The Beast Is Open for Business

Next week (June 10 to June 14), material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors inside the building. We will be working on the new sidewalks around the building on 13th st. Additionally we will be working on the roofs of the building.

The following week (June 17 to June 21), material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors as well as sidewalk work.

This weekend the site will be open on Saturday, June 8st for interior, roof, and sidewalk activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City.

Closed at the corner of 13th and 6th. Probably because for take out, the food was too pricey. Wonder what will fill that cursed space next.

The W Hotel Union Square is up for sale after owner Host Hotels & Resorts retained Eastdil Secured to market the 20-story property at 201 Park Avenue South. The brokerage is pitching the 205,00-square-foot, Beaux-Arts style building as a possible residential conversion opportunity, per marketing materials. The 270-room hotel, located on the corner of East 17th Street just north of Union Square, includes 26 guest suites. Bethesda, Md.-based Host Hotels acquired the property in September 2010 for more than $185 million, according to the New York Observer. The building was renovated and reopened in 2000 and houses two dining establishments – the Irvington restaurant and the W Living Room bar and lounge – operated by Scott Gerber’s Gerber Group. The hotel also includes 6,600 square feet of meeting space, a fitness center and a business center.

This image looks south on 6th Avenue from 14th St. in 1909. It’s hard to imagine a time when there were so many elevated trains.

Comfort food joint Chat ‘n Chew shut its doors this week after 22 years in the neighborhood, but the owner plans to reopen it as an Italian restaurant.

The diner-style eatery at 10 E. 16th St. near Fifth Avenue will relaunch in two weeks as Little Sal’s, said Ethan Silverman, son of owner Andrew Silverman.

“[Chat ‘n Chew] lost some of it’s energy, and now we’re getting it back,” Ethan Silverman said. “It’s going to be a Chat ‘n Chew on steroids. It’ll have traditional Italian food like chicken parm, eggplant parm and pastas.”

Silverman compared the concept of Little Sal’s to New York City restaurants like Sauce and Parm, where it’s “casual and family oriented — selling wine by the glass and not the bottle,” he said.

Andrew Silverman also co-owns Flatiron’s City Crab and Barbounia restaurants.

Little Sal’s will open as a pop-up in two weeks for a test run, and may remain open permanently depending on how well it does, Silverman said.

As for Chat ‘n Chew’s abrupt closure, Silverman said the team had known that they would be closing for a while, but hadn’t made it public.

“If people took a look at the place recently, they’d see that the staff was slowly kind of diminishing,” Silverman said.

“We’ve been in Union Square for a while, and we’re going to come back with energy,” he continued. “But [the concept] will be [in] keeping with the people who work and live in the neighborhood.”

The whole city is going green! Several New York City Agencies and NYC advocacy groups, as well as USP, have launched a number of efforts to build a more sustainable future for the City of New York. Explore details on NYC’s foam ban, the Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board’s new Residential Recycling and Reuse Guidelines, and USP’s recent zero waste and sustainability efforts.

Beginning January 1st, 2019, the City’s Foam Ban goes into effect. This means certain expanded polystyrene (EPS) items will be banned from sale, distribution, or use in New York City, including foam cups, containers, dish ware, and packing peanuts. Business owners can find more information from the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) here, to fully understand the law and get help transitioning to new materials to replace foam products.

Following the announcement of the ban, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “New York City’s ban on styrofoam is long overdue, and New Yorkers are ready to start using recyclable alternatives. There’s no reason to continue allowing this environmentally unfriendly substance to flood our streets, landfills, and waterways.” USP is eager to see the positive effects this ban will have on our community and the larger NYC area.