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Mark interviews journalist Steve Cuozzo. · The Mark Simone Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Live from the wr Life Back Studios, Mark Simon, Well,
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  Speaker 1: Steve Cuzo, the great columnist New York Post, nobody better
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  Speaker 1: on restaurants, on real estate, on what's going on in
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  Speaker 1: New York. You can read his column at the New
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  Speaker 1: York Post and all his columns are up on the
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  Speaker 1: New York Post website. Steve Cuzo, how you doing?
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  Speaker 2: I'm great? Mark, thanks better?
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  Speaker 1: Question how's New York doing? If you watch or talk
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  Speaker 1: to people in Florida and everybody's leaving, everybody's leaving it.
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  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, let me preface my remarks by
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  Speaker 2: saying that I want to know a lot more about
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  Speaker 2: this guy who jumped off the top of the tower
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  Speaker 2: of the Brooklyn Bridge and is a wive. Okay, his
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  Speaker 2: name is a guy on our front page today, a
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  Speaker 2: bombarie or something like that, and he's being jumped almost
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  Speaker 2: three hundred feet into the East River and he survived.
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  Speaker 2: So maybe that's a metaphor for the city's resilting.
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  Speaker 1: Good point, But you know, the guy was say that's
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  Speaker 1: your failure. He decided to commit suicide, and then he
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  Speaker 1: failed at that too, so.
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  Speaker 2: Flopped at that. So I'm reading here. He was charged
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  Speaker 2: with reckless endangerment, making graffiti, public lewdness, criminal trespass, and
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  Speaker 2: disorderly conduct. And I'm thinking the guy should be giving us,
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  Speaker 2: the guys a miracle guy. He's like Visen from the day.
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  Speaker 2: They should put him in Saint Patrick's Cathedral. You cannot
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  Speaker 2: two hundred and seventy eight feet when you jump from
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  Speaker 2: that height. The water is steel. So I don't know
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  Speaker 2: how this guy survived, or frankly, what how he's surviving.
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  Speaker 2: Is he like a human being with arms and legs
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  Speaker 2: and everything, or is he like just a piece of
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  Speaker 2: general buddy, But.
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  Speaker 1: You're right, he's a real metaphor for New York. You're right.
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  Speaker 2: I saw who did this guy credit, and you know
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  Speaker 2: Mamdani should point him as a deputy mayor or something.
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  Speaker 1: Haha. So, but New York's doing well, right, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: every you walk along Park Avenue, Messing Avenue, I see
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  Speaker 1: skyscrap going up everywhere New Ones.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's amazing. And then the rejuvenation, a lot
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  Speaker 2: of it, of course started before this current mayor took offus.
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  Speaker 2: But I remember last week you and I happened to
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  Speaker 2: bump into each other Friday about five o'clock fifth Avenue
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  Speaker 2: and I walked past Grand Army Plaza. This is right
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  Speaker 2: in front of the Plaza hotel, and it was closed
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  Speaker 2: for two years, three years because it needed you know,
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  Speaker 2: the usual environmental issues. It was crumbling underneath, and I
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  Speaker 2: thought it would never reopen. It reopened. It's magnificent. It's
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  Speaker 2: absolutely beautiful. It was full of people sunning themselves, sitting
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  Speaker 2: on benches taking pictures of the statue and all that stuff.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, that's a great thing. It shows that,
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  Speaker 2: you know, believe it or not, despite all the you know,
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  Speaker 2: whatever the mayor would wish on us in terms of
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  Speaker 2: failure and you know, bankruptcy and crime and everything, that
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  Speaker 2: the city still has an energy and a life force
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  Speaker 2: that survives just about everything. We'll see if that continues.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you got these skyscrapers, as I say, going up
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  Speaker 1: everywhere in Ken Griffin. He's continuing with that big Park
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  Speaker 1: Avenue building, isn't he.
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  Speaker 2: Well it's funny you should bring that up, because in fact,
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  Speaker 2: this is a crucial day that built three fifty Park Avenue,
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  Speaker 2: which will be developed by Ken Griffin himself and by
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  Speaker 2: Bornado Realty Trust, which is one of the largest commercial landlords,
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  Speaker 2: and the Moroon family. Bornado is a publicly traded company
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  Speaker 2: and so they have to make quarterly earnings reports as
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  Speaker 2: required by the SEC. This happens to be that day
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  Speaker 2: after the market's closed. This afternoon, Bornado will release its
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  Speaker 2: second quarter earnings report, and then there will be a
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  Speaker 2: conference call tomorrow morning for investors about nine ten am,
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  Speaker 2: at which the heads of the company will speak. Now, guaranteed,
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  Speaker 2: people are not that interested in you know, how many
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  Speaker 2: square feet did Bornado leased this last quarter. They want
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  Speaker 2: to hear about three fifty Park Avenue, and so we
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  Speaker 2: all expect that that will be the definitive final word
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  Speaker 2: in all likelihood. I I hope I'm right about this.
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  Speaker 2: Ken Griffin is still in the project, despite the disgusting
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  Speaker 2: way he was treated by Mayor Mamdani, and everything will
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  Speaker 2: go forward and it will be fine. Obviously, if there's
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  Speaker 2: been a change of mind or heart, that's another kind
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  Speaker 2: of story altogether, but we'll get we'll finally get the answer.
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  Speaker 2: Right now, they're demolishing. They've begun demolishing three different buildings
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  Speaker 2: on Park Avenue and East fifty second Street to start
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  Speaker 2: making way for this new skyscraper where two of Ken
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  Speaker 2: Griffin's companies, both Citadel companies for which he's known, will
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  Speaker 2: be the anchor tenant. Without them, this project can't go forward.
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  Speaker 2: You don't put up a million and a half square
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  Speaker 2: foot skyscraper without an anchor tenant. So Bornado has been
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  Speaker 2: proceeding with demolition in the apparently in the expectation that, uh,
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  Speaker 2: it's going to happen. And although Ken Griffin has made
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  Speaker 2: some pointed remarks about expanding his operations in South Florida, Uh,
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  Speaker 2: he was very cagy. He never said that he's changed
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  Speaker 2: his mind about this project. But we'll just have to see.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, hey, still keys of that office building. They were
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  Speaker 1: converting it to apartments. Residential started to collapse, and now
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  Speaker 1: there was another one. They have to hold it.
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  Speaker 2: There's a couple of them now.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, So what does that mean. Is this going to
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  Speaker 1: stop this trends?
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  Speaker 2: I don't think. I don't think it's going to have
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  Speaker 2: the least effect on the conversion phenomenon. Generally, if somebody
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  Speaker 2: owns an office building and they want to or a
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  Speaker 2: hotel or whatever, and they want to turn into turn
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  Speaker 2: it into apartments, they're going to go ahead and do
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  Speaker 2: that and not be deterred by this. What it should
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  Speaker 2: mean is better inspection by the buildings departments. You know,
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  Speaker 2: the DLB, which can absolutely give fits to small business people.
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  Speaker 2: You know, your door is like too many inches above
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  Speaker 2: the whatever.
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  Speaker 1: Is.
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  Speaker 2: Remarkably lacks when it comes to major projects. And so
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  Speaker 2: one reason is that they tend to rely on I'm
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  Speaker 2: not an expert on this, I shouldn't really be talking
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  Speaker 2: about it, but in some sense they allow building owners
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  Speaker 2: to use outside inspectors to you know, say that everything
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  Speaker 2: here is fine, and then the buildings department will rely
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  Speaker 2: on that. That seems to be what happened in the
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  Speaker 2: case of the former pfisor buildings on East the forty
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  Speaker 2: second Street, and it's unfortunate, bad news for the obviously
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  Speaker 2: for the owners of these properties, Thank goodness, no one
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  Speaker 2: seems to have been hurt.
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  Speaker 1: Uh.
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  Speaker 2: And it'll flow those particular projects down a little bit,
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  Speaker 2: but it's not going to make a change in the
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  Speaker 2: overall phenomenon. The momentum to convert mostly antiquated, crummy old
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  Speaker 2: office buildings and a few other kinds of buildings as well, hotels,
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  Speaker 2: two apartments. Nobody's slowing that down.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, Well, hey, Steve, because every time I read these
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  Speaker 1: lists the highest ranked restaurants. It's all Japanese and now
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  Speaker 1: all a lot of Indian restaurants. What's that all about, Well.
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  Speaker 2: You know the Indian restaurants, which I wrote about last
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  Speaker 2: week week before. They're an amazing phenomenon because New York
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  Speaker 2: has always had Indian food, We've had some very good
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  Speaker 2: Indian food. The option was that the Indian food in
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  Speaker 2: New York was not as good as the Indian food
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  Speaker 2: in London, for example, mainly because London has a much
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  Speaker 2: larger Indian born population than New York City does. But
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  Speaker 2: this has changed. In the last six seven years. There
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  Speaker 2: are not merely one or two, but probably eight or
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  Speaker 2: nine or ten new Indian restaurants that are worthy of
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  Speaker 2: Micheline Stars Micheline consideration, and they have become remarkably some
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  Speaker 2: of the hottest places in town, the way it used
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  Speaker 2: to be impossible to get into some of the Japanese
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  Speaker 2: O Makasi restaurants. Now that's two of the Indian restaurants,
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  Speaker 2: and they're very large places like Ambassador's Clubhouse Exciting, which
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  Speaker 2: is sort of an odd name for an Indian restaurant.
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  Speaker 2: That's a big place, over two hundred seats and luxurious
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  Speaker 2: and beautiful. Try getting in there. It's very difficult. It's
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  Speaker 2: like getting a reservation at you know, the eighty six
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  Speaker 2: or one of those real small, sort of boldface oriented restaurants.
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  Speaker 2: And New York we've always had, for my money, Tameron
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  Speaker 2: in Tribeca has long been New York City's best Indian
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  Speaker 2: restaurant overall my wide margin. Sorry, what's it called. Tamaran
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  Speaker 2: Tamaron camraon Tamaron Tamaron Tribeca. It's on the Hudson Street.
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  Speaker 2: It's a great restaurant. It's been there fifteen years or more,
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  Speaker 2: and now it has company. The interesting thing about the
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  Speaker 2: Indian restaurants who were seeing now is that some of
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  Speaker 2: them reflect Northern Indian styles, which is what New Yorkers
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  Speaker 2: are more familiar with. Involves a lot of Candori grilling.
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  Speaker 2: But now we're getting restaurants that are based on the
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  Speaker 2: cuisine of South and Southern India and the coast, and
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  Speaker 2: they include Semma and Ada. These are great restaurants. They're
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  Speaker 2: they're not as luxurious as some of the old ones,
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  Speaker 2: but they are a whole new set of flavors. Food
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  Speaker 2: tends to be very spicy and uh, you know this
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  Speaker 2: reflects the extent to the New York restaurant scene. Like
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  Speaker 2: the city itself, regenerates. Just when you never expect, you know,
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  Speaker 2: something new to come, it comes.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, well only only a minute left. But we're talking
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  Speaker 1: about diners before, good old fashioned diners. They're disappearing from
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  Speaker 1: New Jersey, Long Island everywhere. Yeah, what will they ever
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  Speaker 1: make a comeback to that good old fashioned diner?
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  Speaker 2: I think some of them have a lot of favorite
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  Speaker 2: old diners have disappeared. I lost the bunch.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: There was the Amite on Madison Avenue. I think it
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  Speaker 2: was called Neptune in Jackson Hights. You see it from
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  Speaker 2: the number seven trail and training. I can't remember what trying.
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  Speaker 2: I used to eat there a lot. So some of
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  Speaker 2: the favorites have gone. There was one on First Avenue
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  Speaker 2: called Tramway, like sixtieth Street has been closed for two years.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know why. But there are also a lot
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  Speaker 2: of new ones which somehow don't get quite as much attention. So,
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  Speaker 2: for example, there's a new Carnegie Diner right across from
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  Speaker 2: my office Avenue at forty seven.
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  Speaker 1: It's great, it's great, but it looks more like a
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  Speaker 1: It looks like a restaurant doesn't look like a diner.
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  Speaker 2: Well yeah, I mean, you know, the economics have changed,
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  Speaker 2: so I think a new diner needs more room of
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  Speaker 2: the kind that you get with, you know, with a
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  Speaker 2: more of a restaurant kind of layout than an old diner.
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  Speaker 2: I love. Nothing makes me happier than old fashioned diners
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  Speaker 2: that have boots. And you walk in and you know
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  Speaker 2: it's a diner. So the one nearest to me that
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  Speaker 2: I go, where I go all the time, it's called
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  Speaker 2: Red Flame, and it's on West forty fourth, I think.
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  Speaker 2: And you go in there, you got the boots. There's
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  Speaker 2: something about boots, boots, sorry, that make people happy and comfortable,
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  Speaker 2: and I love them, and I wish there are more
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  Speaker 2: of them. And I don't mean the big round no
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  Speaker 2: fancy you get in trendy restaurants. Boots. You and me
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  Speaker 2: face each other.
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  Speaker 1: The booths with the little jukebox in them, the perfect.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's not a lot of little jukeboxes.
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  Speaker 1: We're out of time. But if you want to read more,
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  Speaker 1: just go read Steve Cuzo's great columns. They're all up
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  Speaker 1: on the New York Post website. You just go to
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: New York Post, go to Opinion go to Steve Cuzo.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: All his columns in there. You can read them there.
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  Speaker 1: Steve Cuzo, thanks for being with us.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you Mark always fun.
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  Speaker 1: Take care. Hey, don't forget we're on three hours now.
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  Speaker 1: am every day. If you didn't know that we're starting tomorrow,
• 12:38
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• 12:41
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• 12:46
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• 12:49
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