The new guard
The Surrey, The Manner, Hutong, best new NYC hotels, extended East Village happy hours, Tribeca $3-$4M listings, Shanghai Mermaid cruises, MORE
GETAWAYS • Staycation
Hotel openings, fall notables
Here now, two notable NYC fall hotel openings to have on your radar:
→ The Surrey (Upper East Side) is an extensive revamp of the 16-story building at 20 East 76th St. (at Madison) that long served as a residential hotel. The update by Swedish interior designer Martin Brudnizki imparts a classic style across 70 rooms, 30 suites, and 14 residences. It’s the first U.S. property for Corinthia Hotels, which operates luxe hotels in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The Surrey opens to guests on Monday, with rates from $1360/night.
The Ticket: The hotel holds the NYC debut of Miami Beach clubstaurant Casa Tua, which a spokesperson tells FOUND is expected to open by the end of this month. At The Surrey, Casa Tua will oversee a public restaurant, lobby bar, and a private members club. Fees for Casa Tua club membership: $4300/annual for access to NYC (plus $1600 initiation), $7000/annual, (plus $2500 initiation) for access to Casa Tua clubs in Aspen, Miami, and Paris; apply here.
→ The Manner (Soho) is a new upmarket hotel brand from the Standard folks, taking over what used to be the Sixty SoHo hotel. It’s got 97 rooms and a completely new aesthetic from its somewhat stark predecessor. When FOUND dropped by last week for a look around, we found the old second-floor lobby remade into a lounge space for guests called The Apartment with distinct Palm Springs vibes (above). A remade rooftop space (for guests only, in the old Above 60 space) is slated to open this spring. The Manner is open now, with rates from $899/night.
The Ticket: The Otter, an all-day restaurant from Empellón chef Alex Stupak, is open on the ground floor, serving a seafood-driven menu that’s more ambitious (and, to our palates, significantly more delicious) than standard-issue hotel restaurant fare. Adjacent to The Apartment on the second floor, Sloane’s, a velvety new cocktail bar, opened to the public on Monday.
Meantime, one NYC hotel that won’t be reopening this fall is the remade Waldorf-Astoria (Midtown), which just pushed back its planned opening date to spring 2025. Note: there’s not much reason to be optimistic about that timeline, either. –Lockhart Steele
See also FOUND’s New Guard Hotels Nines, below.
GETAWAYS LINKS: One White Street chef planning new restaurant Four Corners upstate in Chatham, NY • Is this the biggest single family home sale in North Fork history? • BermudAir marks one year of flights from HPN, plans expansion • Amex closing all spas across Centurion Lounge network.
RESTAURANTS • FOUND Table
Back to school
In New York City, the more convoluted the restaurant category, the more useful it is. Otherwise common themes — ”romantic,” “fine dining,” et al. — are subjective to the point of futility; some classics in the former are actually awash in post-nup negotiation energy, and plenty in the latter are merely playing dress-up using rough white linens and tealights.
Hutong, the Hong Kong import that took over the old Le Cirque space in 2019, tops a tight category I call “fancy-ish restaurants for special occasions or just nicer-than-normal nights out (that you can usually get into).”
The genre’s best must have some combination of a few key features, and Hutong’s got them all: cold, hard, heel-clicking floors (see also: Crown Shy); soaring, idiom-evoking ceilings (Gage & Tollner); the polished appearance of ease and consistently great food (all three).
Hutong’s drama exceeds even its glitzy Art Deco details. There are chandeliers, gleaming metals, and lots of marble. The “Champagne runway” is lined with an abundance of illuminated bottles for a forgivably gaudy Instagram moment. The staff has the confidence to seat parties of two in huge, plush, half-moon banquettes that would elsewhere be rationed for larger parties. And pending availability, an excellent Peking duck is available and on fire (literally).
This is Hutong’s best dish, with or without the tableside flames, served in half or whole orders, sliced thin with crackling skin, the remainder minced to fit into lettuce cups. The celebration-making main — plus other large plates like the sanchen spiced chicken, and little gems like some of the loveliest dumplings in town — put Hutong not in a lonely class by itself, but in very good (and very specific) company. –Amber Sutherland-Namako
→ Hutong (Midtown East) • 731 Lexington Ave (entrance on 58th St btwn Lex and Third) • Sun 1130a-4p and 5p-10p, Mon-Wed 12-4p and 5-10p, Thurs & Fri 12-4p and 5-11p, Sat 1130a-4p and 5p-11p • Reserve • Photo: Tanya Blum.
REAL ESTATE • First Mover
Three for-sale condos in Tribeca that came to market in the $3-$4M range in the last two weeks.
→ 260 West Broadway #4G (Tribeca) • 3BR/2BA, 1450 SF condo • Ask: $3.295M • in the American Thread Building with Prunella marble and Piedmont limestone • Days on market: 7 • Monthly taxes: $1016; Monthly cc: $1416 • Agent: Abra Nicolle Nowitz, Corcoran.
→ 18 Leonard St #2A (Tribeca) • 2BR/2BA, 2082 SF condo • Ask: $3.75M • cobblestone block; elevator into open layout • Days on market: 15 • Monthly taxes: $1914; Monthly cc: $2417 • Agent: Jeremy V. Stein & Kat Trappe, Sotheby’s • Open house Sat 2-3p, by appt only.
→ 116 Hudson #2 (Tribeca, above) • 2BR/2.1BA, 2024 SF condo • Ask: $3.995M • full-floor with 600-SF garden • Days on market: 8 • Monthly taxes: $2603; Monthly cc: $1900 • Agent: Sophie Ravet, Brown Harris Stevens • Open house Sat & Sun 1230-230p, by appt only.
REAL ESTATE LINKS: How one developer is selling remade Brooklyn townhouses for $10M+ • Work on 67 Vestry wrapping up in Tribeca • The great Brooklyn townhouse parapet freakout • These are the 120 great trees of NYC.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Friday Routine
Walking shoes
TONY PERROTTET • historian and journalist
Neighborhood you work & live in: East Village
It’s Friday afternoon, how are you rolling into the weekend?
I'm almost always still slaving over a hot laptop, writing away. Usually I work on several stories at the same time, composing a draft of one then polishing another, depending on my mood. It was a busy summer — I made four different research trips to Europe — so I'm working on one feature story for Smithsonian Magazine on exploring the ancient aqueducts of Rome, another on running with the bulls in Pamplona; a piece on F. Scott Fitzgerald in the French Riviera for The Wall Street Journal; and a story on the art scene on the Greek island of Hydra for Travel + Leisure. Just for good measure, I'm also putting the last touches on a screenplay based on my last book, Cuba Libre!, about the Cuban Revolution of 1959 — a comic take on Fidel and Che in the spirit of “The Death of Stalin.”
Where are you drinking or dining this weekend?
I’m a big fan of happy hours in the East Village. Around the 6p aperitif hour, I usually meet friends (mostly fellow freelance writers or artists) for a quiet snifter in one of a few key places: Bibi's on East 4th St. has one of the best wine happy hours in the city (it goes to 8), Bar Veloce on Second Ave. (to 7), or if I finish writing early enough, Rosie's on East 2nd has a killer margarita and guacamole deal until 6.
As for restaurants, I’m going through a Greek phase, so I'm going to have a late lunch at Kiki's in Dimes Square — it has delicious taverna-style food and metal jugs of Greek wine. A few steps away is one of my favorite bars, Le Dive, which has natural wine and delicious snacks. Both places are a scene, with tables spilling onto the street, which is blocked off to traffic on weekends — a real blessing in New York, creating a very European piazza-like vibe.
How about a little leisure or culture?
Tonight I'm going out on the water on one of the Shanghai Mermaid’s cruises on a beautiful 19th century clipper — it's a regular party event where everyone wears retro 1920s or vintage garb (you'll be refused entry in 2024 clothes), and there's a live jazz band on board, which is enormous fun as you sweep past the Statue of Liberty under the stars. The band is called the Hot Toddies and is a part of Prohibition Productions, another group that hosts jazz events almost every night. (My favorite is their "Speakeasy in the Sky," held on top of a Manhattan skyscraper).
Saturday I'll wander around a few art galleries in the Lower East Side — I'll start at Visionary Projects' new space on 124 Forsyth St., which is run by a couple of curator friends, and find out what's the latest worth seeing. Around 6, there’s always a gallery reception to pop into, usually with crowds spilling onto the sidewalk. Later, I'll hit the Metropolitan Museum — not many people realize that it's open until 9 on Friday and Saturday nights, and it’s relatively empty.
At the end of the night I'll end up back in the East Village at the KGB Bar's Red Room to catch a late music show. It's the neighborhood’s most famous literary watering hole, and I also host salons there once a month or so.
Any weekend getaways?
I don't have a car and I travel a lot for work, so I have a few day-trip getaways in the more natural corners of New York. First, I try to make sure I visit Central Park every weekend, usually ending with a glass of prosecco in the newly reopened Boathouse over the lake. Who needs Upstate? It's hard to beat for a nature fix.
Second, I'll get back to the waterfront and take a ferry to Red Hook. New York has a longer coastline than either San Francisco or Seattle, and the public ferry system is surprisingly excellent once you figure it out. In Red Hook, I have a regular circuit: Start at Pioneer Works for the art, have a glass of wine at the Red Hook Winery (sitting outside with panoramic water views), then go listen to some music at Sunny's Bar, the social hub of the nabe.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
I tend to spend money on experiences rather than material objects, and I'd say that my biggest indulgence is to maintain a membership in Soho House. In the warmer months, I'll cycle over the Manhattan Bridge to the Dumbo club. It's in a stylishly renovated warehouse, where I can work, eat a decent lunch on the patio, and have a swim in the sun on the rooftop pool with a view of Manhattan across the Harbor. Not bad.
CULTURE & LEISURE • OMG
Mets vs Padres/Dodgers • NLCS game 3 • Citi Field (Flushing) • Wed @ TBA • section 113, $894 per
Yankees vs Tigers/Guardians • ALCS game 1 • Yankee Stadium (Bronx) • Mon @ 737p • section 113, $403 per
Sting • Capitol Theatre (Port Chester) • Sat @ 8p • orchestra right, $395 per
CULTURE & LEISURE LINKS: In Harlem, Studio Museum to open new building next year • A Red Hook art crawl • Playoff fever explainer: The Mets’ OMG sign.
GETAWAYS • The Nines
Hotels, new guard
Nine Orchard (Lower East Side), a touch less glam with chef Ignacio Mattos gone from its restaurants, intel here, $875