From 1986 to the summer of 1999 Borocco Restaurant (below Canal on West Broadway) was a favorite art world hang out in the heyday of the Mary Boone-Schnabel-Fischl-Salle-Basquiat, rein of power. A time forever, memorably etched upon the minds of those that caught a taste of the opulence and chest-pounding heroics of it all. Signifying the premature optimism of the Miami scene in general in the mid- to late 1990’s, in-between his first two NY projects, owner Danny Emerman opened a Borocco Beach for three years in Florida before he folded it. When the art world picked up and retrenched in Chelsea, so did the venerable eating establishment under the new guise, Bottino (opened for business in June of 1998). The food at Bottino on 10th Avenue, between 24th and 25th streets, is as consistent as the décor is subdued 1950’s style simplicity. The restaurant is a kind of up-scale art world cafeteria, where you can be sure to find anyone and everyone of significance from the self-important, to the important-important.
On the other hand, a cutting edge architectural leap is manifest in the just opened :bot Restaurant on Mott Street (south of Prince Street, near Little Italy) and Glass bar (due to open in early March, located across the street from Bottino on 10th Avenue and co-owned by Fernando Henao). Architect Thomas Leeser, a German based in New York, who also designed the Grunert/Gasser Gallery in Chelsea, designed both places. His style, as apparent from the latest two projects of restaurateur and bar entrepreneur Emerman, is tubular-techno, if that can used to characterize an environment. Four by eight-foot sheet-rock, the building block of wall construction in the States, was soaked in vats of water to render it pliable enough to be molded into the curvilinear walls that make up the new spaces. Tinted glass was handily used to create a fresh, contemporary ambience, with a hint of 60’s nostalgia; when the spaces are taken as a whole, they are akin to high tech Japanese subway cars. Glass being a bar is more palatable as an architectural exercise in innovation than the results of :bot, which, with its lime green walls and pink and orange accents, is almost disturbing at first. Though the meal was delicious and without complaints, the space is actually located outside with a tent-like cover and glowing heaters dropped from the ceiling above each table, which is as disconcerting as the colors. All in all, it’s a good place to show friends with an architectural bent and a strong stomach, that are into disquieting day-glo-otherwise, to Bottino and pop over to Glass for an after dinner drink.
Danny Emerman, owner of Bottino, Bot and Glass, could be the first restaurateur that built a business around the art world that didn’t sell paintings or build crates. Perhaps there was a bit of luck or a confluence of events that catapulted his Borocco to art world hyper status. Nevertheless, he consciously went after the art crowd with his move to Chelsea and deserves the position of court holder for the art elite.
Bottino: 246 10th Avenue (between 24th and 25th Streets). Hours: Tues. to Sat. lunch 12:00 – 3:30pm, Dinner: Tues. – Sat. 6:00 to 11:30; Monday 6:00 – 11:00, and Sunday 6:00 – 11:00. Telephone 212 206-6766; fax 212 206-6767, web: www.Bottinonyc.com
Bot: 231 Mott Street, Monday – Saturday 6:00 – 11:30. Phone and fax 646 613-1312. Web www.botmott.com Glass: 287 10th Avenue, 5:00pm – 3:00am, only cold food-light fare and appetizers such as cerviche and sashimi. No phone numbers since not open till March Specialties at the above: appetizer tuna tartre; penne with speck; and rack of lamb Thomas Leeser is from Frankfurt, and his information re: his building projects could be accessed at www.leeser.com. Please note he also designed Bottino.
Kenny Schachter