NYC News You Might Have Missed in June

This is our monthly recap of recent NYC news you might have missed during the last few weeks. As usual, our list is heavy on food, shopping and real estate, plus other tidbits. Here are the headlines from our sources, which we identify.  No leaks, no fake news on NYCOTC.

Bullshit food – That’s what TV food star Anthony Bourdain promises he won’t sell any at his new NYC  food hall, now scheduled to open in 2019, more than four years late.  Maybe it’s his attitude and the demands he’s been making on potential vendors and even the landlord that keep delaying the opening.  In the meantime, other food halls, including Eataly from arch-rival Mario Batali, do well. (NY Eater, the online site of NY Magazine)

Can you hear me now? – NYC gets yet another area code, to make room for additional phones in the metro area.  The new 332 code goes into service on June 10.  It’s called an “overlay”, added to 917, 646 and 949, each one added when the previous numbers ran out.  Plus, there’s 914 for nearby Westchester and Rockland, 201 for northern New Jersey, and 203 for Connecticut.  The new 332 NYC area code will count as a local call, according to Public Service Commission rules.  The original 212 area code has become a status symbol.  It means the owner is a long-time New Yorker, like NYCOTC editor Evelyn Kanter, born and raised and lifelong resident of this great town.

I voted. Did you? – If you don’t vote, you don’t have the right to complain about who is elected.  Every election is important, and you should wear proudly the sticker.t that says you voted.  This is the winning design from more than 700 designs submitted by New Yorkers.  You’ll see it first on Sept. 12, the date of the NYC primaries, which include a vote for our next NYC Mayor.  (DNAInfo)

 New lease on life – The landmarked Four Seasons restaurant, in the landmarked Seagrams Building, has reopened under new owners as The Grill, just as expensive and just as formal as its predecessor. Be on an expense account, or heir to a trust fund, to afford $60+ entrees. (Gothamist)

• The original owners of the original Four Seasons are set to open nearby this fall. (New York Post)
• The landmarked Campbell Apartment bar in Grand Central Station re-opens with a facelift and extended hours.

Another new lease on life – Empty retail spaces have a new champion, a British startup best described as the Airbnb of storefronts. Appear Here is signing up major landlords to list their empty storefronts online for short-term rentals, also called pop-up stores. So if you have as much as $45,000 a day – yes, day – you, can rent such prime Fifth Avenue real estate as the former Ralph Lauren flagship store or American Girl Place.  (The Real Deal)

B&H bails on NYC warehouse jobs – The city’s camera and electronics superstore is bailing out of NYC, and taking hundreds of jobs with it.  No, not the store, which stays on 34th St. and 10th Ave., but the warehouse, which moves to Florence Township, New Jersey, a wide spot in the road between Trenton and Philadelphia with no  towns you ever heard of and a total population that’s less than the number of customers who visit the 34th St. store in a week.  Several hundred mostly Black and Latino workers now staffing the Brooklyn Navy Yard warehouse will lose their jobs when B&H moves to Noo Joisey to save rent. The new location has no public transportation, and B&H will not provide any for its loyal NYC employees, even for the ones ready to commute 3-6 hours a day.  Shame on you, B&H.  Your new warehouse is not a Mitzvah to anything but your bottom line. (Gothamist)

Click your way to a gracious home –  The luxury home chain Gracious Home, which closed three of its four Manhattan stores after filing for bankruptcy, recently obtained a $3 million loan to restock the remaining store, on the Upper East Side, and turn itself into an e-tailer. The cash infusion gives the company enough time to seek investors to help it emerge from Chapter 11.  [New York Post]

Hopefully, Gracious Home will take more care of its remaining store, and it e-tailing warehouse, than the ungracious mess it dumped on the sidewalk Broadway when it walked away recently from its store on Broadway, across from Lincoln Center. Photo courtesy DNAInfo

Bye-bye for Apple Cube – The iconic glass cube on Fifth Avenue has been removed so the 24/7 Apple Store can be doubled in size. It’s not clear from documents filed with NYC whether the cube will be returned to its spot in the plaza of the General Motors Building.  During renovation, Apple Fifth Avenue will occupy the space which used to be the iconic FAO Schwarz toy store. (Crain’s)

SEE ALSO News you might have missed in April, including:

• Fixed admission for the Met Museum
• Move to finerprint Uber and Lyft drivers to cut down on crimes by drivers who are not background-checked the same way taxi and licensed limousine drivers are checked

If there is a NYC news headline you would like to see included in next month’s report, let us know.  Email us at tips@nyconthecheap.com