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\n Photo-Illustration: Curbed; Photos: Getty, Sukjong Hong\n <\/p>\n
In this series, \u201cLooking to Settle<\/a>,\u201d Eddie Huang chronicles his search for a downtown restaurant space. In the previous installment, Huang suggested swapping his West Village pocket listing for a Lower East Side restaurant<\/a> with a potential business partner, the Dapper Gentleman.<\/p>\n It\u2019s possible for two chefs to arrive at the same dish, I said to myself when I noticed several restaurants serving skate wing<\/a> in a pool of sauce on a round plate in September. There are only so many combinations that fit the exact price point for a well-priced, chef-driven seafood entr\u00e9e in any given neighborhood below Houston, so I wasn\u2019t too surprised to see that more than one chef had been inspired to offer a slab of fibrous bottom-feeding fish for under $30.<\/p>\n Not only was it possible, but perhaps even more likely, that more than one chef, broker, or restaurateur would arrive at the exact same location when it came to scouting for a spot at\u00a0the intersection between Chinatown, the Lower East Side, and Two Bridges. That\u2019s why it didn\u2019t surprise me when Roman mentioned that he was intimately involved with the lease at Casablanca and in fact was the one who got it for the Dapper Gentleman<\/a>. It actually made sense that all three of us had converged at this exact location.<\/p>\n After exploring Yummy Hive in the East Village<\/a> and the West Village pocket opportunity<\/a>, Casablanca felt like a Goldilocks situation. I wouldn\u2019t have to pay the $700,000 dollars or more to gut renovate a location like Yummy Hive, I got to stay in a neighborhood I understood, and the bones were there to do the biggest version of Gazebo as opposed to the West Village location that barely fit 70 people.<\/p>\n The only question left was whether I wanted to work with the Dapper Gentleman or not. While his restaurants were my aesthetic favorites and I enjoyed the crowds he attracted, there was an Amy Winehouse\u2013Ghostface Killah \u201cYou Know I\u2019m No Good<\/a>\u201d feeling to our relationship after all the false starts.<\/p>\n \u00a0Why you acting like you more trouble than Tony Starks, n\u2019 <\/p>\n \u00a0You need to just \u2018walk away\u2019 like Kelly Clarkson!<\/p>\n I wasn\u2019t sure whether he was busy, subconsciously curving me, or actively misleading me, but it didn\u2019t feel good.<\/p>\n About ten days after speaking about the restaurant swap<\/a>, his offer came in via email. The price to buy out the LLC holding the Casablanca lease was $500,000, plus equity for the Dapper Gentleman as my partner in the new venture.<\/p>\n \u201cOof, 500 is high,\u201d Noah immediately said.<\/p>\n \u201cFive hundred is less than 700,\u201d I responded like the driest martini.<\/p>\n \u201cSure, it\u2019s less than building out your own restaurant custom, but the key money is high for this location.\u201d<\/p>\n Noah wasn\u2019t wrong. We\u2019d seen several properties in the East Village and Lower East Side that were 2,000 to 2,500 square feet (comparable to Casablanca) with key money deals in the range of $150,000 to $250,000 tops. But price aside, I had a very specific vision for the dining room of Gazebo and this exact restaurant had been on the mood board.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the only location we\u2019ve seen where I wouldn\u2019t have to touch a thing and could open Gazebo right away,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t renovate this at all?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is literally my favorite restaurant interior besides Le Veau d\u2019Or<\/a> and the Russian Tea Room.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat? That\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI just like what this guy does.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHave you given any more thought to whether you want to partner with him?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure. I like being the No. 1 option in someone\u2019s life.\u201d And I knew that for the Dapper Gentleman, that wasn\u2019t me.<\/p>\n That weekend, Natashia and I took our son, Senna, to get a slice at Scarr\u2019s<\/a>. Living in Murray Hill, he eats a lot of chicken Caesar salad slices from NYC Pizza Kitchen and we figured it was time he had a more elegant slice.<\/p>\n We pulled up to Scarr\u2019s, which already had a line outside with someone yelling that dine-in was for full pies only. It made sense, but the little man in me simply didn\u2019t like being yelled at or told I couldn\u2019t do something like eat in the dining room so I convinced Natashia that it would be more enjoyable to eat on a Nissan Altima parked outside anyway.<\/p>\n Senna went crazy for the pepperonis on each slice so we fed him most of them, then ate what was left over. If you told 15-year-old me that I would be dining like this at the age of 43, I may have jumped off a bridge. But now that I have arrived at this point, I can honestly say these are the best moments of my life: giving someone else my pepperoni, satisfied to eat the cold leftover vehicle it came on as if it was a Nissan Altima.<\/p>\n I started thinking about it:\u00a0While putting my wife and family first delights me, the opposite was true at work. I\u2019m happy to do the most, pitch in where I can, and, many times, even do peoples\u2019 jobs for them, but it pisses me off when it\u2019s not reciprocated. Considering that the Dapper Gentleman and I were in the \u201cdating\u201d phase of our business relationship, I had to acknowledge the red flags.<\/p>\n All of these thoughts percolated in my mind as Natashia wiped Senna\u2019s hands and prepared him for the long march north to Murray Hill. After I buckled Senna back into his stroller, I stood up and saw Regina\u2019s in the background with Roman\u2019s family photos in the window. I felt the desire to believe everything Regina\u2019s was selling but stopped myself. I\u2019d watched so many people use the immigrant narrative or a vintage sign to sell everything from jarred sauce to tinned fish and knew not to believe the hype.<\/p>\n \n The family photos on the wall at Regina\u2019s.![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/a2ceea8348b488391558133c26140bf826-IMG-6207.rvertical.w570.jpg\")
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\n Photo: Sukjong Hong\n <\/p>\n