NY Observer > Retail

City Marshals Raid Harlem's Record Shack

Lysandra Ohrstrom — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:21:47 -0400

A team of city marshals began removing merchandise from one of Harlem’s most iconic music stores, the Record Shack, before noon today, carrying out eviction orders delivered back in February.

The United House of Prayer for All People, the landlord of the 35-year-old de-facto Harlem landmark, gave Record Shack owner Sikhulu Shange 30 days to vacate the premises across from the official 125th Street landmark the Apollo Theater.

Mr. Shange then lost an appeal in civil court in March, and a judge ordered him to leave the premises “broom clean” by May 31. read more »

Are There Any Upstanding Strip Clubs In Manhattan?

Chris Shott — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:27:49 -0400

Mere months after the highly publicized shuttering of Scores West, investigators have busted yet another Manhattan strip club for selling what the industry so politely calls "extras."

Cops arrested lawyer Louis Posner, proprietor of the popular Hot Lap Dance Club, located at 344 West 38th Street, and some 20 other people, including adult film star and "feature performer" Alexia Moore, on prostitution and money-laundering charges over the weekend.

I recently asked former Scores dancer Ruth Fowler, author of the new stripper memoir, No Man's Land, whether there are any New York strip clubs that don't allow that sort of thing.

"Flash Dancers," replied Ms. Fowler, who performed at various venues around town. "They're really fucking strict. They're, like, the cleanest club I've ever worked at. They're so hard on girls who do extras."

Super-Duper High-End 15 CPW Announces Decidedly Middlebrow Retail Tenants

Dana Rubinstein — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:35:42 -0400

You'd think that the buyers of $100 million apartments in the stat-warping 15 Central Park West would want something a tad more highbrow--say, a Prada or a Harry Winston--occupying their ground-floor retail espace. Instead, the gilded tenants at the A.M. Stern-designed tower will have a Best Buy, a West Elm, and a JP Morgan Chase Bank.

William Lie and Arthur Zeckendorf, the developers of the building, made the official announcement today, though it was first reported in the New York Post on July 8. According to the release:

In an industry presently experiencing substantial turmoil, the JPMorgan Chase Bank lease represents the largest retail bank branch lease in Manhattan in 2008. read more »

Smith Street's Nu Hotel Hits All The Right Gruppy Notes

Dana Rubinstein — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:44:32 -0400

Smith Street, Brooklyn's restaurant Mecca, has at long last scored its first boutique hotel, and the hotel's operators sure do know their audience.

Hersha Hospitality's Nu Hotel, at the corner of Smith Street and Atlantic Avenue, hits nearly ever single gruppy note.

Is it eco-friendly? Check. The press release boasts that the hotel has cork flooring, organic linens, and "custom furnishings crafted from FSC-certified, sustainably harvested teak wood."

Is it "Brooklyn" enough? Check. As per the release, "Whimsical references such as stenciled quotes from famous Brooklynites, 'found objects' from local landmarks and other daring local art strive to echo the authentic, confident character of Brooklyn. read more »

A Chelsea Morning In Atlantic City

Chris Shott — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:48:58 -0400

Today marked the ceremonial ribbon-cutting of the hugely hyped Chelsea hotel in Atlantic City.

Hotelier Curtis Bashaw recently sat down with The Observer to discuss the $110 million project, which aims to lure more young, hip New Yorkers to South Jersey's gritty gaming town and otherwise restore some of the ancient seaside destination's long-lost glamour.

"We do a lot of real estate projects -- we've done ground-up buildings in the city and all sorts of other stuff -- but these hotel renovation projects are among the most challenging and rewarding and pleasurable projects," said Mr. Bashaw, 48, who, alongside his Cape Advisors partner Craig Wood, has combined an old Howard Johnson and Holiday Inn into a single 330-room boutique hotel on the boardwalk. read more »

Will New Yorkers Boycott Budweiser?

Tom Acitelli — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:13:06 -0400

I was at the Old Town bar on East 18th Street on Thursday evening, when a petite woman with a French accent leaned across the bar to my right and demanded from the bartender: "Two Budweisers for Belgian people!"

She laughed. Her and her friends were tourists from Belgium.

The bartender grinned wryly and said, "It's not very good beer."

Indeed. But that didn't stop InBev from buying Anheuser-Busch for $52 billion earlier this week in history's biggest all-cash deal. America's largest brewer, which the Busch family ran for 150 years, will now be in the hands of a company run by Brazilians and controlled by a few Belgian aristocracts. read more »

So Much For Coney's 'Summer of Hope'

Chris Shott — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:05:00 -0400

It's only July and already the so-called "Summer of Hope" is winding down on Coney Island.

Gowanus Lounge is reporting that the various rides and attractions touted by controversial developer Joe Sitt back in April are currently being dismantled, apparently headed to some other carnival site in Tennessee.

Motel In A Bag: Portable Real Estate For The Travel Weary

Dana Rubinstein — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:37:19 -0400

Today's New York Times article about the increasing frequency of overnight airport stays, and the increasing callousness of airlines toward their marooned passengers, has a fascinating tidbit about something called a Mini Motel:

An unscheduled overnight stay at a German airport inspired one business traveler, Frank Giotto, the president of Fiber Instrument Sales in Oriskany, N.Y., to create the Mini Motel, a one-person tent complete with air mattress, pillow, reading light, alarm clock and pillow...

Asked what airports would think of a tent city of his Mini Motels, Mr. Giotto expressed confidence.

“People sleeping in chairs don’t seem to bother them,” he said. read more »

Economy Wallops Lunches, Restaurants Feel Pinch

Tom Acitelli — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:13:11 -0400

Eating a bagged lunch at your desk? You're not alone. The toughening economy has more Americans brown-bagging it or eating at their companies' cafeterias rather than at restaurants near the office.

And the restaurants are feeling it. From today's Wall Street Journal:

Lisa Hall, owner of Kitchenette, two home-style eateries in New York City, recently added an incentive for frequent patrons: For every 10 sandwiches a customer buys, they get the next one free. The goal is to boost revenue with additional sales. "We can charge an extra 25 to 50 cents, but that doesn't even halfway cover the extra costs we are being charged," she says.

Nick Liuzzi, owner of Samantha's Trattoria in New York City's Battery Park, typically caters to brokers and banker-types. But, as those industries suffer, Mr. Liuzzi estimates that the Italian delicatessen has seen a 15% to 20% drop in lunchtime traffic since last year.

The Local: Mandolin 'Mecca' on Staten Island

Lysandra Ohrstrom — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:14:50 -0400

In the spring of 1976, Joni Mitchell trekked out to the North Shore of Staten Island to the Mandolin Brothers, a vintage American guitar dealership that had opened five years earlier and had already become a well-trodden pit stop for musicians, guitar buffs, and fretted-instrument collectors.

Ms. Mitchell bought a 1915 Gibson Mandocello and a Martin herringbone guitar, Mandolin Brothers President Stan Jay recalled on a recent Friday afternoon. On the ferry back to Manhattan, she penned “Song for Sharon,” beginning with the lyrics: “I went to Staten Island, Sharon, to buy myself a mandolin.”

“Something must have set off an autobiographical memory for her so she wrote this highly personal song… which is the story of her life and the story of her friend Sharon’s life, who she knew in Canada,” Mr. read more »