Taco Friday
Esse Taco, eight more great spots, flowers redux, real estate reality, Frommer's guide, Björk, airport report, Paris Olympics, MORE
REAL ESTATE • DOM, DOM DOM DOM
Listings for days
Leonard Steinberg, chief evangelist of the real estate firm Compass (and friend of FOUND), celebrated a big, new listing contract this week in an unconventional way — with an Instagram screed against “days on market” as a measure of sales success.
The property at issue — a neo-Renaissance mixed-use mansion at 4 E. 77th St. — technically made it to contract after 39 days, but only after more than a year’s worth of unsuccessful attempts at higher prices. Steinberg wrote:
While $25 million seemed like a very fair price for a 12,000sf property moments from Central Park, the world disagreed as the costs to do a gut renovation had soared, and many buyers sought instant gratification and did not want to go through the 2-3 year process. We cut the price to $20 million but still no real bites. We delisted and relaunched 39 days ago with a new price just under $18 million and after multiple showings and several offers, a contract was signed. That is the reality. Yes the SOLD IN 39 DAYS sounds swell, now you know the reality.
Few things here:
The townhouse (above) looks lovely. Congrats to its new owners.
When asking for more than $10M in a city flush with new-development luxury, it does seem increasingly hard to offer anything but turnkey, uncomplicated, and fresh.
This isn’t what Steinberg’s getting at, but as seasoned listings watchers, we know how difficult it is to accurately track provenance over multiple prices, relistings, and assorted brokerage games. Like: Why are there two Compass listings for the property? (Probably StreetEasy’s fault!)
But the real subtext for Steinberg’s rant seems to be last week’s NYT deep dive on real estate reality TV. It’s all one big false narrative, Steinberg says. Real life agents aren’t TV stars who make six-figure commissions in the time it takes to binge a Netflix season. They toil in the trenches, often for rewards claimed by the next guy. (Watch that screed here.)
The real reality, that is, can be found right here in the details of this $18M, 12,000 square-foot, Upper East Side townhouse listing. New York City real estate, still the best show of all.
NYC REAL ESTATE LINKS: NYC breaks ground on project to elevate the Battery • On Upper West Side, Martha Stewart buys at The Belnord • Abolitionist Place Park opens in downtown Brooklyn • Inside Park Slope’s priciest townhouse • Roof deck etiquette.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Friday Routine
Travel guide
PAULINE FROMMER • co-president • Frommer Media
Neighborhood you live in: Greenwich Village
It’s Friday afternoon, how are you rolling into the weekend?
It’s travel show season, and I’m usually up very early because I’m going to be on TV somewhere in the country to discuss travel trends (and telling people to come to whatever travel show I’m going to be speaking at). So, I’m sometimes tired by the afternoon.
At 1 p.m. every Friday, we have a website redesign meeting — that’s been going on for the last four months. If I’m on the road on a Friday, I’ll often go see something interesting. Last Friday I was in DC, and I saw the Phillips Collection, a wonderful art museum. They have a room that Rothko himself curated and programmed — he set the lighting, et cetera. If I’m not traveling, I’ll spend the rest of the afternoon at my desk, assigning guidebooks or writing the New York guidebook, which I do on my own.
Where are you dining this weekend?
I cook a lot, so maybe my apartment. I might go to Knickerbocker Bar & Grill on University Place. It’s kind of a clubhouse for people who live in the neighborhood. We sit at the bar and chat, and the bartender has a bit of a heavy hand.
How about a little leisure or culture?
I’m a theater buff and I’ll check out TKTS for any shows I want to see. I often go to see friends who are in shows. My daughter is in a band called Melt, so if they have a concert in New York, my husband and I will go see them. One of my favorite things to do is to go on a date night with my husband at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They’re open until 9 p.m. on Fridays.
Any weekend getaways?
Not really. I’m usually at my computer. I work seven days a week.
What was your last great vacation?
This summer my two daughters and I did a boat trip where we drove the boat on the canals de Midi in Occitanie in France. I brought a dear friend from college and our daughters brought a couple of friends. We had a great adventure driving the boat after one hour of instruction in Fran-glish. My daughters and I had to work as a team. It was a wonderful trip.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Full Strength
Björk (DJ Set) • Under the ‘K’ Bridge Park (Greenpoint) • Fri @ 8p, VIP, $145 per
Yuja Wang • Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall (Midtown West) • Fri @ 8p • parquet, $329 per
Mary J. Blige • Strength of a Woman Festival • Barclays Center (Prospect Heights) • Sat @ 8p • floor 3, $450 per
CULTURE & LEISURE LINKS: Two new alternative art shows combat ‘fair fatigue’ • Little Island announces summer events • First look: The Met’s magical ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ exhibit • Brick House, companion to Glass House, finally reopens to visitors • Bard College to get massive new Keith Haring wing • Met Gala not dead, but decaying • How many contemporary artists’ works can be worth $100k or more?
GETAWAYS • Paris
Olympian feat
Despite the hoopla surrounding the Olympic Games in Paris this summer, July 24-August 11, hotel rooms are still plentiful, as are seats on flights from the U.S. The airlines and Parisian hotels are getting nervous, offering promotional fares and rates. Should you book? Know this: Paris is a world-class city that understands how to handle big crowds efficiently and with European service — this isn't Salt Lake City. It’s walkable, bikeable, and the Metro is safe and clean.
Here’s how to make it work for you:
Plan to stay in the heart of the 7th Arrondissement. Centrally located for the games, the neighborhood is a peaceful respite after navigating the city all day. Tourists are sparse, except when you get too close to the Eiffel Tower.
Specifically, stay near where the Parliament convenes at the Assemblee Nationale on Rue Université. The police are everywhere, and you’ll need special access during the Olympics. A hotel room in the area solves that problem. Next to Parliament, the Bourgogne Montana Hotel is a good option (€358 per night in July).
From JFK, book an Air France flight in business class, around $3000 round trip to CDG. Consider the ultimate upgrade to La Première, Air France’s very much worth it superluxe service.
If you want to luxe out while you’re in town, download the Wheelie app and cruise around La Grand'Ville in a Maybach. Or call Clemence ( +33 6 58 93 46 10) and say you are a friend of Monsieur Inman. You’ll be in excellent hands; she doesn’t speak English, but it doesn’t matter. She drives like a true Parisian, aggressive, but respectful, and knows the city well.
iPad hospitality is still taboo in Paris.
Oh, and tickets to the Olympic games: they, too, remain available, except for women’s basketball. Don't be deterred; StubHub is always an option. –Brad Inman
GETAWAYS • Airports
FOUND’s occasional report from our region’s jetports:
LGA: Following the end of its partnership with American Airlines, JetBlue has to return a bunch of its LGA gates to American, which means service cutbacks. Starting in October, Jetblue will end winter service from LGA to LGW (Gatwick), reduce frequency to CDG (De Gaulle), and trim service to a bunch of American cities. (Related: how Delta won New York while regulators and competitors slept.)
JFK: Some good JetBlue news: The airline is adding Mint service from JFK to SJU (San Juan) and YVR (Vancouver) starting in July, and PHX (Phoenix) starting in October. In the Caribbean, they plan to add service from JFK to SVD (St. VIncent) and BON (Bonaire), timing TBA, as well as San Juan service from HPN. Delta is also eyeing a Caribbean expansion and announced once-a-week flights from JFK to ANU (Antigua) and SKB (St. Kitts) resuming in January 2025.
EWR: Just in time for Memorial Day weekend, the TSA is upgrading security at EWR. Longer-than-normal security wait times in Terminal A should wrap up today, with Terminal B upgrades starting Monday and running through June 21. (“Arrive at least three hours before your scheduled departure time,” the airport cheerily advises. Mmmhmm.)
GETAWAYS LINKS: High tea is a go at Tribeca’s Warren Street Hotel • East Hampton considers downsizing megamansions with zoning code redo • 88-room boutique Hotel Mousai Cancun debuts • How to score restaurant reservations in Paris.
RESTAURANTS • First Word
NYC taco
For far too long, the classic Angeleno rejoinder to NYC’s culturally dominant restaurant scene has been, Yeah, but your Mexican food, and especially your tacos. It’s been wrong since at least 2008 when portal-to-Mexico-City La Superior first opened — and it’s especially wrong now in the resplendent era of Taqueria Ramirez’s sublime Oak Street delights. New York’s plurality of tacos is nonpareil; there are great versions to be had nearly everywhere, and without much fuss.
Consider the latest entrant: Esse Tacos, a casual spot smack in the middle of ground zero Williamsburg from chef Enrique Olvera, globally renowned for his work at Pujol and Cosme. The “restaurant” is a counter and a bunch of barrels to eat standing at (above) — classic late night dining, perfectly crafted for Williamsburg, not unlike the Joe’s Pizza situation across the street.
The meat tacos (a chicken “poc chuc,” pork loin al pastor, ribeye steak) are good, but the standout is easily an oyster mushroom taco. Topped with black beans, the fungi are cooked to perfection, soft inside, with a slight snap on the bite and a just perceptible funk. A little haute? Sure. But also fantastic, and yet another reason Los Angeles can eat… a delicious New York City taco when they visit. –Foster Kamer
THE NINES • Restaurants
Haute tacos
The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of NYC's best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@foundny.com.
Esse Taco (Williamsburg, above), Pujol mastermind Olvera’s new late-night stop