bed-Stuy: A new wave of Bed-Stuy condos go where no condos have gone before. (East, of course). [Brownstoner]
Boerum Hill: Mmmm, beer: Cask Ale Festival kicks off at the Brazen Head on Atlantic Avenue. [Brooklyn Record]
Soho: Bedbugs chase Maya Rudolph and Paul Thomas Anderson from Greene Street. [NYP]
Financial District: A 24-hour diner will invade Gold Street in January. As if bankers don’t just order in, anyway. [MetroNY]
East Village: “Loanshark Bob” Marion returns to Avenue A after years of absence. Hooray. [Neither More Nor Less]
Three Blocks
Working Lunch: Financial District EastNobody wants to walk more than three blocks for lunch during the workday. In this series, we’ll comb the city’s micro-micro-neighborhoods in search of affordable spots for dining with co-workers, eating solo, or just getting takeout.
Today: The area around the intersection of William Street and Liberty Street.
