Some Stuff That's Interesting

Patois, the Smith Street eatery that's historical in terms of the history of Smith Street eateries, will close on Sunday. [NY Times]

The truly historical Four Seasons is turning 50. [Eater]

Outlook for Hotel Pennsylvania is looking bleak again. [Observer]

Art Deco Metro Theatre will become an Urban Outfitters. [City Room]

The Emerald Inn on the UWS will not die after all. Yet. Thanks, as always, goes to the lousy economy. [NY Times]

The holdings the the late Gotham Book Mart have been given to the University of Pennsylvania. Which doesn't seem quite right. [The City Room]

Wha? Gotham Book Mark NOT Dead?

The Village Voice has published a tantalizing, sadistic (to us book lovers, anyway) story which seems to purport that the Gotham Book Mark has not rolled over for the last time.

"Something's cooking," one former employee told the Voice. Another talked of "important things happening." Lost City would love to believe that, but after reading the sad, depressing article in its entirety—a tragic tale of carelessness and crippling cluelessness on the Mart's owners sake—it's hard to hope that the genius used-book store will ever again rise from the dead, at least in as run by former owner Andreas Brown.

I still find the behavior of Brown's "friends," developer Edmondo Schwartz and former Estée Lauder chief executive Leonard Lauder, as damning as ever. Under the guise of saving their struggling friend and fellow book maven, Brown, they moved Gotham from its longtime home on Diamond Row to E. 46th Street, in a townhouse they owned. But instead of handing Brown the building as a gift (which would have marked them as true philanthropists), they charged Brown market rent and then got all legal about it when he didn't pay.

That said, Brown seems to have been a dreamy idealist with his head truly stuck in books; the kind of person who drives hard-headed businessmen like Schwartz and Lauder mad. He didn't know how to operate a cash register. He declines to sell valuable books, because he loved having them around more. Death was pounding at the door, but he was listening to WNYC cranked up to 10.

It was only a matter of time before the moneymen turned on him and the Mart. And turn they did. The book store's rare holding were sold at a Marshall's auction. It was a rushed affair, and one only gained entrance by paying a $1,000 refundable deposit. The lots were not itemized. Nobody had a chance to look at anything. In the end the goods fetched $400,000. The winning bidder? The landlord's lawyer, John (ahem) Faust. His was the first bid uttered. None managed to surpass him.

Makes you wonder if the Brown's rich friends moved him to a new home (a building they now plan to sell) as part of an elaborate plan to claim his trove of rare books for their own. Scheme of not, that's how it turned out, isn't it?

The Book Mart and the Billionaires

An article in the New York Times today about the dire straits the Gotham Book Mart has gotten into made this reader's head spin. Only in the world of New York real estate can trouble take such a byzantine form.

Let's take the simple things first. Andreas Brown, the owner of the GBM, owes $500,000 in back rent, taxes and the like. OK. Because of this, his landlords are trying to evict him. Right. Those landlords are Leonard Lauder, the billionaire of the Lauder cosmetics fortune, and Edmondo Schwartz, a real estate developer (who is not identified specifically as a billionaire, so let's play it safe and call him a millionaire).

But, wait. Lauder and Schwartz are apparently the same secret duo that snatched Brown's fat out of the fire two years ago by buying a $5.2 million townhouse at 16 E. 46th Street and letting GBM move in and lease the space a year after Brown sold the Mart's original home a block to the north. Wha? Who? These are the good souls that saved Gotham Book Mart, but now they're the guys kicking it out onto the sidewalk? What happened? Did they have a fit of humanity and are now back to their old selves?

OK, before you feel sorry for these poor bilked little moneymen and the half a mil they lack to line their pockets, consider two important words. One: billionaire. Lauper is a friggin' billionaire. That means billions of dollars. Does he really need that $500,000 thou? And Two: lease. These two save their friend and his treasured shop by buying a townhouse and THEN LEASING IT TO HIM?! Hey, jackasses—you're plutocrats! Don't show your generosity and friendship by being a nickle-and-dime landlord. Just GIVE Brown the building. He's 73, and trying to keep an irreplacable business alive.

Bet you guys dock your kids' allowance when certain chores are left undone.