April News Roundup

After a full month of quarantine and social distancing, April’s news media updates revolve around the hard-hitting effects of the pandemic on local restaurants, businesses, and real estate. Stay up-to-date with the latest Flatiron District News with our monthly roundup of notable highlights.

Restaurants & Bars

• Flatiron businesses give back to New Yorkers in need who are working in healthcare during the pandemic (via amNewYork).
• Neighborhood Eats: HALL by Odo at 17 West 20th Street is now delivering sushi (via ABC 7 NY).
• For the first time ever you can now get high-end grub from the likes of COTE and others delivered right to your binge-watching party (via Thrillist).
• Recognizing how much stress frontline workers were under, Patisserie Chanson decided to make a small sacrifice and set aside some of their goods for the hardworking people who need a lift (via Thrillist).
• Chef Hooni Kim of Hanjan discussed his new book “My Korea: Traditional Flavors, Modern Recipes” with The Korea Society through a public live webcast (via Restaurant News).
• Another reason to love Shake Shack: They just returned a $10 million loan back to the Feds (via Forbes).
• Eleven Madison Park makes Hoodline’s list of “4 best spots to splurge on New American eats” (via Hoodline).
• Falafel chain, Taim, is listed on Crain’s “10 spots to order from while you stay in” lineup (via Crain’s New York).
• Recent Cornell graduate, Max Aronson, shares what his role as an assistant server at Eleven Madison Park entails (via The Cornell Daily Sun).
• Restauranteur, Marc Glosserman of Hill Country, awaits rebirth in a new reality, but now feeds health care workers during the COVID-19 shutdown (via amNY).

BID Businesses

• 22 Flatiron studios offer online fitness and wellness experiences (via Patch).
• To help those scrambling to set up pandemic-related online tools, Flatiron-based software company Bubble is offering its “no code” technology free of charge (via Crain’s New York).
• Why blue is the no-fail quarantine hair color to DIY: Jaxcee, co-founder of The Coily Collective at Riccardo Maggiore Salon in the Flatiron District, put it simply: The darker your hair, the deeper the shade of blue (via Refinery 29).
• Storefronts may now be shuttered, but before closing, many shop owners and employees decorated window displays with funny and inspiring messages. This window display comes from Fishs Eddy, a Flatiron District emporium of unique and edgy mugs and dishware (via Roadtrippers).
• Mendel Mendlowits, a Holocaust survivor who founded Adorama, a famed camera store in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, has died at 76 (via NY Daily News).
• If you’re looking to give back to the community around Fordham Lincoln Center, The Xavier Mission in the Flatiron District continues to run a soup kitchen and a food pantry (via Fordham Observer).

Real Estate & Commercial

• As construction across the city screeches to a halt, developers reckon with how to keep their projects funded while the pandemic rages on (via The Wall Street Journal).
• Last summer Jeff Bezos spent approximately $80 million combined on a three-story penthouse and two units directly below at 212 Fifth Ave. Now he’s rounding out his footprint in the building by buying the $16 million unit that is adjacent to the two sub-units (via Forbes).
• ABS Partners Real Estate has negotiated a 5,000-square-foot office lease for Canadian trade union Unifor in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan. The company’s new space includes the entire eighth floor at 152 Madison Avenue, an approximately 98,000 square foot office building constructed in 1929. (via ReBusiness Online).

In the Neighborhood

• Trash collection map reveals how less waste is being collected in Manhattan as well-heeled New Yorkers flee the city – but more is being picked up in the outer boroughs from people working at home (via The Daily Mail).

Photo Credit: Rethink of Eleven Madison Park’s commissary kitchen via New York Times