Industrial touches
Carroll Gardens brownstones, old guard hotels, Aquavit, Quique Crudo, Lele’s Roman, Pocketbook Hudson, MORE
REAL ESTATE • First Mover
Three for-sale houses in Carroll Gardens that came to market in the last 30 days.
→ 410a Sackett St (Carroll Gardens) • 3BR/2BA, 2920 SF brownstone • Ask: $2.75M • vacant 2-unit can be reconfigured, 700 SF unused air rights • Days on market: 7 • Monthly tax: $561 • Agents: Sandra Balan & Samantha Pinkowitz, Brown Harris Stevens.
→ 532 Clinton St (Carroll Gardens, above) • 4BR/4.1BA, 3600 SF townhome • Ask: $5.25M • gut-renovated on 4 levels with top-floor primary suite • Days on market: 17 • Monthly tax: $610 • Agent: Tamara Abir, Compass.
→ 381 Union St (Carroll Gardens) • 5BR/3.1BA, 4824 SF brownstone • Ask: $7.995M • ‘a palace on the perfect street’ • Days on market: 24 • Monthly tax: $1630 • Agent: Carl Gambino, Compass.
REAL ESTATE LINKS: Wall Street profits driving big year for luxury real estate • On Upper East Side, RAMSA’s 255 East 77th St. nears completion… while 200 East 75th St. wraps up construction • Bidding wars come for Prospect Heights • This Halloween in Brooklyn Heights, it’s the year of the skeletons.
RESTAURANTS • First Word
Checking in
New hotel restaurants are infrequently winning propositions. New York City has plenty of classic hospitality operations adjacent to nightly accommodations, but they tend to be more celebrated for their spirits. Who doesn’t want to sip gorgeous martinis awash in the flattering light of Bemelmans?
And yet lovely Lele’s Roman, new as of May to the previously beleaguered dining room in Downtown Brooklyn’s Ace Hotel, is the rare, delightful addition to the genre.
Had the hotel kept the long bar that once anchored Lele’s east wall, it would’ve been a formidable drinks and snacks spot (especially for the golden, fried, palm-sized purses of squash blossoms, fresh mozzarella, and anchovies). The new, more petite bar area near the entrance can’t quite accommodate the crowds that the restaurant already attracts.
Fortunately, dinner’s a more comfortable affair, the dining room still anchored by a pretty, high-slung mural. The area is configured for more than 100, and guests are packed tight and loud around tables topped with pizza-adjacent pinse in varieties like sausage and broccoli rabe, plus plenty of pasta and mains. The pork jowl-studded mezzi rigatoni all’amatriciana is served in a vibrant red sauce, deeply comforting to dip with very good complimentary bread, and the masterfully tender abbacchio made for the best lamb chops I can remember having in a restaurant setting. Lele’s cocktails (around $20 per) are about what you’d expect from a hotel bar; wines by the glass are, of course, ace. –Amber Sutherland-Namako
→ Lele’s Roman (Downtown Brooklyn) • 252 Schermerhorn St • Breakfast daily 7-11a, Lunch Mon-Fri 1130a-230p, Dinner Sun-Mon 5-9p & Tue-Sat 5-10p • Reserve.
WORK • Friday Routine
Treats of tricks
EMMA BENGTSSON • executive chef • Aquavit
Neighborhood you work in: Midtown East
Neighborhood you live in: Harlem
It’s Friday afternoon. How are you rolling into the weekend?
I’m usually getting ready for a busy weekend at Aquavit. My focus is on making sure the team is prepared and everything runs smoothly, but at the same time, I’m already thinking ahead to the week to come — menus, orders, and new ideas I want to try. Right now, I’m also planning for the holidays. For today, we made cute Halloween Princess Cakes (above), and with Christmas and New Year’s right around the corner, I want to come up with something equally delightful.
Where are you drinking or dining this weekend?
One of my favorite restaurants in the city, Quique Crudo. It’s a Mexican-inspired seafood restaurant in the West Village with bar seating only and no reservations, so be prepared to wait a bit for a spot. But it’s absolutely worth it. The food is to die for, and the margaritas never seem to end. Try one of the scallop dishes, the lobster of course, and the tres leches. It’s the kind of place where you sit shoulder to shoulder with other guests, chat with the chefs behind the bar, and just soak in the energy.
How about a little leisure or culture?
If I get a chance, I like to go see the Rangers play at Madison Square Garden, or maybe a soccer game in the summer. My days off are normally spent walking or running in Central Park. I love being around nature and it’s very calming for me.
Any weekend getaways?
My sister and nephew were just here visiting, and we decided to rent a car and drive up into the Catskills for a little escape. We spent two nights at the cozy Postcard Cabins — small trailer-style cabins tucked right into the forest. Each one has everything you need in a tiny, perfectly designed space, with a campfire outside for roasting s’mores and relaxing under the stars.
What was your last great vacation?
For the past few years, my vacations have always been about going home to Sweden to visit my family. I usually spend the first half of the trip in the countryside at my parents’ house. It’s where I can completely unwind — quiet mornings with coffee on the deck, going for a run in the forest, and taking a dip in the cold-water lake. The other half I spend in Stockholm with my sister and nephew. I love taking a boat out to the nearby islands, stopping at small seaside restaurants for lunch — often simple, perfectly cooked fish and new potatoes, eaten while watching the water sparkle in the sun.
Stockholm’s food scene keeps getting better, and my latest favorite is Babette, a cozy neighborhood spot that captures everything I love about Swedish dining: unpretentious, seasonal, and full of heart.
What store or service do you always recommend?
I always recommend MTC Kitchen in Midtown East. It’s one of my favorite stores in New York, a go-to for professional chefs and anyone who loves Japanese knives, tableware, and kitchen tools. It’s one of those places where I always find something new and inspiring for the kitchen.
Where are you donating your time or money?
City Harvest. I began working with them when I first came to New York 15 years ago, and their mission has always resonated deeply with me. I believe that food should never be a privilege — it is a basic human right. I hope that by next year, I am ready to run the New York City Marathon for City Harvest, raising funds and awareness for them. In addition to City Harvest, I also support Citymeals on Wheels and No Kid Hungry, all of which share a common goal: to provide nutritious food to those in need.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Sec 107
Bulls v Knicks • MSG (Midtown South) • Sun @ 7p • sec 107, $479 per (lowest avail $169)
Tame Impala • Barclays Center (Prospect Heights) • Sat @ 7p • sec 8, $390 per (lowest avail $150)
Sabrina Carpenter • MSG (Midtown South) • Fri @ 7p • sec 107, $581 per (lowest avail $324)
CULTURE & LEISURE LINKS: Considering new Adjaya-designed museums: Harlem’s Studio Museum ‘uplifting, uncompromising addition to the city’s civic landscape’... Princeton Art Museum ‘a very grave building’ • After self-funding Megapolis, Coppola is selling watch collection • Study confirms viewing art is good for you.
GETAWAYS • Upstate
Hudson’s next dance
Next week, after a five-year renovation of a vacant pocketbook factory, the 46-room, multi-hyphenate Pocketbook Hudson hotel will open a few blocks off Warren St. It’s destined for every list of Upstate getaways. But it’s a gift for full-time Hudson residents like me, too.
The main floor, the social hub of the hotel, is outfitted with red leather couches and metal chain curtains along with a massive bar. There’s a cafe-style menu by day, and drinks with bites at night. The lobby overflows into the new restaurant Ambros, which serves Argentinian-inspired food with open-fire cooking techniques.
Rooms feature high loft-style ceilings, exposed brick, and simple furniture, with industrial touches like in-room stainless steel tubs and custom metal mirrors straight out of a futuristic dentist’s office. Oversized accents make standard rooms feel larger than they are. The walls are filled with modern art and there are colorful details throughout, like geometric-print Eckhaus Latta robes in every room and the giant water-park-inspired sink in the lobby bathroom.
The adaptive reuse project is one of the largest undertakings of its kind in Hudson, the work of a group of local hospitality veterans and interior design/architecture firm Charlap Hyman & Herrero. In addition to rooms, almost half the hotel’s footprint is retail and gallery spaces, serving as the new storefront for the high-end boutique Kasuri, and the new SHOW : ROOM, a 6500-square-foot homeware and design space for curated vintage goods and exclusive retail spaces for brands like Zak & Fox.
In a few months, a bathhouse and rooms for spa services will open in the building once used for factory storage. Continuing to defy all small-town hospitality expectations, there’s a club on the first floor, which will host events and rotating DJs. With street-level windows and concrete walls, there are not-so-subtle influences of a Berlin nightclub. Try as it might, it’s unlikely Pocketbook will become Berghain. But in a town full of hotels catering to leaf-peepers and summer interlopers, it’s bringing something fresh and new. I’ll take it. –Sylvie Florman
→ Pocketbook Hudson (Hudson, NY) • 549 Washington St • Rooms from $379.
GETAWAYS LINKS: New renderings revealed for JFK Terminal 1, opening 2030 with lots of art • JetBlue to launch domestic first class next year • A readaway in Nantucket’s offseason.
GETAWAYS • The Nines
Hotels, old guard
The Nines are FOUND’s distilled lists of the best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@foundny.com.
Waldorf Astoria (Midtown East), freshly restored w/ fewer but bigger rooms, multiple restaurants, $1735