Crain's New York - March 18, 2013 - (Page 30)

Lucky Starr Continued from Page 29 It was Buddakan and Morimoto that put Mr. Starr on the culinary map in New York in 2006, when he spent $28 million to open the megarestaurants—500 seats in total—in the meatpacking district, which at the time was still only emerging as a destination neighborhood. “The more I think about it, I can’t believe I did that,” said Mr. Starr. “It was a staggering, insane amount to spend, but we’ve made our money back.” What’s more, those cash cows— Buddakan alone generates $22 million in annual revenue and on a recent Tuesday had 850 reservations on the books—will presumably be around for a while. Mr. Starr signed the leases before the area became hot, and they have another 15 years left, he said. His subsequent deals have been less grand, but greater in number. More projects on the way He opened Caffe Storico at the New-York Historical Society in 2011 and Serai at the Rubin Museum in 2012. Both deals also include exclusive catering contracts. This year, he signed a contract to take over the food service at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, elbowing out some big local competitors such as Danny Meyer. He is also opening El Vez, a 200seat Mexican eatery, in Battery Park City,and there are two more deals he is on the verge of clinching, he said—another restaurant in Chelsea Market, where Buddakan is located, million in sales in 2012, and is on track to make another $170 million this year, according to Mr. Starr. and a contract with another major cultural institution here. “For Starr to come in and capture three decent-size [cultural institution] contracts over a relatively short period is impressive,”said Carl Sacks, a consultant who was a top executive with catering company Great Performances. “There are so many wellestablished caterers here.” Mr. Starr concedes that opening new places is a drug for him.“I’m like an addict,” he said. He is as prolific as he is restless. But not everyone warms to his style, particularly foodies who are drawn to award-winning ‘I connect everything in my life to music’ chefs or places that are recognized by the most discerning food critics. “I tend not to go to a Stephen Starr restaurant,” said a Philadelphiabased caterer who did not want to be identified.“I’m part of the chef world and small independent restaurants.” Clark Wolf, a restaurant consultant who knows Mr. Starr, said his restaurants “do stuff that’s familiar and safe.” But it’s hard to argue with success. Starr Restaurants generated $150 Future plans His forthrightness stands out in an industry where most of his peers eschew talk of finances but can wax on about hospitality and food.Mr.Starr’s career trajectory is also not typical for the industry he has embraced. He started out as a music and entertainment promoter who worked with such stars as Madonna and Bruce Springsteen. A photo of him with shock jock Howard Stern, whose shows he produced in Philadelphia,is on display in his office. “I connect everything in my life to music,” said Mr. Starr. One of his ideas for New York is creating a cabaret downtown, featuring old-fashioned standards that would appeal to young people. “That would be my foot back in the music biz,” he said. In fact, he’s full of ideas for future projects in the Big Apple. He also wants to create a “vegetarian restaurant that was not perceived to be granola or hippie, one you wouldn’t know is vegetarian when you walked in the door,” he said. A “sexy” Indian restaurant is on his bucket list as well. One type of venue Mr. Starr has avoided in his career is a nightclub that offers bottle service and where people stand in line behind velvet ropes to get in. “I don’t know that business,” he said.“I don’t care for it, but I’m kind of jealous of it because I see places doing $30, $40 and $50 million a year.” Ⅲ LISTEN to a discussion at CrainsNewYork.com/podcasts SOURCE LUNCH: SREE SREENIVASAN by Matthew Flamm Setting a course for digital learning F or most of the past two decades, Sree Sreenivasan has been a widely quoted professor of digital media at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Last July, he became the university’s first chief digital officer. He’s now charged with coordinating a universitywide strategy for online learning,seeing what works and what doesn’t in a field that holds the potential to turn education inside out. Why is a journalist advising Columbia on online education? It’s appropriate, in a way: Journalism went through a disruption no one could have predicted, and that disruption is now about to come to education. Also, I’m a technology evangelist, because I believe technology can help us,and a skeptic,because there are so many problems as well. I’m very keen that we approach online education with [that same frame of mind]. So far, what is your advice to Columbia? Massive open online courses. Do you think those are overhyped? Meet Mark, one of New York’s Kindest. Mark volunteers his time with shelter animals and he gets huge returns on his investment: priceless love and appreciation. You can too. Become a shelter volunteer today! Our nonprofit organization rescues thousands of New York’s homeless and abandoned animals each year. Our goal is to place every dog, cat and bunny in a new loving home. But we can’t do it without your help. BE ONE OF NEW YORK’S KINDEST: ADOPT VOLUNTEER DONATE nycacc.org Photo by Donna Svennevik © 2013 30 | Crain’s New York Business | March 18, 2013 OUR CITY, OUR SHELTER. Columbia’s engineering department has just launched three MOOC courses in partnership with Coursera. It’s an experiment. We’re trying to learn as much as we can as fast as we can. I’m a great believer in partnerships and trying new things and examining the data to see if it makes sense for us. Don’t you think students who come to Columbia want to learn from a professor in a classroom? The classroom is a magical place. We’ve perfected that over Columbia’s 250 years. At the same time, everything else in life has changed so dramatically—how we interact with everything from music to reading to communicating. So why should [the classroom] be the one thing that doesn’t change? WHERE THEY DINED To focus on three things: What can we do for our oncampus students? There’s the “flipped classroom”: A video lecture is available in advance, and then you meet in person to discuss the ideas. How can that improve pedagogy? Second: Can we do a good job in hybrid programming for our low-residency programs? The third is for people who are not connected to Columbia.That’s where MOOCs come in. Mark, AC&C Volunteer with Squiggy worst thing ever. Maybe it’s just a thing. JUNOON 27 W. 24th St. (212) 490-2100 Junoonnyc.com AMBIENCE: Elegant and subdued main dining room; exotic lounge area adjoining the bar. Comfortable and quiet. WHAT THEY ATE: Prix fixe platters: Ⅲ Nonvegetarian: seared shrimp, chicken tikka, lamb in spicy curry Ⅲ Vegetarian: cauliflower florets, stewed chickpeas, homemade spiced paneer (cheese) Ⅲ Yellow daal (peas), rice, raita (yogurt dip) and roti (bread) Ⅲ Rice pudding, kulfi (Indian ice cream) TAB: $82.57, including tip There are a lot of MOOC utopians. [New York Times columnist] Tom Friedman wrote a piece recently saying—I’m paraphrasing—nothing can do more to bring people out of poverty than MOOCs. And I said: “Really? What about clean water and a full stomach?” When you start using rhetoric like that,then all the naysayers come out, and the discussion becomes polarizing: It’s either the best or the One question on your role as a social-media expert: Is it true you were not an early adopter? I was dragged kicking and screaming, by a student, onto Twitter. He said, “It will be really good for you and the school.” This was in fall of ’08. The same thing with Facebook. But technology works for us when it fits into our work flow and our life flow; I only started using [Facebook and Twitter] when I was able to use [them] for both. How do you think all the lectures on YouTube, from TED talks to Khan Academy, are influencing how young people think of education? [They’re] building a generation of kids who ... one of the ways they’re going to decide where they go to college is how digital the campuses are. It won’t mean which has the fastest Wi-Fi; it will be how the lessons are delivered, in part. I’m not saying they should all be delivered digitally.But is there a way to enhance what we’ve been doing for 250 years to make sure the magic remains, but we adapt to the way people are learning? Ⅲ INSIDE TIP: Good Indian restaurants are considerate of spice tolerance levels, so be sure to describe your preferences early on. http://www.CrainsNewYork.com/podcasts http://www.Junoonnyc.com http://www.nycacc.org http://www.nycacc.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's New York - March 18, 2013

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

Crain's New York - March 18, 2013