Welcome to our editorial kit “New York City neighborhoods” presented by BARNES New York. We regularly invite you to discover the different districts of the city, through the eyes of the French-speaking people who live there. They tell about their neighborhood, in their words, their tastes, their habits. Today we discover, and we walk in l’Upper East Side, with JC Agid, founder of 37EAST, a media and development consulting agency in the United States, Mexico and France.
Photo Credit: JC Agid
Rachel Brunet for Le Petit Journal New York: You live in the Upper East Side neighborhood. What attracted you to this neighborhood?
JC Agid : Chance, of course, one day in September years ago. First stay in New York, decided in less than 48 hours, a week to fill between the end of studies and a job in Bry-sur-Marne. I am waiting on the sidewalk of a street on the Upper East Side, not far from Central Park, for the arrival of a family that a Parisian friend had introduced to me by phone to host me for two or three nights. I returned two years later to New York and with the exception of one year spent on 113th Street in the Columbia University neighborhood and another at the top of a soulless tower at the intersection of Central Park North and from Central Park West, I ended up always living on the Upper East Side.
But I changed floors, horizons too. After having lived for a long time in an apartment in one of those little houses that line the peaceful streets to the west of the Upper East, a paradise for mice and hot or icy showers, I settled on the top floor of a huge apartment building near the East River. In front of me, an ambitious view, gigantic even, with the Carlyle, the treetops of Central Park, Columbus Circle, Times Square and New Jersey in constant spectacle.
Can you tell us about life in this neighborhood, the atmosphere? What makes him live, what drives him?
The atmosphere ? That of a district without tourists, of a tidy, almost monotonous city. We live in Yorkville, but we don’t visit it. There are little shops here and there, faces that we meet every day, stories that we share. But we are far from the charm of the neighborhoods of Carnegie Hill or Morningside Heights. There is in Yorkville a strange and family calm that punctuates the surrounding schools.
You live near the Lycée Français. Do we hear the language of Molière a lot in the UES?
Like everywhere in New York, we hear all kinds of languages, and sometimes English. Many French families live near the LFNY and the students of the Lycée bring to this district a very particular sound. It is not a neighborhood where you can be seen, on the contrary, you would almost tend to hide there.
Your favorite places, your good addresses or maybe even your habits?
Les Frenchies, 75th Street, between York Ave and FDR, the door next to LFNY, for croissants, the best in town along with those from another bakery on 78th Street. But in addition to croissants and pains au chocolat, quiches and coffee éclairs, I find the boss Michèle Saint Laurent and her partner, Aksana Ivaniuk. All my friends spend there with their children at all hours of the day. More than a bakery with its terrace, the Frenchies has become the small French grocery store in the neighborhood. There is always a smiling, family and happy atmosphere. The Frenchies are the heart of my discreet village. That has no price. The best address in the neighborhood.
There was also the other café, with an American allure, this one, Beanocchio’s, economic victim of the Covid19, closed, permanently. I liked its provincial atmosphere.
On 77th Street, almost at the corner of 1st Avenue, Jones Wood Foundry for a long drink at the bar and remake the world with friends.
A little further, Mission Ceviche on Second Avenue and 72nd Street, arguably one of the best restaurants in the area. Just next door, La Esquina and its tacos whose atmosphere projects me into the streets of Coyoacan in Mexico City, the village of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
I also like this tiny — and it’s already a big word — Saturday morning market on 82nd Street between York and 1st Avenue, as long as you are particularly patient in these times of social distancing. A few meters away, on York Avenue, I often stop at the butcher Ottomanelli, thanks to whom I was able to cook veal paupiettes in full confinement; a little further up York, I sometimes go to Dorian’s for the pleasures of the sea and holey wallets, and across the street, above all, is the Logos Bookstore, an old-fashioned bookstore — of the resistance itself — where the smell book and wood dominate, the perfect place to hang out or search for a gift the owner will wrap for you, a rarity in New York.
Around 3rd Avenue and 76th Street, another butcher faces Sables, the ideal address if you like smoked salmon and bagel brunches. For Sushi fans, those at Sushi of Gary on 78th between York and First Avenue are renowned for being some of the best in town. Finally, Sotheby’s on 72nd and York Avenue gives a little importance and vanity to these remote streets of the city.
The Frenchies, Michèle Saint Laurent and her partner, Aksana Ivaniuk
Photo credit: JC Agid
Is this a neighborhood that you recommend for those who want to buy or rent?
It’s up to everyone to see depending on the New York they are looking for… As far as I’m concerned, my exclusive atmosphere is this exceptional view, at dawn when the sun is reflected in the windows of Manhattan, at the end of the day of course, and at night , when the city seeks sleep in vain.
Each block has its own style and just above 79th is East End Avenue, a bourgeois destination for celebrities seeking discretion.
The Q train, the recent subway line on Second Avenue, brings this neighborhood, sometimes considered the start of a suburb, closer to the rest of Manhattan. Union Square is less than 30 minutes and Carnegie Hall 20 minutes.
If you had to describe the Upper East Side in three words?
Chic and unassuming on the Central Park side. Discreet and ambitious along the East River.
Upper East Side – Parole d’experts
Rental market:
In January 2021, the median rent for an apartment on the Upper East Side was $ 1,900 for a studio (-16% over one year), $ 2,404 for one bedroom (-11%), $ 3,300 for two bedrooms (-2% ) and $ 6,000 for three bedrooms (-4%).
Sales market:
In December 2020, across the Upper East Side, the median selling price asked by sellers stood at $ 1.4M, showing a decrease of around 2% year-on-year to $ 1,300 / square foot. On the other hand, the recorded sale price is $ 1.1M given the negotiations related to the Covid in an uncertain context. Note that condos held up more with a median asking price of $ 1.7M for an actual sale price of $ 1.622,000.
Interview by Rachel Brunet, director and editor-in-chief of Petit Journal New York
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