Jason Pomeranc

TORONTO—On a cold, cloudy November afternoon, celebrated chef Susur Lee sat quietly in the back room at Madeline’s, one of two chic restaurants he owns and operates in the fashion district here, pondering over the final details of his boldest menu yet. “The Chinese always say, eating is heavenly,” he said. “That is the way of life for us. It doesn’t have to be glamorous food, but good food.”

For more than two decades, the tall, handsome, ponytailed cook from Hong Kong has been making dishes good enough to lure devout New York gourmands some 500 miles across the Canadian border to try his Chinese-based, French-infused cooking.  read more »

What a great week to launch a new restaurant in the Financial District!

“We’re all nervous about what’s happening with the economy, but we’ve got to charge through it,” said chef Todd English, dressed like an urban Johnny Cash in all black, as he celebrated the opening of his latest eatery, Libertine, at the Gild Hall hotel on Gold Street on Wednesday night.

“There’s no right time or wrong time to open a place like this,” added hotelier Jason Pomeranc. “It is our duty as hoteliers and restaurateurs to provide the inns and watering holes where people can celebrate their victories and mourn their losses.  read more »

Hotelier Jason Pomeranc has been eagerly looking forward to opening his posh new lodge, the 143-room Thompson Lower East Side at 190 Allen Street. “I think it’s going to be a moment in time that will be remembered as kind of when the Lower East Side came of age,” said Mr. Pomeranc, 37, co-owner of Thompson Hotels. “I mean, it’s been a process, with gentrification and change and growth over the last several years. Usually, that process culminates with a luxury project—like what I believe the Thompson Lower East Side will be—where it integrates the vibe and the flow of the neighborhood but introduces a new audience as well.  read more »

What used to be a Lower East Side destination has become a no-man’s land of rats, dirty streets and prolonged high-rise construction projects.

“People look down here and see a ghost town,” said a man who works on the block of Orchard Street just south of Houston. “And they just keep walking.”

The block had been a quintessential part of the reincarnated neighborhood. Its designer fashion boutiques, old-world fabric store, discount retailers, bars and restaurants reflected the gentrifying of the neighborhood at a tolerable pace. On Sundays, the street closed to cars to create a pedestrian mall, with many of the stores setting up displays in the middle of the street. In the summer, the block hosted the occasional food festival or local band.

But much of the sound on the block the past three years has been the noise from the construction of Jason Pomeranc’s 19-story boutique hotel at 200 Allen Street (the back of which sits on the west side of Orchard); and of developer Morris Platt’s 26-story condominium almost directly across from the hotel on the west side at 180 Orchard Street. More than three years ago, both developers bought up several one-story commercial buildings and razed those to make way for their projects.  read more »

Lodging blog Hotel Chatter today has compiled a preview of the "most buzzworthy" hotel openings for 2008 and discusses each one's chances for actually opening on time.

Among them: The Cooper Square Hotel near Astor Place, slated to open this coming spring. Given neighborhood concerns and "rumored falling out between developers/hoteliers Gregory Peck and Matthew Moss," the oddsmakers expect delays until August.

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• Another reminder of how overpriced our city's salad bars and apartments are. CNN reports that a couple who wanted a "moderately affluent lifestyle" in New York needed an income of $166,777--the highest in the country. More interesting, why is the poll based on couples? After all, NYC has the highest percentage of single-person households, according to the Census.
• The new American dream: "a two-bedroom condominium with a gym in the basement and a skyline view from the living room." Sound about right. (The New York Times)
• The fastest-growing city in the world is a "megalopolis you've never heard of." And, as urbanites come to outnumber townies, a challenge is posed to Darwin's thesis. "Humans have not evolved to fit our habitat, we have changed our habitat to suit ourselves." (Guardian)
• "Gardening is an equal-access pleasure," The New York Times tells the college-aged male.
• There are 20 new, grandly designed residential buildings in the Financial District, but beware of the hype, Fortune says.
• Del Posto brawl hits court today. (New York Post)
• A bachelor pad in tight quarters? No problem. Less travel time to the bed. (Apartment Therapy)
• The doormen of 3,500 New York apartment buildings may go on strike. (The New York Times)
• Jason Pomeranc is a hotel tease. Where are you 6 Columbus? (Hotel Chatter)
• Do svelter refridgerators equal a svelter you? (The New York Times)
• The New Yorker takes on the "otherworldly beauty" of the sport stadium. Is that what the park space supposed to do for the Yankees and Mets stadiums?
• Skip the picture if you have a queasy stomach, but the board of Trump World Tower has filed a lien against socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein for the third time in four years. (Page Six)