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Briefing One
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26°C · Overcast
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New York · Thursday, 30 April 2026
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Good morning, New York. The city is spending five times as much to keep a family homeless as it would to house them.
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The Via Carota empire expands, Smorgasburg bets on the harbour, and the Guggenheim takes Thursday off.
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The $300-a-night price of keeping the keys.
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The Flatiron rescue
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The Flatiron Building has sat awkwardly empty since Macmillan Publishers vacated their offices in 2019. It survived a highly publicised auction process, a brief flirtation with residential conversion, and years of impenetrable scaffolding. Now, it finally has an anchor. The team behind Via Carota is building a Bar Pisellino outpost on the ground floor. Slated for 2027, it is a brilliant piece of commercial matchmaking. You do not reanimate the city's most photographed wedge of real estate with a corporate bank branch. You do it with an espresso bar run by the most successful hospitality duo downtown.
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Rita Sodi, 61, West Village
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She is half of the partnership, alongside Jody Williams, quietly defining how the city wants to eat. They do not chase trends. They build timeless rooms that instantly feel like they have been there for 40 years, and then they charge a premium for the familiarity.
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The shelter math
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Former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is now the CEO of Win, the city's largest provider of family shelter. In a new podcast interview, she laid out the math behind the CityFHEPS housing voucher program. Housing a person with a voucher costs the taxpayer $54 a night. Keeping them in a shelter costs $300 a night. The city spent $1.25bn on the program last year, but continues to stall on expanding access. The financial argument is unassailable. The political refusal to act is entirely a choice.
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| "The flat is fifty-four dollars. The other two-forty-six is for the clipboard." |
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The Michelin progression
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West Chelsea is getting an import. Billie Wannajaro’s East West Cuisine Hospitality Group, which holds Michelin recognition in San Francisco, is opening Hed NYC on West 23rd Street next month. Chef Piriya “Saint” Boonprasan is executing a $126 "Thai sharing progression" menu. The communal tasting format is a difficult balance to strike. You are either paying for intimacy or volume. Combining the two requires serious floor management.
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Billie Wannajaro, Restaurateur, Chelsea
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She is betting that New York diners are willing to share their main courses at a $126 price point. The West Coast has always been more comfortable with communal fine dining. Translating that posture to a Manhattan dining room is the actual gamble.
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