FOUND friends & family: the only room that matters right now

Penthouses, Torrisi, TWA Hotel, subscriber picks, more

Apr 28, 2023

REAL ESTATE • Penthouses

Blue skies, top-shelf deals

190 Riverside Drive #PH (Upper West Side, above) 5BR/5.5BA, 4500 SF. In contract: 4/18/23. Original ask: $15M. Closing price: $13M. Common charges $5520. Days on market: 335. Amy Schumer’s UWS palace in the sky, per WSJ. Listing broker: Adam Modlin, The Modlin Group

45 Christopher Street #PHD (Greenwich Village), 1BR/1.5BA, 1700 SF. In contract: 4/19/23. Closing price: $5.955M. Common charges $2482. Days on market: N/A (off-market). Duplex one-bedroom penthouse with outdoor space on both levels. Listing broker: Zoya Litinetskaya, Compass

18 Orchard Street #PH (LES/Chinatown, above),3BR/2BA, 2306 SF. In contract: 4/18/23. Original ask: $4.65M. Closing price: $4.3M. Common charges: $1442. Days on market: 179. Boutique condo building with four units in Dimes Square. Listing broker: Betsy Messerschmitt, Corcoran

NYC REAL ESTATE LINKS: What’s going on at cursed luxury building sites around Manhattan • 555 Greenwich nears the finish line in Hudson Square • Gemma Gramercy almost complete at 202 East 23rd St. in Chelsea • How to estimate what a fixer-upper townhouse or apartment should cost • Dine-in movie theater to open at Bjarke Ingels' VIA 57 West.

GETAWAYS • The Nines

California Hwy 1, Family Roadtrip

Santa Monica Proper (Santa Monica), stunner, rooftop pool, adjoining 555 & 557
Gjelina (Venice), patio, grilled escarole, butterscotch pot de creme, sunset
Beachwood Cafe (Beachwood Canyon, LA), 8am pancake light, hills
Bettina (Santa Barbara), blistered crust, pavlova 5 spoons, languid vibes
Moonstone Beach Boardwalk (Cambria), mid-trip constitutional
Alta Bakery & Cafe (Monterey), coffee & pastry, kids are still sleeping
Nepenthe (Big Sur), arrive 30 min before lunch, order the view (above)
1 Hotel (Embarcadero, SF), ecolux, bridge views, adjoining 451 & 452
Zuni Cafe (Market St., SF), Caesar, fries, chicken for two, warm glow

Travelers: 2 adults, 3 children (10, 12, 14); season: spring break. Additions, subtractions, or other feedback? Hit replay or email found@foundny.com.

GETAWAYS • Friday Routine

Scott Kidder, former COO, The Points Guy

Neighborhood you live in: Flatiron.

It’s Friday afternoon, how are you rolling into the weekend?
I’m a big fan of the LIRR to Airtrain to JFK — stop-and-go traffic from the back of an Uber is overrated. Before heading to the airport I’ll take advantage of one of the great restaurants in my neighborhood. Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, and Sugarfish are frequent spots.

Any restaurant plans this weekend?
No one looks forward to a layover in Atlanta, but dining at One Flew South in ATL Terminal E makes it worth it. I like to skip the sushi and lean into the satisfying Dirty South meatloaf sandwich.

How about a little leisure or culture?
Saw Wicked at the Gershwin a few weeks ago. It holds up!

Do you get away anywhere regularly for the weekend?
I don’t have any regular destinations, but I could see the TWA Hotel becoming a regular staycation before the vacation spot. I stayed for the first time a few weeks ago before an early morning flight on JetBlue. The heated rooftop pool (above) is especially delightful year-round.

What was your last great vacation?
February in Seville felt like spring. The Hotel Alfonso XIII was in the center of everything and the three balconies in the upgraded suite didn’t hurt. The historic classic tapas bar El Rinconcillo was delicious, but surprisingly some of the best Basque-style cheesecake was at Castizo.

GETAWAYS • Airports

Oh good, chaos is coming to JFK’s byways

JFK: The JFK Vision Plan kicks into gear next month, promising all sorts of joy — expansion to Terminals 4 and 8, the building of new Terminals 1 and 6, and the demolition of Terminal 7 — and, of course, intense pain. To wit: torn up and re-routed roads for the next five years, plus more shifting around of rideshare and taxi pickup zones. Brace.
JFK: Okay here’s something happy-ish: Delta is piloting a new grab-and-go food program from Sky Club at T4 starting in May. Per a rep, it’ll include ‘a lot of food options,’ including sandwiches, fruits, snacks, drinks.
EWR: Having decamped completely from JFK and mostly from LGA, United is putting all its might behind Newark, with new United Clubs opening in revamped Terminal A in June and Terminal C in the fall. Mildly tragic, then, that EWR will no longer come up in airport searches for ‘NYC.’

GETAWAYS LINKS: Hyatt acquiring hotel booking curator Mr & Mrs Smith for $66M • Delta plans to increase overbookings, ‘see what happens’ • JetBlue overhauling Mosaic rewards program next month • United and American also reducing NYC flights this summer due to air-traffic controller shortages • F&W’s 10 best airports for food in U.S.

CULTURE & LEISURE • Spring Strings

Lincoln Center, Sat @ 8p, Orchestra for 2

NY Phil, Brahms Violin Concerto, ‘almost symphonic proportions,’ $199 per
NYC Ballet, Balanchine & Ratmansky I, 19th-century France, $220 per
Met Opera, L’Elisir d’Amore, ‘heartwarming comedy,’ $288 per

NYC CULTURE LINKS: How do taxpayers value their art collections? With great difficulty • Frick to return to its mansion in early 2024 • Career-spanning exhibition of Andy Warhol's work at the Brant Foundation • Duchamp drew up 30 bonds in 1924 and one is for sale for $575k this weekend at the Antiquarian Book Fair • Last shot for the kaleidoscope-themed orchid show at Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.

RESTAURANTS • First Person

The Only Room That Matters Right Now

The bar is everything at the new Torrisi, an absolutely gorgeous full-length creation that’s the first thing you see when you walk into the cavernous space, tall mirrors stretching way up to the brick ceiling and delineating the drinks by type, such as the martini: DRY, DIRTY, PERFECT. Two floating islands stand against the open kitchen, around which gather diners waiting to be seated in the surprisingly compact dining room at the back of the restaurant.

On this recent visit, though, we were seated for dinner at one of the bar tables instead, the four-top directly underneath the chalkboard that has one of chef Rich Torrisi’s Instagram obsessions, reading: We are the music makers and the dreamers of dreams. “Is this meant to be ironic?” a dining companion asked. Assuredly not, probably.

Having dined in the center of that back dining room on earlier visits, it turns out dining in the bar area may be the move at Torrisi. The simple reason for this is the noise level in the dining room, with its lowered ceilings a conduit for pure din; a group of four of us struggled to hear even the person sitting next to us. In the bar, this wasn’t a problem, the murmur of a New York City night setting the vibe. The only misfire was letting us see the premium steaks coming off the grill while we’d waited for our table at an island, then being told a skirt steak was the only special steak available to bar patrons (albeit one served with chimichuri).

An LA food writer friend reached out to ask if Torrisi really is all that. I told her I agree with another friend who summed it up thusly: “It’s the only room that matters right now.” —Lockhart Steele

→ FOUND: Torrisi, 275 Mulberry St. at Prince St. (Nolita)

LOST & FOUND • Behind the paywall

Dispatches from the frontline, from FOUND subscribers for FOUND subscribers:

My favorite burger in New York is at Hall (Flatiron). Tiny bar in front of a fancy sushi place with wood reclaimed from an old church. Top of mind because Ryuichi Sakamoto died earlier this month and they are using his playlist.
I have a seafood tower rec! Deux Chats (Williamsburg), $95 petit, $155 grand.
A handful of favorite restaurants from new subscribers: Cafe Spaghetti (Carroll Gardens), bōm (Flatiron), Win Son (Williamsburg), Popina (Columbia St. Waterfront), Malaparte (West Village).