Last night was my cousin's birthday (happy 35th Eu!), so she decided to gather some friends for a casual birthday drink in our neighborhood, which is Harlem. My wife and I bought a brownstone on 123rd Street in the spring of 2007 with our cousins. We bought it from a developer who had just completed a gut renovation. He purchased it as a shell, added about 8 feet in depth to the back of the structure and a solarium and roof deck up top. Our cousins have the top 4 floors and we have the lower 3 floors. When we first moved to Harlem from the Upper West Side, we knew that we would miss all of the local restaurants and bars that we grown to love, but we also knew that with time, our new hood in Harlem would begin to see new and interesting nightspots open up. Well finally, it seems to be happening....
Last night we went to a wine bar on Frederick Douglass and 121st Street called Nectar. It has been open for about a year, and it is owned by the same people who own Harlem Vintage, which is a very nice wine store right next door. We showed up at about 8:30, and the place was packed. They have a nice light menu with plenty of choices to nosh on. Wine by the glass was any where from $10-14 , and they had one of my favorite beers, Sugar Hill. It was nice to see a local place doing business on a cold Wednesday night.
Another new restaurant, Chez Lucienne, just opened on the corner of Lenox and 125th Street. The guys who run it have a real restaurant pedigree, (one is from Daniel) and it is lactated on a very busy corner. Early reviews have been off the charts. My wife and I hope to check it out next week. I will report back once we have been there. i am a sucker for French bistros, so my guess is that we will become regulars.
Tonight I am meeting a client who wants to buy in Harlem at a bar that opened two months ago, called Orange 67.Street. It is also on Frederick Douglass, just north of 113th Street. It has a very downtown vibe, with very cool cocktails and a good bar menu. Tonight will be my first visit, so I will report back on this one too.
Harlem is starting to see some additions to the old standbys like Melba's and Moca. As a confessed NYC foodie, I am very psyched! Good thing we have a New York Sports two blocks away so that I can burn off all of the local calories I plan to ingest!!
Rich Bouchner
Managing Director
Commodore Property Group
Commodore Property Group's home page: www.cpg-nyc.com
My blog: www.gotham-realestate.com
Current Listings: CPG's Current listings
I am the owner of Commodore Property Group. l live in Harlem and work through out all of New York City. If you are looking for a condo, coop or brownstone in Harlem or any section of Manhattan or Brooklyn, please feel free to contact me.
Great post Rich. I Love NYC! I haven't been there for a over a year and already I am having withdrawals. You make me want to hit up those restaurants badly.
Thanks Winston. Harlem is starting to get it together. Let me know when you come back to NYC and I'll buy you a beer!
Those places have all received rave reviews. There are a few more new places to check out as well. We usually get the first scoop over on uptownflavor.com
I agree, uptownflavor is a good spot to see the latest info on Harlem.