Harlem Bakery Transforms into Restaurant

http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/harlem-bakery-settepani-cafe-bakery-transforms-into-restaurant-at-196-lenox-avenue (add to Harlem Notes)


Harlem should brace itself for another change: Settepani Cafe & Bakery is being transformed into a restaurant and lounge with southern Italian cuisine.

Space was cleared in the 1,500-square-foot cafe at 196 Lenox Avenue and 120th Street by removing the gelato, cookie and cake displays (baked goods can still be ordered from the Williamsburg location at 602 Lorimer Street). There will be bar lounge dining up front, with a standard restaurant in the back. Total seating, including bar seats, will jump to 65 from 34.

The official unveiling for Ristorante Settepani is March 30, but there's a "sneak preview" tonight from 7:30 to 10 p.m. Leah Abraham, who owns Settepani with her husband Nino Settepani, said she's prepared for some shock given the bond customers have with the cafe.

"What people loved about us is more than the food. It is that people walked in and were welcome," Abraham said.

She said they envisioned a high-caliber Italian restaurant all along, but it's only possible now that a critical mass of dining and entertainment has emerged in Harlem. The cafe opened in 2000, and Abraham said it became the "best branding we ever did." The blog Harlem + Bespoke recently called Settepani the "game-changing Mount Morris Park Historic District cafe."

Indeed, the Wall Street Journal wrote this month that Settepani closing for renovations had "grim results" for the neighborhood. "Without Settepani's latte-drinking customers, reading newspapers and chatting on the wide sidewalk in good weather, the block, which has some boarded-up buildings, has a forlorn, slightly menacing look." Neighbors agree, Abraham said, and told her a recent mugging nearby wouldn't have happened "had you been there."

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"Green" Office Building Tops Out Above The High Line

Mann Report Volume 1, Issue V11

The Meatpacking District's signature luxury office tower, The High Line Building at 450 West 14th Street, one of the only buildings to offer an office or retail tenant direct frontage and access to the High Line, has topped out above the elevated park.

Developed by CB Developers and designed by Morris Adjmi Architects to LEED Gold standards, the building features 100,000 square feet of office space on 11 floors, as well as high-profile retail space at the base of the park's main entrance. Fashion tenant Helmut Lang has already leased two full floors of office and showroom space at the building, which is expected to be completed Fall 2009, according to the developer.

"Having been involved in the evolution of the Meatpacking District for 10 years now, it gives me great pleasure to have topped out on schedule and in concurrence with the opening of the High Line park. I believe the two will transorm the Meatpacking District once again," said CB Developers Founder Charles Blaichman, who was an early pioneer in the neighborhood, having developed 29-35 Ninth Avenue, the home of Soho House and Spice Market, the Theory building at 40 Gansevort Street; and 415 West 13th Street, where Estee Lauder subsidiary Bumble and Bumble has its corporate headquarters.

NYC Real Notes December 2009

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