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Speaker 1: You're listening to you, Well, we're gonna get I want

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Speaker 1: to talk to Steve Cusa, the great New York Post writer.

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Speaker 1: He writes about real estate, he writes about restaurants, and

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Speaker 1: you know, all these people tell everybody's leaving New York,

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Speaker 1: everybody's fleeing. New York is dying, it's empty, everybody's getting killed,

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Speaker 1: restaurants are Well, let's get to the let's get to

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Speaker 1: the expert and get the real story. Here you can

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Speaker 1: read Steve Cuso's columns in the New York Post. They're

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Speaker 1: all up on the New York Post website. Steve Cuzo,

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Speaker 1: How you doing? Hey, good morning, Mark, How are you

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Speaker 1: doing very good? Now? Uh, you go around New York,

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Speaker 1: You're stuck in traffic. Is the sidewalks the crowded. It's

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Speaker 1: not dying, is it?

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Speaker 2: Not exactly? Yeah, I hope you guys can hear me.

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Speaker 2: I'm downtown and there's like all sorts of construction and

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Speaker 2: traffic and yeah like that.

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Speaker 1: That's another thing. These real estate guys are building like crazy.

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Speaker 1: So obviously we have a good future, don't we.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I live on the Upper East Side, or I

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Speaker 2: like to call it the Upper Cheap Side, which means

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Speaker 2: First Avenue, and you know First Avenue, second Avenue, third

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Speaker 2: Avenue is like a building going up on every corner,

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Speaker 2: it seems.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Also, you got massive skyscrapers, real tall, but going

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Speaker 1: up Park Avenue in the fifty third well yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: fifty eighth. So everybody's investing in New York. And what

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Speaker 1: about some of these empty office buildings converting them to apartments?

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Speaker 1: Is that going to actually happen?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's unbelievable. I mean, there are so

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Speaker 2: many buildings that are being converted to apartments now. When

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Speaker 2: this trend started some years ago, it was mostly you know,

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Speaker 2: these old, antiquated, beat up, old buildings down in the

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Speaker 2: you know, Wall Street area that they were antique, nobody

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Speaker 2: wanted them anymore. But now this has spread way uptown

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Speaker 2: all over Midtown. There are buildings that aren't even that

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Speaker 2: old that are being turned into apartments. For example, one

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Speaker 2: thirty fifty seventh Street, corner of Lexington Avenue. That's a modern,

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Speaker 2: modern building. It went up in the late eighties and

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Speaker 2: it's being converted to apartments. So there's plenty of that

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Speaker 2: going on.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And these guys wouldn't do that if they didn't

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Speaker 1: have people demand. So and it's rental apartments are going

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Speaker 1: crazy right now, isn't that true?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they're crazy if everybody's complaining, Oh, you

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Speaker 2: can't get an apartment for less than four thousand a month. True?

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Speaker 2: True enough, to which I say, half tongue in cheek,

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Speaker 2: take a second job, you know, quit whining.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. So, hey, the dining outdoor dining began this week.

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Speaker 1: They're allowed. Now are these sheds going to come back

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Speaker 1: all over the sidewalks?

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Speaker 2: I've lost track of what's going on. They're back. No,

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Speaker 2: First of all, I haven't followed this that closely. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: they're sort of back, but not that many restaurants applied

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Speaker 2: for the outdoor seating, nothing like you know a couple

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Speaker 2: of years ago during COVID, and people haven't applied for

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Speaker 2: a number of reasons. You know, you need all kinds

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Speaker 2: of city approvals. There's all sorts of reasons why. First

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Speaker 2: of all, the city will tie you up and not

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Speaker 2: you have to deal with nineteen different agencies. It's supposed

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Speaker 2: to be the Departiament of Transportation that's in charge, which

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Speaker 2: it is, but they have to interact with the you know,

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Speaker 2: with the fire Department, with the Health Department, all these agencies.

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Speaker 2: So there's a lot of hesitation on the part of

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Speaker 2: restaurant owners. They don't want to have to go through

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Speaker 2: this again. But meanwhile, you've got the Hospitality Alliance, my

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Speaker 2: friend Andrew Ridgie pushing for even more, you know, and

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Speaker 2: city council people want to have year round outdoor seating.

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Speaker 2: I don't think we need that, but yeah, you'll be

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Speaker 2: seeing some of these. It's a moot point unless the

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Speaker 2: weather it's any better. It still feels like winter today.

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Speaker 2: I don't care what the forecast said. And we're going

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Speaker 2: to Florida on Tuesday and I can't wait to get

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Speaker 2: out of here.

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Speaker 1: Oh look, where are you going to Florida?

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Speaker 2: Oh? The usual round, you know, the usual milk from

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Speaker 2: Palm Beach, Delray Beach, and Miami Beach. Okay, three beaches.

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Speaker 1: Now, Palm Beach has got a million restaurants opening, but

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Speaker 1: they're all from New York. They're all from the Hamptons,

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Speaker 1: they're all from the.

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Speaker 2: Well, not all of them. The big place down there

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Speaker 2: now it's called Polo something, Polo Lounge. Polo.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a guy that worked for It's a guy

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Speaker 1: that worked for Ralph Lauren. He gave him a permission

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Speaker 1: to use the Polo name down there?

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Speaker 2: Is that right? Anyway? I'm looking forward to going because

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Speaker 2: everybody says it's the hottest place and food's great, YadA YadA,

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Speaker 2: sol and the watch. We'll get down there and the

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Speaker 2: weather will stink. But when you travel, that's that's part

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Speaker 2: of black.

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Speaker 1: Hey, Steve Kusa, you wrote this cameo. A certain food

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Speaker 1: just comes to New York goes viral. It's a big deal. Uh.

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Speaker 1: You wrote about sushi push pops. Explain that.

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Speaker 2: So there's a new place called Suka Sushi. It's a

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Speaker 2: little storefront. It's on Lexington Avenue in twenty fifth I think.

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Speaker 2: And they have a gimmick. Everybody's got a gimmick. Now.

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Speaker 2: There's all sorts of weird things going on, and this

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Speaker 2: one is pop up sushi rolls. So you get a container,

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Speaker 2: you get a cylindrical container containing the sushi rolls, and

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Speaker 2: there's a thin tube attached to it, like the tubes

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Speaker 2: that you take board with that's filled with soy sauce.

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Speaker 2: And you start by you're supposed to break the skinny

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Speaker 2: tube off from the big tube, and then you pry

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Speaker 2: the lid off the thick tube, and then you pour

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Speaker 2: the soy sauce from the skinny tube into the thick

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Speaker 2: tube with the sushi rolls. And then you're supposed to

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Speaker 2: take the excuse me, the thin tube and stick it

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Speaker 2: into the bottom of the thick tube and put sh

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Speaker 2: it up. And what happens is and I did a

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Speaker 2: video about this. You can see it online on the

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Speaker 2: New York Post website. You push up the sushi rolls,

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Speaker 2: which actually taste pretty good, and out they come on top.

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Speaker 2: It looks ridiculous, and it is ridiculous. And the big

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Speaker 2: problem with it is that I made a mess, and

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Speaker 2: most people are going to make a mess with it too. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: you've got to be very nimble fingered not to not

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Speaker 2: to spill everything all over yourself, and to make it work.

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Speaker 2: There are no chopsticks, there are no utensils, so you

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Speaker 2: basically have to eat the damn thing with your mouth

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Speaker 2: as you walk. It's not like eating a hotluck or

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Speaker 2: a slice of pizza. That's easy. We all do that.

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Speaker 2: This is a this is a new level of you know,

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Speaker 2: skilled that you need so good luck.

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Speaker 1: Well, it's but there's all of these things that come

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Speaker 1: along they go viral, they're great for Instagram and TikTok,

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Speaker 1: and then they're gone in a year.

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Speaker 2: This will be yeah, it's all about TikTok.

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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, uh hey what is this? Every restaurant now,

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Speaker 1: you know, used to have like a guy like Danielle

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Speaker 1: would open Danielle Great restaurant, John George would open John

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Speaker 1: George and that was But nowadays every restaurant guy, no

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Speaker 1: matter who it is, has to have fifty places, seventy

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Speaker 1: five places. What caused that trend.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's been ongoing for years. A lot of people

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Speaker 2: love restaurants all over the world. You have celebrity chefs

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Speaker 2: and who may be great chefs like excuse me, like

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Speaker 2: Danielle Blue, and you have others who are just big

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Speaker 2: names even though they're not that good. And you have

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Speaker 2: these companies. Very often it's Wall Street money, hedge funds,

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Speaker 2: guys like that want to invest in restaurants. It's fun.

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Speaker 2: They see an opportunity to expand to a whole bunch

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Speaker 2: of cities, and if they can pull that off, they

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Speaker 2: can get very rich. The catch, of course, is that

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Speaker 2: just because a restaurant has the name of a certain

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Speaker 2: famous chef or a restaurant you like a carbone or whatever,

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Speaker 2: doesn't mean that the places that have that name in

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Speaker 2: you know, in Hong Kong, ch Cargo, wherever it may be,

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Speaker 2: will be as good as the ones that you know

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Speaker 2: that started out in New York.

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Speaker 1: Also, if you got if you're a great restaurant guy,

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Speaker 1: a great chef, let's not mention any New York nas

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Speaker 1: Let's pick a foreign name. If you're Gordon Ramsay and

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Speaker 1: you got one restaurant in London, it's the greatest restaurant.

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Speaker 1: You make sure it's a great, But once you have

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Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five restaurants, they all become kind

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Speaker 1: of mediocre because you can't keep an eye on everything.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, I mean they make the pretense of, oh,

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Speaker 2: I'm always there, I come around every week, but that's

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Speaker 2: physically impossible. And again, some of them give a better

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Speaker 2: account of it than others. I've never been to a

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Speaker 2: Danielle Balloon restaurant anywhere that wasn't at least good. I've

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Speaker 2: never been to a restaurant that carries Jean George von

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Speaker 2: Garrichton's name that isn't really good. So yeah, again it's

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Speaker 2: up to how what commitment the chef is willing and

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Speaker 2: able to make.

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Speaker 1: But now, if you're John George, you spent all day

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Speaker 1: in a car driving from restaurant to restaurant to restaurant.

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Speaker 1: You gotta go to thirty places.

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Speaker 2: A day, and they do in Manhattan, absolutely, they do.

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Speaker 1: Well. Have a good trip in Florida. And are you

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Speaker 1: going to Miami too? Right?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we're gonna make the whole East Coast.

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Speaker 1: Right. So I look at Miami restaurants Instagram. They look

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Speaker 1: spectacular is food wise, They're not any better than New York,

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Speaker 1: are they?

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Speaker 2: I'm sorry which ones mark?

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Speaker 1: Any all the top Miami restaurants they look spectacular, but

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Speaker 1: food wise.

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Speaker 2: Some of them are. Some of them are really good.

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Speaker 2: I mean I've been to not Carbone, but the other

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Speaker 2: restaurant owned by the same people, major food group in

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Speaker 2: Miami last year. It was just wonderful. It's an Italian restaurant.

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Speaker 2: I just can't remember the name. So, you know, with

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Speaker 2: vtteries and the restaurants in Las Vegas are mostly all terrific.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, well, great stuff. Everybody reads Steve Cuzo

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Speaker 1: in The New York Post. His columns are all up

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Speaker 1: in The New York Post website and Steve Cuzo, thanks

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Speaker 1: for being with us.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Locke, always fun. Thank you.

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Speaker 1: Take care. Now, right over there, as you go over

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Speaker 1: to Seventh Avenue, there was Rosio Grady's. Remember that it

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Speaker 1: was a big, big, enormous saloon. It's like the whole

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Speaker 1: block long it was in. It closed. Everybody was upset

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Speaker 1: about that. It was a big place. So apparently that's

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Speaker 1: going to become a Serafina at the Italian restaurant, but

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Speaker 1: not the regular Serafina, a concept kind of restaurant. And

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Speaker 1: Michael Lomonico, the great Chef, he had one of the

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Speaker 1: best steakhouses in Columbus Circle Time Warners Center. He's going

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Speaker 1: to run it. So that's great news. But you see,

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Speaker 1: that's what I mean. When Rosio Grady's closed, and that

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Speaker 1: was a big tourist place. Everything you see New York

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Speaker 1: is dying. It just well now it's about the reopen

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Speaker 1: is an even more incredible restaurant. So every time something closes,

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Speaker 1: something else opens. You got massive skyscrapers going up everywhere,

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Speaker 1: You got all the top restaurant guys opening everywhere. New

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Speaker 1: York is booming. All these real estate companies wouldn't be

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Speaker 1: buying up properties, building skyscrapers. If they didn't believe in

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Speaker 1: the future of New York. Hey, don't forget Curtis Lee.

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Speaker 1: What is back? He's here now every morning with Larry Minty.

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Speaker 1: It's Curtis and Larry every morning six to ten here

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Speaker 1: on seven ten WR