CALLING ALL SAVVY BUYERS! $425K

Sold and Closed~

We will be serving Veuve Champagne

Move into this bright and charming One-Bedroom home, lovingly maintained with high beamed ceilings, hardwood floors, and welcoming entry foyer. The spacious renovated kitchen is ideal for the home cook, featuring stainless steel appliances, including GE dishwasher, plentiful storage, and attractive cabinetry. This quiet oasis faces east and north and gets lovely sunlight while remaining pin-drop quiet. The king-sized bedroom provides ample room for a home office or extra closets. 588 West End Avenue is an elegant prewar building built in 1922 and converted to cooperative in 1979. Residents enjoy a part-time doorman, private storage bins, bike storage, central laundry and excellent live in Super. 588 West End Avenue is ideally located on a quiet stretch of lovely West End Avenue, moments away from the 1/2/3 trains, Riverside Park, and all amenities in this vibrant and coveted neighborhood! Pets are welcome.

If you cannot make the open house, please email me for a private appointment:

pzweben@elliman.com

Unlocking Value-

Have you ever walked by an old house that has been on the vacant for years?

You ask yourself, why hasn’t it sold? Is it haunted? Is there black mold in the entire house?

Is it Rat infested?  Is the basement floor cracked?

Years later you are at a cocktail party and a conversation with another guest and it turns out that  she was the one who bought the building for 50 cents, put a couple of hundred thousand dollars into the building and now it is worth $5 Million dollars.

It takes a special skill to see value in something that most people deem useless.

When 100 west 82^nd street was a quiet restaurant space that had tons of failed restaurants in it, we saw value. We bought the lease from the previous restaurant owners and had a great 13 year run of Rain. I still miss the food.

Last night I met a new client at The Park Avenue Tavern located at 99 Park Avenue. Corner of 39^th and park. Of course, I was early and was standing in front of the place. I knew I had been in the space about 2 years ago and it was a horror show. Dirty, bad food and really scary décor.

Well, someone saw value in that restaurant space that was down for the count. They bought it, put a few $100K into it, and now the place is rocking.

I got there at 4:50 pm on a Thursday and the bar was 95% full. By the time we left at 6pm- the joint was jumping.

The beers were cold and the service was crisp. I did not eat anything, but I will surely be back.

The moral of this story?  Always look for value in real estate, especially when others think it is worthless.

On Saturday, Carolyn and I had about 90 minutes of free time. The baby was napping and her Abuela had little Olivia under control.
We were both pretty hungry and the options in the high 80, lows 90's on the UWS for lunch on a Saturday are quite tough.
Do we hit the diner? Do we hit Two Boots? Or do we try the new vegetarian restaurant that occupied the former Doc’s restaurant, aka Candle Cafe West.

Being a vegetarian is a way of life for many (not me) and most people that are veg heads that I have met, usually tell me that they are veggies within the 1st 90 seconds of meeting them. Imagine if I introduced myself as Paul, the real estate agent and swine eater? Hmmmm.

We walked into the Candle Cafe at noon and the music was as if I walked into the Peninsula Spa for a mud wrap. It was certainly Zen. Some hot stones on my neck during lunch would have been nice.

We quickly went over the menu. I had an iced tea and Carolyn had a homemade ginger ale, made from fresh ginger and some other secret vegetable and or fruit ingredients.

We had a simple tossed salad, nachos with make believe cheese.
The salad was fine and the nachos were solid. I just don't get fake cheese. It is like smoking a cigarette without nicotine or drinking a beer with no alcohol.

My veggie wrap was yummy and the hot sauce was amazing. I thought it was homemade, but it turned out to be Tabasco sauce in a nice serving container.

Carolyn had the Spaghetti and Wheat balls (why, why, why). Just serve the spaghetti with a nice vegetarian tomato sauce and leave the falafel out of it.

I am not knocking veg heads. I know it is a healthy way of life and for us swine eaters, they will quite possibly live longer than us and I am ok with that.

Lunch was pretty expensive, considering we had no alcohol....but we would return.

So to all my vegetarian friends, enjoy your diet, just don't make me eat something that looks like a Buffalo Chicken wing and ask me if it really tastes like a chicken wing. My answer will be no, it does not taste like a wing.

What would be better? How about if you ask me to try a vegetable buffalo fritter? Now that would make sense.
PS- Ben Stiller was eating alongside of us and loving his vegetables.

Ingredients

• 2# picked lump crab meat
• 3 eggs
• 4 T whole grain mustard
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1 T crushed red peppers
• Sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste

Method

• Place picked crab meat (no shells), whole eggs, mustard, 1 cup bread crumbs , s&p and crushed red peppers in a bowl. Lightly mix everything together.

Crab Mixture

• make 4 ounce patties and place in a small bowl with seasoned bread crumbs.
• sauté crab cakes in vegetable oil until golden brown.
• serve with fresh lemon and sour cream/mustard/lemon sauce (1 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup whole grain mustard and the juice of 1 lemon, salt and pepper)

Small roasted potatoes are a perfect side dish and fennel and radish salad.

265 Water Street - Financial District

Commercial Co-op $1,240,000

The Nickolai Group of Prudential Douglas Elliman is delighted to offer a rare opportunity to purchase a retail co-op in the heart of historic South Street Seaport. The retail co-op is located at 265 Water Street, in a building designed in 1872 by architect Charles Miltain for use as a hardtack biscuit bakery. This ground floor space is currently home to a ground floor catering business.The 1,550 SF space (plus 400 SF basement) is vented and ideally suited for restaurant/food-use. The space would also work very well as a showroom, premium retail location, or as the office of a design professional. There are no restrictions on use. Current lease is $6,885/mo. and escalates to $7,917/mo. in April 2013 before expiring in April 2014. Maintenance is $1,900 and the sale does not require co-op board approval.The South Street Seaport is a historic area in Manhattan, located where Fulton Street meets the East River.The Seaport is a designated historic district, featuring some of the oldest architecture in New York, and is undergoing major redevelopment including the projected renovation of the Fulton Fish Market. Pier 17 will be going through a major renovation, with a new glass-shrouded, three-story mall will take the same footprint as the existing structure, and feature a rooftop park, walkways bisecting the mall and 250,000 square feet of selling space. The new retail rents would rival those of prime Soho thoroughfares, with asking prices of about $300 per square foot.

http://www.elliman.com/new-york-city/265-water-street-manhattan-igsqgfw

Baby Girl Portraits

Randy Machare
Machare Images

www.machareimages.wordpress.com

machareimages@gmail.com
917.698.0163

No one really tells you how hard the night feedings, lack of sleep and not to mention breast feeding nightmares will be. They just tell you it is the best ever. The first few weeks after childbirth were beyond exhausting..it's all becoming a blur of night time madness and our baby nurse creeping into our room at 4am like a drug dealer and whispering in my ear we need more milk..you must pump! Once the haze cleared..or sort of cleared.. staring at our little Olivia was like being hypnotized we were in awe of how beautiful she is/was too us..we forgot about tv! how small this little girl was and yet how large her life is to us. I knew I wanted to remember and capture every moment, every finger grasp and every little cozy squirmy turn of hers in my arms. NEED A PHOTOGRAPHER...

oh but it will be annoying...no way I can do it in the morning...what if she's asleep..what if I need to sleep... what if she starts crying and melts down..forget it! It has to be early or sunlight won't fall properly in our living room... UGH!!! Randy Machare from the start was the soothing voice/text/email that I desperately needed to hear on the other end. I said not sure on light? What if she cries? Her face is breaking out? I'm exhausted! He said in almost a whisper don't worry about her skin or the light or the timing we will work around her schedule and I have my equipment and we will make it work. I said the rash is pretty bad and instead of talking about the photos Randy said have you called your pediatrician do you have the baby 411 book..a dad himself and a sweet one at that.

He showed up on a Friday in April, he immediately took his shoes off and carefully and quickly scanned the entire apartment for his ideas, locations, darting in and out of rooms without making a squeak etc. Olivia was sleeping!!! Should I wake her I said. No he said this is perfect... He quietly took images and moved his lighting stuff around, nothing bright, loud, harsh or scary for the baby! We moved her from different locations but no crying, no drama, no pressure. When he was done, I felt relief that it was over and somehow I managed to get a blowout beforehand!! I thought maybe he got 20 nice images..it was all so fast but it never felt rushed or frazzled. A few days later we received the most beautiful pictures of our little girl, 230 of them!!! How did he manage that many, I will never know. I look at them now 8 weeks later and can't believe she was that small..and as tired as I was that day/week I'm so happy that Randy came over and took these beautiful pictures. Just lovely little moments from that day, not a better choice for us than Machare Images for our pics, they still make me tear up.

Ingredients

• Feeds 4-6 people
• Ingredients:
• 1/4 cup peeled and chopped garlic
• 4 peeled and chopped shallots
• 4 ounces olive oil
• 1 pound mixed wild mushrooms
• 1 cup cognac
• 2 cups dry white wine
• 32 ounces chicken stock
• 1 cup of roasted tomatoes
• 1 cup chopped tomatoes
• 1 bunch Tarragon
• 1 bunch chives
• 4 ounces heavy cream
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 4 (1 pound) lobsters
• 1 pounds 16/20 peeled and deveined shrimp
• 1.5 pounds pasta of your choice

Method

• sweat shallots and garlic in olive oil until translucent.
• add mushrooms and cook until tender
• add cognac and wine to the mixture and simmer for 5-7 minutes.
• add chicken stock, tarragon leaves and all tomato products and bring to a boil.
• place live lobster, one at a time in your sauce and cook the lobsters for 3-4 minutes each.
• remove the lobsters and let them cool and remove the meat from the shells.
• once you have cooked the lobsters, add cream, salt and pepper to your sauce and you are ready to go.

Yummy sauce!

• in a separate sauté pan,sauté the raw shrimp and lobster very quickly.
• cook your pasta in salted boiling water until al dente.
• you can mix everything together and serve or you can place the sauce, the lobster and shrimp and the pasta all in separate serving dishes and let your guests make their own dish.
• *note- if you are serving the pasta plain, coat the pasta with a touch of olive oil….
• Serve with roasted bread and a delicious crisp dry white or crisp dry Rose.

Saturday night Mrs.Z and I had date night. Olivia was wrapped up like a burrito and already sleeping like a baby, she is a baby.

We hailed a cab and headed to a new place on the Upper East Side called, Dragonfly.

1463 THIRD AVE BTW 82ND & 83RD ST NEW YORK NY 10028 // 212.203.5518

When I write about a restaurant, I normally compose sentences and it is well written.

This time, I thought I would write this blog post as if I were a restaurant owner taking notes to convey to my chef what I liked and what I thought needed improvement.

All in all, the appetizers were solid and the entrees we had needed some work.

The veggie sides and noodle dishes were yummy too:

Very Rain- esq- the place felt a bit like Rain at 100 West 82^nd street that we owned for 15 years
Summer rolls excellent
Lettuce cups yummy
Fluke needs work- needs salt and some pop
Flat noodles w/ shitake- very good
The service is very Rain-esq
The hostess with the tats is amazing!
Reminds me of Nam too that used to be on Reade st.
Beef cheeks have no depth and no pop.
Snapper dish is just ok- needs seasoning and a kick:)

All in all, we would return…….

Ingredients

• 96 ounces Tomato Juice
• 8 peeled and seeded cucucumbers
• 1 diced red onion
• 4 diced red peppers
• 5 Cloves of chopped Garlic
• 8-16 peeled and seeded ripe tomatoes (depending on the size)
• 2 pounds peeled and deveined shrimp
• 1 teaspoon crushed red chili flakes
• The juice of 2 lemons
• ½ cup Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 loaf of Brioche
• Sea salt and Cracked Black Pepper to taste

Method

• Dice ½ of the cucumber and place in a large bowl
• Place the other half of the cucumbers in a blender with some tomato juice and blend until smooth. Once the mixture is smooth, add it into the bowl with the diced cucumbers.
• Place the tomatoes and garlic in the blender with some tomato juice and blend until smooth.
• Once the mixture is smooth, add it into the bowl with the diced cucumbers.
• Add to your mixture, the remaining tomato juice, diced peppers, diced onions, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and refrigerate.
• Take the Brioche and dice the bread.
• Place on a cookie tray and sprinkle a little olive oil on the bread, s&p and bake in a 375 degree oven until golden brown.
• Lay the shrimp on a platter and season with salt, pepper and crushed red chili flakes.

Ready to sizzle!

• Saute the shrimp in a hot saute pan until golden brown.
• Let the Shrimp cool and then chop them into smaller pieces.

Serve the Gazpacho with a few pieces of shrimp and some of the Brioche croutons.
Try to use some of the spicy oil from the shrimp in each bowl of soup.