High-minded cuisine
Rosen puts star chef into new skyscraper
Aby Rosen hasn’t always had an easy time pairing fancy restaurants with his landmark buildings — but it’s a habit he just can’t break.
The New York real-estate mogul this week is tapping Invest Hospitality, a restaurant group, to open Le Jardinier — a “vegetable driven” eatery that will be helmed by Alain Verzeroli, a Michelin-starred protégé of legendary French chef Joël Robuchon — to anchor his new luxury skyscraper at 100 E. 53rd St.
Looking to make an instant landmark out of the new, 711foot-high residential tower — designed by startchitect Norman Foster — Rosen had hatched a plan years earlier for Robuchon himself to run the restaurant.
But Robuchon died unexpectedly last year, leading Rosen to make a wager on Verzeroli, who worked under his legendary mentor for 21 years. After Le Jardinier opens this week, Shun, a second, more intimate Verzeroli restaurant, is slated to open in the building in June.
“Restaurants are an important part of our buildings,” Rosen told Side Dish. “People come and go. Restaurants are a constant. People keep coming back. They have soul, and they are a great way to showcase art and design.”
But restaurants can come and go, too — even at Rosen’s buildings. In 2016, he evicted the Four Seasons from his Philip Johnson-designed Seagram Building, reportedly concerned that its star had faded amid sex-harassment allegations against one of the operators.
Rosen replaced it with Major Food Group’s trendier eateries, The Pool and The Grill.
Now, Rosen is hoping Le Jardinier will help 100 E. 53rd stand out amid a new crop of upscale condo towers that are newly piercing the Midtown skyline, including 432 Park Ave. and One57 on West 57th Street.
As reported by The Post, only 60 percent of condos on “Billionaires’ Row” have sold. And 100 E. 53rd St. has sold only 21 out of its 93 units, with 10 more in contract, a spokesman said.
Glam buyers like George and Amal Clooney should help. (“The deal hasn’t closed yet, but they are buying,” Rosen told Side Dish). But having a top-tier restaurant in the building is also a key ingredient when it comes to success and sales, he says.
“It’s another angle for marketing,” Rosen said. “People can stay home and order in. Tenants always have priority. But the building needs to be good — a good restaurant can’t help a bad building.”
Nearby at 53 W. 53rd, a new luxury tower designed by Jean Nouvel near the Museum of Modern Art, a Michelinstarred chef-run restaurant is also part of the formula — although the developer has not yet named the chef.
At the 62-seat Le Jardinier, guests including entrepreneur Olivia Palermo, fitness queen Tracy Anderson and Marla Maples got a preview on Thursday.
Signature dishes include Persian cucumber, Montauk fluke crudo and crispy black rice; and baby carrot, snap peas and spring onions with Maine scallops.
Shun, meanwhile, will be a 58-seat contemporary French restaurant with Japanese influences. A marble staircase leads from Le Jardinier to Shun and Bar Shun, which seats 35. Both restaurants were designed by French architect Joseph Dirand.
The Lure Group’s Clinton Hall, the burger-and-beer chain, is partnering with the Pod Hotels. To start, a Clinton Hall rooftop beer garden has just opened at the Pod Hotel in Williamsburg. The 2,000square-foot space, which seats 125 people, comes with a solarpaneled rooftop — making it “the greenest rooftop bar in the borough,” says The Lure Group CEO Aristotle “Telly” Hatzigeorgiou.
The group will also open a Clinton Hall gigawatt garden at the Pod 51 Hotel at 230 East 51st St. on May 23. The outdoor beer hall will be open Thursdays through Sundays, with live music, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The rooftop and garden will feature giant games, including Jenga, and light fare from Clinton Hall’s executive chef Darryl Harmon.
There’s a veggie charcuterie board, crab Cobb salad and arugula watermelon salad in addition to comfort fare like Kellogg’s cerealcrusted pretzel bites, a Jersey dog, a Frito Pie dog and a Maine lobster roll.