Owner of Bowery Hotel Faces $50 Million Lawsuit

Posted on August 16, 2015 by admin

The Bowery Hotel on the Bowery between East 2nd and 3rd Streets, in lower Manhattan, New York City, opened in 2007. Photo credit: Beyond My Ken

Richard Born, owner of the Bowery Hotel, and father of the boutique hotel, is being threatened with a $50 million lawsuit brought from his partner Gerald Rosengarten.

State Supreme Court Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich, presiding over the case, is not happy with Born’s behavior. She described some of his actions as “inexcusable” and “unacceptable,” referring to his delaying the case for close to nine months and flooding the court with a tsunami of paper work: more than half a million pages of documents, some of which were actually junk mail that has nothing to do with the case.

Rosengarten accuses Born of leaving him out of a deal to sell the penthouse suite of the Bowery Hotel, and a few other apartments at the top of the hotel. He is also claiming that right after he filed his lawsuit in April, 2014, Born began to withhold payments due him from his 12 percent stake in the hotel.

As of now the case seems to be leaning towards Rosengarten. In May a state judge told Born to pay Rosengarten for his share of equity in the hotel, which he says is about $1.5 million. Now the court has once again ruled against Born, stating that he deliberately avoided handing over information about the case in the form of email addresses and electronic communication, which he was told to do.

“Suffice it to say that the problems are material, pervasive and inexcusable,” Justice Kornreich writes. “Such behavior is unacceptable in the Commercial Division” of the state’s supreme court, she added.

When Born did finally get around to producing the information he handed over 500,000 pages, which the judge called a “document dump” and “inexcusable.” Justice Kornreich angrily said that some of the documents were “junk mails” with no value whatsoever to the case.

Mr. Rosengarten said that he is happy so far with the rulings of the court, but he would like to reach a settlement with his partner before a trial ensues.

“Richard is taking the position, because of his money, that he can squeeze me to the point of submission,” Rosengarten said about his partner. “I will not let that happen.”

Who Says French Cuisine Has to Be Snooty?

Posted on April 20, 2015 by admin

French wines go with French cuisine. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Say hello to a new eatery in the Bowery, opening on April 20, called Rebelle, which means Rebel, of course, in French. Behind the enterprise are two of the three entrepreneurs who brought us the popular Pearl & Ash in NoLIta (North Little Italy), Branden McRill and Patrick Cappiello.

Admitted and confirmed lovers of everything French, the pair want to make this extraordinary cuisine more user-friendly than its reputation would have us believe is possible.

“I’m a big lover of the Parisian food and wine scene, and we wanted to really replicate that here,” Cappiello remarked. “It was making a statement against the system.” He explained that today’s scene in Paris is a definite move away from “dress-code dining” towards “its all about the food.” “In Paris, it was about fighting the Michelin system, and here, it’s about fighting the Midtown mentality.”

The restauranteurs travelled to Paris to find the perfect chef. All the stars were perfectly aligned, and they were able to bring back with them Daniel Eddy. He was working as a chef de cuisine at the well-known Spring, but was looking for a way to get back to New York, from where he hails.

“You can’t really replicate Paris,” the Eddy said. “You have to take the philosophy and ideals of what exist there, and bring that back as your inspiration.”

For the restaurant’s interiors the team enlisted the design firm Home to get the exact deconstructed, pseudo-industrial feel they wanted for the dining area. The room is filled with dark, wooden tables in contrast with exposed brick walls and marble counters.

We wanted to fit in with downtown,” McRill explained. He noted that the minimalist, raw space, is a perfect pairing with its sister establishment Pearl & Ash. “It’s this juxtaposition of light and dark: industrial Bowery and northern Paris. I think it’s a sexy restaurant.”

Age No Obstacle for Tony Polito, Legendary Tattoo Artist in New York

Posted on March 28, 2012 by admin

Tony Polito

At the age of 14 Tony Polito got his first tattoo. That was back in 1959, and it was true love ever since. That same year Polito began working as a tattoo artist himself, mainly serving sailors in such rough neighborhoods as Coney Island and the Bowery, where the majority of tattoo parlors were located.

Just two years later, in 1961, tattooing became an illegal endeavor in New York City due to an outbreak of hepatitis. While most tattoo artist just left town to work in other cities in New York State, Polito stayed behind in the city, working in his basement or other hidden spaces.

“For a couple of years I was the only one in town" he remembers. He had as many as 50 to 80 clients per day. They mostly wanted their tattoos done "fast and cheap."

The ban on tattoo parlors in the city was finally lifted in 1997, and fancy tattoo parlors opened up all over the Village. Today tattooing is gentrified to a certain extent, in contrast to the way Polito, who is still working at age 77, describes the past:

"In the 60s it was rough, you had to know your karate," Tony says.