A drink with Alex Raij
A drink with Alex Raij
Hamptons listings, Cinco de Mayo, Txikito, Parcelle, Bacaro, Highline Bash, Key West, Big Tiny, MORE
REAL ESTATE • On the Market
High tide
Mostly beached since the pandemic, the Hamptons real estate market may finally be getting its sea legs again. Sales and inventory both ticked up in the early months of 2024, per Elliman’s Q1 market report.
Prices are still historically high, with a median sales price of $1.8M and a luxury entry price threshold of $6.7M (in the top 10%). Notably, inventory, which was up 21% year-over-year broadly, was down 12% in the luxury segment.
And so we beat on into Q2, wondering whether spring will shake more listings free (despite stubbornly high interest rates) and whether a seemingly insatiable demand will finally abate. Either way, FOUND’s summer Hamptons preview on the East End’s newest spots is coming soon. Until then, three new, intriguing listings for your Friday perusal:
→ 108 Hampton St (Sag Harbor) • 3BR/2.1BA 2500 SF house • Ask: $2.39M • historic home in Sag Harbor Village • Days on market: 2 • Agent: The Petrie Team, Compass.
→ 68 Stony Hill Rd (Amagansett) • 6BR/7BA 5338 SF house • Ask: $6.7M • with 4-BR guest house on 20 acres • Days on market: 13 • Agent: The Petrie Team, Compass.
→ 25 Bay St (North Sea, above) • 6BR/6.1BA 6000 SF house • Ask: $10M • 101’ of bulkhead on the beach with a double-height, glass-walled great room • Days on market: 2 • Agents: Dawn Bodenchak & Tyler Goldich, Sothebys.
NYC REAL ESTATE LINKS: In wake of lawsuits, are NYC sellers paying smaller commissions to buyers’ brokers? • Vertical progress on 126 East 57th, the newest addition to Billionaire’s Row • Developer plans five new towers for South Williamsburg waterfront (related: new NYC neighborhood name just dropped).
CULTURE & LEISURE • Friday Routine
Basque in the glory
ALEX RAIJ • co-chef and co-owner • Txikito, La Vara, Saint Julivert Fisherie
Neighborhood you live in: Lower East Side
It’s Friday afternoon, how are you rolling into the weekend?
Weekends were never a thing for us until recently. This weekend, as our kids are older, we’ll be dividing and conquering. I’ll stay at Txikito ‘til later on Friday and Saturday, preparing for a Basque catering on Sunday. My husband (and business partner), Eder, will get ready to go open up a bungalow rental community we share with some other creatives an hour out of town.
Friday includes making lists and large project bid sets to get that seasonal property ready for any reunions or weddings or bar mitzvahs that may want to celebrate there. We generally do full property rentals, but hope to include more amenities one day. We have a barn up there, and we cook on open fire.
Where are you dining this weekend?
This weekend I’ll probably grab a drink with Eder in our ‘hood, the Lower East Side. Either a bottle of wine or we’ll go by the glass at Parcelle or Tolo, or Bacaro if we’re craving a cocktail and frito misto. If we’re pleasing our kids, it’s wine from our fridge and Wu’s Wonton King.
How about a little leisure or culture?
We’ve tried to be better about cultural events and parks over just… food obsession. We got tickets to The Moth last week and Illinoise this week. Getting to Prospect Park for cherry blossoms and magnolias and the Japanese garden is a tradition, too.
Any weekend getaways?
I’m looking forward to re-visiting Lancaster, PA, soon. I particularly love Luca there, and hope to experience Horse Inn. We’re also going to be visiting Montreal for the first time next month. So, naturally, I have a long list of restaurants to visit: Vin mon Lapin, Joe Beef, and Au pied de Cochon are at the top of it. I like to wander and my kids like smoked meat and most Indian cuisines, especially Kashmiri cuisine, so I need to keep researching. I am hoping to stay at Auberge du Vieux Port.
What was your last great vacation?
We had an amazing visit to London with our kids over New Year’s. I really liked the wine list at Mountain — great service, and a nice, fresh space. I also loved breakfast at Dishoom.
CULTURE & LEISURE LINKS: Spring fairs roundups: NYT, Surface • Plus five shows to see in Chelsea • Dealers at Frieze New York aim to capitalize on momentum • At TEFAF New York at the Park Ave Armory, these rooms come with a view • Upgraded museums add new value to college campuses • Inside the Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse 2024 on the Upper East Side • What’s behind the recent wave of New York gallery closures?
GETAWAYS • Key West
The road less traveled
This post appeared in a recent edition of the all-new FOUND MIAMI. Looking for a little more Miami in your life? Subscribe to FOUND MIAMI, with new issues dropping each Thursday.
In Key West, it’s not hard to veer from the beaten path. Simply turn off Duval, ideally by bicycle, onto one of the side streets lined with pastel conch cottages and white gingerbread porches, shaded by palm trees and riots of fuchsia bougainvillea. As a former local who (14 years later) still can’t get over the fact that I no longer live there, whenever I visit, I crave this kind of hotel in these types of environs. No place fits that bill better than Marquesa.
On the corner of Fleming and Simonton Streets in the heart of Old Town, Marquesa epitomizes Key West architecture — tin roofs, seafoam clapboard siding, and a wrap-around white porch. Beyond the façade, a secluded courtyard under a tangle of palm fronds is home to three swimming pools. There are 44 rooms inside a complex of restored, Victorian-style cottages dating back to the 1880s. While no two rooms are the same, they’re all spacious, and all decorated in a tropical-classical manner, with wood furniture sourced from around the globe. Plenty have a separate seating area and patio or balcony, making for an idyllic setting for wine before dinner.
The onsite café, with its big picture windows overlooking the sidewalk, is easily one of the island’s most elegant, favored by locals for special occasions. On a recent Monday night stay, I caught up with an old friend about our wild youth over dinner, indulging in martinis, Marquesa’s signature she-crab soup, grilled tenderloin “Oscar'' with lump crabcake, and the grouper special. For dessert, lighter-than-air beignets with crème anglaise that would do a New Orleanian proud.
After dinner, we ambled up Duval, contemplating a nightcap. A live band blared from the backyard of Virgilio’s, which we used to frequent for Martini Mondays. We were just three blocks from Marquesa, but miles apart. –Shayne Benowitz
→ Marquesa (Key West) • 600 Fleming St.
GETAWAYS LINKS: East Hampton’s Maidstone Inn to reopen under new ownership in June • More on the fight over Zero Bond East Hampton: ‘nervous swans’ in peril! • Blade now offering $275 bus ticket to the Hamptons • The Ned opens its fourth location, in Washington D.C. • Why a trip to Leadville, Colorado, is a must for some shoppers.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Full Bloom
WFUV Highline Bash • Featuring Lee Fields, Billy Allen + The Pollies, and more, City Winery (Chelsea), Fri @ 7p, patron, $500 per
Laufey • Radio City Music Hall (Midtown West) • Fri @ 8p • orchestra 4, $169 per
Hurricanes vs Rangers • round 2, game 1, Madison Square Garden (Midtown South) • TBD • section 107, $990 per
RESTAURANTS & BARS • The Nines
Cinco de Mayo
Soledad (Upper East Side), chef Julian Medina’s latest, making family recipes