Chef Mateo

Via Twitter, I was forwarded an article from Black Enterprise announcing that the Lenox Lounge will be closing by New Year.  The owner cites an increase in rent by more than double as a primary reason for shuttering.

This is disturbing news, but not all that surprising.  The gentrification of Harlem has been going on for almost twenty years now, with a real surge in the change of the demographics during the last five years.

After 2000, the last time I estimate a family of four could buy property for a reasonable mortgage, the housing market in NYC inflated.  Buyers had to stretch elsewhere to find value and affordability.  First Washington Heights, then Inwood, Williamsburg and Astoria, East Harlem and West Harlem.  I missed out on buying a classic six on 175^th street and Fort Washington Avenue in 2000.  The price was $220,000.   A couple bought a two bedroom for $130,000.00 in the same building and flipped the apartment three years later for four times the purchase price. That classic six today is going for $1.1 million.

In Harlem, east and west, brownstone and townhouse shells were going for $300,000. – $400,000.,  leading to a parade of downtown buyers who were willing to sacrifice neighborhood for more space and less cost.  The city initiative to build affordable housing for qualified applicants also contributed to gentrification.  I lived on 117^th street and FDB for two years, and watched how businesses sprouted up to meet the interests of the changing population.  I worked on 120^th street and first avenue for seven years and witnessed a number of city subsidized coops built for those downtowners who were looking for value in a competitive market.

And so, Starbucks moves in.  That’s how it starts.  Then Duane Reade, Rite Aid, bank ATMS, Old Navy, and H & M.  Familiar stores for the new consumers.   Stores that can’t make the rent get pushed out.   Landlords seize the opportunity to charge higher rents. The city collects more tax and real estate tax revenues.

There are positive effects too.  From 113^th street to 120^th street and FDB restaurants have opened and flourished forming a Harlem restaurant row.  There are more jobs openings, and more housing to be built.  The projects still remain and are being squeezed out, maybe for the better.

But what is happening to the mom and pop stores, so vital to the neighborhood’s character?  Who are they being replaced by?  It is one thing to “clean up” the neighborhood, but at what cost?

So many stores I used to patronize are now closed, from bakery, to Jamaican pastry shop, to thrift shop.  Just like Shakespeare & Co. on the Upper West Side when they got kicked to the curb by Barnes & Nobles.  And now Amazon will eventually do the same.  Or when Rosita on 106^th Street and Broadway got replaced by KFC.

Tenants live on, holding on to their value apartments hoping for a real neighborhood to emerge.  But what is really happening is a slow mallification, where every neighborhood looks the same as is defined by the type of residents and people in it.  I sometimes walk down Columbus Avenue and can’t tell whether I am in Cleveland, Minnesota or Florida.  Only Central park reminds me that I am in New York City.

And so, a new kind of place opens up in Harlem, the Red Rooster.  A European/Black celebrity chef creating a place and a cuisine that crosses borders and boundaries, an egalitarian foodie destination.  Seems to be working out well for all.  Softens the blow for mom and pop closings. But the homogenized atmosphere has no soul, the essence of any place in Harlem. I have a friend named Georgia who opened up a café but ultimately could not compete and had to close.  Why?  Maybe she was a poor business person.  Maybe she wasn’t supported by the new demographic, and the old demographic didn’t understand her either.  Surely rent and real estate taxes had something to do with it.  And what of Nectar and Harlem Vintage, products of mismanagement? Perhaps.  They can be replaced by bigger corporation brands that have deep pockets.  No loss here.  But the slope continues, and stalwarts like the Lenox Lounge become the next target.  The effect that this closing will have on the neighborhood cannot be measured in dollars and cents.  It affects the psychology of a culture, its heritage, roots and pride.  It removes and sense of history and place, replacing those vital elements of a neighborhood without which there will be a lack of identity.  This has been happening all over the city, with Harlem being the last of the important NYC communities with a discernible face and historical value.

The solution is not so simple.  Under the current system, capitalism reigns supreme.  If you can’t pay the rent, get out.  If you can’t pay the city taxes, real estate taxes, fines, costs for doing business, get out.  If you got hurt by hurricane Sandy and can’t pay your bills, oh well, get out.  If you can’t afford to live in this city according to market rent, oh well, while the city needs you to work here, it doesn’t give you privilege to also live here.  Get out.

The City could do plenty to alleviate some of these problems.  First, the arcane real estate tax code needs to be completely overhauled.  As a small business owner, I am paying 30% above my base rent to the city per annum because of “real estate tax increases.”  Landlords word leases to pass these costs onto commercial renters.  For Duane Reade, this is no problem.  For mom and pop, this could mean the difference between opening or closing.

Certainly some type of tax relief in the wake of businesses affected by Sandy is an order, and would help in the long run for the financial stability of many small businesses.  City built buildings should rent to small businesses to promote community and entrepreneurship.  The City builds these affordable housing, so they should control the rents.

I recently read an article regarding how Iceland attacked its fiscal crisis.  Rather than bailing out the banks, they bailed out the people.  A novel idea, but a rationale that people with their mortgages and small business owners who live and work and provide work  in this city need help and solutions, not more capitalistic, Darwinian attitudes and practices.  Beware, fore in another ten years, there will be no Harlem, just like Hell’s Kitchen became Clinton.  New York City will look and feel like any other U.S. metropolis, and that would be a legacy our mayor and city government will have to take responsibility for.

After reading Pete Wells’ scathing review on Guy Fieri’s Times Square restaurant, and the ensuing controversy it has caused, I have been reflecting on my own restaurant review process, as well as trying to make sense of all the drama and discussion.

Taking advice from a former food critic, in reviewing a restaurant, criticizing the food service or ambiance is a responsibility of the journalism, but to outright bash a place serves no purpose.  It is better to write no review at all than to destroy a restaurant.  This holds true for many reasons.  For one, livelihoods are at stake.  It is one thing for celebrity chefs or investors to plunk down tons of money into a restaurant project.  They know what the risk is and have deep pockets.  But the people who rely on the work as their livelihood, now that is a different story.

Pete Wells’ review would have been more credible if it were less sarcastic and smug in tone.  Outsiders (non-New Yorkers will red it as NY snobbery).  Guy Fieri has many mainstream fans who will defend his idea of American comfort food.  The tourists who come to New York City and visit Times Square will also patronize Guy Fieri because of his personality and television exposure.  The probability is that most of these tourists don’t read the New York Times as a source of information anyway.

I can understand the choice to review Guy Fieri’s restaurant given the location, two blocks from the NYTimes headquarters, the celebrity status of Guy Fieri, and all the press.  But if Pete Wells’ agenda is to place that restaurant and its concept on par with any fine dining establishment which the column was created for in the first place, he has missed the mark.  There are so many hard working people who run restaurants that deserve reviewing.

The point is not to review Olive Garden, TGIF and other chain restaurants, or to inform people on how bad the food is for your health, taste buds or wallet.  These are obvious facts to any educated consumers, much less NYTimes subscribers.  No New Yorker worth his/her foodie moniker would eat at these establishments for free.  But an indictment on Guy’s resto is more than just criticism on a a celebrity chef phoning it in, it speaks to the average American DDD diner as a whole.  Your palate stinks, you eat too much junk and if you want to eat at this crapshoot you get what you deserve.  Indeed people do.  Many, if not the majority of people, will continue to eat fast food and guzzle 64 ounce beverages, and dare I say it, vote Republican.  The truth is that people have the choice and actually like it.

I have reviewed a few restaurants on my blog, and have stopped doing so for a couple of reasons.  For one it is expensive to go to a place three or four times to be fair about the totality of the experience on a personal budget.  Two, I often find myself disappointed or on the other side of popular opinion.  I think New York City dining is a fad driven culture with many people who don’t actually reside in New York forming opinions simply because it is cool to be in a hot new place.   If the media tells them it is good, foodies will follow.  I have eaten at scores of places where I was not treated well by the service, the hostess, the food was sub-par, the wine service was spotty, and the bill not worth what I received in value.  Instead of destroying the place in some type of personal review of my experience, I simply don’t recommend it to people I know.

In this blogging age, anyone (including myself) can be a food writer, I proffer that just because one has an opinion doesn’t give licence to be mean, hurtful, untruthful and damaging in their words.  This is the problem with YELP, as no one can police the site’s vitriol and garbage, and no one can verify the authenticity of the reviewer.  When someone writes that the pasta special sucked one night, when no such special existed on the menu, YELP does not fact check, and what does that remind you of?

I contend that Pete Wells should never have used the top restaurant column to review such an obvious restaurant.  He could have blogged about it or written a piece under the travel section.  But since he did see fit to review it, then he should have treated it like he would any other restaurant.  Talk about the food and drinks critically, the quality of service and the ambiance.  His words and questions only serve to infuriate the masses of tourists who come to New York to spend money.  There are many ways to indicate to the NYT readership that this is not a place for them, and perhaps would be better off at Le Bernardin.

I liken it to how I approach wine.  I might not enjoy a 15% new world, oaky Zinfandel, but I will not bash it.  I will assess its qualities and simply choose not to drink it.  Some people may in fact like pretzel chicken fingers and nuclear blue watermelon margaritas.  A reviewer’s job is to judge the quality of the subject, even if it goes against personal taste.  There is a good probability that Pete was right about his experiences with the food, drinks, and service.  My taste is more aligned to his than someone who would prefer that type of cuisine.  But not taking a palate other than his own into consideration, or treating the review seriously shows a biased, ugly disposition.

Hopefully Guy and his staff will work out the kinks, and Pete can get it together for future reviews.

In order to be safe from the perils of Hurricane Sandy, the mayor ordered us to stay home, as long as we did not reside in one of the evacuation zones.  Since I reside in the Upper West Side away from Central Park and the Hudson River, there was no loss of power, water, or trees crashing through my 14^th floor apartment windows. There can be a guilty feeling associated with being safe from a natural disaster, while others not too far from you are dying in accidents, and homes and businesses are being demolished by trees and water.

I get the same feeling every time I hear of the dangers of living in Haiti, a people who have just suffered the brunt of Hurricane Sandy before us.  I am part Haitian, from my mother’s side of the family, and I can’t help but feeling fortunate that I am not enduring the catastrophes that seem never-ending.

When I get past those initial feelings, I wish blessings to all who have endured Hurricane Sandy and are dealing with the aftermath of damages and expenses.

As we wait for the infrastructure to be up and running again, anxiety sets in as to how to repair the damages and move forward.  Some businesses have been totaled or severely damaged.  The major concern is to reopen, electricity permitting, so as to get back on track to pay the bills.

Most insurance policies will not cover these losses and that is a stark reality. As a small business owner in this economy, I always urge supporting small businesses lest the landscape of our neighborhoods change into a chain store/mall permanently.  Now more than ever is the time to do something about it, by getting out and supporting your neighborhood shop, who besides damages, are looking to lose at least a week of sales.  Landlords will not relent, nor will the tax man, and some of us who have been just squeaking by are looking at serious debt, or worse, closure.

After assessing the damages at Pata Negra, we will open, even without power, with candles, a boom box, wine, jamon and cheese.  Please come down, and I don’t mean just on Friday and Saturday nights.

To help keep all of your favorite places open I urge you to shop East Village, #shopEV.

Updates on www.patanegratapas.com, twitter @ChezChefmateo.com

May you all be safe, and speedy recovery back to a normal life.

Chef Mateo