Rappaport Retail Report

The daunting task of negotiating the maze of city agencies has gotten easier. As reported in the New York Times article of December 28, 2010, before opening, a new food business might have to face up to 11 different departments, and secure up to 30 different permits, registrations, licenses, and certificates, and pass 23 inspections. The New Business Acceleration Team helps new restaurateurs through the jungle of the permitting process.

According to administration officials, the 200 establishments serviced so far, have opened, on average, 10 weeks faster than planned. Nice, considering how little free time is often offered in a new lease. Currently the team is comprised of four inspectors, plus supervisors from agencies that issue permits, like the Depart of Health, Department of Buildings, Fire Department and Landmarks. The hope is that at one point there will be a single restaurant license that would replace all others. A long range goal is something like a Mayor’s Office of Hospitality.

NBAT works with qualifying businesses to schedule and coordinate most required inspections and, when appropriate, to schedule multi-agency inspections on the same day. For example, NBAT works with the Bureau of Fire Prevention to ensure the timely submission of plans and equipment documentation as well as provide inspections regarding range hood devices and other hazardous installations. NBAT inspectors are also trained to conduct Department of Environmental Protection grease interceptor inspections ensuring that grease traps are correctly sized to handle grease discharged by cooking and kitchen equipment. NBAT works with the Depart of Health to ensure that all food service establishments are properly permitted and operating safely. NBAT, and the Department of Buildings, work together to ensure the safe and lawful use of buildings and properties while facilitating the issuance of Certificates of Occupancy and Place of Assembly permits.

The ideal participants in this program are generally; new restaurants, bars, bakeries or butcher shops seating 50 people or less. Qualifying bars must serve food. However Batali’s mammoth Eataly found a way to be serviced. While a new venture, it is hardly a small place, and ownership is hardly inexperienced. As always, there is a way around certain limiting requirements. Therefore I suggest all who are opening a new food business to seek this valuable help. For complete information, as well links to the specific city agencies involved, go to: http://www.nyc.gov/html/nbat/html/about/about.shtml

Good luck- get picked and get open quick.

Get ready for the best new concept since Mac and Cheese elevated to cult status a few years back. Sources say that soon, Nocavore, the ultimate reaction to food pretension poised as politics, will be ready to go, in an undisclosed, downtown location. Promising “Nothing Nearby, Nothing Natural, Never” they hope to be a Mecca for the many recoiling from food as foreign policy.

Ingredients from the best brands will be represented, the real heirlooms; Kraft American cheese, canned fruit from Dole, and Ham from Hormel. The menu is yet to be announced, but Spam will be in there somewhere for sure.

Nocavore promises a refreshing return to simple dining. It looks to be a huge success. After all people vote with their feet, and resent being told what to eat.

By Steve Rappaport

Broadway between 33 to 23 streets is an emerging area that deserves the attention of forward thinking restaurateurs and retailers. It is a hodgepodge strip with no charm and plenty of low end mercantile activity. This is exactly the type of counterintuitive neighborhood, disdained and avoided, that Soho, Meatpacking, and Williamsburg once were. It has an interesting mix of buildings presenting a variety of opportunity. I call it LowBrow, a fittingly ironic name. Development has started, as noted in the link below. Nightlife, always the precursor to other growth, is already there to some degree. However the neighborhood is still in the first iterations of change. Therefore the risk/reward ratio resonates.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/realestate/14streets.html?ref=real-estate