Crain's New York Business

Inarguably, New York City is one of the world’s top dining capitals. And maybe the best. But there are a handful of destination restaurants — many led by chefs who made their names in the city — transforming the culinary landscape outside the city's borders. Specifically, within a two-hour drive. They’re part of a wave of Manhattan chefs who have decamped upstate or seized seasonal opportunities in the Hamptons. But they’ve chosen less touristy areas in between and farther west, and into New Jersey, to establish themselves. One of those chefs is Sean Gray, who ran the world-renowned Momofuku Ko counter in the East Village for more than 14 years. Now he’s enticing guests with his hot take on his signature triple-fried chicken an hour and a half southwest of the city, in the charming town of Sergeantsville, New Jersey. For many of the chefs featured at the link in our bio — including Gray and Tony Scotto, who used to cook at the fancy, now shuttered Del Posto before moving north to Nyack — the decision to open a business outside the city was simple: They wanted to come home. “Cooking here feels personal,” Gray says. For years he thought about running a restaurant in the community where he grew up. Now he’s cooking what’s arguably some of the best food of his career. Read more at the link in our bio.

Inarguably, New York City is one of the world’s top dining capitals. And maybe the best. But there are a handful of destination restaurants — many led by chefs who made their names in the city — transforming the culinary landscape outside the city's borders. Specifically, within a two-hour drive. They’re part of a wave of Manhattan chefs who have decamped upstate or seized seasonal opportunities in the Hamptons. But they’ve chosen less touristy areas in between and farther west, and into New Jersey, to establish themselves. One of those chefs is Sean Gray, who ran the world-renowned Momofuku Ko counter in the East Village for more than 14 years. Now he’s enticing guests with his hot take on his signature triple-fried chicken an hour and a half southwest of the city, in the charming town of Sergeantsville, New Jersey. For many of the chefs featured here — including Gray and Tony Scotto, who used to cook at the fancy, now shuttered Del Posto before moving north to Nyack — the decision to open a business outside the city was simple: They wanted to come home. “Cooking here feels personal,” Gray says. For years he thought about running a restaurant in the community where he grew up. Now he’s cooking what’s arguably some of the best food of his career. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g3S3mkc8

Bryant Park management has asked a judge to boot out the Bryant Park Grill, which continues to operate a month after its lease expired. In a countersuit filed this week in New York state court, park officials asked a judge to send the sheriff to evict the popular restaurant. Bryant Park Corp. accused the Bryant Park Grill of defying the terms of its lease that ended April 30 after the nonprofit park operator refused to renew it. An attorney for the park, Bradley Silverbush, described Bryant Park Grill as an “unscrupulous and disgruntled former tenant” who “wrongfully refuses to vacate simply because they want to make as much money as they can.” Park officials have selected Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s enterprise to replace the 1,000-seat, 25,000 square-foot Bryant Park Grill after 30 years of business. The grill’s owner, Ark Restaurants Corp., has accused park officials of running a “sham” process to replace the restaurant that generated $31 million in revenue last year. The grill pays about $3 million in rent to the park, which gets no city money. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/guJua4RZ

The MTA is laying the groundwork to use eminent domain to acquire 18 properties in the Bronx and Westchester that are key to clearing the way for a $3 billion extension of the Metro-North Railroad to Penn Station. The MTA’s board this week approved Metro-North’s plans to acquire more than a dozen properties, mostly parking lots and low-rise commercial buildings, in the western Bronx and New Rochelle through negotiations with property owners, and if those talks fail, to take the parcels through eminent domain. The land is needed to build new rail infrastructure and stations in the Bronx — in Co-op City, Morris Park, Parkchester and Hunts Point — and transit officials are eager to “lessen the potential for future delays” to the megaproject, according to MTA documents. The Metro-North extension, known as Penn Station Access, is already grappling with delays transit officials say will likely push its completion date from 2027 to at least 2028. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gmkCMECk

The state Senate on Tuesday easily approved the land-use changes that Steve Cohen needs to have a shot at building his Queens casino complex. The lopsided 54-5 vote was a major victory for the billionaire New York Mets owner, whose hopes appeared dashed a year ago when a local lawmaker announced her opposition. Both the Senate and Assembly have now passed legislation giving Cohen permission to build on the 50-acre parking lot west of Citi Field, which is technically parkland that must be “alienated” by the state in order to be redeveloped. After an expected signature by Gov. Kathy Hochul, the $8 billion megaproject by Cohen and Hard Rock Entertainment will be cleared to compete for one of three lucrative downstate casino licenses that the state will award at the end of 2025. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ghnabvQB

State lawmakers want to restrict street parking to residents in parts of Brooklyn, joining a similar push on the Upper West Side as more out-of-town drivers are looking for spots to avoid the congestion pricing toll. Brooklyn Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon and Manhattan State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal are pushing a bill that would create a pilot program for residential parking permits in a mix of more than a dozen commercial and residential neighborhoods in western Brooklyn, including Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene. The idea is to charge local residents a fee for placards that would give them priority for curbside parking, and use that revenue to pay for running the program, permits for lower income residents and setting up short-term passes for motorists who are visiting locals, said Simon. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gZtXVzUU

Nobody likes paying taxes, least of all cash-strapped businesses struggling for their lives. That’s why a new business strategy has taken off over the past year in the legal cannabis trade: claiming exemption from a burdensome federal tax provision that has — until now — been effectively taxing much of the industry to death. Since early 2024, state-licensed cannabis companies in New York and across the country have been changing up their approach to filing and paying federal taxes — specifically to claim exemption to a little-known 1982 provision in the Internal Revenue Code called Section 280E — in a move that is saving many of them eight or nine figures apiece. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g8Fh3TzQ

The Rent Guidelines Board met recently for an unusual revote, lowering the preliminary range for a rent increase on two-year leases to a minimum of 3.75%. The board had previously approved a suggested range of 4.75% to 7.75% for the rent hike at a meeting in April. The final price bump for rent-stabilized units is subject to a final vote in June. About 45% of all city rental units are stabilized. Mayor Eric Adams said after the original vote that the high end of the preliminary range, 7.75%, would be too burdensome of an increase for tenants. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g5xZTUun

New York City has more workers than ever before. The total number of jobs in the city reached its highest level ever in April at about 4.9 million, up about 7,000 from March, according to a monthly report from the New York City Economic Development Corp. The pace of job growth locally, 1.5% over the past year, is faster than that of the state and the country as a whole, at 1% and 1.2%, respectively. The city has added 61,800 private sector jobs in the past 12 months, according to the EDC. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gp3yWy_a

Kathryn Wylde is retiring after a quarter century advocating for New York’s business sector, counseling mayors and governors and shaping key policies as president of the Partnership for New York City. Wylde, who turns 79 this year, announced Thursday that she plans to step down in June 2026 from the Partnership — the nonprofit consortium of finance, real estate and law firms that she has helmed since 2000. In an interview, Wylde said she wanted to make room for “a new generation of leadership.” “I’m going to be 80 next June. It’s only prudent,” she told Crain's. “It’s an opportune time.” Read more here: https://lnkd.in/guwBRA6P