The Texas takeover of Dimes Square.
A Feed Me exclusive. 🤠
Hello everyone. You have five hours to suggest a book for me to read on my flight from New York to Portland, Oregon tomorrow.
Today’s newsletter includes: an interview with the new owner of Nine Orchard, a body horror film written by a makeup artist, newsrooms are now hiring “talent coaches,” New York Magazine hired The New Yorker’s social media editor, Vox’s smart investment in a fashion podcast, and more.
Yeehaw.
I first wrote about Nine Orchard, the stunning 14-story hotel on Canal Street in the former Jarmulowsky Bank Building, for New York Magazine in 2022. At the time, Ignacio Mattos (Estela, Altro Paradiso) was attached to the project, but he has since left the hotel’s restaurants. In the three years since the hotel opened, John Wilson has hosted screenings there, Vogue has hosted dinners there, Naomi Fry has hosted talks there, and I had my wedding there.
Here are some things I love about staying at Nine Orchard: they leave you warmed cookies in your hotel room at the end of the night (Sunset Tower and Castle Hill Inn also do this); it’s twenty steps away from either the walnut butter sandwich at Elbow Bread or a beer at Clandestino; the rooms are gorgeous and some of the showers have windows that face the street if you want to people watch; and I’ve never taken a meeting at Corner Bar that didn’t lead to better meetings.
Yesterday morning, I received news that ink dried on an acquisition of Nine Orchard by beloved Austin-based MML Hospitality (Clark’s Oyster Bar, June’s, Sammie’s). This is MML’s first East Coast project. Back in May, Feed Me got a tip about April Bloomfield doing consulting for Nine Orchard, which all makes sense now – around that time, Bloomfield joined MML as Executive Chef. Last night, I got a chance to speak to MML Hospitality’s co-founder Larry McGuire about his new Dimes Square property before he went out for celebratory martinis.
How did this property come onto your radar and what made you want to buy it?
It was just kind of coincidental. We were not looking to do anything in New York, let alone a project this big, but we heard through the grapevine that the sale was going to be a public process. We knew Andy Rifkin (MD at DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners, former owner of the hotel) through mutual friends and we're actually both partners in Ray’s. We reached out and got a tour and started chatting with Andy about it and it just kind of progressed from there.
We were pretty aware of the hotel and the design and the buzz and the culinary and everything. We’re been there as fans and so we were interested when we heard that it was maybe a possibility.
“I was living in New York off and on through my thirties and saw Dimes Square when it was just… Dimes.”
