Crains New York - April 15, 2013 - (Page 22)

Continued from Page 21 cater to young riders with hipster tastes for vintage Japanese and retro European models. The bikes and their parts are affordable, abundant and easily available on Craigslist. That makes it simpler for do-it-yourself mechanics to turn them into café racers—the drop-handlebar style of 1960s Britain that is in vogue—while they hang out at gear shops and community garages that cater to their trendier tastes and styles. “Café racer is synonymous with hipster,”said Dan Rose,a partner at Dutch company Rev’it, which sells functional, fashionable clothing at Union Garage, a gear store that opened in fall 2012. Most of the garages remain focused on the most important task: keeping bikes safe and in good repair. They accommodate several dozen bikes, whose owners pay to protect their rides from bad weather and parking tickets during the winter season. The shops also offer workbenches, professional tools and mechanics to guide tinkering. Nearly 100 members pay for 24hour access to Vax Moto’s garage on Third Avenue in Gowanus. Justin Walters, the owner, said he likes giving riders the opportunity to work on their own bikes. The neighborhood’s abundance of warehouse space made it easy for him to find the 10,000-square-foot garage, just ahead of Whole Foodsled gentrification. In at the right time “I got in right on the cusp of major change,” said Mr. Walters. So did two other garages nearby: Machina Cycles, on Ninth Street, and Brooklyn Motor Works, on Van Dyke Street in Red Hook. Both opened in 2010. In Williamsburg, Brooklyn Moto on North 10th Street and Motogrrl on Metropolitan Avenue both offer storage space, workbenches and a social scene. Garage memberships with workshop time run around $200 a month. Entry-level vintage Hondas cost at least $1,500. In other words, picking up the hobby is not cheap. But steady work during the warm months and a full garage during the winter, coupled with reasonable rents, allow the business owners to eke out a living. “In Brooklyn, I can get a space panding the four-year-old program into a beta version of a Zipcar-like service so motorcycles will be available to members at garages around the city. So far, Mr. Miles said, 40 users have signed up for the 2013 riding season. For Mr. Miles, Mr. Lyle and other business owners, the idea is that if you’re on two wheels, you’re part of the community—in which case you’re a potential customer for education, sales, repairs and garage rental, especially if you’re new to the scene. ‘They’ve all been bitten by the bug’ Mentoring ‘program’ At many of the garages, experienced riders will mentor new ones, teaching them bike mechanics and safety. “It’s not about experience or inexperience. I love people who are new,” said Joonil Park, an instructor at the Motorcycle Safety School in Williamsburg.“If you ride something with two wheels and an engine in it, we’ll encourage you.” Some of the more seasoned riders worry that the newest bikers prize style over safety, wearing Tshirts instead of armored jackets or buying low-quality helmets. Yet the number of motorcycle accidents in the city has stayed steady in the past five years at 1,200 per year, despite the growing ridership. Even those who get into the scene for the style—or the barbecue—usually fall in love with biking itself, whether as a way to avoid the subway or a means to cruise out of the city on the weekends. “They’ve all been bitten by the bug,” said Chris Lessler, the owner of motorcycle-clothing store Union Garage in Red Hook, who left his full-time job at a startup to learn motorcycle mechanics before he opened his store.“It’s a generation of people who want to do something with their hands. If you get an older bike—up ’til 1980—it’s easy to work on and easy to maintain.” With so many new shops, status is conferred quickly. Moto Borgotaro, a repair shop for vintage European bikes next door to Mr. Lessler’s Union Garage, opened on Union Street in 2008. Borough bikers revere Moto Borgotaro owner Peter Boggia for having apprenticed under a famed mechanic in New Orleans. Owners who want repairs wait months to get their bikes fixed at his shop. The shop, now a stalwart on the scene, is considered more exclusive than newcomers and its mechanics more serious. That whiff of exclusivity only adds to the renegade flavor of Brooklyn’s motorcycle scene. Even Mr. Lyle, who plans to welcome all comers at The Shop, acknowledges that. “The city’s not that friendly to motorcycling,” he said. “But that lends itself to being cool, due to the inherent outlaw nature of motorcycling.Guys like that taste of being an outlaw even if they’re totally not.” Ⅲ that I can afford, to develop a new concept,” said Mr. Lyle of The Shop Brooklyn.“[Riding motorcycles] was a hobby when I started, and I was screwing around. But I could never have done that in Manhattan. It’s economics.” The Brooklyn shops and garages don’t sell new bikes. Establishing a dealership is too big an investment in a borough where real estate prices are rising even in offbeat neighborhoods. Dealerships Ducati SoHo and BMW in Manhattan, and Harley-Davidson of Long Island City, Queens, sell new bikes, but most young Brooklyn-based riders prefer cheaper vintage alternatives. Bike sharing is also catching on. For $108 monthly memberships, riders can reserve a motorcycle online for the day or the week at Jupiter’s. Owner Chris Miles is ex- GETTING IN GEAR Full-face helmet $100 Motorcycle safety course $350 22 | Crain’s New York Business | April 15, 2013 DMV road test $200 Schott leather jacket with armor protection $500 Rev up Crain’s motorcycle slide show at www.crainsnewyork.com/galleries buck ennis Motorcycle culture booms SOURCE LUNCH: DANIELLE CHANG by Jeremy Smerd LuckyRice fest goes against the grain D anielle Chang launched LuckyRice three years ago in New York as a way to connect up-andcoming restaurateurs with foodies, in the process helping to spark the growth of food festivals in the city. This year, the Asian culinary extravaganza goes national. LuckyRice New York runs April 28 to May 5 before heading to Los Angeles in August,San Francisco in September and Las Vegas and Miami in October. That’s a huge part of the story. As we expand to different cities, LuckyRice itself takes different forms. If I say the word “fusion,” you’ll cringe. Fusion got a bad rep in the ’80s. There was really bad food. Like wasabi and mashed potatoes. Fusion itself is not a bad thing. Most Chinese dishes are fusion because it’s an ancient civilization. If you think about the spice trade, there were a lot of outside influences. How will LuckyRice differ elsewhere? What accounts for LuckyRice’s growth? China’s rising economy, increased travel and immigration. China is on target to be the No. 1 tourist destination for Americans in 2020, surpassing Europe.There’s a greater willingness to find out what Asian culture is. Hence the place we’re sitting in today. It’s an homage to Szechuan flavor, which Americans are only now becoming aware of, even though it’s a flavor that’s very traditional. We’ve been testing all these markets. In Miami we took over the Soho House. By the pool we served Bombay Sapphire East,which is one of our partners. Chef Douglas Rodriguez had a Cuban-style roasted pig.On the beach there were ceviche and crudo stations. It was all very Chino Latino. WHERE THEY DINED So is LuckyRice about providing an authentic experience? How much are tickets? MISSION CHINESE FOOD 154 Orchard St. (212) 529-8800 missionchinese food.com/ny AMBIENCE: Faux Chinese fast-food entryway opens to a dining and drinking area with dive-bar décor and the Ramones on the radio. WHAT THEY ATE: Ⅲ Smashed cucumbers, red cabbage leaves, Taiwanese clams, salt-cod fried rice, mapo la mian, thrice-cooked bacon TOTAL: $84.76, including tip Do restaurants pay? I don’t really like “authenticity.” It doesn’t always mean quality. Danny Bowien [the chef and owner of Mission Chinese] is not even Chinese; he’s Korean.On our culinary council we have a lot of Asian chefs,like Masaharu Morimoto and David Chang. But we also have French chefs, like Daniel Boulud, and Spanish chefs, like José Andrés,each of whom adds a unique contribution to Asian culinary culture. I wouldn’t say come to LuckyRice to taste the most authentic Asian food in America. I’d say come to LuckyRice so you can see how Asian culture has taken on myriad forms through food and drink. The people coming to our events are more cultural explorers trying out new restaurants and cocktails and flavors, as opposed to people who want to cook a good meal in 30 minutes for a family of four. Chinese food has definitely adapted to the American palate. Fifty dollars to $250. We’ll have 10,000 ticketed consumers this year. They don’t.We select them. We act like culinary curators. And they participate for the marketing value. It’s really through corporate sponsorships that we are able to produce the events on the level that we want them to be. That’s the little-known dirty secret— well, it’s not a dirty secret— it’s a little-known fact about the event-production business. Events are so costly to produce that ticket revenues don’t cover production. What’s your revenue? It’s not large.This is a small entrepreneurial business. What’s next? I really like the five markets we’re in. They represent a diverse slice of America and the role that Asian food plays in it. Sounds like fun. It is fun. I was born in Taiwan and spent a lot of time in China. My family is there. I’ve always wanted to create a platform to share the Asian culture I grew up with in a way that wasn’t pigeonholed only for Asians. Ⅲ INSIDE TIP: Chef Danny Bowien was born in Korea. He was adopted and grew up in Oklahoma. He’s new to cooking Asian food. http://www.food.com/ny http://www.crainsnewyork.com/galleries

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - April 15, 2013

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
CORPORATE LADDER
OPINION
STEVE HINDY
GREG DAVID
REAL ESTATE DEALS
REPORT: SMALL BUSINESS
THE LISTS
CLASSIFIEDS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - April 15, 2013