527: The Unofficial Talent Scout of New York City with New York Nico

0:28This episode is brought to you by Resi and American Express. What's so great about these shops is they're always there. I know if I'm feeling down on a Tuesday at 12 p.m., I can go to Village Revival Records and hang out with my friend Jamal, who's the owner there. And he'll immediately brighten up my day and vice versa.

0:54This is Taste. I'm your host, Eliza Barbinell. Nicholas Heller, better known as New York Nico, calls himself the unofficial talent scout of New York City, with over a million followers tuning in on Instagram to see his video dispatches from his hometown. Only these days, he's getting a little more legit, recently publishing the best-selling book New York Nico's Guide to NYC. It's a true insider's guide to beloved community businesses across the five boroughs, from almost 200-year-old bars to new school pizza spots. Nico says it's not really a guidebook, but a document of a city in transition. And it's so special to have him into the studio to discuss.

1:40New York Nico, this is Tase. Thank you for coming on the podcast. Thank you for having me. Did you take your MTA-branded subway card to get here? It's not out yet. Oh. It'll probably be out by the time this episode airs, but. I saw the video announcing it like right this morning. And I got so excited picturing you like getting to use your own subway card. I have dummies in my pocket I can show you, but I don't have the real thing yet. What does it feel like to get the opportunity to do that? I mean, it's really cool. It seems kind of surreal because, I mean, I've been taking the subway my whole life.

2:17so the fact that uh i have my my own metro card um as they're like phasing phasing it out is is kind of a dream come true yeah did you have lots of different ideas about what you wanted to put on it um i mean the the i don't really show my face that often now that i'm like promoting the book i kind of have to which i kind of hate but um you know once once the the book press sort of winds down, I guess I can go back in the shadows. But so for that reason, like the, I knew that I didn't want myself on this card. I wanted to sort of spotlight some of my favorite New Yorkers. So you have like six or seven of some of my favorite people around the city, like Henry Yao from Army Navy Bag and Dave of Old Jewish Men and Big Time Tommy, Tiger Hood, Green Lady.

3:09So I kind of wanted to like dedicate it to them. yeah I feel like they're almost known characters in the New York Nico expanded universe at this point like as someone who follows you if I had to make a list of who I would imagine you would put on your subway card I feel like I would have put most of the people on there what does it feel like to be the hype man for people in that kind of way like they're all kind of celebrities in their own way now yeah I mean it feels good um I like making people happy um and they're always kind of, you know, no, I like championing, you know, kind of interesting New Yorkers.

3:46And

3:49yeah, I just, I don't know, they're, they're my friends. And I feel like they deserve sort of the spotlight and should be known by everybody as legendary. So, you know, why not put them on a card? Yeah, I think it really carries through from obviously your Instagram and the book itself, the way that you focus on people as the characters that are kind of driving our attention. And I want to talk a lot more about the book, but I guess first just to give a little bit of background, I'm curious if you have any food memories from growing up here in the city that you find is really kind of like core essential to your childhood.

4:22Yeah. Food memories. Well, I grew up in Union Square on 16th Street between 5th and 6th. And my mom is a graphic designer and she designed the logos for a lot of um sort of like iconic manhattan restaurants um one of which was a block away from me growing up called steak frite um i don't know if anyone remembers steak frite but it was like my favorite place to go to as a kid um i remember getting the steak the profiteroles for dessert um and my mom had like a a barter with them where we like didn't have to pay so that was really nice. And then next door or not next door across the street from Steak Free, it was Chat and Chew.

5:07I don't know if you guys remember Chat and Chew, but that was my first job. I was a waiter there. It was a really bad waiter, but my mom worked with the owner. So he kind of like gave me a job through nepotism and couldn't fire me. Why were you a bad waiter? I'm just like, I'm not good at I'm not good at it I'm like not good at carrying plates I'm not good at you know memorizing or writing down orders I can't really like pay attention to people when they're giving me like really you know complicated orders I once um there was like a kid or a kid and his mom and the kid was like super allergic to a certain food and like she tried to make sure that I didn't you know that I removed some ingredient and I didn't remove the ingredient it was like a huge deal and I felt horrible and that's kind of when I realized like I can't I can't be doing this anymore I can't and also I was like bringing all the other waiters down because I was super slow and it like slowed them down so but it was fun while it lasted I feel like it's really also nice to have the experience of like being on the other side of hospitality especially in a city like New York, where so much of our life is in restaurants and going to these spaces to have respect for a really good waiter, like after struggling with that, I think it's a really good perspective.

6:28For sure. Like I never, I mean, even before that, I never complained if like, you know, something wasn't right or anything like that, but I've been with people who do. And I always like, I'm like, stop, just let it rock. Like you don't need to make a big deal out of this. Like it's not their fault, blah, blah, blah. But there are some restaurants in New York that I like, not only will I not complain, but if other people are complaining, like I was at my like go to a Jamaican takeout spot and this lady asked for a glass of water and the people working there who said no to her. And she turned to me and she was like, did they just say no?

7:01And I was like, yep. Like don't involve me in this beef. Like I just want to get my patties and get out of here. You know, exactly. Did you go to the union square green market going up? I did all the time. um i would get the pretzels like the the thick like sourdough pretzels um the apple cider donuts was big my parents would always get that for me the apple cider um the uh they had like these maple candies that i think they still have that were really good um but yeah i love the union square green market i still i don't shop there really anymore because i live in brooklyn but But I love like walking through and smelling things.

7:40Yeah, I love hearing all of that. And I think as someone that was reading your book, obviously this is a food podcast and you highlight all kinds of businesses in the book, but your very first lines are about food. You're saying New York City means something different to everybody. And then you say for me, and you list like a bunch of different restaurants that you find as definitive to the city. And I'm curious like why you think food is such an important way to understand New York. Well, I think first and foremost, new york is just like so expanse in terms of cultures and i think sort of the best way to um the best way to experience these cultures is through food and you can have a block in any neighborhood in new york where you can have like food from you know three four or five different cultures.

8:34And to me that that's, I mean, maybe that's exaggerating a little bit, but maybe we'll talk, we'll go by neighborhood. I mean, neighborhood, you'll have, you know, restaurants from a variety of different cultures and they're all in walking distance. And, you know, to me, that's, that's really special, you know? And, um, I feel like, uh, you know, some of my favorite people in the city are restaurant owners, shop owners, and, you know, they're coming from all over the world and kind of like made New York their home. And I think that that's really special. Yeah. And also restaurants are such a useful like third space gathering point for people in the city.

9:15Like you maybe have a store that you like to go in and shop at, but you're not hanging out there for hours and bumping into your neighbors in the same kind of way. Right. Yeah. I mean, restaurants, cafes, I guess, food establishments are great meeting places. like, that's, I'm, I'm no, I'm not unique in this, but that's like where I go to have all my meetings. You know, my, my like go-to meeting spot is La Bombonera in the West village. Um, and I just know that I can like always go there to take a meeting and like, you know, it's not overly crowded. It's like super chill. You can stay there for kind of as long as you want.

9:50Um, and, uh, yeah, I mean, I, I have, I have locations like that in, you know, every neighborhood really where I would be having a meeting, but Le Bon Bon Air is like my go-to. Yeah, it's a great spot. And it's right next to Casa Magazine, which you're repping the hat right now. Are you always buying magazines or you just like to stop in? I just like to stop. I mean, I do buy magazines. One of my favorite things to do, and I just did two days ago, was go to Casa, buy a magazine, then go to Le Bon Bon Air and just read it. So I got the new issue of New York Magazine, went to Bombonier, read it, had my, I have my own sandwich there, which I actually always eat, not because it's my sandwich, just because I love it.

10:34Wait, what, it's in the sandwich? It's a turkey club. So the sandwich existed before me. I didn't invent the sandwich. It was a turkey club, but I would order it all the time. And then they just named it after me. That's such a big honor. It is. What kind of bread? So what sets it apart from any other turkey club is I feel like if you go to a diner or whatever and get a turkey club, they're usually using like boar's head or some kind of cold cut. But they carve a real turkey every morning and use that as the meat. And the bacon is perfect. The bread is perfect. Everything about it is perfect. Okay.

11:12I've never ordered the turkey club there because it's not a sandwich that I typically seek out. But hearing about these details, I'm invested. So if I say, hey, can you give me like a Nico sandwich? They'll know what I'm talking about. It means literally on the menu is the Nico Club. Oh, perfect. Wow. I feel like that must be like the biggest honor. Do you have any other food items named after you in the city? I do. But the other one I'm kind of embarrassed about because I made it like seven or eight years ago when I was on this health kick where I wasn't doing bread. So it's a lettuce wrap at Anthony and Son's Panini Shop.

11:46it's called the new york nico lettuce wrap and i've since asked them to take it off the menu because i'm embarrassed to have a lettuce wrap at an epic sandwich spot um but they won't take it down because it sells really well um but yeah so i have a lettuce wrap what are you ordering there instead of the lettuce wrap um i mean i like the my wrap but with bread um because it's good It's like, you know, it's grilled chicken, pepper jack cheese, crispy onions, chipotle mayo. But it's on a lettuce wrap. But if you ask them to like substitute it with a regular wrap or bread, it's, you know. Keep it in the lettuce.

12:28You have a little bit of crunch. Just put two slices of bread on it. It is good, but it's just, you know, you don't, you don't. It's not satisfying. If you have the opportunity to have your own sandwich at a Brooklyn sandwich shop that's been around for 30 plus years, is like your go-to is a lettuce rat. Like that's a little, that's silly. So, but. Yeah. So I want to talk about making the book New York Nico's Guide to NYC. When did you first decide that you wanted to write a book? Well, I think like subconsciously I've been wanting to do it for many, many years. When I was like 10 years old, I think, I got Bart Simpson's Guide to Life.

13:09which is just like quintessential reading for a 10 year old boy who grew up in the 90s. And I love that book. Like to this day, it's the only book that I've like kept throughout the years. So it's still it's still in my possession. And I think like subconsciously, I always wanted to do like my version of that. About three years ago, a book agent from UTA reached out to me and was like, hey, do you want to make a book? and at the time I was like I don't know it's like kind of daunting like I I like projects that you know I can finish quickly I don't like sitting on things and I when he told me you know when he asked if I wanted to make a book I was like I don't want to sit on this for like two or three years but then I thought about it a little bit longer I was like no this could be really cool people are always asking me for suggestions I might as well make a book and um you know then And I had like thought about Bart Simpson's guide and it was like, maybe I should do something like that.

14:12But I kind of wanted to focus more on small businesses because that's what I kind of love most about the city is the small businesses. So, yeah, I just told them I wanted to make this guide to my favorite mom and pop shops in New York. And they were like, that sounds great. Let's do it. I think it's such a fun project and it has guide in the title, obviously, but in the intro, you're talking about how you don't really think of it as a guidebook and more of kind of a snapshot of a moment of time in New York. How would you describe this moment in time that the book was written in as being released in?

14:48well it's a moment of transition i would say you know since we so we started writing this book uh like two and a half years ago and i'd say we highlighted like 130 businesses we had to call it down because my publisher was like you can't have a 500 page book yeah they want like an even yeah yeah so so we got it down to 100 but from those like 130 something businesses i would say like 10 of them have closed since. And it's only been two and a half years. So it's a moment of transition. I feel like a lot of these spots can't afford the rent anymore. You know, maybe it's like a generational business and, you know, there's no one who will take the reins after the owner retires or passes away.

15:39So I kind of just wanted to like document this moment in time. And that's kind of what I've been doing with my work from the very beginning. Like I got started, uh, about 12 years ago doing this web series called know your city and owe your city where I profiled like New York city street characters. And, um, altogether there were like 16 films on these, these New York celebrities. Um, and the reason why I wanted to do that was because I was noticing that a lot of these really spectacular people were leaving, whether they were being priced out or dying or whatever. And I really wanted to like preserve their legacies.

16:20So same thing for the book. Like I wanted something physical that people could look at 50 years from now, hopefully, and, you know, read about these amazing shops. Yeah, I did notice while reading it, just knowing how long it takes to make a book, I feel like you probably go in knowing that some of the places are not going to be around. But I'm in the Brooklyn section and I see Crest Hardware and my heart just gets like a little heavy. I'm curious if there were any businesses that you included in the book that aren't open anymore that you wish you could like magically reopen again. Yeah. So there's two businesses that are in the top hundred in the book that are no longer open.

17:02And we didn't have, you know, they closed after we turned in the manuscript and Crest Hardware and Ting's gift shop. And yeah, I mean, it's heartbreaking. Like, Crest was such an amazing, magical place. You know, it's like this huge hardware store that has a pig in the, Franklin the pig in the back. um uh finley the parrot in the garden section everyone there is super nice that you you know there's everything you could ever need or want from a hardware store um really good plants really good plants really good plants um but yeah i mean it's uh it's sad to see them go but you know it's a part of life you know like we we move on and uh you know that's why a lot most of the businesses in this book are older businesses like 20 30 40 200 years but i also wanted to include some younger businesses that i feel like are going to stand the test of time and 30 years from now will be those sort of like old school mom and pop shops that we love um like sweet pickle books, you know, Fantasy Explosion.

18:26Yeah, I included a bunch of those that I that I really think are going to stick around. Yeah, I really wanted to talk about that because you do have this cool mix of like Ray's Candy Store, Casa Adela, really old school spots, and then Landistry, Nene's Taqueria. Like, how did you decide the newer ones to include? um yeah exactly you know i i didn't want this just to be like old businesses you know like obviously that's those are the businesses that i know and love because either you know i went to there as a kid or um you know i have a strong attachment with the owner because they've been doing it for so long and i really admire that but um i really wanted to also show love to the spots that, like I said, I feel like we'll stand the test of time and become these, you know, these old school charming businesses that, that we, uh, that we know and love.

19:22Like Nene's isn't going anywhere. You know, that's, um, it's not only is it amazing food, but the, the owners are incredible. They have a great story. You know, they're, they're from Bushwick. They've been in the neighborhood forever. they just you know they're they have like a really good sense of community there so those are like the the younger spots that I highlighted they they kind of needed to check off those boxes yeah I think that was something I noticed when looking at the spaces that you included is a lot of them are from the neighborhoods that they're a part of like existing I think a lot of businesses and brands and everyone talks about community a lot these days in a very abstract sense.

20:02And I think a lot of these places have community, not just that they've cultivated, but they were like already a part of when they opened the restaurant. Yeah. I mean, that's super important. Super important. I wanted to talk to you also just about this like quote from the book. You say, in a world filled with negativity, it seems that a New York City shop owner is the one thing we all seem to agree is good. Why do you think that is? I don't know if if I can speak for everybody. Yeah. But I can definitely speak for myself. I think what's what's so great about these shops is they're always there.

20:36You know, like I know if I'm like feeling down on a Tuesday at 12 p.m., I can go to Village Revival Records and hang out with my friend Jamal, who's the owner there. and you know he'll immediately brighten up my day and vice versa like sometimes he'll be in a bad mood and I'll be around and cheer him up um but you can't really do that with friends you know like friends are all over the place they're not in one spot you know all day but these shop owners they're there all day you know where to find them I don't know for me personally I've just like built a very strong bond with a lot of these shop owners so it's and a lot of it you know is because I was able to help them during the pandemic when they were struggling and you know through that whole process you know it gets kind of emotional so we were able to build like really strong connections through that and um yeah I'm just like it's it's awesome to be able to like be in pretty much any neighborhood in New York City and know that there's a place that I can go to like talk shit or you know have food with somebody or whatever and yeah so I think in that sentence I was speaking for everybody but really I was just speaking for myself and hoping that that other people feel the same way I mean I think what you're saying is really true but you also have this other perspective where you have like over a million people that are following you on social media where you're often highlighting these small businesses and you're seeing the response that you get when you share like Henry from Army Navy bags.

22:13Like, I think that it's either people who like these spaces already and like to see them being championed, or it's people who are just drawn to the fact that there's so much individuality in this entrepreneurship. Like, I think when you leave New York and you're in other cities, there's just more chain stores. There's less like independence. And I think that like the small business owners are really shaping like the New York that a lot of people exist in. And that's like this other cool element of it too. Yeah. You just said it better than I ever could say it. I mean, you already said it. I just synthesized it and I'm spitting it back out to you.

22:48Yeah. No, because I get asked that question a lot, like what makes these businesses so great? And it's like, I don't know, it's hard for me to explain, but you made a good point. It's like, you know, you go to the middle of, you know, America and it's just like these chain stores and the people that work there, maybe they're cool, but they don't have an appreciation for the shop the way that these small business owners do. And yeah, it's just, it's special. They're special people. Yeah, I think like a chain store, like you don't have the opportunity to really shape what you're doing for the community that you're in and a part of.

23:25And I think a lot of the things that people want out of like the future of America, the future of the world is like a walkable city where they can see people in their community and, you know, get a good cup of coffee or something like that. And that's what New York ultimately has to offer. You know, it's so going back to Casa or even Le Bon Bon Air, if we want to focus on food, but they've been in the neighborhood for so long and they're not from New York. You know, like Gus came from Greece, Marina came from Peru, and then you go to Casa, Ali came from Pakistan. You know, they've only been here for maybe less than half their life.

24:01but they're as New York as it gets because they've been so a part of the community and the people that come in I can tell have just like rubbed off on them you know if if you've been in a business for 30 years in one neighborhood like the people rub off on you and you you know you become like them and um it's a it's a beautiful thing yeah I love that idea I think that's really true and it again if we're talking about restaurants something that I really love about New York restaurants is Like I was just at B &H Dairy over the weekend. I grew up going to Jewish delis in L.A., which is where I'm from.

24:34And I can walk into B &H and I can order like the best deli food, like completely in Spanish. And I think that's such a New York thing to have like someone that's not from the community that is like repping that community so well and preserving that culture. My favorite thing about Bombonier is it's a it's a French. It's French, Le Bombonier. Yeah. I mean, they don't serve French food, but I guess at one point, you know, it's been around for almost 100 years. So I guess at one point they were serving French food. I don't know. But it's French. It's owned by a Greek guy and a Peruvian woman. And all the cooks are Mexican.

25:10You know, it's kind of like a microcosm of New York. It's like you got cultures from all over the place, kind of like, you know, Voltron. Something I wanted to talk about is just like what it's like to be sharing characters and people across New York for so long. I feel like when I first moved to New York eight years ago, definitely seeing stuff on your Instagram was like a way that I would kind of just understand the city in different ways. And now, like, I'll be walking through the West Village and I'll see Patrick Barr, like, aka Tiger Hood, like shooting milk carton golf. And that's the one that I wouldn't have known about if it wasn't through your videos.

25:45I was like, what does it feel like to have this platform to be able to share people and also to become like known as a character yourself as it's grown? I mean, I love it. That's like, you know, even before the Instagram, that's what I was trying to do. You know, with that web series I was talking about, Know Your City, the whole point of it was to put a spotlight on these incredible individuals who you might be like too afraid to go and talk to. um but you know that's that's kind of what it's really all about um and now that i'm doing like i mean i got started as a commercial director before all of this and uh being able to get my people jobs in like commercial work and film work and stuff is is really cool because it's like you know to me they're performers in one way or the other and being able to take their talents and like put it on the screen is um is really cool and they love it and a few people have like launched careers out of that um which is like really special yeah like that cats is deli yeah what was it like shooting in cats is it was chaotic because they were open and Katz's is probably the busiest place on the planet.

27:06By the way, Katz's, obviously it's a tourist trap, but I feel like it deserves the hype that it gets. I love Katz's. I think in my personal opinion, it has the best pastrami in New York and like the vibe inside Katz's is unbeatable. I just wish they would let me order like a half sandwich. Like the amount of pastrami is formidable. Well, that's the thing. You never finish a full sandwich, but that's why you got share it with somebody or just bring it home for for dinner i would bring it home but i mean i do bring it home but then i need to still like split it in half and put more bread right and it's like obviously an expensive sandwich because you're buying so much pastrami right i get that they would never do like a kid size sandwich and i would never even think to mention it yeah that's almost as bad as getting a lettuce wrap at a sandwich spot hey can you just give me less pastrami no they would they would not be happy about that so is it true that you shot that in exchange for getting to have your wedding at Katz's?

28:01Yeah, well, for a discount. Yeah. Yeah. Did it already happen or not? No, no, not yet. Is it just going to be like pastrami wedding cake? That's a great idea. I didn't think about that. I think we're going to get a real wedding cake, but no, I think there will be a lot of pastrami and corned beef. So that's one party that you're planning. And then obviously doing the book party must have been a tall order. I feel like there's a lot of expectations. What was that book party like? the book party so i had two book parties i had one that was just like private for friends and family and people involved in the book and that was pretty pretty awesome i did that at astra place hairstylist which is i've been getting my hair cut there since i was like 10 years old um for those who don't know it's like one of the oldest barber shops in manhattan one of the biggest barber shops manhattan and going back to you know calling bombonera microcosm of New York.

28:53Astor Place is really a microcosm of New York. The first thing you see when you walk in is a sign that says, we speak, and then it's like every language you can think of and a little English. And yeah, that place just has like a really special place in my heart. I made one of the first documentaries, like full documentaries that I made was on Big Mike, who was the manager at Astro Place for 40 years. He actually just retired. But when I made the documentary like seven years ago, I had discovered that he had just started painting in the back room of Astro Place in like the storage area. And, you know, he's like 60 years old and just decided he wanted to start painting that day or like that week.

29:39And he told me he never had time to paint because his whole life is working traveling back home working traveling back home but he wanted to make time so he decided he was going to paint on his lunch break and uh i told him that i was going to check in with him to make sure he was like keeping up you know his side of the the agreement and uh he's slowly like amassed a whole gallery of paintings in the storage area of astor place and I asked if I can make a documentary on him made this documentary called Big Mike Takes Lunch which to this day is like one of my favorite pieces of work um but yeah all that is to say Astro Place very very special place to me so wait well what kind of stuff is he painting um he has like he's very inspired by Van Gogh so when I first saw him he's like a larger man larger bald man big mike and he was sitting with his shirt off uh in front of an easel with a van gogh inspired biggie smalls um so that's the kind of stuff he does like van gogh inspired kim kardashian or rihanna but he's he's awesome and he's made a career out of painting that's awesome so that was your first party you did a second party also and then i did a second party that was open to the public at a bigger space.