Now Open: Aesop

Urbanspace has opened a 10,000-square-foot food hall in Manhattan. Urbanspace Union Square is located on the ground floor of Zero Irving, a new mixed-use building on East 14th St. at the foot of Irving Place between 3rd adn 4th Avenues. Vendors include Summer Salt, Twenty One Grains, Kid Brother Pizza, Pita Yeero, Plant Junkie, Goat Café, Bao by Kaya, Bobwhite Counter, Playa Bowls, Wafels & Dinges, Top Hops, Casa Toscana and GoFish. The venue marks the fifth New York City food hall by Urbanspace.

Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York has a look back at the old Union Square Theater, which once stood on the site of the big (former) Virgin store building on 14th St. Interesting!

Mid block between 5th and 6th Aves. will be the local of a new 133-room hotel. It’ll be interesting to see how they squeeze it in. Here are the details.

An urban planner who has been looking around for ways to make the city more pedestrian-friendly (and to open up more space for protesting) wrote “Union Square could be greatly enhanced by following through on a 2010 plan to pedestrianize Union Square West. Also pedestrianizing University Place would be a bold step that could link Union Square and Washington Square Park, merging two vital public spaces into a permanent platform for open expression.”

That would certainly change the neighborhood.

The sausage spot on University between 12th and 13th is about to become Bambootori, a Japanese yakitori joint.

Your reporter visited an open house at 15 Union Square West. The verdict: the ceilings are incredibly high and the windows are huge. Fixtures are fantastic although overdesigned for someone with more sedate tastes. The most interesting feature: an interior atrium complete with 19th century ironwork and a skylight that will be restored. Incredible to see it. The big problem: these apartments are insanely expensive.