Downtown Hotel - 377 Greenwich Street

[RandySavage]

The Robert DeNiro-backed hotel project at 377 Greenwich St (and N. Moore) is walled off and excavation may have already begun. Here is a rendering and article:

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2003/11/05/bobby_ds_tribeca_hotel.php

[Edward]

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_04/cb1sees.html

C.B. 1 sees plans for new Tribeca hotel

By Elizabeth O’Brien

A new hotel is slated for construction at the corner of Greenwich and N. Moore Sts., on a lot now used for parking.

Representatives from the Downtown Hotel, L.L.C. presented their plans last Monday night at a meeting of the Landmarks Committee of C.B. 1. Using visual aids that included a 4’ by 3’ stone and brick wall, the project’s architects and landmarks consultant showed how the six-story hotel would harmonize with the Tribeca landscape.

Deeply recessed windows with operable wooden shutters were among the details featured in the presentation for the proposed building at 377-383 Greenwich St.

“It’s so contextual, it’s amazing,” said Bruce Ehrmann, chairperson of the landmarks committee.

The hotel’s owners were not present at the meeting. Neighborhood real estate sources say actor Robert De Niro is one of the investors in the project, which is next door to his Tribeca Grill restaurant, but representatives did not confirm this. Members of Downtown Hotel, L.L.C. did not respond to several requests for information about the hotel project.

The concept behind the 80-room hotel takes inspiration from the Chambers Hotel, a boutique hotel on W. 56th St., representatives said last Monday. Richard Born, developer of the Chambers, Mercer and Maritime hotels, said he was involved in the Tribeca project. Representatives did not answer a question about the room rates, but it is likely that the hotel will cater to an upscale clientele.

The developers hope to begin construction within the next few months. Some doubted whether a hotel would flourish in the current economic downturn.

“I hear the travel business is tanking, but they keep building hotels,” said Judy Duffy, assistant district manager for C.B. 1, in a telephone interview afterward.

Even so, Duffy said that the hotel would probably not have a negative impact on the neighborhood. Hotel use is allowed under the area’s zoning laws.

The main hotel entrance would be on Greenwich St., with the service entrance on N. Moore. There would be a restaurant on the lower level, representatives said.

Members of C.B. 1’s landmarks committee decided against passing a resolution in support of the hotel, instead asking the presenters to return next month with diagrams showing how the hotel would fit into the streetscape.

Presenters are not required to come before the committee again — the community board acts solely in an advisory capacity — but committee members said that the project might fare better before the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission if it had the strong support of C.B. 1. The hotel site is part of the Tribeca West Historic District, so the city’s landmarks commission must okay the design.

One architect indicated afterwards that they would likely return before the committee. “We want to have a working relationship with the community board—it’s in everyone’s best interest,” said Matt Markowitz, the architect overseeing construction.

Bill Higgins, the project’s landmarks consultant, said that Downtown Hotel, L.L.C. plans to go before the Landmarks Preservation Commission later this month.

[Edward]

Construction of Downtown Hotel. 16 July 2005.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/hotels/downtown/downtown_hotel.jpg (http://www.wirednewyork.com/hotels/downtown/)

[Luca]

has this place opened yet? The tribeca and Soho grand are lookin' a bit pricey from where I'm standing...

[antinimby]

I don't think so. Recent pics show it's still u/c but it's close to completion. Maybe a summer or fall grand opening?
Pricey can be used to described most NY hotels.
There is also the Hotel Gansevoort if you're interested in that part of town.

[Luca]

what's it like? meatpacking district's a bit out of the way, isn't it?

[ablarc]

what's it like? meatpacking district's a bit out of the way, isn't it?
A bit of a crosstown walk from the subway. Really nice when you get there. If you're there at 6 a.m. you'll see blood on the sidewalk and carcasses on meathooks. Go at 5:30 p.m. and you'll think you're in Paris, with the boutiques, the cobbles, the complex intersections and the glitzy watering holes. My favorite for people watching: the outdoor seating at Markt. You can watch them on the outside or connect at the bar.

There's also some slick modern architecture in among the decrepit meat-packing joints.

No wonder folks like it; it's the city the way it ought to be.

[antinimby]

Downtown Hotel on Greenwich Street in TriBeCa nearing completion

http://www.cityrealty.com/graphics/uploads/1149108297_nmoorgreen.gif


31-MAY-06

The newest building on Greenwich Street in TriBeCa looks like one of its oldest.
It is the 8-story Downtown Hotel at 377 Greenwich Street on the southeast corner at North Moore Street.

The brown-brick building is nearing completion and is distinguished by its stunning curved, multi-paned corner windows, its huge skylights at its southern and eastern corners, and its very fine masonry detailing.

The hotel has been designed by Matt Markowitz Architects P.C., and Ed Kopel Architects P.C.

It occupies the former site of a parking lot across from the extremely attractive Independence Plaza North red-brick and striated concrete complex of three towers that was erected in 1975 and designed by Oppenheimer, Brady & Vogelstein and John Pruyn.

The hotel will have about 100 rooms and an arcaded courtyard as well as a 300-seat restaurant. Its lobby will also be connected to the adjacent TriBeCa Grill.

Copyright © 1994-2006 CITY REALTY.COM INC.

[milleniumcab]

I am surprised they did not go higher.. was it the zoning?

[lofter1]

Tribeca West Historic District -- height limitations, but variances are available to some degree.

There is a bit more height (set back) that can't be seen in this photo.

The detailing on this building is terrific.

[kurokevin]

Yes, everytime I jog pass this building I'm surprised to see that it hasn't been there for over a 100 years. This is a brick buidling done to perfection. If only the rest of the developers could invest the little extra time and money to make their developments looks so spectacular

[antinimby]

This project was heavily subsidized with Liberty Bonds.

[lofter1]

Not everyone is a fan ...

'Contextual' Tribeca hotel looks like an overbaked cookie

Tribeca_Trib (http://www.tribecatrib.com/newsjuly06/letters.htm#1)
Letters to the Editor
July 2006

To the Editor:

Along with idling limos, another kind of pollution continues to inflict Tribeca: “contextual” architecture. The latest example is the hotel nearing completion at North Moore and Greenwich Streets, designed by Matt S. Markowitz Architect and SK Architecture. Though part-owned by the developer Robert De Niro, the project received $45 million in Liberty Bonds. Why is a De Niro luxury hotel getting such subsidies? Where’s our affordable housing?

For a long time the building was wrapped à la Christo and I waited with curiosity for the unveiling. My first thought on seeing the naked edifice was, “It’s edible!” The texture and color is that of an overbaked cookie. I imagined a crowd of old Tribeca dwellers—artists who have been ousted from their lofts—encircling the hotel and munching on it until it was reduced to a pile of crumbs. The brick cladding, aside from the more carefully worked neo-Tudor sections, is so crudely laid that in places the mortar is half as wide as the bricks. Parts of the walls are smudgy, and there are even pieces of brick missing. Pink corking fills some of the gaps. It’s “meant to look old,” but the brick walls of old Tribeca buildings are laid with perfect uniformity, their surfaces flat. Of course, unlike its old neighbors, the hotel building isn’t actually constructed of bricks; the bricks are slapped onto the steel and concrete shell, and that’s one of the basic absurdities of Tribeca “contextual.”

The rough bricklaying looks odd next to the industrial, modern windows, especially the penthouse atrium window tucked at the south end, and the curved curtain of windows on the street corner that looks like plastic, not glass. The lumpy, curved corner makes the building a cousin to the 1990s Tribeca Grand Hotel, not a relative of Tribeca’s typically angular geometry. As for mitigating factors, as far as I know the hotel isn’t green, as its surface rusticity might suggest—no solar cells or geothermal heat. Just another luxury development, partly subsidized by the taxpayer.

Contrary to the historic district’s mandate, few of the new Tribeca buildings look well built, much less well finished. Go make a close inspection. Most of these creations stand out as clumsy interlopers because their concept is a fakery, and has nothing to do with architecture as an art. Nothing to do with function, either. The North Moore hotel evokes anything but Tribeca, parts of an Edward Luytens’ country house perhaps, minus the quality. A contemporary building on Hudson Street near Franklin fits better with the surrounding buildings. The “contextual” has been discredited in other countries such as Britain where it’s now rightly seen as a disaster for architecture.

Maybe what we need is a City Architect, as in Barcelona and now London, someone who can watch over the quality of new architecture in New York. That would be the end of the anti-architecture clique whose nonsensical interpretation of Tribeca’s history results in follies like the North Moore hotel.

Carole Ashle

[kz1000ps]

It occupies the former site of a parking lot across from the extremely attractive Independence Plaza North red-brick and striated concrete complex of three towers that was erected in 1975 and designed by Oppenheimer, Brady & Vogelstein and John Pruyn.

Since when does Cityrealty do sarcasm? Surely they can't be serious.

[pianoman11686]

I think the better question is: when haven't they used either "attractive" or "handsome" to describe an existing building across the street from a new development?

[kidda]

has this hotel opened yet? Is there a website address, i cant seem to find anything else about it.
Cheers, Shaun

[antinimby]

^ I don't think so.
Saw it in person last week and it looks like they're still working on the interiors.

I don't like the way it looks, especially the poop-colored bricks.

[ZippyTheChimp]

http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/7436/377hotel01cqb9.th.jpg (http://img361.imageshack.us/my.php?image=377hotel01cqb9.jpg) http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/1401/377hotel02cxh5.th.jpg (http://img361.imageshack.us/my.php?image=377hotel02cxh5.jpg).

[pianoman11686]

Already looks somewhat aged. This building's an (almost) perfect fit.

[GreenwichBoy]

4/8/07

[pianoman11686]

May 2007

New De Niro hotel shakes off dust, fuss

Downtown project to open $400-a-night rooms this summer

By Catherine Curan

The long-awaited Greenwich Hotel is set to open this summer. The only people flocking to megastar Robert De Niro's new hotel right now are men in hard hats -- but the glitterati should get ready.

Along with Richard Born, Drukier is De Niro's partner in the $43 million project at the corner of Greenwich and North Moore streets. Though it has widely been referred to as the Downtown Hotel, Drukier says that was never intended as its name; the project is called the Greenwich Hotel after the street on which it sits.

The Greenwich, which is geared toward the luxury market, will have 89 rooms. Drukier says he is still setting room rates but expects them to be "fair for the product," in the $400 range or higher.

A celebrity-backed hotel naturally needs a star-magnet restaurant, and Drukier has inked a leasing deal for a New York outpost of Los Angeles hot spot Ago. De Niro has a long-standing relationship with Ago, since he -- along with the Weinstein brothers -- backed Ago's namesake chef, partner Agostino Sciandri, for the launch of his L.A. trattoria.

According to reports, the New York Ago's ceiling will sport several million wine corks. Drukier declined to comment on the restaurant's interior design.

De Niro's relationship with Ago is not the actor's only venture into the restaurant business. He partnered with chef Nobu Matsuhisa and restaurateur Drew Nieporent for the opening of wildly popular Nobu in 1994, which has since spawned a worldwide empire of restaurants featuring Nobu's signature Japanese-South American fusion cuisine.

De Niro also co-owns Tribeca Grill at 375 Greenwich Street, next door to the new hotel site, and has invested in other projects in the neighborhood. The Tribeca Film Festival, which he co-founded in 2002 to pump up the area's economy after Sept. 11, is based at 375 Greenwich, as well.

Drukier insists the delays in converting the Greenwich Hotel from an active construction site to an up-and-running business are nothing unusual, noting that his previous hotel projects also have endured delays.

Born and Drukier are partners in BD Hotels, which owns 15 hotels in Manhattan, for a total of more than 4,000 rooms. Their boutique hotels include The Mercer, The Chambers and Hotel Elysee.

"We'll open the hotel when we're comfortable with a hotel that looks the way we want it to," says Drukier.

Yet the Greenwich's look has been a major source of controversy. After winning Landmarks Preservation Commission approval in 2003 for one design, Drukier decided he wanted a taller building. That plan raised hackles on the commission, forcing a reduction in height. Architect David Rockwell's brown brick exterior is meant to blend in easily with older brick structures in Tribeca, while the building's curved corner is a nod to modern design. But critics have derided the effort at contextualization. Online and in print, they have compared the Greenwich's brown brick to "an overbaked cookie" and worse.

Drukier says he is comfortable with the look. He adds that his company develops hotels of various designs, and felt this one worked well for this address. "I don't have [overly] grand visions of hotels," he says.

As Drukier's construction crews race to finish the project, industry experts say the Greenwich is likely to benefit from the strong overall climate for hotels in Manhattan. According to Smith Travel Research, occupancy levels for luxury hotels held steady at 84 percent in 2006 and 2005.

Last year's average daily rate for this segment, which has 56 properties with a total of 19,920 rooms, was $371.

The Downtown location may also be a boon to the Greenwich. Rebuilding at the World Trade Center site is expected to increase demand for hotels Downtown. The Greenwich is only about half a mile north of the site.

"Ultimately the big hole in the ground is going to see some massive development and a memorial tied into the whole thing," says Daniel Lesser, senior managing director and industry leader in the hospitality and gaming group at CB Richard Ellis. "It may not be politically correct to say this, but Lower Manhattan is going to be defined as a worldwide tourist destination, and that's going to be huge."

Drukier is quick to point out that he and his partners were interested in building in Tribeca before Sept. 11.

"It wasn't like only after Sept. 11 did we think of doing a hotel here," he says. "This is a good neighborhood."

One certainty, however, is that Drukier and his partners scored massive financing incentives in the form of $38.9 million in tax-free Liberty Bonds that the government offered after Sept. 11. These bonds were part of a federal program to assist areas that suffered economically after the Sept. 11 attacks.

These bonds help offset the high cost of hotel development. Excluding land, it can cost more than $800 a foot to outfit a hotel, with land costs in New York City adding another $300 to $400 per foot.

"You're talking $1,200 a foot before the developer is making much," says Sean Hennessy, chief executive officer of Lodging Advisors. "The De Niro hotel received substantial municipal sweeteners. That goes a long way toward making a project work."

Copyright © 2003-2007 The Real Deal.

[ZippyTheChimp]

http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/9371/377hotel03cpy8.th.jpg (http://img63.imageshack.us/my.php?image=377hotel03cpy8.jpg) http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/5221/377hotel04chc7.th.jpg (http://img507.imageshack.us/my.php?image=377hotel04chc7.jpg) http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/1513/377hotel05cbw2.th.jpg (http://img507.imageshack.us/my.php?image=377hotel05cbw2.jpg) http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/5504/377hotel06cbo7.th.jpg (http://img507.imageshack.us/my.php?image=377hotel06cbo7.jpg)

[lofter1]

The new Greenwich Hotel ^^^ looks terrific at street level while walking by along the sidewalk out front ... really good materials and workmanship there.

[RandySavage]

This building turned out spectacularly well. It's worth checking out in person.

[Foomanchu]

The company I work for built the lion's share of that hotel (Magnetic Const). Shawmut was also involved, but mainly for the restaurant portion. The building was supposed to be completed about 2 years ago. The interior has really been coming together lately. The lobby must be seen. There is a vaulted interior glass "skylight" that provides light via hundreds of low voltage bulbs laid into it. The woodworking and finish carpentry is nicely detailed not only in public areas but also in the rooms. There are twin double-floored suites at each corner of the building (where the window walls are in the photos) and a penthouse on the top level that has an outdoor hot tub with surrounding decked areas in mahoghany. There's a pool on the basement level, too. A beautiful interior courtyard spills out from the bar and study. The wood floors were designed to squeak when walked upon in order to add to the aged look of the overall structure. I would love to stay there someday but I doubt I'll be able to afford the penthouse--word was at one time that Bobby was thinking of taking that for himself.

[RandySavage]

When I walked by I thought it was just an extensive refurb of an existing 1930s building. Once it's finished someone with a better camera than I have needs to do a photo tour. This is the rarest of the rare, a crafted Manhattan building in 2007. The quality of the craftsmanship here makes 15 CPW look like the Barclay Tower.

[GreenwichBoy]

This project screams out TriBeCa! I can not wait for the grand opening!

[ZippyTheChimp]

This is the rarest of the rare, a crafted Manhattan building in 2007. And they planted cherry trees out front.

[brianac]

After penthouse built too big, DeNiro's hotel up for review

By Matt Dunning
POSTED JUNE 13, 2008

http://www.tribecatrib.com/photos/news/june08/deniro.jpg
http://www.tribecatrib.com/photos/news/june08/captions/deniro.gif

Robert DeNiro and partners still have a ways to go, but they cleared an important hurdle June 12 in their efforts to legalize unapproved construction of a lush penthouse on their new Downtown Hotel.

In 2004, city agencies and Community Board 1 members signed off on plans for the hotel at 377 Greenwich St., including designs for a two-bedroom penthouse suite on top of the new building. The penthouse, which is nearly complete is more than 1,100 square feet bigger than what developers were told they could build. The penthouse roof is also steeper than designs originally indicated it would be, and is thusly more visible from the streets below.

Now, developers have to back through the gauntlet of getting their hotel approved, only this time, they’ve got to answer the additional question of why the building doesn’t match the plans.

Developers of the building appeared before CB1’s Landmarks Committee to explain what happened and seek the committee’s advisory approval. Ira Drukier, who owns the building with DeNiro, said plans for the hotel were altered after developers met with the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), days before the project was in front of the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA). The BSA approved the penthouse as built, as did CB1’s Tribeca Committee, but Drukier said developers failed to get the new penthouse plans approved by either the LPC or CB1’s Landmarks Committee

“We didn’t come back here, and that was a mistake,” Drukier said. “We’re trying to get this resolved.”

The procedural misstep notwithstanding, Drukier said the hotel’s developers believe both CB1 and the Landmarks Commission would have approved the new penthouse had they seen the plans before it was built.

“We don’t find that this is a major change to the entire project,” he said.

http://www.tribecatrib.com/photos/news/june08/denirohotelbuilt.jpg
http://www.tribecatrib.com/photos/news/june08/captions/greenwich.gif

DeNiro, who also is a partner in the Tribeca Film Center and Tribeca Grill next door, said he thought the building, as it stands now, epitomizes the character of the neighborhood and that the penthouse, unapproved though it may have been, didn’t impose on that character.

“I said if I’m involved with something [in Tribeca], I wanted to make it something special,” DeNiro said in brief remarks. “Personally, I find a lot of the buildings in the neighborhood to be not so great.”

Committee members supported the developers in convincing fashion, agreeing that the increased size didn’t detract from the overall aesthetic of the building.

“[The developers] certainly have added to the neighborhood,” committee member Noel Jefferson said. “I don’t have any bad comments. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love the hotel, and we really appreciate the time and care that you took to make sure that the design is in keeping with the area.”

Committee chairman Michael Connolly made it a point to say that DeNiro’s contribution to the neighborhood was not relevant to the board’s decision.

“I think it’s simply a question of legalizing a mistake which shouldn’t have been made, but which has minimal effect on the appearance of the building,” Connolly said.

Public committee member Brian Lutz disagreed, intimating he believed the hotel’s developers were the beneficiaries of a double standard, largely because of who owned the building.

“The bottom line is, [they] overbuilt it without having to go through what has to happen,” Lutz said. “I’m a small builder, and I suffer every time I go to the Buildings Department.”

The next step for the hotel’s developers will be to appear before the Landmarks Commission Tuesday, June 17. LPC spokeswoman Lisi De Bourbon wouldn’t comment specifically on the Greenwich Street hotel, but said the commission would not approve anything it did not believe was consistent with its intent for the neighborhood. At worst, the commission can force developers to tear down the penthouse and start over.

“That has happened in the past,” DeBourbon said. “If it’s illegal, and it’s entirely visible, that would be circumstance enough to ask the builder to modify it or tear it down.”

While the LPC can’t impose any monetary penalties, Drukier said having to knock down the penthouse and start over would be financially punitive measure in and of itself, adding that it would cost an estimated $1.5 million to rebuild the rooftop suite. In 2006, the commission ordered the destruction of another illegal penthouse on top of the Skylofts tower at 145 Hudson St.

Matt Markowitz, the project’s chief architect, said it would take at least a few months to get through the approval process. If the LPC signs off on the new design, the developers’ next stop would be a hearing with the city’s Department of Buildings.

http://www.tribecatrib.com/news/newsjune08/denirohotel.html

The Tribeca Trib · 401 Broadway, 5th Floor · New York, NY · 10013 · 212.219.9709

[brianac]

De Niro Asks Landmark Board to Spare His Hotel’s Penthouse

By MICHAEL WILSON (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/michael_wilson/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
Published: June 18, 2008

Robert De Niro (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/robert_de_niro/index.html?inline=nyt-per) asked the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday to approve a penthouse atop his new Greenwich Hotel in TriBeCa that is bigger and bulkier than the design the commission approved in 2004.

Mr. De Niro’s appearance in the commission’s office in the Municipal Building on Tuesday was part of a plea by the hotel’s developers, including himself, to legalize, or retroactively approve, additions and changes to the original design of the penthouse.

The hotel opened in April at 377 Greenwich Street, at North Moore Street, and the nightly rates for its 88 rooms begin at $525, according to its Web site.

Several people, including Mr. De Niro, spoke in support of allowing the penthouse to stand as is. “We worked on this project a long time, to make it as good as we could make it, and make it a place that I want to stay in,” Mr. De Niro said.

“It was a labor of love,” he added. “We’ve really worked quite hard on it, and so anything that would be offensive would be offensive to me.”

The commission has the authority to demand that the penthouse be torn down. But while several commissioners called for changes, its complete removal seemed unlikely.

Neighbors and commissioners alike praised the hotel’s exterior design, which matches the neighborhood’s cobblestone-and-brick character. But the design of the penthouse and, in particular, its roof, was criticized for being larger and steeper than approved. Mr. De Niro, who spoke for about a minute, apologized for the discrepancies.

“If there are any minor little mistakes, my apologies for it,” he said, “because in any creation there are those things, and we hope that they’re not in any way misconstrued as being wrong or that we can do it because we want to do it. We want to do what’s right for the neighborhood.”

Among a handful of neighborhood supporters was another actor (and writer and director), Edward Burns (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/edward_burns/index.html?inline=nyt-per), who lives across the street and whose apartment looks down on the penthouse.

“The building is beautiful and, for me as a layperson, architecturally beautiful,” Mr. Burns said. “There’s nothing about what I can see, which is the entire penthouse, that’s offensive in any way.”

Critics included Nadezhda Williams, an associate at the Historic Districts Council, who said the design of the roof had changed from being hipped, or sloping, to a steeper mansard design.

“It might be understandable that a few mistakes had been made,” Ms. Williams said. “However, simply put, this is not the penthouse that the commission approved. It is larger and closer to the edges of the building, and the roof line is mansard rather than hipped, making it more visible. It makes it appear more residential and fussy than industrial or a mechanical-style rooftop addition that is normally found on TriBeCa rooftops.”

The commission’s chairman, Robert B. Tierney, asked the developers to study a possible “tweaking” of the penthouse to bring it closer to the plan that was originally approved.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/nyregion/18hotel.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[lofter1]

Poor Bobby ...

There was another non-compliant PH in Tribeca where the LPC forced complete removed / recontruction (when the PH was completed it was too tall and did not comply with the plans which had been approved).



De Niro Asks Landmark Board to Spare His Hotel’s Penthouse

... “We worked on this project a long time, to make it as good as we could make it, and make it a place that I want to stay in,” Mr. De Niro said ...

“We’ve really worked quite hard on it, and so anything that would be offensive would be offensive to me.”

... “If there are any minor little mistakes, my apologies for it,” he said, “because in any creation there are those things, and we hope that they’re not in any way misconstrued as being wrong or that we can do it because we want to do it. We want to do what’s right for the neighborhood.”

[lofter1]

Mr. DeNiro's new hotel is not having the best of luck.

The NY Times recently gave the restaurant there -- "AGO" -- a scathing review ...

No Trouble Drawing a Crowd

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/06/11/dining/11rest-600.jpg
Robert Wright for The New York Times
TUSCAN TERRA COTTA - Ago, in the Greenwich Hotel in TriBeCa, serves dishes from Northern Italy.

NY TIMES (http://events.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/dining/reviews/11rest.html?scp=1&sq=ago+deniro+restaurant+review&st=nyt)
By FRANK BRUNI
June 11, 2008

Ago (Rating: Poor)

BECAUSE our 8:30 p.m. table at Ago wasn’t ready by 8:51, we were still at the bar when the great wave of white wine crashed over it.

I’m talking about the “Poseidon Adventure” of wine spills. Shelley Winters could have done the backstroke in it. I’m not sure how the bartender set it in motion, and neither was he. He kept marveling at its fury and aftermath: my friend’s wine-splashed chin, her wine-soaked skirt, her wine-sopped entirety.

He apologized perhaps 639 times, and I wouldn’t recount the incident if that were the whole of it. Spills happen.

The following shouldn’t.

At 8:56, when he asked my friend if he could help out in any way beyond free drinks, she wondered if he could maybe see about our table for four. He bolted away for a prolonged huddle with the hostesses, who had noticed (and seemed to giggle) over the sauvignon tsunami, and with a manager. He was visibly pleading with them.

He returned at 9:02 with something less than disaster relief. Our table, he said, should be ready in 10 minutes. Never mind that we’d been told at 8:45 that we had five minutes to go. Never mind that Ago has some 110 seats, giving it more flexibility than many restaurants have.

We waited. And waited. One of the hostesses finally fetched us at 9:22. I’ll do the math: that’s 52 minutes after our reservation.

She led us to a round table little bigger than a bike wheel. When our four appetizers later arrived and claimed every square millimeter of it, the waiter audibly contemplated balancing a fifth, communal appetizer that we’d ordered on top of our wine glasses.

The table was pressed so close to a column that I couldn’t lower my right arm all the way, and if my wine-drenched friend leaned back in her chair, the column obstructed her view of me and mine of her.

For its soggiest customer, Ago had made available its sorriest real estate.

This restaurant isn’t in the hospitality business. It’s in the attitude business, projecting an aloofness that permeated all of my meals there, nights of wine and poses for swingers on the make, cougars on the prowl and anyone else who values a sort of facile fabulousness over competent service or a breaded veal Milanese with any discernible meat.

The one I had one night was pounded so thin that the breading on top met the breading on the bottom without pausing for much of anything in between. A vegan could have made peace with it.

Some of the other food passed muster. The best of the pizzas from Ago’s wood-fired brick oven had blistered, smoky crusts and thin sheets of decent Parmesan. An appetizer of burrata was suitably creamy, and a juicy T-bone — cooked, like the pizzas, in the brick oven — satisfied the steak lover in me.

But this restaurant in the new Greenwich Hotel in TriBeCa doesn’t concentrate its energies on quality or consistency. It’s content to be a deafening “hot spot,” which is how it’s identified in the headline atop its inaugural press release, and when you’ve got the heat and the crowd is standing-room-only, why sweat the raw artichoke salad? The paltry artichoke was hard to find among all the frisée, and Shelley could have done the freestyle in the dressing.

Ago’s principal owners include the chef Agostino Sciandri — the restaurant, pronounced AH-go, is named after him — and the actor Robert DeNiro, who treated TriBeCa much better with Nobu. They teamed on an initial Ago in West Hollywood, another in South Beach and yet another in Las Vegas. New York is getting their sloppy fourths, emphasis on sloppy.

They poured some money into the place, which occupies a corner space with grand windows. The reclaimed wood in the beams on the high ceiling is from the 1800’s. The mirrors are antique glass. With columns bedecked in marble and a floor of terra cotta from Tuscany, the trattoria wears Prada, or whatever the decorative equivalent is.

The menu is divided into antipasti, pasta dishes (along with risotto and gnocchi), pizzas and main courses of fish and meat.

It has stabs of ill-advised invention, like a starter of gummy juniper-smoked swordfish with misshapen, oddly frayed wedges of orange and other citrus.

It has usual suspects, like spaghetti (overcooked) with clams (slightly gritty), or grilled branzino (moist, though bland) with sauteed spinach.

Apart from gnocchi with a robust lamb ragu, most of the pasta dishes — much more expensive and less reliable than those at Morandi, say, or Gemma — were on the bland side. And no pig should perish for a pork chop as dry as one at Ago.

Desserts were dead-on one night, dead ringers for Sara Lee another. Stick with the terrific gelato, made in-house.

Brace yourself for confusion.

I called in early May for a reservation in early June and was informed that everything between 6 and 10 p.m. was booked. I called a few days later to ask anew about the same dates and was informed that reservations weren’t yet being taken for that time period.

A sommelier chided me for ordering wine bottle No. 199, saying the number didn’t exist. Wrong: it was there, but the restaurant had inexplicably put it after No. 200 on the expensive list.

A food deliverer conflated veal and lamb into some hybrid beast, the juveniles of two species in one. This happened on a night when my companions and I waited 26 minutes past our reservation time. Our appetizers included a pasty tuna tartare.

Then came an entree that perplexed us, a pale slab of meat with one long bone.

“What is this?” asked one of my friends.

“The special veal chop,” said the food deliverer.

“But I ordered rack of lamb,” my friend said. I had heard him.

“Yes,” said the deliverer. “That’s rack of lamb.”

My friend pressed: which was it?

“It’s the special rack-of-lamb veal chop,” the deliverer said, at which point we sought deliverance from him and searched for our frequently vanishing waiter, whom I had come to think of as the bucatini Houdini.

When he reappeared, he identified the meat as veal. He insisted that rack of lamb couldn’t have been among the specials he’d recited because the restaurant wasn’t even serving it. My friend and I were apparently in the grip of the very same auditory hallucination.

He offered to bring us something else, but we stuck with the veal. It wasn’t half bad.

When we left we noticed him squabbling with nearby diners. They were telling him he’d mucked up their order, and they looked miserable.
They had clearly gotten the hang of the place.

Ago - RATING POOR

In the Greenwich Hotel, 377 Greenwich Street (North Moore Street), TriBeCa; (212) 925-3797.

ATMOSPHERE A theatrically large and expensively accessorized trattoria.
SOUND LEVEL Bring earplugs and ibuprofen.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Burrata, pizza with Parmesan and arugula, gnocchi with lamb ragu, T-bone steak, hazelnut and almond semifreddo, gelato.
WINE LIST Mostly Italian, and mostly expensive.
PRICE RANGE Dinner appetizers and pizzas, $10 to $18; pasta dishes and entrees, $19 to $44; desserts, $10 to $12.
HOURS Dinner from 5:30 to 11 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and to midnight Friday and Saturday. Lunch from noon to 2:30 p.m. Monday to Friday and from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday. Brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.
RESERVATIONS For prime times call at least three weeks in advance.
CREDIT CARDS All major cards.
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS Dining room on street level; elevator to restrooms.

Copyright 2008The New York Times Company

[Fabrizio]

“It’s the special rack-of-lamb veal chop”

I love that.