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wants to know if Philly hot spot Han Dynasty can make it here in New York!
Down in Philadelphia, which is home to at least five Han Dynasty Sichuan restaurants, folks apparently go a little crazy for Han Chiang's fiery creations. Praised for their authenticity, swooned over for their addictive garlic/chili oil/peppercorn flavors, the dishes at Han Dynasty have Philly food-lovers in a continual state of spiced-up, numbed-out bliss. Which is all well and good for a city like Philadelphia.... but the real question is, can Han Dynasty cut it here in the big town? The happy answer, based on one memorable dinner at the new Han Dynasty in the East Village, is a most definite "yes".
The East Village Han Dynasty has been in "soft opening" mode for almost two months now--which is another way of saying "don't blame us if the service is erratic"--but you don't come here to marvel about a brisk, impeccable staff (they are fine, if forgetful), nor to be transported to a heavenly realm by the decor and ambiance, which is stark and utilitarian at best. No, you come Han Dynasty to throw a party for your mouth, and believe you me these guys KNOW how to rock your world.
Everyone will tell you to get the Dan Dan Noodles at Han Dynasty, and everyone is correct: these table-tossed beauties--slightly sweet, way more than slightly spicy, meaty and rich, just gloppy enough but still with plenty of bite--are incredible. One of my favorite dishes of the year. I also tried the Spicy Crispy Cucumbers, which were certainly both, but I also would have added "Garlicky" to the listing for even greater accuracy. Like most things here at Han Dynasty, it's not for the timid, or for, say, a second date. My entree was excellent, a platter of Dry Pepper Style Chicken, the bird bits "triple flash fried" into a pleasantly chewy/crisp consistency, the chili peppers (and everything else) incendiary.
Han Dynasty East Village is located on Third Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets, and is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. No surprise, there can be a wait for tables during prime eating times, but this stuff travels well, so take-out is definitely a solid option. For more information and a look at the Han Dynasty menu, see here.
Stone Street Properties LLC is one of the fastest growing Owner / Landlord / Development firms in Manhattan. Stone Street is looking to add an intern for a 3 month position which may grow into Permanent Paid Analyst / Associate role.
Stone Street Properties owns and operates over 700 multifamily units in Manhattan’s best neighborhoods and are continuing to grow rapidly. This role will span the scope of the multifamily development process. It will include but not be limited to:
• Working directly with Property Managers to oversee current portfolio and ongoing unit renovations.
• Communicating with existing tenants
• Assisting with underwriting of new deals
• Sourcing New Transactions
• Assist in the maintenance of the rent regulated segment of the portfolio
• Touring existing properties and learning how to create / find value in each unit
• Assist in social networking, marketing, and other aspects of brand development
• Assisting with marketing of free market apartments
We are growing very quickly and need a candidate with talent, a professional demeanor, and an attitude to take on anything thrown at you. This is an amazing opportunity to join our firm as we continue our rapid growth.
Our office is located in Midtown in a class A office building.
Hot on the heels of a recent $73 million acquisition, real estate investment firm Stone Street Properties has closed on another five-building portfolio for $33.5 million, the company’s founders Robert Morgenstern and Jeffrey Kaye told The Real Deal today.
The portfolio of buildings is located at 260-268 Elizabeth Street; it is composed of 48 residential units as well as five ground-floor retail spaces. Tenants include Billy’s Bakery and Area ID, a design and interiors boutique.
‘This deal just made sense,” Kaye said. “This is a gem that we found in Nolita. Anytime we find these kinds of buildings in this type of A-plus location, we move very, very quickly.”
Investor and asset management firm Meadow Partners is Stone Street’s equity partner on the deal.
The seller was a conglomerate of investors managed by Marolda Properties, according to public records. A representative for Marolda was not immediately available for comment. Marolda had owned the property since 1998, records show.
Edmund Levy of Cornerstone Property Group represented the seller in the deal. Stone Street did not use a broker.
As previously reported, Stone Street closed on another big deal earlier this week, buying a 16-building Manhattan and Brooklyn portfolio from landlord Robert Koppelman. The company manages its portfolio in house and aims to add value to its holdings by renovating its buildings.
SSPNY Braves the Crowds at Union Square Holiday Market for Five Good Reasons
Pop-up outdoor markets are hardly rare these days here in New York City, what with the various Fleas, Fairs and Festivals all summer long and now, as the spirit of giving really kicks into high gear, with the proliferation of Holiday Markets, from admission-required, one-weekend-only shows like Unique NYC in Chelsea and the Bust Craftacular in Soho; to the the ten-year-old Young Designer's Market, now just "The Market NYC" and on Bleecker, not Mulberry. But the biggest, most consistently crowded shopping destinations--loved by tourists; love-hated by locals--are the big three Holiday Markets, in Columbus Circle, in Bryant Park, and the granddaddy of them all, in Union Square. Question is: is there any reason for someone like yourself--savvy, stylish, super New Yorkish--to even bother with the Union Square Holiday Market, 2012 edition? Well, that depends mostly on your gift list, I suppose, but when I wandered the many (many) aisles of the Union Square Holiday Market 2012 on opening day, I found at least five solid excuses to go check it out. For traditions' sake, if nothing else.
PeaceBomb The jewelry at the PeaceBomb booth is simple and elegant: aluminum bangles, coin "warp bracelets", charm necklaces. (Also spoons, but whatever.) But the real appeal here is the back story: each piece is made from actual bomb-scrap from explosives dropped on Laos during America's undeclared "secret war" on that country from 1964-1973. PeaceBomb pays Laotian farmers four times the local market rate for their material, and gives a portion of each sale back to the community, in the form of micro-loans and cleanup funds. PeaceBomb bangles are inscribed with their provenance. Read more about it here; shop for it in Union Square.
Kristiana Parn These are lots of cute, pastel-y, gifty prints and stationary (mostly card sets) at the of Kristina Parn, an amiable Estonian artist who studied at SVA and is working these days in Brooklyn. Some of Parn's stuff reminded me of the Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara--an opinion seconded by a random other shopper--which is a good thing. You can see her work here.
Macaron Parlour There are several tasty delights at the Union Square Holiday Market 2012 (Mayhem and Stout's meat sandwiches, Sonrisa's empanadas, whatever the Taste of Persia guy was cooking that smelled amazing), but I was most excited to see that the great Macaron Parlour is back again this year, peddling their insanely good French-style pastries in flavors traditional (Pistachio, Caramel, Strawberry) and most decidedly NOT (Red Velvet, Peanut Butter Cup, S'Mores, and, most fiendishly delicious, Candied Bacon with Maple Cream Cheese). Grab a couple to eat on the spot; wrap up a six-pack or two for all of your Secret Santa-ish needs. Oh, and definitely visit their spanking-new storefront on St. Marks near Avenue A, because in addition to these awesome macarons, they also offer some of the best cookies AND cinnamon buns in town. See the full menu here.
Gnome Enterprises If you've been to the Flea in either Williamsburg or Fort Greene, you know the Gnome, those "handprinted in Brooklyn", cleverly, knowingly wacky t-shirts that would make great gifts for your uncle, your nieces and nephews, your dad, and anyone else who hasn't heard of Threadless, or would get a thrill from a "Brooklyn" branded article of clothing. Cute onesies too! This is your last-minute go-to booth for all the above. Check out some of the Gnome Enterprises designs here.
Viva Zapata There are several nice bag-and-wallet booths at the Union Square Holiday Market 2012--I liked the new recycled-bicycle-tire bags at Zip-It, for example, and United Leather has a wide selection of colorful wallets--but I'm going to give the nod to a long-time favorite of mine, Viva Zapata. I love the Argentinian company's signature color-block designs, and it's nice that their 100% vegan as well; instead of leather, Viva Zapata makes their stuff out of the same vinyl that covers the seats of the buses of Buenos Aires, los colectivos.See their products here.
The Union Square Holiday Market 2012 is open Monday through Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., on Saturday from 1);00 to 8:00, and on Sundays from 11:00 to 7:00. The Market closes on December 24 at 4:00 p.m. More general info here.
Stone Street’s Jeffrey Kaye and Robert Morgenstern and 234 East 33rd Street
Stone Street Properties, a real estate investment firm founded last year by Jeffrey Kaye and Robert Morgenstern, has closed on a deal for a 16-building Manhattan and Brooklyn portfolio composed of 300 residential units, the founders told The Real Deal today.
The deal for the portfolio, made up of 14 Manhattan buildings and two properties in Brooklyn, closed yesterday for $73 million. Paul Smadbeck of Massey Knakal Realty Services brokered the deal on behalf of the seller. Stone Street did not use a broker.
HIG Realty Partners, a Florida-based investment firm, is Stone Street’s equity partner is the deal. Stone Street’s principals declined to comment on the structure of their partnership. The transaction is one of HIG’s first in New York.
“There was a tremendous amount of competition until we signed a hard contract deposit of $7.3 million,” Kaye said. “Massey Knakal was about to take it out to the market. We preempted the market by signing the check within days.”
Although the founders declined to comment on the identity of the seller, they said he was a “long-tem family owner and operator,” who was “retiring by selling this portfolio.” Public records reveal the seller as longtime Manhattan landlord Robert Koppelman. Koppelman has owned the majority of the portfolio’s buildings since the 1990s, records show.
With this acquisition, Stone Street has almost doubled its holdings. The firm now owns approximately 750 units across 28 buildings citywide, its founders said. Last year, Stone Street acquired a portfolio of five rental buildings in the East Village and on the Upper East Side from Icon Realty Management. That deal was valued at $90 million.
In Manhattan, the new 16-building deal includes properties located primarily in Murray Hill, on the Upper East Side and in the East Village. They are 101 MacDougal Street, 104 East 7th Street, 438-440 East 13th Street, 236-236 East 33rd Street, 410 East 64th Street, 319 East 78th Street, 233 East 82nd Street, 310 East 83rd Street, 325 East 83rd Street and 504 East 88th Street. The Brooklyn properties are located at 354-356 State Street in Downtown Brooklyn.
As previously reported, Stone Street manages its properties in-house, aiming to add value by reconfiguring and renovating apartments.
SSPNY Checks Out Grand Re-opening of The Drawing Center Museum in Soho: After Major Multi-Million Dollar Renovations and Expansion, Center Doubles Gallery Space!
Hard to believe that The Drawing Center in Soho, a pioneering downtown gallery dedicated to, of course, drawing, recently celebrated 35 years at their lower Wooster Street location. 35 years! Needless to say, Soho's changed a lot (and I mean a LOT) since 1977, transmogrifying from a largely industrial area, peppered here and there with bars and eateries (Fanelli's Cafe!), underground event spaces and artist collectives, into the high-end, designer-heavy shopping mecca that is it today. And now, with their grand re-opening last week, The Drawing Center has also undergone a dramatic change, though one marked by far more elegance, and even restraint, than some of its neighbors.
Opening its (brand new) doors after a year-long, multi-million dollar expansion and renovation, The Drawing Center not only more than doubled the gallery space within its 19th-century, cast-iron-and-limestone building--there are now three distinct viewing areas on two floors--it also enjoys full museum status. And the new design by Claire Weisz of the New York-based WXY Architecture & Urban Design is terrific: sophisticated, clean, intelligently conceived and executed. I missed the Drawing Center's opening night party because of the snow (thanks for nothing, Nor'Easter Athena), but managed to get over there late last week and was totally impressed by the new digs. This will definitely become part of my regular Soho-art-going rotation.
As for the three inaugural Drawing Center exhibitions, I liked Guillermo Kuitca: Diarios, the largest of the trio and, thus, hung in the front gallery on the main floor, for which the Argentine artist stretched canvases of his "failed paintings" over a round table in his studio and, over the course of several months, added "intentional and accidental doodles, drawings, and recordings on their surfaces". There are 17 of these circular "diarios" in all, and, for most part, they're very cool. I also enjoyed spending time with Colombian artist José Antonio Suárez Londoño's The Notebooks, in the back gallery, which show excerpts from his years-long habit of creating a drawing a day based on whatever he's reading at the time.
Finally, in the downstairs gallery at the newly renovated and now reopened Drawing Center museum, there's a historically-minded exhibition called "In Deed: Certificates of Authenticity in Art” which shows, in various forms of legal documents, how artists have sought to control what happens to their work after its finished--including, in many cases, after it's been sold. It's interesting, if not exactly art. But, good to know: there are three brand-new bathrooms down here too, which are unlikelty to ever see Starbucks-sized lines. Just saying. The Drawing Center is located in Soho, on Wooster Street between Grand and Broome, and is open Wednesday through Sunday from 12:00 noon until 6:00 p.m., and on Thursday until 8:00 p.m. All three of the current shows run through December 9. Lot more info here.
Stone Street Properties is a full service real estate firm that owns, operates and manages multi-family properties in New York City. Stone Street owns a diverse portfolio of properties in some of New York’s most desirable neighborhoods including Greenwich Village, West Village, East Village, Nolita, Murray Hill, Upper East Side, and Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill. Our properties are located in vibrant neighborhoods, with close proximity to transportation, restaurants, shopping, entertainment venues, and cultural institutions.
Job Description:
Stone Street Properties is looking for an Administrative Assistant. The position will work closely with all staff members and will be responsible for administrative duties, scheduling appointments, tenant interaction, accounts payable and accounts receivable. The position will work as part of a cross-functional team and will be exposed to the NYC commercial real estate industry. The position has potential for strong opportunities for advancement within the firm.
This is a paid full-time position located in Midtown Manhattan. Regular business hours are 9am-5pm Monday through Friday.
Qualifications:
College degree preferred
No experience in real estate necessary
Work experience in a similar position on a full- or part-time basis preferred
Proficient in Microsoft Outlook and Word
Strong interpersonal/communication skills
Must be well organized and detail-oriented
Salary – commensurate with experience
Stone Street Properties is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE).
Stone Street Properties is committed to the principles of equal employment opportunity. Applications are considered for all positions without regard to race, sex, sexual orientation, color, religion, national origin, age, disability or any other status protected by applicable law. Stone Street Properties encourages all qualified applicants to apply.
SSPNY Tries El Toro Blanco: Elegant & Spanking-New Mexican Restaurant in West Village on Sixth Avenue Between Houston and Bleecker
It's in kind of a tough location, the elegant, spanking-new West Village Mexican restaurant El Toro Blanco, on the side of Sixth Avenue between Houston and Bleecker that doesn't get a ton of foot traffic, the side opposite the always-packed Bar Pitti (which, by the way, is great), and Da Silvano (which, by the way, is overpriced, and deliberately so, to keep out the riffraff like me). Plus, the neighborhood competition for Mexican is strong, both low-end (the reliable Dos Toros, just up the block) and high (Alex Stupak's excellent Empellon Taqueria, on West 4th). But if anyone can pull it off, it's El Toro Blanco's all-star team of John McDonald and Chef Josh Capon (here with help from Chef Scott Linquist), whose Soho spots Lure Fishbar and Burger and Barrel (home of my personal favorite pre- or post-Angelika meal, the "Bash Style" burger with Tater Tots) are always lively, comfortable, and satisfying.
Fingers crossed McDonald and Capon can make El Toro Blanco work, because I liked what I saw--and tasted!--when I went the other night to sample the food and check out the scene. El Toro Blanco is a spacious, good-looking restaurant whose decor and ambiance will feel more than a little familiar for fans of Lure and B&B: slightly retro (or, "classic"), romantically illuminated, tastefully appointed (but with a sense of humor... see the bent-nose "stuffed" marlin by the door), with cozy banquets, several distinct seating areas to create intimacy, and two small bars, one of which is dedicated to watching the guacamole get made. There are many occasions for which El Toro Blanco would work: on a date, for a tequila-drenched dinner with some pals, grabbing a bite before a movie at the IFC or the Film Forum. Nice job, design crew!
As for the food, I tried a few dishes from all over the El Toro Blanco's menu (well, in its lower-priced precincts, anyway; many entrees approach $30 here), and was pleased each time. For my "table snack" I went with Green Chili Queso Fundido, with added Chorizo, of course--note to Capon and Linquist: how about some more more meat for those extra three dollars, please, next time?--which is basically a socially-acceptable excuse to eat a bowl of melty cheese. The heart of the El Toro Blanco menu is devoted to Tacos, with about nine different options, all appealing. I went with, and was rewarded with three fat little beasts overflowing with kicky, chipotle barbecued gulf shrimp, crunchy cumin slaw, roasted tomatoes, and cool avocado. My choice of side was maybe a little disappointing--, the corn nicely sweet and charred but obviously frozen--a more-than-forgivable offense considering our city's recent battle with Sandy. In these weeks and months ahead when all downtown restaurants need your support, El Toro Blanco is worth getting on your list.
El Toro Blanco is located on Sixth Avenue between Houston and Bleecker Streets, and is open daily for dinner at 5:30. The full website is still a work in progress, apparently, but you can see the complete El Toro Blanco menu on the Eater post, here.