Zabaristan Spring!

Eli Zabar may have shut down one potential competitor, but he can’t stop the inevitable march towards freedom:

High-end grocer Eli Zabar may have buried one proposed Upper East Side greenmarket, but another has sprung up only blocks away.

A Community Board 8 subcommittee voted 4-0 late Thursday to approve placement of a new greenmarket — which brings regional farmers and their produce to city dwellers — on 92nd Street and First Avenue.

Last month Zabar helped squash plans for a market on East 82nd Street and Madison Avenue because it would have provided too close competition for his stores E.A.T. on Madison Avenue and 80th Street, and Eli’s on Third Avenue and 80th.

At the latest meeting, Zabar was one of the voices against the new market, because of its proximity to one of his stores.

You Can’t Stop The Donald, You Can Only Hope To Contain Him

Trump takes SoHo:

Donald Trump’s newest addition to the Manhattan skyline may come in the form of a 45-story luxury high-rise on the sleepy eastern edge of Hudson Square.

The developer and reality TV star unveiled plans this week to construct the condo-hotel, which would have 400 rooms, at 246 Spring St. between Varick St. and Sixth Ave. Sean Yazbeck, the latest winner of “The Apprentice” — Trump’s reality show — will be given the reins for constructing the project, dubbed Trump Soho Hotel Condominiums New York, which could break ground before the end of the year. Trump’s team hopes to open the hotel’s doors in 2009.

“We’re trying to build something that will change the landscape of Soho,” said Julius Schwarz, executive vice president of the Bayrock Group, the managing partner in the project, which is also being developed by Tamir Sapir, the ex-cab driver who famously paid $40 million for the Duke Semans Mansion on Fifth Ave. Two of Trump’s children, Donald, Jr., and daughter Ivanka, will oversee the project with their father.

The luxury hotel, equipped with an outdoor pool, a 30-person screening room, restaurant and members library, will be more pied-a-terre than short-stay hotel. Geared toward the hip, wealthy, 30-something crowd, every unit in the Handel Architects-designed building will be sold individually to buyers who might live there year-round, from time to time or seasonally. All owners will be free to offer up their Rockwell Group-designed units as hotel rooms, if they so choose. If built, this will be the first all-condo-hotel of its kind in the city, said Schwarz.

“We really wanted to create something that had that hotel feel,” he said. “We wanted a place that people could go to and use room service.”

The neighbors can barely contain their excitement in welcoming The Donald to the mix:

But building the luxury condo-hotel may not be so simple. The area is zoned for manufacturing, which does not generally permit long-term-stay hotel uses.

“No way, they can’t do that here, it’s against the zoning,” said architect David Reck, chairperson of the Community Board 2 Zoning Committee.

. . .

Some nearby residents are less than thrilled to see a 45-story tower crop up in their neighborhood.

“It’s terrible. It’s an abomination in a low-rise neighborhood,” said Sean Sweeney, director of the Soho Alliance. But Sweeney doubts there is much that can be done to stop a tall building from coming — the law allows for large buildings there and the developers purchased the air rights from a nearby property to supplement the height.

“What can you do? There’s nothing you can do to stop it,” Sweeney said.

My Fist, Your Gastropub

The Villager takes an in-depth look at the closed* E.U. gastropub:

Last month, Giraldi tried opening with a bring-your-own-bottle policy. But this lasted just a day after the S.L.A. notified him that this was illegal without obtaining a license. (According to Bill Crowley, an S.L.A. spokesperson, only restaurants with 20 or fewer seats can operate B.Y.O.B. without a license; E.U. has more than 80 seats.)

Nevertheless, for a month, E.U. stayed open, and foodies flocked to enjoy its European-based cuisine, such as beef cheek with sauerbraten, branzino with paella and tea-marinated lamb chops with mint. E.U. was open all day and also served breakfast and lunch. The menu, based on what Giraldi calls “the best dishes of the mother countries of Europe,” has been cooked up by chef Gwenael Le Pape, a native of Brittany, formerly of Les Halles restaurant.

But without alcohol, it wasn’t profitable to stay open, and three weeks ago Giraldi closed E.U. — only temporarily, he hopes. Meanwhile, the tables remain set, complete with disposable brown-paper menus, and plates and wine glasses are neatly stored in their racks.

Giraldi has applied for a beer and wine license — a lower-level license — and expects a decision from the S.L.A. in as soon as a month. However, after the S.L.A. rejected E.U.’s application for a full liquor license in March, Susan Stetzer, Community Board 3 district manager, said the opponents would also oppose the beer and wine license.

“I don’t see anything different about it,” Stetzer said at the time.

. . .

In September 2004, E. Fourth St. between Avenues A and B was designated a moratorium area for new liquor licenses, meaning C.B. 3 issues an automatic denial for applications for both full liquor licenses and beer and wine licenses on the block. However, if the block association now decides to work with Giraldi, then C.B. 3 — while still issuing its automatic “No” recommendation under the moratorium — wouldn’t fight the application at the S.L.A., Stetzer said.

At the same time, it’s a little hard to see how the restaurant will be a raucous bar:

“I am a co-owner of 12 legitimate restaurants — not clubs, not bars — legitimate food establishments with legitimate, highly praised and acclaimed chefs,” [Giraldi] stressed. “That’s what turns me on: good food, good wine, good talk. And my places are usually closed well before what you would call ‘nightlife,’ and especially on weekends.”

Giraldi says his Gigino Trattoria in Tribeca, for example — unlike its more upscale neighbors, Nobu and Bouley — doesn’t cater to the black-car crowd from Uptown, but is a “neighborhood restaurant.”

His other restaurants include August, Diablo Royale, BREADTribeca, Jean Georges at Columbus Circle, Vong, Mercer Kitchen and Prime in Las Vegas. None of his restaurants have ever received any complaints from neighbors, he said.

*As reported by Florence Fabricant.

How Do I Like The Hawks? I Love All Hawks!

Lola and Pale Male, feeling the heat from the Zahns, have relocated to the West Side. Just one bit of advice — repeat after me, “I love the hawks! I love the hawks!”:

The city’s most famous red-tail hawks, Pale Male and his main chick, Lola, have apparently left their upper East Side roost for a fancy new perch atop the Beresford on the upper West Side.

“I love the hawks!” Seinfeld told the Daily News yesterday as he left his Beresford co-op and got into his silver Mercedes-Benz M350. “I can’t get enough of the hawks.”

Pale Male and Lola could be seen yesterday flying to and from their new address overlooking Central Park in the 22-story building’s rococo southeast tower. One of the birds appeared to have twigs in its beak, leading observers to believe they are building a nest.

Actress Glenn Close, who lives in the tony building on Central Park West, was surprised to learn of her new neighbors upstairs.

“What hawks?” Close asked The [Daily] News. “I love hawks.”

I Suppose This Means I’ll Be Taking That Whiskey Neat

Peter Meehan provides a thumbnail sketch of everything that is wrong with Manhattan restaurants:

It was the whipped cream routine that tipped the scales.

Our perky waitress at Ditch Plains dropped off our desserts and enthusiastically told us that the chef would deliver whipped cream for our pie to the table. She made the pronouncement with the wide-eyed expression and excited tone you might use when springing an impromptu field trip on a group of schoolchildren. Fun was on the way, she was telling us.

Then a harried cook sneaked past her, plopped a canister of supermarket whipped cream on the table and scurried back to the kitchen. Ta-da!

. . .

It’s unfortunate that the restaurant pairs that burger with its cafeteria-quality French fries instead of the freshly made sweet potato chips that accompany its lobster roll. The mayonnaise-rich salad of chopped lobster meat tumbling out of a buttered and toasted hot dog roll (side-sliced, not top-sliced, for those keeping score in Maine) is not exactly a bargain at $23, but that is what the market will bear.

Whether the market will bear some of the other prices the restaurant charges remains to be seen. Want ice in your whiskey? That’ll be $2 extra. How about a slice of American cheese on your burger? That will take the simple sandwich from the realm of the expensive ($12) to the absurd ($15).