Crain's New York - April 29, 2013 - (Page 25)

INSIDE HELLUVA TOWN Source Lunch Janette Sadik-Khan looks to finish projects PAGE 26 Out and About Bike Expo New York Rockaway Taco comes back When Rockaway Taco opened in the summer of 2008, it quietly became a destination, drawing to the Queens peninsula crowds who had rarely ventured out there before. Then Sandy hit. “We haven’t stopped since the storm,” Andrew Field said, standing inside the tiny taco stand he co-owns on Beach 96th Street, one block from the boardwalk— or what remains of its ragged pilings. Half the kitchen equipment was strewn across the sidewalk. The electricity was turned on only last week, and the plumbers are just now finishing their work. Mash note Rama Chorpash’s spud smasher may be small potatoes economically, but he hopes it will lead to a renaissance in New York manufacturing. The Spiraloop is one of a handful of new locally made products that will go on sale at the MoMA Design Store starting mid-May. “I think the reason the potato masher was chosen is because it represents a new way to look at design,” said Mr. Chorpash, an assistant professor and director of product design at Parsons the New School for Design. “It’s truly a localized production, which is a radical idea.” Because the masher is designed as a single piece of surgical-grade, recyclable stainless steel that Mr. Chorpash described as “soft in the hand and feels like rubber,” the manufacturer, Lee Springs, did not have to make the gadget close to its supply chain in India, Mexico or China. In fact, proximity to end users made the company’s Brooklyn factory an ideal spot to create the $38 masher. —jeremy smerd STUDY FOR A PORTRAIT OF P.L. by Francis Bacon has not been seen in public since 1972. It is up for auction at Sotheby’s and is expected to fetch between $30 million and $40 million. State of the art courtesy of christie’s Even so, Rockaway Taco plans to reopen Friday, May 3. Mr. Field said the taco stand was fortunate. Blocked by two buildings and on fairly high ground, it took on only about three feet of water. Chalkboards hanging above the takeout counter are still intact, displaying last summer’s prices: $3 a taco. Worse off is the beach itself, which washed away entirely. Waves now lap at the base of the pilings, with nowhere for sunbathers to lay out their towels. The Parks Department insists the beach will be ready by Memorial Day, along with three concession stands Mr. Field and a number of other downhome restaurateurs operate. “We poured everything into those places, and everything got swept out to sea,” Mr. Field said. —matt chaban PAGE 27 Auction houses prep for sale of masterpieces, but are buyers ready to pay up? E SOLD! BY MIRIAM KREININ SOUCCAR ven though a number of rare masterpieces are up for auction starting next week during New York’s spring sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, the art world may be in for a letdown. ¶ Despite high-quality, prized works like Jackson Pollock’s The Blue Unconscious and André Derain’s Madame Matisse au Kimono, experts say the sales won’t garner nearly as much excitement as the auctions last spring or this past fall. ¶ The November contemporary-art sale at Christie’s brought in $412.2 million, the highest total ever, and Sotheby’s contemporary-art auction that same month totaled $375.1 million, the highest sale of any kind at the company. Last year at the May sale at Sotheby’s, Edvard Munch’s famous 1895 painting The Scream sold for $119.9 million, becoming the world’s most expensive work of art ever to sell at auction. ¶ “The Munch was of a certain iconic status and an image that has proliferated throughout our culture to a degree that was very difficult to match,” said Brooke Lampley, head of impressionist and modern art at Christie’s. ¶ No one is saying the auctions will See AUCTIONEERS on Page 26 be a bust. Experts predict strong demand for works at the evening sales Last November’s contemporary-art auction sales, in millions $412.2 CHRISTIE’S, a record for the firm $375.1 SOTHEBY’S, also a record April 29, 2013 | Crain’s New York Business | 25

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's New York - April 29, 2013

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
REAL ESTATE DEALS
SMALL BUSINESS
OPINION
GREG DAVID
REPORT: EDUCATION
THE LIST
FOR THE RECORD
CLASSIFIEDS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crain's New York - April 29, 2013