The Real Deal checks in with Robert De Niro this month. Here's how the greatest living actor got into New York real estate:

Robert De Niro's real estate empire started in the 1980s, when the actor was living Downtown near Drew Nieporent's restaurant Montrachet. To hear the celebrity restaurateur tell it, De Niro would come in and "sit at the last table with his back to the restaurant," to preserve his anonymity.

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Celebrity hotelier Robert De Niro's notoriously secretive Greenwich Hotel has finally allowed another media outlet, besides Vanity Fair, to peak inside its exclusive chambers. Sort of.

Hotel Chatter - which had its own reservation revoked in April - directs us to this recent Newsweek review of Bobby D.'s lodge, which briefly discusses the rooms, the food, and the decor of this supposed "below-the-radar" hotel.

What, no mention of that posh illegal penthouse?

It seems the control freaks running Robert De Niro's new Greenwich Hotel aren't only cracking down on camera-equipped spectators.

On opening day, management also kicked out a reviewer for the hospitality industry site Hotel Chatter, abruptly canceling her reservation.

And she wasn't even requesting a cheap press rate! To wit:

we had a room booked at the Greenwich Hotel tonight. Juliana was going to stay there. In fact, she was excited to stay there.

However, our credit card was flagged by the hotel, Focker style, and we were informed this weekend that we needed to agree not to publish any images that resulted from our hotel stay. Long story short, the hotel has an embargo on photos with some international publication with a long lead time, how archaic is that?

Celebrity hotelier Robert De Niro's hugely anticipated and high-priced lodge, the 88-room Greenwich Hotel, officially opens for business today in Tribeca.

And talk about excellence in hospitality!

A Curbed tipster reports from the scene:

there are three staffers outside the hotel, guarding against photographs. OF THE EXTERIOR. I managed to get a few shots, and one through the glass of the lobby, before a nice Asian lady nearly popped a blood vessel and grabbed at my camera. Bobby D, you've done it again, sir.