Upstate reawakening
Downtown 4BRs, best West Village coffee shops, Do Not Feed Alligators, Kingston, Chleo, Ore Hill, March Madness, MORE
REAL ESTATE • In Contract
Fours north of $4M
In the first 10 weeks of 2024, 235 Manhattan properties listed above $4 million went into contract, just five fewer than last year’s tally for the period, per our friends at Olshan. Notably, sponsor contracts (for new apartments, as opposed to resales) are down 24% year-over-year, as new development inventory struggles to keep up with demand.
Among this week’s new contracts, a trio of downtown four-bedrooms caught our eye, including PH6 at 66 Reade St. in Tribeca, the last sponsor unit in a newly outfitted landmark building. The property was originally listed at $7.25M in the spring of 2023, before landing at $6M in January. A detached auxiliary unit breaks from the white walls and sharp lines upstairs, with exposed brick, arched entryways, and 1800 SF of space for your children or wine collection.
Here, the three deals:
→ 139 Wooster St PH1 (Soho) • 4BR/4BA, 3072 SF condo • Closing ask: $6.85M • sponsor unit with 11-foot ceilings and 33-foot-wide great room • Days on market: 144 • Monthly common charges: $5490; Monthly taxes: $6399 • Agents: Candace Milano and Malessa Rambarran, Brown Harris Stevens.
→ 66 Reade St PH6 (Tribeca) • 4BR/3.2BA, 4278 SF condo • Closing ask: $6M • 1800 SF detached, exposed-brick auxiliary space, 400 SF terrace, and 750 SF roof deck • Days on market: 310 • Monthly common charges: $2914; Monthly taxes: $2584 • Agents: Yair Tavivian and Anna Kwon, Elliman.
→ 130 William St #49C (Wall Street) • 4BR/3BA, 2180 SF condo • Closing ask: $4.995M • duplex with spiral staircase in 66-story David Adjaye-designed building • Sales launch: 8/14/18 • Monthly common charges: $2017; Monthly taxes: $4034 • Sales: Corcoran.
NYC REAL ESTATE LINKS: Renderings revealed for Midtown supertall The Torch • Mets owner Steve Cohen’s West Village megamansion comes into full view • AT&T applies to develop two residential towers in Tribeca • The Mandarin Oriental Residences in Midtown are having problems • A mini forest is coming to Roosevelt Island.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Friday Routine
Kingston is so, so back
SARI BOTTON • writer/editor/publisher • Botton, Ink. (Oldster, Memoir Land, and Adventures in *Journalism*)
Neighborhood you live in: midtown Kingston, NY
It’s Friday afternoon, how are you rolling into the weekend?
Running three newsletters, two of which are magazines, by the end of each week I’m fried. Once I’ve scheduled my Monday posts for Oldster and Memoir Land, most Fridays around 5pm my husband Brian and I will walk a few blocks across Kingston to West Kill Taproom for a drink or two (I don’t drink alcohol, but they have a nice selection of N/A beers, Casamara Club sodas, and other alternatives). Also, snacks via their collaboration with Kingston Bread + Bar, and various food pop-ups. Mostly we go there to randomly run into friends and acquaintances, which often leads to dinner plans on the fly, or going to hear music together at Tubby’s down the block.
I love a third place where you can casually cross paths with people and socialize without having to make plans ahead of time. Before the pandemic, there were a number of those we’d regularly frequent — Boitson’s, Outdated, Elephant, BSP Nightclub, The Beverly, Lis Bar, The Anchor, Duo Bistro, Redwood, Two Ravens, Lunch Nightly — and now they’re gone. Of all our regular old haunts, only Stockade Tavern and Rough Draft Bar & Books (above, with author Chloe Caldwell) remain.
Kingston is such a small city (population 24K), that losing so many beloved places at once really hurt. Ironically this was happening at a time when people from Manhattan and Brooklyn were buying up all the houses here after just a video tour, paying well above asking price with cash, and worsening an already pretty severe housing crisis. I kept thinking Kingston and the whole area had been terribly overhyped, and wondering what all those newcomers were doing on evenings and weekends, given our many empty restaurants, bars, and storefronts. But in the past year, especially in the midtown area where I live, some great new places have cropped up, and it feels like Kingston is truly coming back.
Where are you dining this weekend?
I’m excited to try Mirador, an “Andalucian-inspired” wine and tapas bar that recently opened on Broadway, which friends rave about. Recently we tried two new restaurants in Kingston that we loved: Chleo in uptown, where we shared some delicious, inventive small plates and I enjoyed a verjus and soda; and Eliza, a few blocks from our house in midtown.
For lunch on Saturdays I like to hit Calcutta Kitchens, an excellent recent addition not just for eating in, but for picking up frozen prepared meals, their simmering sauces and spices, and some other South Asian groceries and kitchenware. Calcutta Kitchens doesn’t yet regularly serve dinner, but on a recent Saturday might they made an exception as part of a book event for friend and recent transplant Jai Chakrabarti’s wonderful new story collection, A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness.
How about a little leisure or culture?
One recent Friday night at Westkill, a friend we bumped into told us there were still tickets for Al Olender’s fantastic Alentine’s show at the Old Dutch Church — the sanctuary of which doubles as a great music venue. We snagged two of the last tickets and were glad we did. We love living in walking distance to Tubby’s, and the Ulster County Performing Arts Center (UPAC), where we’ve had the pleasure of seeing Patti Smith and Elvis Costello perform, and one time, “Orchestral Tull,” Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson with an orchestra. It was… an experience.
Any weekend getaways?
When we need a little change of scenery but don’t have time for a big getaway, sometimes we’ll take a brief staycation right here in Kingston, at The Forsyth or Church des Artistes. Maybe one night we’ll try staying at The Kinsley, where we’ve enjoyed dinner at the restaurant a few times. I also really love taking a 45-minute ride northwest to spend a weekend at Spruceton Inn, which I first enjoyed when I was granted one of their week-long artist residencies in 2017.
Once in a while we’ll take a little road trip to Saratoga and stay at The Gideon Putnam, a historic inn with a spa and mineral baths. Or we’ll drive four hours to Montreal and find a room in either the Plateau-Mont-Royal neighborhood or Old Montreal.
What was your last great vacation?
We suck at planning real vacations. In late February when Brian suddenly had a week off between jobs, we took advantage of a mid-winter mid-week special at Mirbeau Inn & Spa, 20 minutes from home, in Rhinebeck. It was a nice little escape without the hassle of any significant planning.
CULTURE & LEISURE • March Madness
Big East Men's Basketball Championship • Madison Square Garden (Midtown South) • Sat @ 630p • section 107, $421 per
Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Championship • Barclays Center (Flatbush) • Sun @ 1p • section 24, $79 per
Ivy League Men's Basketball Championship • Levien Gym (Morningside Heights) • Sun @ 12p • section G, $97 per
CULTURE LINKS: Historic Brooklyn Paramount Theater to reopen March 27 • European design fair Collectible is coming to NYC in September • Gallerist Nino Mier opens in Tribeca • Global art market shrinks as big-ticket sales stall • What art collectors should know about changing lifetime gift tax exemptions • How Wall Street is turning your favorite artist’s songs into bonds.
GETAWAYS • Litchfield Report
Three-day-weekend special
Ever since The New York Times anointed Ore Hill one of the top 50 new restaurants in the U.S., snagging one of the eight tables at the Kent, CT restaurant for a weekend trip to the country has been a tough act, especially since there’s only one seating a night. But Thursdays are more forgiving, which is a gift to locals and a very good reason to add a day to your next Litchfield County getaway.
On a late winter night, we were seated in one of their two intimate dining rooms (four tables per), fireplace roaring and candle-lit sconces on the walls. Small sample, but the crowd looked like mostly empty-nesters who have earned an excellent meal in a quiet setting (at least until the weekenders descend).
At $95, the five-course prix fixe feels like a steal, especially when things kick off with a bite-size cheddar beignet under a generous mountain of osetra. It was a perfect single bite and a fitting compliment to my Smoked Gold cocktail, mixed with local Litchfield Distillery bourbon fat-washed in smoked beef and cut with local Meyer lemon and bee balm — with an absinthe rinse for good measure. (Now that is a Connecticut cocktail.)
The true farm-to-table kitchen — the farms are literally around the corner — fires off some curveballs that work, like a beef tartar "pizza" with horseradish cheese curds and pickled sunchokes and a flavorful rabbit tamale. Less daring but no less winning is a duo of beef (tenderloin rare and short-rib falling apart) and perfectly cooked striped bass with local bok choy. The sleeper (besides that beignet): a peekytoe chawanmushi with jalapeno in a dashi custard — silky smooth, with just enough bite.
While Litchfield County has really ratcheted up its serious dining (local OG Community Table, Materia, Arethusa), this is one of the only prix fixe experiences you'll find in the area. (There’s also a chef’s tasting for $125, which stretches two more courses and requires full-table participation). But despite the elevated service and ambitious food, it's far from fussy. After all, you’re still in the country. –Jason Klein
→ Ore Hill (Kent, CT) • 3 Maple St • Thurs-Sun 6-8p • Reserve.
GETAWAYS LINKS: Inside Hudson’s The Farm Shoppe, farm-to-table shopping from former NYC chef • LGA goes from worst to first in passenger survey • Look inside just-opened Soho House Portland • Ian Schrager on his latest trick, The Riviera Maya Edition at Kanai • Aman launching first cruise ship in 2027 • Airlines are coming for your carry-ons.
GOODS & SERVICES • The Nines
Coffee shops, West Village
Partners, formerly known as Toby’s, with high-quality beans