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Mark interviews NY Post Columnist Steve Cuozzo. · The Mark Simone Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, Steve Cuzell, the great New York Post column there's
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: nobody better on restaurants, the real estate. Now New York
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: stuff is columns. You can read them all. They're in
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the New York Post website. Steve Cuzoh, how you doing.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: I'm great, Mark. Thanks. It's hard to live up to
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: that doing. I'll try those.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: You'll do it, you'll do Hey. Yeah, you're just back
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: from London.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Uh yeah?
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  Speaker 1: All them on Instagram? Great pictures. But were there any
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  Speaker 1: English speaking people left in London?
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  Speaker 2: Well that's the thing I tell friends who haven't been
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  Speaker 2: to London a long time. I say, I tell them
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  Speaker 2: English is widely spoken. Now that's supposed to be a joke,
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  Speaker 2: because it is, after all, wonder it's England, you know.
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  Speaker 2: So yes, English is still widely spoken, but not universally.
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  Speaker 2: No like New York. What was it?
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  Speaker 1: But all the great old London places they're not. They've
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  Speaker 1: been overtaken by all kinds of new places. What's what's
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: good over there?
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  Speaker 2: Well? So what to do? Oh? So many great restaurants.
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  Speaker 2: But the most interesting single thing, in my view is
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  Speaker 2: the American Embassy in Grove Most Square, which had been
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: there for I don't know, that was our embassy there
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  Speaker 2: for a million years. The embassy moved away about ten
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  Speaker 2: years ago to a new location. The building was a
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  Speaker 2: giant brutalist style kind of a hulking building. It was
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  Speaker 2: never well loved, but then Katari Fund bought it and
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  Speaker 2: converted the whole property. God knows how much it might
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  Speaker 2: must have cost into a spectacular new Rosewood managed hotel.
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  Speaker 2: Uh you know, Rosewood was one of the premier hotel
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  Speaker 2: companies in the world, the Carlisle, New York, and I
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: mean they uperate the Carlisle and it's called the Chancery.
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  Speaker 2: That's the end of the new hotel. And when you
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  Speaker 2: go into the building, you can't believe that this was
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  Speaker 2: once this miserable, you know interior where people would line
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  Speaker 2: up for, you know, to get their passports nude. They
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  Speaker 2: created a they carved out an atrium. It's it's all
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  Speaker 2: soft and warm, unlike the you know, the kind of
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  Speaker 2: still brooding exterior. The interior is all warmth and light
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  Speaker 2: and they have five restaurants, including a carbone from New York.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't eat there, but we did eat at a
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  Speaker 2: wonderful Mediterranean restaurant in the hotel called Sarah, And they
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  Speaker 2: have a rooftop lounge called the Eagle or the Eagle
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  Speaker 2: because it's got the giant gold eagle that was there
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  Speaker 2: during the years that the building was the Embassy. And
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  Speaker 2: apparently this giant eagle is made out of the fifty
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  Speaker 2: two parts and it's a lounge and it's like it's
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  Speaker 2: a rooftop lounge like the ones that we have that
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  Speaker 2: so many of in New York and all together it's
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  Speaker 2: a must see for people in visiting London who haven't
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  Speaker 2: been there for a couple of years. The hotel opened
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  Speaker 2: only a few months ago.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the chance. Hey, you know, it's fascinating. The rooftop
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: of every office building was the water tower, the AC system,
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  Speaker 1: what they call the mechanicals. It wasn't untill like two
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  Speaker 1: thousand and two that anybody figured out put the restaurant
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  Speaker 1: on the rooftop, put the bar on the rooftop, and.
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  Speaker 2: Put the bars up there. It's incredible. New York City
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  Speaker 2: and Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn and even a few
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  Speaker 2: parts of Queens in Flushing have rooftop this in that
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  Speaker 2: just a space that previously was used for nothing mechanical
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  Speaker 2: uses or whatever. And one of the first transformations my
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  Speaker 2: late friend Steve Greenberg created I think it's two thirty
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: fifth Avenue and I think it was called two thirty
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  Speaker 2: fifth Rooftop and since then there are a gazillion of them.
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  Speaker 2: And I was amused in London because our British friends
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  Speaker 2: there were absolutely flabbergasted at the views from the roof
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  Speaker 2: of the you know, the eagle on top of the
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  Speaker 2: Chance Hotel. And it's a nice view, but nothing compared
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  Speaker 2: to the ones we have in New York. There's one
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  Speaker 2: hotel I don't remember the name of it. It's the
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  Speaker 2: Canal Street and the Bowery that has a rooftop lounge
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  Speaker 2: that is simply not to be believed, that facing both
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  Speaker 2: Brooklyn and Manhattan. Nothing like it in the world. So
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  Speaker 2: it's all good time stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Hey, Steve, Keys were talking about this yesterday. Masa
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  Speaker 1: the Japanese restaurant Time Warner Center, nine hundred dollars a
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  Speaker 1: person got wiped out more than that, more than that
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  Speaker 1: twelve hundred with tax and tips and all of that.
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  Speaker 2: Usually perhead, yeah, not per couple, but perhead.
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  Speaker 1: So there's another one now, like seven point fifty ahead.
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  Speaker 3: Micheline Story, Sushiz or something, So what's happened is that
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  Speaker 3: Masa had three Micheline stars since it opened in two
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  Speaker 3: thousand and nine, when the building was known as Time
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  Speaker 3: Warner Center.
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  Speaker 2: Now it's Delutsche Bank Center Masa, which is a very
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  Speaker 2: small restaurant only twenty six seats are the best seats
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  Speaker 2: of which are at the chef's counter. Carried It's three
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  Speaker 2: Micheline stars all that time. And a couple of things
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  Speaker 2: happened during that time. The competition grew enormously for omakassi
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  Speaker 2: style Japanese dining, where the chef sets the menu from
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: it changes nightly. Many many courses usually built around sushi,
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  Speaker 2: but not always. I was at Masulunton I had Kobe
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  Speaker 2: beef which was extraordinary, or rogu beef from Japan. But
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  Speaker 2: there's much more competition now and however, and so they
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: know they lost the star. I don't believe a word
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  Speaker 2: Micheline says about anything, but if you're in business, in
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  Speaker 2: the restaurant business, it matters enormously to you. Because many
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  Speaker 2: many New Yorkers don't care that much about micheline stars.
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  Speaker 2: But it's a different story in Europe and Asia. There
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: are people with a lot of money from Europe and
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  Speaker 2: Asia who come to New York and when they decide
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: where they're going to eat, before they even come, they
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  Speaker 2: just look at what's got three stars and they make
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  Speaker 2: their selections on that basis. And so friends in the
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  Speaker 2: industry told me that a restaurant, high end restaurant that
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  Speaker 2: lose that's cut from three stars to two, as Masa
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  Speaker 2: happened to Masa, it can cost them a twenty five
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  Speaker 2: percent of their revenue, not immediately, not overnight, because you
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  Speaker 2: know they're booked far in advance, but over time, and
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  Speaker 2: you know when the current reservations run out, it's going
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  Speaker 2: to hurt them. And it's a small restaurant. Masa unlike
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: some other restaurants that lost the star and they could
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  Speaker 2: they could weather it because there were large restaurants and
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  Speaker 2: they were part of big companies. Masa is not. So
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: you know, they've got a tough time to hand them.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Why do you have your doubts about these Michelin reviewers?
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: I have my I never believed the only reviews of
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: or ratings and restaurants I ever believed Mark or my own,
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  Speaker 2: the ones that I've written for The New York Post.
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  Speaker 2: I never believed Zagat ratings. I never believed Micheline ratings.
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  Speaker 2: I never believed in New York Times ratings and U
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: so I'm a skeptic. The only one I do believe
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  Speaker 2: is the three stars for Laberna Dam, which in my
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  Speaker 2: view is you know, the greatest restaurants in the world,
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: and retained its three stars. But even they cannot afford
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: to let their guard down because all it takes, you know,
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  Speaker 2: Michelin likes to upset the Every year. Micheline likes to
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: come up with one, you know, reduction in the star
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  Speaker 2: because otherwise nobody would pay attention. So they've got to
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  Speaker 2: knock somebody down every year. So this year it was
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  Speaker 2: poor Masa. But in terms of in terms of quality,
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  Speaker 2: I don't believe the word of it. I've been to
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  Speaker 2: plenty of Micheline star, one star, two star restaurants that
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  Speaker 2: I thought absolutely stinky.
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  Speaker 1: Good point, now, before we run out of time, Uh,
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  Speaker 1: what are all the real estate guys, all the restaurant guys,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: what are they saying to you about the coming Mondanni era?
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Well, I do the commercial side, as you know, not residential,
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: but for the most part, but all the commercial people say,
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: don't worry, you know, We're bigger than any you know,
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  Speaker 2: our industry is bigger than any political change. And they're
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: probably right. That doesn't mean that there isn't going to
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  Speaker 2: be an effect on something in New York City. You know,
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Mamdanie talks about uh, you know, residential rent control wants
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: to freeze rents and stabilize the ponds, but he doesn't
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  Speaker 2: say anything like that about commercial. Commercial real estate pays
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  Speaker 2: provides generates more tax revenue for the City of New
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  Speaker 2: York and the state than any other industry, more than
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Wall Street. I don't remember the exact numbers, it doesn't matter.
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  Speaker 2: Anyone can look them up. And so, you know, commercial
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  Speaker 2: real estate industry, which has been fortunately dramatically revived over
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: the last two years. It's extraordinary. What's happened is really
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  Speaker 2: the driver of the New York City economy. And even
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  Speaker 2: a you know, a communistic guy like Mamdani would be
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  Speaker 2: a fool to tamper with that.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we got through Deblasio for eight years, We'll get
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: through this for four exactly. Yeah, all right, Well, everybody
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: reads Steve Cuzo's excellent columns in the New York Post.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: If you go to The New York Post, website. All
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: of his columns are up there. You can read them all.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Just go to the New York Post website and just
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: type in Steve Cuzo. Steve Cuzo, thanks for being with us.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Mark always fun.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: All right, take care, they don't forget coming up at noon,
• 9:54
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• 9:58
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