FOUND: good taste in New Jersey
Plus vital Claud update, the best bread in NYC, Wall St. bars, Radio Kwara, Leonard Steinberg, MORE
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Surviving the trip in Maplewood
The old Arturo’s in downtown Maplewood wasn’t a particularly comfortable place to eat. It didn’t take reservations, wait times often exceeded an hour, and there was an awkward vestibule where the pervading vibe was “Is my table ready yet?” The space itself was charming, but cramped, and a bit of a fishbowl. And it was BYOB. And there was nothing for dessert.
It was worth the effort, though. The food was the best in this corner of New Jersey — expertly composed and consistently delicious pizzas, pastas, and vegetables, all incorporating seasonal ingredients, many cooked in a wood-fired oven.
In May, Arturo’s announced it was closing shop and moving into an old auto body shop across town, where it would join forces with its sister-bakery, The Bread Stand, to form a new, all-day joint called Artie’s. There ensued a fraught moment when it seemed like maybe this was the end of something great.
By June, though, Artie’s was up and running, serving excellent bread, pastries, and coffee in the morning, lunch in the afternoon, and dinner in the evening. The space is much bigger, shinier, and (mercifully) less charming, with a trio of glass garage doors framing the room. (Think original Barbuto meets elevated college-town brew pub.) Out front, there’s a patio with benches and scattered lawn chairs, where one can wait for their table, order a drink from the new bar menu, and watch people navigate the parking situation.
The pizza and pastas, even the delicate seasonal vegetables, have survived the trip intact. Close your eyes and you’re still in the old space downtown, savoring that hard-won corn pie and an order of cavatelli Siciliani as a waiting family of four stares you down from the vestibule. Except at Artie’s, you can relax, maybe even take a look at the new dessert menu. The olive oil cake, it’s a winner. –Josh Albertson
→ Artie's (Maplewood, N.J.) • 15 Newark Way • Still no resys.
FOUND Pro, Maplewood edition: A couple blocks from Artie’s and around the corner from the old Bread Stand space, the new Porta Rossa Pasta & Provisions is making hand-made pasta, sauces, sandwiches, salads, and gelato for takeout. Last week’s pitch-perfect lunch: a prosciutto and fig sandwich on focaccia with a panzanella salad on the side.
DINING UPDATES:
→ Dept. of Yikes: FOUND-subscriber-favorite Claud (East Village) is unexpectedly closed for dinner service this week after a liquor license snafu has left the wine bar unable to serve wine, per the restaurant’s Instagram. The establishment is temporarily pivoting into a daytime bakery while working to solve its liquor license woes. Tracking…
→ Openings: A couple of under-the-radar midsummer debuts: Radio Kwara, the follow-up to Nigerian hit Dept. of Culture (Bed-Stuy), has soft-launched in Clinton Hill. The restaurant is booking six-course, $165 tasting menus on Saturday nights in August, with plans to add Friday nights in September. On the Upper East Side, Florentine sandwich import All’antico Vinaio has opened its third NYC location, this one on East 60th between Park and Lex.
NYC RESTAURANT LINKS: Midtown heavyweight Sushi Onodera Ginza closing its doors • Bowery Savings Bank (longtime home to Capitale) may sell out of bankruptcy • Rosemary’s is coming to a new development in East 50s • Six ways Momofuku Ko changed American dining • Is wine the next big cocktail ingredient?
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Larder
In the East Village, bread worth coveting
The best bread in the city is the La Cabra sesame loaf, found exclusively behind the counter at the hit Danish coffee and pastries import La Cabra on 2nd Ave. in the East Village. You're lucky if it lasts past noon, especially on weekends when New Yorkers and tourists alike come to gape at their pastry case, filled with immaculate croissants par excellence, psychedelic sweet buns, barley mousse choux, seasonal tarts, et al.
Ignore them all. These pastries have nothing on the beautifully earthy, fragrant, profoundly savory, naturally leavened sourdough bread inside its snappy, corner-to-corner sesame crust. I make the trek from Williamsburg to the East Village just to get it. If it’s sold out, I go for the consolation prize — the She Wolf Bakery toasted sesame, sold at the Union Square Greenmarket. It’s very good, but it’s not La Cabra. –Foster Kamer
GOODS & SERVICES LINKS: Inside Essx, a new 7k-square-foot concept store on the Lower East Side • Target makes it signage official on Union Square • Cannabis board green-lights 118 more retail licenses in the city • New Malin + Goetz is ‘crisp breath of calm’ at Moynihan Train Hall • Is Soho ready for Sporty & Rich, a Goop for youngs?
WORK • Leisure Report
WFH power moves: bench press, dishwasher
Earlier this year, the WSJ labeled the midday workout “the ultimate power move.” Sounds right, in theory. It’s easier to step away for a 30-min run or hour-long training session if you’re calling the shots. And yet, a recent survey from Stanford and University of Chicago researchers suggests that 42% of people exercise during the workday when they’re working from home (compared with 31% of office workers). All 42% couldn’t be in charge, could they?
It’s no wonder that commercial landlords are in an arms race to outfit their buildings with gyms. The latest? The 15k-square-foot 601 Fitness Center planned for the Starrett-Lehigh Building on the far west side.
What else do people do more of when they’re at home? Chores (48% for WFH vs. 24% office) and child care (19% WFH vs. 13% office). Power moves.
NYC WORK LINKS: Vintage office building PENN1 scores high-paying tenants after big makeover • Boses are the biggest holdouts on five-day weeks in office • The great M&A slump drives turnover at NYC investment banks • Cadwalader latest law firm to defer start date for new associates • Not to jinx it, but is the commute easier lately? • Is there a ‘right age’ for women at work?
WORK • Tuesday Routine
I do ‘WFE’ — work from everywhere
LEONARD STEINBERG, chief evangelist / corporate broker, COMPASS
Neighborhood you work in: Flatiron
It’s Tuesday morning, where are you working?
I do "WFE" — work from everywhere: home, office, on the road and in the air! Real estate never sleeps. Here I am in my COMPASS office at 111 Fifth Avenue, across from the new Microsoft offices (above). I still love the office best, with its herringbone oak floors and steel framed glass dividers and views over historic Ladies Mile of the Flatiron District.
What’s the Tuesday morning scene at your workplace?
The office is rather quiet on a Tuesday morning as most agents get the day started with previews and showings. Every day's schedule differs, though, and remains unpredictable throughout the day as appointments shift around.
What’s on the agenda for today?
I start early — around 5am — with my daily morning memo to the COMPASS family and extended family (about 50,000 recipients). Then I check overnight email and texts. At 10am I have a team meeting. Today includes a marketing meeting for 33 Park Row, and a meeting for a new Greenwich Village building with SLATE with interiors by Nate Berkus that makes me weak, it's going to be so beautiful! I also have three showings, as I dedicate over 90% of my day to brokerage.
What’s for lunch?
I love eating LOTS. Lunch is essential but not always easy when running around the city. I love the crab toast from ABC Kitchen, the Buffalo chicken bowl from THE WELL, the lentil soup from Pret-a-Manger. Papardelle al fughi from Eataly is a guilty pleasure.
Any plans tonight?
Tonight is a 'family' birthday dinner at Añejo in Tribeca with two of my favorite people: Aimee Scher and her 15-year-old superstar son Hudson.
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PROMPTS, one new, two for which we are seeking further intel:
Help!! Aunt Bunny is coming to town from SF. I need suggestions for fabulous restaurants in Manhattan. She likes California-fine-dining-style-contemporary-American grub. Think: Buckeye Roadhouse in Marin County, CA, or Spruce, Napa and Sessions at the Presidio in SF.
Where are the best private dining rooms for business dinners?
What’s the best place for sushi in the vicinity of MSG?
RESPONSES, from our correspondents and subscribers:
Q: I’m doing some work at [redacted] which is right around the corner from the NYSE and having an after-work drink with my boss next week. Any suggestions for the ‘perfect neighborhood cocktail bar’ in Fidi?
A: “First of all,” writes a FOUND subscriber, “it's 'Wall Street,' not ‘FiDi.’ Only real estate agents call if FiDi, and it's lame.” Okay, yes, fair. The very good set of responses on this one built today’s Nines (below), the first time that’s happened. But first, a bit more color on Split Eights, which is blowing up our inbox: