Little earthquakes
Q1 real estate reports, One High Line, Jose Ignacio, best NYC hotel restaurants, Octo in Koreatown, Clam Bar, MORE
REAL ESTATE • Q1 Reports
Easy pickings
Highlights from a mixed quarter for luxury real estate in Manhattan:
The median sales price for luxury sales (top 10%) rose 2.7% YoY to $5.8M (Elliman)
Listing inventory rose 9%, the first increase in four quarters (Elliman)
Closed sales for the quarter dipped 11.6% (Elliman)
The $3-$5M price range saw the biggest increase in contracts signed at 15.7% (Compass)
The $5-$10M range saw the next biggest increase — 9.6% more (Compass)
The median price of new development sales rose 31.3% (Elliman)
Anecdotally, buyers are tired. “Large trophy apartments in need of work are just sitting on the market, in some cases, north of two years,” per Compass broker Christine Miller Martin. “Many buyers are done with the ever-increasing construction and decoration costs required for renovating a home.”
On that note, One High Line was the big new development winner last month, with six signed contracts on listings above $4M, per Marketproof, including East 19B, a 3BR/3.5BA corner unit asking $8.19M.
Consider also apartment RU7 at 50 Madison (above), a full-floor unit with Madison Square Park and Flatiron Building views. Listed for $6.5M, the apartment features a primary suite with 150 square feet of custom closets, two more en suite bedrooms, a chef’s kitchen and a Ryan Korban renovation. It was in contract as soon as it hit Streeteasy.
NYC REAL ESTATE LINKS: Leasing begins at new Chelsea Canvas on West 24th St. • The Rockwell finishes construction on the Upper West Side • One Domino Square starts sales on Williamsburg waterfront • Despite record studio sale, Brooklyn’s tallest, darkest tower faces foreclosure.
Q1 restaurant report
CULTURE & LEISURE • Friday Routine
Feed me (after naptime)
EMILY SUNDBERG • writer & consultant • Emily Sundberg Worldwide
Neighborhood you work in: Windsor Terrace (or wherever my meetings are)
It’s Friday afternoon, how are you rolling into the weekend?
If I'm lucky I take a nap. I usually go to dinner with friends on Fridays, which means by 7 p.m. my curling iron is plugged in and I'm drinking a Celsius or Red Bull and listening to a Morgan Wallen playlist on Spotify. I wake up early to write my newsletter, so it's hard for me to stay out late. I try to rally on the weekends.
Any restaurant plans this weekend?
On Sunday nights I usually order from Bangkok Degree, but tonight I'm going to Negril, a Caribbean restaurant in Park Slope.
How about a little leisure or culture?
I'm flying to Canouan in the Caribbean tomorrow! But on the weekends I usually enjoy going to the movies alone (it clouds my thoughts if I immediately start discussing a movie with people the second we walk out of the theater). Also, I want to see Cole Escola's play.
Any weekend getaways?
I am not an "escape the city" person, but in the summer it's really nice to go to the beach. I have family on Long Island and in Connecticut. I'm from a town called Centerport, so if you ever want to do a weird Gold Coast roadtrip, I'd suggest checking out the Vanderbilt Museum and planetarium (it used to be the Vanderbilt summer house), getting a cold cheese slice at Little Vincent's in Huntington, and then exploring the Old Westbury Gardens. Another really fun road trip is going up the coast of Connecticut and visiting all the seafood spots — I like Abbott’s in Noank and Ford's Lobster.
What was your last great vacation?
I went to Buenos Aires and Jose Ignacio the other week — it was my first time in South America. It's a long flight, but both cities dissolved the memory of the red eye the moment we got there. I stayed at the Four Seasons in Buenos Aires which was... a Four Seasons. The steak sandwiches, warm wine-filled nights, and sexy tango made for an indulgent (and affordable) escape from New York.
We took a ferry from Buenos Aires to Uruguay to get to Jose Ignacio, where we stayed at Posada Ayana, a ‘70s Brazilian-inspired hotel. They have a James Turrell on site and our daily late-morning breakfasts in front of the pool were one of my favorite parts of the trip. I didn't know what to expect from Jose Ignacio, but I didn't expect to happen upon one of the most impressive museums I've ever been to: MACA, which only just opened in 2022. The trip also included horseback riding on the beach, film screenings — they have a pretty big film festival in the summer — and sunset swims in the ocean. I have a full restaurant and shopping list for both cities if anyone wants but my favorite restaurants in Buenos Aires were Casa Cavia, La Rambla for the sickest steak sandwich of my life, and Anafe.
GETAWAYS LINKS: Montauk’s The Sands motel has been sold • Clam Bar reopening date: April 19 • Mixed review of United’s invite-only restaurant Classified at EWR • Hilton takes majority stake in NoMad Hotels parent company, plans up to 100 new NoMads • Sneak peek inside new Andaz Miami Beach • On house hunting in European villages.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Guts
Drake and Lil Wayne • Prudential Center (Newark) • Fri @ 8p • section 6, $416 per
Olivia Rodrigo • Madison Square Garden (Midtown South) • Sat @ 730p • section 104, $1080 per
Stereophonic • Golden Theatre (Theater District) • Mon @ 7p • orchestra, $269 per
CULTURE LINKS: East Village icon, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, begins a $24M makeover • 10 art shows to see in New York this April • Times Square’s next public artwork is a 65-foot-long hot dog • Why more artists are forming limited liability corporations • The tale of Danny Meyer, donated Yahoo stock, and the rebirth of Madison Square Park.
RESTAURANTS • First Word
No labels party
Korean and Chinese food don’t rub elbows nearly enough in New York City. Octo, an under-the-radar K-Town spot from the New Wonjo team that opened in December, is changing that fact for the better.
Octo isn’t fusion cuisine as much as it’s a Korean take on Chinese fare. That said, there’s a dish that does, in fact, marry the two culinary cultures, and it should be on everyone’s order: kimchi xiao long bao — soup dumplings stuffed with pork, kimchi, and a sweet-and-sour broth. It’s exactly as flavorful a union of sweet, spicy, salty, and umami as it sounds.
Make sure to order the jajangmyeon — noodles with blackbean sauce — a standard of Korean cuisine, originally brought there in the 19th century by Chinese migrant workers. The noodles here may be thinner than you’ll see in most versions of the dish, but they’re excellent. Elsewhere, the kitchen sprinkles truffles on a lot of the dishes, but its flavor is often overshadowed by other ingredients (or maybe they’re just being frugal with the shavings).
Cocktails are the sleeper hits, particularly when they infuse Asian ingredients into classic drinks. In Octo’s Negroni, the gin is swapped out for lemon-infused soju and the old-fashioned is made with Japanese whisky, Iwai 45, and Dawn 808, a Korean tea and (supposed) hangover cure.
Married, friends with benefits, roommates, or just drinking buddies — Octo doesn’t necessarily define the relationship between Korean and Chinese cuisines. But with food so comforting, who needs labels? –David Farley
→ Octo (Koreatown) • 1 E 33rd St • Reserve.
RESTAURANTS • The Nines
Hotel restaurants
9 spots worthy of a stroll across the lobby. See also Manhattan Hotels, New Guard.
Cafe Chelsea (Chelsea), Chelsea Hotel’s in-house Parisian bistro