Seen & Heard: What’s Coming to 88 Reade

••• Thanks to Troy Torrison for heeding the call! He sent in the above photo of the Hudson Square Garbage Garage, which as I mentioned the other day, is going up fast and big.

••• The workers that 88 Reade (right)—the great little storefront where Mike’s Papaya used to be—told my source that the space will be… a T-Mobile store! In which case, maybe there’s hope for the space at Church and Franklin, then because surely we don’t need two new phone stores, right? Right?

••• A reader who wants to remain anonymous has been asking around about the Battery Park City Authority/Asphalt Green contretemps: “Perhaps three weeks ago I was told that a September opening was a possibility. Apparently, though not confirmed, Asphalt Green fired most of the staff they had hired and paid for several months for BPC facility, and was now hiring a whole new staff for BPC. This would have to be one extremely expensive HR exercise/enterprise!”

••• Newmark Knight Frank’s Jeffrey Roseman confirmed in a tweet what I had heard for a while: That the owner of the Baker Interiors ghost town furniture space is trying to find a new tenant. Baker says it’s not moving, but I think that means “for now.”

••• Boy, Taj Tribeca got screwed by the construction next door.

Update: Comments have been turned off due to spam. To have them turned back on, email tribecacitizen@gmail.com.

 

15 Comments

  1. UGH (re: Garbage Garage) – so that’s what the hideous eyesore growing like a cancer near West St is… it makes me ill to look at it as I run along the river as it’s omnipresent… I thought they had a restraining order or something :((

    How DID this happen?

  2. Re: Diane

    Turns out that modern civilization produces trash, and it needs to be dealt with. Who knew?

  3. Many of us spent five years fighting this garbage garage. Where were you?

  4. cheers for Taj Tribeca – one of our delivery staples and always tasty. I much prefer it to the (also admittedly tasty, and always very cheerful) Pakistan Tea House, despite what all the hipsters and others in the know say…PTH is satisfying in a cheap, stuff yourself kind of way, but TT is better, I think. Also better than the place on Greenwich and Warren (can’t remember the name), although I like their dinner deals…other thoughts for good Indian?

  5. Garbage trucks get a multimillion dollar loft with water views ?! :D
    Only in NY..

    Your tax payer dollars at work…

  6. @hst. I want to start my list of recommendations with ” As an Indian..” but frankly I am not sure that gives me any special qualifications.
    Salaam Bombay: Not a huge fan. The quality tends to be so-so and the food is your same old N. Indian fare. They participate in Taste of Tribeca, so I cut them some slack.
    Taj Tribeca: I think the food is much, much fresher and tastier than Salaam Bombay, but the service is slow. They have some more inventive dishes also which is refreshing. They don’t participate in Taste of Tribeca-bad.
    Ruchi Indian Cuisine on Cedar. We always order from here. The food is very fresh and the tastiest in the nabe (not really in tribeca I guess). One day we had butter chicken from here and Salaam Bombay. There was no contest for taste, price or quantity.
    Pakistani Tea House- hot fresh naans and always something to fill you up, but not really outstanding in any way.
    Tamarind. We had been to the flatiron location several years ago and thought it was one of the best Indian restaurant meals we have ever had. This spring we tried the Tribeca location. While everything on the menu sounded delicious, it was pretty bland and uninspiring. The service and setting were amazing, but almost every dish we ordered was subpar. The ingredients might have been good, but we left unsatisfied. And as expected, it was pricey. They don’t participate in Taste:bad

  7. @neeta: fantastic. Thanks for the rec on Ruchi Indian Cuisine – looking forward to trying it. I too was underwhelmed and disappointed with Tamarind. Went for lunch on a slow weekday, maybe last summer. Very nice space. Food was, as you say, bland, boring, not bad, but definitely not as good as it should have been.

  8. Not participating in the Taste of Tribeca = freedom.
    Didn’t realize that the Taste of Tribeca started shaming local restaurants to try to get their “voluntary” participation.

  9. Sorry to disagree, Buzz, but Not Particiapating in Taste of Tribeca = unfriendly neighbour.
    It’s a great cause, great fun and great publicity for the participants. And I have no connection whatever with TofT, except as a regular attendee.

  10. Not agreeing with or doing what David Howell thinks you should do = unfriendly neighbor. Thus, it should be a requirement that all local restaurants post whether or not they take part in TofT in their front windows, so people know which restaurants to avoid. Those restaurant owners should also be taking to Duane Park, so that the TofT posse can properly and publicly shame them.

  11. A story of Taj Tribeca versus Tamarind Tribeca: I once promised a friend who is very, very well connected in the food world to a dinner at Tamarind. She’s familiar with the original, of course, and was pleased. But then I made the reservation (accidentally, I admit) at Taj — which is one of my go-to places. Instead of being annoyed, she thanked me, saying she appreciated the lower cost and delicious food more.

    As for basing dining decisions on whether the restaurant participates in ToT: that participation has absolutely nothing to do with the place being any good, or being a good neighbor, or any other reasonable criterion for choice. How would you decided if you’d lived down here before there was ToT? Maybe by what political candidate had a poster in the window? (Oh, wait, maybe you DO decide on that meaningless basis, too . . . sheesh.)

  12. This site is hysterical! It really breaks up my workday (the posts, I mean).

  13. My children attend the public schools in the neighborhood, so I personally like to support those restaurants that participate. Participation has no bearing on the quality of food etc. of course (never claimed it did), and I was not suggesting that others use that–just including that info a personal ramble about my personal choices. I do think that if a restaurant participates in an event that supports the local public schools, that qualifies in my mind as a good neighborly act.

  14. Opening a restaurant in the community that serves all of the local residents, in and of itself, is a good neighborly act. But that’s just me.

  15. The thing about Taste is that it can have a very self-satisfied atmosphere. Everybody’s so pleased with themselves for being local, doing a good deed enjoying their own affluence. I fit all three categories and I too have come to find it annoying. I skipped it this year. And what if your kid doesn’t go to 234? After all the rezoning and incredible indignation voiced by those who couldn’t imagine themselves on the losing end, but who had no more legitimate claim than any one else, I felt that Taste was soured for me. It no longer feels as though it’s for everyone: it feels like it’s only for the fortunate. As does TriBeCa more generally, I will say.