Steve Cuso is the great columnist at the New York Post best on restaurants, on real estate, on what's going on in New York. You can read all of his columns. Just go to the New York Post website. They're all up there. Steve Cuso, how you doing? Hey, good morning, Mark. Hey, if you read your columns, they say New York is dying, it's over, everybody's like, it seems like every two seconds, another big, glitzy restaurant is opening, another building is being built. What's the real deal? Yeah, well, it's a mixed picture out there. Yeah, there's a lot of new restaurants, and they're great. And, you know, the one I wrote about this week is called the cafe carmelini and it's been open a few

months fifth avenue and 28th street and it's a new hotel called the fifth avenue hotel and it's

andrew carmelini he's a great chef he was the guy at the loconda verde and uh uh the dodge all these

fun restaurants that have been very popular, Lafayette.

And this is his biggest and best yet.

It's just beautiful.

It's a 105-seat room that looks like it's twice as big.

It's a great design, high ceilings.

It feels like the 1980s, when there were all those giant restaurants you may remember in the

flat iron area.

Yeah.

And it's sort of a mix of Italian and French and American and it's just sensational.

And it's so popular that they were open five nights a week and about a starting two weeks

ago, they're now open seven nights a week.

That's how crazy busy it is.

But as you say, it's a new hotel.

This is the hot new neighborhood. I have no idea why. Nomad. It's like... Nomad, yeah. Madison Avenue and 23rd, 30. Who knows why this is... But didn't Ritz Carlton just open a big splashy hotel there? There's a giant Ritz Carlton a couple blocks away. there's a giant virgin hotel that's even newer.

They all have restaurants. There's a giant Ritz Carlton are a couple blocks away. There's a giant virgin hotel that's even newer.

They all have restaurants in them.

The old ace was turned into, I can't even remember the name now, and it's got an Italian restaurant.

And, you know, this is how the city changes and evolves.

So back when I first began writing about restaurants,

...