Serafina Express Shaping Up

Regale Deli, on 5th Ave. north of 14th St., has closed. It was always a little dark and spooky, but it was popular, and now there is one less convenient deli in the neighborhood. If University Deli on the corner of 13th closes, we’re doomed.

Crain’s reports:

Time may be running out for brides to dash to Filene’s Basement. The off-price retailer, famous for its Running of the Brides discount wedding dress events, is on the block. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday, the chain’s Columbus, Ohio-based parent Retail Ventures Inc. said efforts to cut costs “is not likely to lead to sustainable operations for Filene’s basement.”

In January, Retail Ventures had announced the closing of 11 underperforming Filene’s stores, including one in Levittown, N.Y. Yet performance at the remaining 25 locations, which include four in New York City, “has continued to deteriorate significantly since that time,” according to the filing. Retail Ventures, which also owns footwear chain DSW Inc., said it will delay the filing of its annual results with the SEC.

What used to be PetCo at the northwest corner of Union Square will soon become Uniqlo.

Here’s a wonderful historical photo tour of 14th St. from end to end.

The Union Square Partnership has proposed a wide-ranging collection of enhancement to remake Union Square Park, expanding its edges into the surrounding streets to make it a much bigger and more attractive pedestrian-oriented area. Click through the links in their letter below to see much more. 

They write:

The Union Square Partnership is proud to announce the release of the Union Square-14th Street District Vision Plan: a bold new vision for transforming Union Square-14th Street into New York’s most accessible space.

The Wall Street Journal ran an exclusive today showcasing the Vision Plan, stating “…the plan’s ultimate goal is for parkgoers to know they have ‘arrived at a place that is special.'” Read the full article here.  

Building upon USP’s past investments, including the renovation of Union Square Park’s north end, City initiatives like Parks Without Borders, the 14th Street Busway, and the pedestrianization of Broadway, along with the more than one million square feet of new private development underway, our Vision Plan focuses on five key improvements prioritizing accessibility, district-wide connectivity, and substantial increases in public open space.

Designed in collaboration with Marvel, the Vision Plan is the culmination of a two-year-long engagement process working with community members, local business leaders, urban designers, transportation experts, and City and State agency partners. With over a thousand individuals engaged at twenty separate engagement events, it was the largest outreach effort in the Partnership’s 45-year history.

We are sure you will have questions and feedback about the Vision Plan and there will be many opportunities to learn more. The first is our official Vision Plan: Launch Event hosted in collaboration with the Urban Design Forum on Tuesday, January 26th at 12:00 PM. Please RSVP here.

Next, we will be hosting a series of Vision Plan: Community Conversations via Zoom to facilitate more robust discussions and gather feedback. Dates + times will be announced soon but you can express interest in attending a session here.

To familiarize yourselves with the plan, we have launched a dedicated web page with a robust amount of detailed information about the Union Square-14th Street District Vision Plan. Click on the link below to download and read the full report, our info sheet, and press release, as well as view the annotated renderings. There is also an FAQ, which hopefully will address most of your initial questions. You can explore more via unionsquarenyc.org/vision.

We look forward to fostering dialogue in the coming months that will guide our investments and set future priorities. It is my hope that as you review the Vision Plan that you will feel the impact of our collaborative community process and continue to share feedback as we move forward to the next stage.

As Chris Cannon, formerly a partner in Convivio and Alto, prepares to return to Manhattan this fall with a new restaurant called All’onda,  In a market crowded with salumi boards, how will this new venture fit in or stand out? To get some perspective, Eater.com asked Chris:

What’s the difference between All’onda and every other Italian restaurant in New York? I think we’re taking…effectively, what we’re trying to do is take Venetian cuisine that’s always been a cuisine that is a meeting point of a number of different cultures — as most cuisine actually in Italy is — and Venetian cuisine has always been a meeting point with Eastern cuisine and culture.  I think that what we are trying to do is basically take Venetian cuisine and a lot of seafood cuisine in Venice and take a very sophisticated Japanese lens and apply it to traditional Italian cuisine. So, I would say that you take a traditional dish and really not changing the basic components of traditional Italian cuisine, but changing in the sense that you’re taking the same ingredients and treating them a little bit differently and making them more modern, more interesting.