Good morning. It’s Friday. Today we’ll take a look at how restaurants are faring after shutting down for weeks under the shadow of a buckling Midtown high-rise building.
Potential collapse. That was the worry on everyone’s mind when two steel columns within a high-rise building on East 42nd Street began to buckle on July 7. But for the restaurants nearby that were forced to shut down, there was an additional danger: the economic fallout from lost revenue, spoiled food and worker furloughs.
Scott Rosenberg, a co-owner of Sushi Yasuda, estimated that his business lost roughly $300,000 during the three-week shutdown. That included expensive seafood that had to be tossed: 120 pounds of bluefin tuna from Spain, 13 pounds of black-throat sea perch from Japan and 15 trays of sea urchin. His insurer denied his claim for the damage, he said.
“A buckling building — it is shocking and terrifying,” Rosenberg said in an interview with my colleague Sarah Maslin Nir. “It’s not the most compelling or exciting story that a handful of adjacent businesses are kind of left to fend for themselves, but this involves people’s livelihoods.”
As Sarah reported this week, businesses between Second and Third Avenues on 43rd Street were struggling to stay afloat after the city closed the area near the buckling building at 235 East 42nd Street, the former headquarters of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
In this so-called frozen zone were a hotel, a trade school and Japanese restaurants.
Porche Prasertchoang, the manager of Izakaya Futago, a restaurant on that stretch of East 43rd Street, said the closure had cost an estimated $60,000 and counting.
“We had to throw it away — all the good stuff,” he added, referring to the restaurant’s fresh fish and other food.
The former Pfizer building, which is being converted to apartments, is finally stable, and the city gave the businesses that remained shut the all-clear to reopen on July 24. But even so, restaurant owners and employees say they are still reeling.
Rosenberg said the restaurant was exploring a lawsuit against the building’s developer, MetroLoft. A spokesman for MetroLoft declined to comment.
“It’s hard, still,” Ayano Shindo said as she tended the coals for the table-side grills at Yakiniku Toraji, a Japanese barbecue restaurant that just reopened. A part-time employee, Shindo estimated she had lost $600 each week. A native Japanese speaker, she said she had struggled to with the process of applying for unemployment benefits and still had not been successful.
Prasertchoang, of Izakaya Futago, had to furlough all 23 of his employees and told them to apply for unemployment. During the closure, he slipped into the restaurant through the delivery entrance on 44th Street to staff the phones, canceling reservations and food orders.
“I don’t know how long it will take for us to recover,” he said on Monday.
Weather
Look for sunny skies and temperatures near 85. Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low around 70.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Aug. 15 (Feast of the Assumption).
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I’m insulted and angry and honestly am very hurt.” — Karen Young on receiving a notice that she might be subject to the city’s second-home tax on her Upper West Side home and could owe about $43,000. It has been her primary residence since 1997. The tax is the latest push by state and local leaders to iron out some inequities by taxing wealthy part-time residents.
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METROPOLITAN diary
Quite a collection
Dear Diary:
For more than a decade, I was a luxury wedding planner in New York City. This was less a job you had than a fraternal order you joined — one that, week after week, puts you in the trenches with florists, caterers, musicians, sommeliers and all of the other talented people it takes to create perfect celebrations for some of the most demanding clients in the world.
But that was then. Now, I’m a writer.
One evening, I was at a party at the home of the art collector and philanthropist Agnes Gund. It was a small benefit in her art filled-foyer and living room.
At one point I heard my name called from the kitchen, where an old friend was opening bottles of wine.
He had been one of New York’s most in-demand catering captains and was now working for Ms. Gund. I commented on how magnificent the art was.
“Wait till you see what’s in the rest of the house,” he whispered as he grabbed my arm and led me on a private tour of one of the most renowned collections in Manhattan. I missed most of the party, but what I saw took my breath away.
It really does help to have friends in the right places.
— Xochitl Gonzalez
Ms. Gonzalez’s most recent book is “Last Night in Brooklyn.”
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. — C.C.
Davaughnia Wilson and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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The post Big Losses for Small Businesses in the ‘Frozen Zone’ appeared first on New York Times.
