very simple

I added one more photo to yesterday’s album – the rain has finally stopped (briefly), and as I was leaving work I thought 6th Ave towards Radio City was somewhat cool looking. This was actually taken directly on my office building’s corner. You may begin to understand why I have such frustration with holiday season tourists.

Also, I had included this picture [ed note – that picture is no longer functioning correctly, so it has been removed from the album], not because it was anything particularly artistic, but because as I was walking home last night, I realized that it is now going to be the 5th or 6th restaurant to open in this space in the 5 years that I’ve lived here. It’s just somewhat amusing, because every time it turns over, they do a complete overhaul of the interior. I think the most successful business to run out of there was when I first moved in – back then it was a Dunkin’ Donuts, but it was also 1999 and I’m sure the owner of the building figured he could get 5 times the rent from a high-end restaurant. Well, that’s only true if they ever actually open.

My personal favorite restaurant to fail spectactularly in this spot was the one that immediately preceded this current incarnation – it was called "Choice", and it was literally open for three weeks, before all of a sudden the doors were sealed up and notices were placed in the windows that the property and furnishings had been seized by federal marshals for failure to pay taxes. That probably amused me significantly more than it should have. I mean, you go through all of the trouble and investment to get a business up and running, but shoot yourself in the foot by not paying your taxes. And not just being a little late and having a penalty assessed.

Anyway, the new restaurant looks like it’s going to be an outpost of Haru, which is actually in a few locations around the city. It’s actually the preferred times square/pre-theater destination for my family. I’m not quite sure that we need another sushi restaurant in the neighborhood, being that Yama (my favorite, and where I had dinner tonight) is on 17th, Hamachi (my dad’s favorite, from back in the days when he worked in my hood) is directly across from my apartment on 20th street, and the uber-trendy Sushi Samba is on Park between 19th and 20th. And that’s not even counting the 800 "hole-in-the-wall" sushi bars that litter the neighborhood. And that’s just sushi. I was looking at a copy of the 2005 Zagats today, and I realized that at least a third of the restaurants in the to 50 were between my apartment and Union Square (Danny Meyer and Bobby Flay really like the neighborhood).

Oh, and in one more neighborhood-related piece of news, Ian Schrager has purchased the Gramercy Park Hotel, and is selling off all of the furniture (including full ashtrays) before it gets renovated. It’s actually somewhat sad, because it’s a somewhat legendary hotel in the rock and roll lexicon. The bar recently re-opened after a two-year renovation (which is apparently going to be redone, again), but prior to that it was still full of it’s original 1960s/1970s era glory. If you’ve ever seen the movie Almost Famous, you’ve seen the interior immediately prior to the renovation – the near-final scenes when they’re in NYC and William tells the band that they’re going to be on the cover of Rolling Stone, before he spots Penny? That was shot on location. The Gramercy and the Chelsea hotels were pretty much the biggest haunts of folks like Dylan back in the day. Definitely the end of an era. But the beds are bound to be significantly more comfortable. And the elevators will probably work with more regularity.

Tags: new york city, photos