- You from Harlem. - I'm from Spanish Harlem.
- Yeah, yeah. Spanish Harlem - Spanish Harlem.
How is the Puerto Rican food in LES compared to Spanish Harlem?
I mean, I think that it's not as authentic as it used to be.
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
You know, like, for instance, the alcapurria is not real.
- Yeah, the Acapulco - Is definitely not the same.
Yeah, alcapurria.
How do you say "Acapulco forever?"
- No, no. - Like what?
Alcapurria.
Alcapurria, okay.
- Alcapurria. - Alca...
Octopus.
You got the patitas guisadas?
- Yeah. - Let me do that, And then, also, let's go camarofongo.
- A what? - Camarofongo.
The camaro... you say it, man!
The shrimp mafongo.
Yo, if I take you to a Chinese restaurant,
I'm not going to make you say it in Chinese, mother...
Hey, yo, give me the Acapulco.
♪♪
The most important part of boxing is taking a shit first so you can make weight.
Anyone who has ever lived in New York will claim New York
has a version of their New York.
And the truth of the matter is, they're all valid.
What we're going to do is we're going to introduce you to our friends and family,
and every single one of them has their New York
and they're going to tell their story.
But what makes them unique is that some tell their story with hands.
Some tell their story with spray cans.
Others are going to tell you their story through food.
But the thing that we have in common is that we use what's around us.
We use our New York, and we create our own vernacular.
All right. I think this scene is a wrap.
Oh, my god.
- Oh, dude. - This is weird.
Yeah!
So, Aaron just got off his shift at Tower Records.
Loopy just got off his shift at... Foot Locker over here.
Elena is a celebrated New York trash-talker.
Good game here at Sara D. Roosevelt Park.
- This dude is a... - Come on.
Legendary hack.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Taking laps! - Oh, you see that elbow?
- Oh, the elbow! - You see that?
You see that shit? You see the shit?
That's a Coney Island chicken wing.
He learned that shit on the boardwalk.
Look out!
I grew up in Brooklyn. My parents are - from Coney Island, you know. - Yeah.
My mom is from Red Hook, my dad is from Coney Island.
But my pops got out, and my parents, they moved to, like, East Flatbush,
and then they were, like, this area called Flatlands,
kind of, like, suburbia life in Brooklyn.
You know, you have to... bop your way
- to the... Manhattan, man. - It's like... - Yeah.
Everything is just, like, it's here.
You know, and it was almost at arm's reach,
but it wasn't at arm's reach because I didn't live in the city.
Yeah.
My man, you got to make the rules up.
- He ain't making the rules. - No, Loopy, you know.
Regular streets here, handsome.
Game at 11, ones and twos, take everything back.
All right. Two for ball. Go.
- All right, straight up. - I'm sure. - You sure?
What did downtown seem like to y'all?
For me, it was just, like, the unknown was, like, - right here, you know. - Yeah.
You know, being able to, like, sneak into, like, you know,
nightclubs like The Tunnel and Limelight underage
and, like, witness that whole scene.
You know, so just being, like, open-eyed and very inspired but very, like, you know,
frightened by, like, holy shit, like, this is crazy.
Yeah.
Like, there's no... rules out here.
♪♪
Can't be in New York because you beat me.
I'm going to say I lost the New York episode.
Sorry.
Somebody rewrite his Wikipedia page.
♪♪
When I first came to New York, one of the first articles I read with this,
like, MAD-Magazine-looking face, was this dude,
and they talked about, like, the downtown culture he was fostering, creating,
and he was one of the first dudes at Supreme.
He had one of my favorite streetwear lines ever, Bowery,
and it was, like, standing up for Bowery,
downtown New York, at a time when it was becoming McHattan.
And, like, no lie, no nothing, that's why when we play ball, he talks a lot of shit.
I don't really talk shit because I look up to this dude.
♪♪
Hiya!
- Oh! - Woo! Yo, yo, yo!
Come on, come on, come on.
- Aw, come on, man. - Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.
Frick.
- Come on. - Holy shit.
People from New York are always like, "Man, back in the day,
this shit was, like..." But you know what?
- That's cool that that exists. - Yeah.
But it's always about, like, what's happening now,
and I always believe in that. Like, even now, even, like, if you want to say the city
is Manhattan or gentrified, it's boring.
There's not that many platforms for kids to, like, be creative,
but the youth are always out here doing something, man.
- Yeah. - They're out here - Doing something that, like,
We're not even seeing because we're not even,
like, on that ground level anymore. Yeah.
Oh!
Okay. Okay.
Woo!
♪ Hell nah ♪
Elena:
Yo, backdoor fighting streets!
Layup!
Going in, going in! Oh!
Foot on the line.
Let's go.
Oh, my god. You got that on camera?
Tied mother... ball game!
Oh, my god. That was so scary.
Yes. Yes.
Good game.
He's still the king.
- I give it... See, I'm classy. - You're from New York.
You're from New York. You're from New York.
- New Yorkers. - I love you. I love you.
- I love you. I was scared, baby! - Real New York rivalry.
- I was scared. - I was classy the whole game.
I always tell people, "Look, I consider myself a New Yorker
because I came of age here, and I became a man in New York."
- Yeah. - So me, personally, this was my stage.
- This is the ultimate stage - Right here, man. - Yeah.
This is the... laboratory.
Yeah.
- This is where you experiment with a long black leather - jacket, - Yeah.
- or rubber... I don't know - What the... this is. - Yeah.
This is, like, where people come to... get weird,
- and, like, it's acceptable. - Yeah.
You know, that's why all of us run away from where we're from
to come here and find the people that are like us, you know.
And that's the beauty Yeah.
Of New York City.
And I don't mind being dinged up because, at the end of the day,
I really feel like if you do something honest out here,
- the city will embrace you. It will make you one of them. - Sure, sure.
Because you're pushing the city.
You're, like, getting the city is built on out-of-towners.
- It's an immigrant country. - Always.
- It's an immigrant town, you know? - Always.
So, like, it always has to happen.
It's the only way the city survives.
- Yeah. - Come on.
You go ahead.
I am the champion.
You the champ. You older.
- Okay. - Go ahead.
♪♪
♪ ♪ Listen ♪ ♪
♪ Know wave ♪
♪ Listen ♪
♪ Know wave ♪
Yo, we on Know Wave Radio right now.
- Hello, hello, hello. - Yo.
♪♪
- We at Noodle Town, right? - Yeah, we at Noodle Town.
And we're doing Know Wave over here.
This is a... rare moment. You gave me the opportunity
to bring the equipment here and actually, you know,
do something on-site. Know Wave is basically
- an extension of the gallery. - The gallery, Moran Bondaroff.
Moran Bondaroff in Los Angeles.
It's, like, a way to, like, archive what's happening now
in the world and in our community.
We archive it, and we put it on the Internet,
and hopefully, you know, we can kind of, like,
entertain people and let people hear about,
like, the knowledge that you guys are dropping.
- Knowledge Wave Radio! - Knowledge Wave, baby.
Yo, Mike Madrigale, the sommelier, is in the building.
Clipped up four bottles right here.
- What's the occasion? - I mean, we're eating Chinese food.
That's the occasion.
This is the way to do Noodle Town.
You pair wines.
You know I don't drink, though.
- You don't drink? - You know I don't drink.
- Them days are over. - Yo, that was bad.
No, it's not bad. It's not bad.
- It's cool. - Okay, good. Good, good, good.
- You know what it's like. - Yeah, I know.
I did my time on the streets. All right?
But Noodle Town is our Cantonese diner.
- It's a staple. - This is a staple.
This is a classic. You go to Hong Kong. You go to China.
The Cantonese diner is just like this.
This is my favorite late-night spot in New York,
top five restaurants, dead or alive.
- Seriously. - It's on there?
- What's your top five? - It's hard to say, man, - Because, like...
- No, you know. - It's funny because I like going to,
Like, more, like, the hole-in-the-wall spots.
- Yeah. - I like authentic kind of, Like... Just, like, the last of what...
Because New York is about creating spaces
so people bring their stories. They bring their energy.
- Did you love that dish? - Mm-hmm.
- You don't like it? - No.
I've only ever eaten that here with you.
- Yeah. - It's a classic. - I always get this.
Let's pay attention to this pan in front of you.
The reason I like it is very crispy noodle,
not too much cornstarch sauce, so it stays crunchy.
Mm-hmm.
The seafood is big.
Mm, this is excellent.
You like that?
Wow, it's like a sour honeydew.
Yeah, it's like lemonade kind of.
Mm, yeah. Riesling is one of the best wines to drink with Chinese food.
Look at this. This is some real friendship.
I'm going to give you the other shrimp.
- Dude, thanks, bro. - See, Aaron, look what Aaron did.
There's only two shrimp. He took one.
He took the other squid.
- Okay, Mr. Community. - Look how many bottles of wine you guys got.
- Mr. Community out here. - You know what I'm saying?
- Okay. - This is my outlet right here.
- Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. - Eating, you know.
So, Mike, top five restaurants. What is your thing?
Man, that's hard for me too...
- It's hard, man. - ...because you get put - On the spot.
Phrase it different, though. Don't say top five because it's like...
You know, I'm ready. I'm ready for it.
- You want my top five? - This is what you do - For a living.
Number one, Peter Luger's.
Number two, Di Fara Pizza.
Uh-huh.
Okay, okay.
You're going to put pizza in this list?
Yes!
- But it's pizza. - Well, what about... Here's a question.
- Di Fara's is the cathedral, my G. - I know!
Yeah, but you know what I'm saying.
Nah, no, no, I don't know. I don't know what you say.
- What are you saying? - It's just pizza. - It's not, like, food.
- What are you saying? - It's just pizza, though.
- What's the best expensive... - Did you just hear what he said?
No, Di Fara Pizza... He just... What?
- He just... Did you just hear what he said? - That's a whole other genre.
- Then you got to be like, "Oh, what's your top five pizzas?" - Di Fara!
- No, that's food, mother...! - Oh, yeah, okay, you're right.
It's food.
There's a lot of people who like to claim,
- "Oh, New York is dead. It's a wrap." - Yeah, yeah.
But I never think it's going to be dead because there's always the people here.
There's a high out here, man.
The people keep this shit going.
Because that's the thing about New York, it's about,
like, just, like, that, like, you know, hitting the streets,
run into people, working your material,
- seeing if it... is going to stick - And then get to it. - Yeah.
- Make it happen. - Yeah.
What I think keeps New York going is that nobody gets a free pass here.
Everyone in this city has bought into testing you,
making you work, making you earn it, and there's an infrastructure in that.
And there's generations of that.
From the street level of, like, the person testing you
on the streets, to your... landlords
- charging you triple - Of what you should be paying,
You're always getting tested out here.
- Yeah. - Even when we played ball, There's no easy buckets with you.
Do you know what I mean? You make me earn it,
and I still haven't beaten you. And I want to kill you.
Do you know what I mean? But the thing is, I think that's what generations have to do.
You got to stand your ground.
I got to push. I got to fight.
And then, one day, if I ever beat you or even when I lose, I got to respect you.
This is the story we've wanted to tell, and this is the best place to tell it
because the heart of a lot of these neighborhoods is the barbershop.
♪♪
This is my block on Fort Greene.
This is the neighborhood I feel like I really came of age in.
And a lot of people describe Fort Greene as this historically
black neighborhood, and it is.
To me, it's always been an inclusive place.
It really helped me understand community in the most New York,
Brooklyn, Fort Greene sense of the word.
This is the story we've wanted to tell, and this is the best place to tell it
because the heart of a lot of these neighborhoods is the barbershop.
It's my favorite barbershop I've ever been to, and I've met a lot of my friends
who are now my family from getting my hair cut here
from living right down this block.
- What's good, Dao? What's good? - Hey.
- Good to see you, fam. - Sup, buddy?
Definitely.
Even if you move from Fort Greene,
- you still come back to Changing Faces. - Oh, yeah. Yeah.
A lot of dope groomers and barbers in here, man.
You got to come to Changing Faces.
Yeah.
And it's just still real. Like, they don't got all the new, like, pomade.
It's not, like, charging $40 for a fade.
- Yeah. - It's just... It is what it is.
Well, maybe the newbies that come in here might.
Sin may be hitting people for $40.
Yeah, probably.
- Yo, yo. - Woo!
- Yo.
What up? What up? What up?
Shit yeah, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Coffee, all right.
I should've known you were going to be in here.
I should've known. They let anybody here now.
- What up, Mike? What's good? - What up? Love it.
- Good to see you. - Always, man.
- Always, always, always. - Yup, yup, yup.
♪♪
In this barbershop, every single tax bracket walks in here.
I've seen cats like my boy Richie used to come in here.
If he was short 5 bucks, Brent would cut his hair.
He'd come back and give him an extra $10 next week.
- I've swept the floor in here sometimes. - Yeah?
Because this is a spot where you have to make an appointment. But, you know...
- Yeah. - I've been known to miss my appointments
By about a minute or 2, so I got to sit my black ass down with the...
Sweep some hair.
I sweep some hair.
We go outside. We do push-ups,
and it's not like I'm bored here. You know what I mean?
No, never. Yeah, I definitely got broke in, like,
- my manners in the barbershop. - Yeah.
Like, Brent broke me in for, like, 3 years.
When you come to the shop enough to get every one of the barbers
a pound and everyone is, like, greet you, then you feel,
you know, that's a badge of honor.
As the black guy in this conversation
in a room full of black barbers, I went through the same shit.
My first time, I was scared of the The Dread, yo.
AKA The Dread.
Don't be the new guy walking off the street and just sit down here.
These guys will just ice them out.
- I get uncomfortable, like, when the new guy comes... - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And no one says nothing.
He's just sitting there for, like, 30 minutes.
- I'm like, "Damn, dude. You're not going to say nothing?" - Yeah.
How do y'all feel about barber culture and the barbershop?
Like, how's that been changing lately?
It's changed because, like, the neighborhood changes.
- Yeah. - So once the neighborhood changes, the area changes.
The types of conversation that we have changes,
things like that. But the culture stays the same.
Mm-hmm.
Like, everything underneath the sun is being discussed in the barbershop.
The fancier the barbershop looks, the cuts are not as good.
The conversation is not as good.
It almost works, like, inversely.
Well, would you say that this area became more gentrified when Barclay's came over?
- That's when Changing Faces - Was on Fulton.
Yes! Thank you!
Even as busy as this shop was, when it got gentrified,
the rent pushed you guys back onto Hanson Place, right?
Absolutely right, absolutely.
And I think when people talk about gentrification, it's like, anybody is welcome
in the neighborhood, but respect the foundation and respect what we got going on.
Yeah, but that's not happening though, man.
- Yeah. - I don't think so.
When I walk down the street, people,
I feel they looking at me like, what the... am I doing here?
And I'm like, "You couldn't survive - the Brooklyn I grew up in. - Yeah.
What the... are you doing here?"
Food Man.
Food Man, what you got today?
Today, I have curry goat, shrimp, chicken or fish buss up shut.
- Buss up shut, wow. - Oh.
I want the buss up shut.
That goat, I'll take some of that goat.
The goat and the oxtail is the best.
There's something about oxtail.
My mother got started because she's an immigrant. I'm first generation.
- Yeah. - My mama is from the Bahamas, right?
- Yeah. - My mama has got a story About when she first came to this country.
She was poor. She would have to go behind the butchers
at the end of the day and wait for them to throw away
the throwaways, which were oxtails and fish heads - Yeah. - And shit like that.
Yeah, my mom used to go to the store,
- and the butchers would give away - Free dog bones.
- Yeah. - They're just bones from the cow that they said were dog bones.
And my mom's like, "Yo, this is free soup."
Soup! Soup!
She made all the soup with what they said was dog bones.
But, you know, that's the thing I think is super important
that we all tell our immigrant stories because America will fragment us
by race and be like, "Black people do this.
Mexicans do this. Asians do this."
But when we talk about our immigrant experience,
we realize we are a lot more similar than we are different.
I couldn't agree more.
- I got goose bumps. - You know what I'm saying?
I got... You just gave me goose bumps.
- Yeah. - I couldn't agree more, bro.
♪♪
- Shark, oh yeah. - It's a Trini food.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's for sure.
Shark and bake, man.
This is... Wow.
You use mako shark?
Mm, this is banging. You have got to try this.
I'm going to get... Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah.
- This super banging. - You got to get the baby shark.
You don't want them too grown.
The meat gets as tough as rubber.
Too tough. You want some baby shark.
That's the tenderest.
He made the dough himself. It's delicious.
Yo, Food Man, tell us what you put in the chicken curry, man.
I marinated the chicken first, you know, - season it up and stuff... - Mm-hmm.
Started up the curry in the pot... - Mm-hmm. - ...and throw the chicken in
And let it stew down and cook now so that, you know,
you get that flavor, that nice flavor.
You're missing one ingredient. Put love in it.
Oh, yes.
Thank you, my brother.
Yeah. I cook with a lot of love.
This shit is rocking.
Food Man!
Yeah, I live for it. Do you know what I mean?
Like, I thrive in the club.
- This... It's my best. - I love you, man.
It's my best sport.
♪♪
So we here at Il Cantinori,
and we're waiting for my homey, Paul Sevigny, to pull up.
- Hey, what's up? - Hey, hey.
- What's good, Eddie? - How's it going?
- How are you, man? - Good to see you, dude.
- How have you been? - Good, good, good.
Do you have the veal Milanese today?
- Yes, we do, sir. - Okay. Nice.
The veal Milanese, we got to do.
It's, like, my favorite one in the city.
You been here before?
No.
I stay away from these hot spots.
Oh, yeah?
Since I've been coming up in New York,
all the best spots, it was always kind of you.
Do you know what I mean? Whether it was Beatrice, then Paul's, now Casablanca.
It's like everybody that early 2000s era came up on Beatrice,
and they came up on Sway.
- Yeah. - You know what I mean?
I actually never got into Beatrice.
- Holy shit. - Always tried, never... got cool.
I had no juice back then. You know what I mean?
Yeah, and I've never worked a door before.
Who you got doing the door at Casablanca?
Sir, can we smoke past the green?
We got a Chinese guy telling me where to smoke in my... city.
Warren, we got somebody out here in New Balances.
Could you please assist us in the front?
Maybe you came dressed to fly, you know.
Yeah, maybe too fly. Too many Timberlands on.
I don't think I would go into a spot thinking, "I've got this idea."
I just try and think you do something new.
It's Manhattan. You try and be ahead of the curve.
Don't overspend on everything so you can control the door yourself.
- Yeah. - And hopefully, People connect to it, you know,
and if you stick by your guns, it's kind, like, - that New York thing. - Yeah.
Like, if you love New York, it will love you back, I guess.
Yeah, I think your thing that I always loved about your spots is always family.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Number one, you're always there.
Your music format is super interesting too
because you're always kind of, like, mixing oldies with new rap
or whatever, dance music.
But it's, like, eclectic.
You know, you want it to be consistently inconsistent.
- Yeah. - It should never feel like a theme.
Yeah.
You know, and there's a little something for everybody.
They touch everybody in the crowd.
So many times when I'm DJing in the city, people are like,
"Paul, like, give me that, you know, '90s, that 2002 set."
Yeah.
"Like, I want to hear that hip-hop."
Yeah, that Just Blaze shit.
That Just Blaze shit, man.
♪♪
Hey, what got you into nightlife?
I've always been interested in nightlife since I was a kid...
- Yeah. - ...you know, when I was skateboarding In Washington Square, you know.
You know, when I was 13 is when I started going out in New York.
And I was always really into punk rock, CBGB, - that whole scene. - Yeah.
Started DJ-ing a little bit.
This kid, Moby, I don't know if you remember him,
taught me around the turntables a little bit.
And then Chloe kind of got into the scene when it was,
like, rave con with Liquid Sky.
Yeah.
♪ ♪ Liquid Sky ♪
Yeah, so she was in nightlife, and that kind of kept me in it.
- Yeah. - And it was cool with the whole jungle thing, And the kids were into it.
- But I'm really from - The generation before that,
So it wasn't really, you know, my scene
and probably wasn't ready for rock and roll to come back, you know.
So your generation, it was, like, punk rock, the rap music, right?
No, it was, "Let's skate all day, and then let's go to The Ritz, Webster Hall..."
Yeah.
You know, and see Bad Brains at night."
♪♪
What we've tried to do here at Webster Hall, Eddie, is maintain the history.
So we kept everything that we could, and these urinals here are 130 years old
because Webster hall is 130-years-old.
They smell 130 years old.
I like it.
♪♪
I'm here now myself personally 28 years.
- Yeah? - Webster Hall, my intentions were always be New York City's club.
- Yeah. - We're for everybody.
Yeah. What drew you to Webster Hall?
I just love New York.
- I thought New York was such - An amazing cultural
Melting pot and the fact that we could go all night long.
And that 4:00 A.M. liquor license was always so appealing
- to be part of that. - I mean, it's important to me.
- Yeah. - If I go out, I'm out until 4:00.
I live for it.
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah.
- Like, I thrive in the club. - This... It's my best... - I love you, man.
It's my best sport. If it was an Olympic sport,
- I would be, like, a gold-medal clubber. - Yes.
I want to be Mark Spitz.
Yeah.
♪♪
- Bon appÃ©tit. - Bon appÃ©tito.
That lamb chop is really good.
The funny thing about New York is the currency is totally different.
You know, there's the guys that get in with the money,
but they get a different experience.
Kid who taught me how to write, you know, was working up as a busboy at the VIP room
- at the Limelight at the time. - Yeah.
And every night, Joey Ramone was hanging out there.
So I'm bringing two cans for the other kid
who was working the door who was a writer, too.
- Yeah. - He'd sneak me up the back.
I'd go hide with my buddy, who was the busboy.
He'd give me free beers. I get to sit next to Joey Ramone
and listen to him and check out the whole scene.
- That's... crazy. - Like, this shit - Is not happening anymore.
Yeah. It was shit that people couldn't buy their way into.
No, not at all.
You know?
There wasn't a price on that. I mean, the whole city has changed, you know.
Yeah, but it's like, you come in with two cans
with the dude that taught you to write, and you're there with the Ramones.
- Like, that's New York. - That was amazing, yeah.
♪♪
This is America's first and longest living club, 130 years old.
Part of the attraction that brought me to New York City was to be part of that
and that I could help in the formation and curation of it
and maybe set a kind of a vibe and a spirit for people to be part of,
and it's surviving.
Everything else is pretty much gone.
What is is about Webster Hall?
Why is it that you haven't updated or renovated?
We recognize that this is a one-of-a-kind building
and that people wanted to come to New York to see its history.
I've always said to people that hopefully Webster Hall
would be here for the next 600, 700 years.
Yeah.
And, I'm right now, just the guardian, - leaving a vibe. - Yeah.
And hopefully, the next people behind would sense that spirit
and know what it meant to the people.
- This is where people gather. - Yeah.
This is where they meet their wives and their girlfriends,
and they start their lives here.
And they have fun, and it's, like, such an important part of the New York culture.
I was in here, like, 7 years ago.
I know you were. You were my hero.
Oh, what up? What up? What up? What's good?
Yo, this my man, Edgar Santana.
We don't just train together.
This is one of my best friends in New York, for real.
You know, I'm not a religious dude.
I don't go to church.
This is it for me. You put in work.
- This is where we put in work. - Yeah.
You know, we go into a lot of community spots on this episode where there's a park,
restaurants, cafÃ©s.
What is the importance of a gym in a neighborhood?
I think the boxing gym gives us, especially growing up,
as a young kid, it gave me a lot in, like, outlet.
How old were you when you started? Like, 14?
Fifteen probably.
And then last year you fought for middleweight championship
- of world, right? - Yeah.
I fought already for three titles.
- I've been in some tough fights. - Yeah.
Fighting out of Spanish Harlem, Edgar El Chamaco Santana!
Didn't you break both hands in a fight once?
Both hands, second and fourth.
Hey, yo, what's your record?
Twenty-nine five with 20 KOs.
- When you first started boxing, - How many of you
And your friends went in that first day?
I think it was, like, six of us.
Yeah.
We started working out, and we was basically joking around, you know.
Yeah.
The trainer said we wasn't taking it serious.
Yeah.
Coach to the side, and he was like, "Listen, man.
Life ain't a joke.
Some of you aren't going to make it to 18.
- You know what I'm saying?" - Yeah. - How many of y'all made it?
- I'm still here. - Yeah.
Thank God, you know.
Definitely, definitely, I think, saved my life, you know.
♪♪
Back in the day, I used to come out here.
I mean, back in the day, I used to come out here.
I chilled with my best friend.
We would just hang out in a bodega.
- Yeah. - You know what I'm saying?
I mean, traditionally, this was always Puerto Rican, Dominican,
Jewish neighborhood, right?
Yes, yes.
And then Chinese people started to move in, like, a few decades back.
I came here looking for a spot for my barbershop.
Yeah.
I actually looked at this spot right here.
Yeah, we could have been neighbors, B.
Crazy.
Yeah, this is the original Baohaus.
Now, it's a Persian-Mediterranean grill.
I like it, though. Refugees welcome.
They keeping the spirit of the Baohaus alive.
This is fly. Oh, what's up?
Oh, this your spot?
Word, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was in here, like, 7 years ago.
I know you were. You were my hero.
Oh, word, word, word? What up? What up? What's good?
- Nice to meet you. - Yeah.
I like that it's in good hands, man.
One of the inspirations was that you started here,
and this area is very competitive.
- Yeah. - When did you guys open up?
So, it's been 2 years. When we took it over, we converted it into
a Palestinian-Lebanese restaurant - with focus on our diaspora. - Uh-huh.
You know, we have been displaced in South America,
all over the world, simply because of the conflicts - in the region. - Yeah.
And our food reflects that.
We got a history together, and you rocking it in here.
- Thank you so much. - The first year is the hardest.
- Oh, I know. - The first is the hardest, So respect, man.
Thank you so much.
- Amazing. - It honors us that you are here.
- Definitely, man. - Thank you so much, sir.
- 137 Rivington Street. - Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.
- Take care of yourself. - Yeah. - Thank you, man.
Take care.
♪♪
This was where I went to eat lunch pretty much five times
a week when I was working at Baohaus
because you can only eat so much of your own cooking.
♪♪
- Eddie: - When I moved to New York here, I lived in this neighborhood.
- Yeah. - So this became my spot
Because, even though the food is totally different, it reminds me of going
to Chinese restaurants with my parents
because I saw all the Puerto Rican families in here... Yes.
All the neighborhood people coming in.
But I started to see all the common culture.
And these restaurants are important because it's like,
you know, you can walk out of here for $6 to $8 and be full.
I'm sorry. This dude just walked in.
He used to kick it at my bodega 15 years ago... - Oh, word. - ...that closed.
Yeah.
I'm sure that dude, he comes here faithfully.
All the time. What's so crazy is that,
so when I went home for the holidays one year,
and I came back, and my boge was gone.
Like, it was closed. And it was super sad because, like,
when I was broke, like, literally, they'd feed me.
And I just had a tab, and I'd pay them back.
Everything on that block on house in between Forsyth and Eldridge, it all closed.
Right.
- It's all gone. - But what sucks is, like, these are the people that
- build up these neighborhoods... - Mm-hmm.
That held us down when we were broke... Yeah, yeah.
And when we didn't know how to move.
And a lot of these new kids opening restaurants,
they'll go to a neighborhood they got no connection to,
set up shop, displace businesses, and be like, "Whatever. We the new shit."
And it's like, "You have no soul, man.
- You got no history here. - Yeah.
Nobody knows you, dog."
Yeah.
I wonder how long this spot been here.
- Thirty years. - They got the T-shirts on.
Thirty years?
Look on the T-shirt.
Ooh. So, I got the mofongo de camarones.
It's the mashed-up fried plantains, lot of garlic, the shrimp.
Then, we got the pig feet, the trotters with the chickpeas, stewed.
Every old culture, especially Caribbean, they got a lot of the stewed food.
It's my favorite.
There used to be more Spanish diners back in the day.
Every corner, all over.
Yeah, I mean, like, as a Puerto Rican dude
in New York though, like, do you ever worry about the culture getting watered down?
Well, my dad used to wake me up to salsa music.
- I used to hate that shit. - Yeah, yeah.
My dad woke me up to the Bee Gees.
Look at that shit. Yeah.
I knew, one, it was mad... early.
Yeah.
And two, we had to, like, clean up our room.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
But then, you know, as I got older, you get... You appreciate it.
The music gives me good memories.
- Yeah. - You know what I'm saying? - Childhood.
- Yeah. - It always brings me back.
- Yeah. - You know?
Any little thing that triggers those memories is kind of dope.
Yes, yes, yes.
Oh, oh, here's Dave's boy.
- Go say what's up to him, Dave. - I don't think he'll - Remember me.
Go say, "What's up?"
Dude, you'd be surprised.
- You'd be surprised. - He would never know.
Say, "What's up?"
Yeah.
Yo. Yo, yo.
You used to kick it at the... I know.
I know. I can't... God dammit.
Yeah, I know. I know.
I'll see you, brother.
I used to see him every night.
- I can tell y'all - Were good friends, Dave. - Super tight.
Yo, it's... up. He can't even vouch for you.
No!
- Oh, he... - Oh!
Oh, he's back. Okay.
It's a Christmas miracle.
Dave got a friend.
There's a lot of pictures of Biggie wearing it.
Yeah.
This is dope, Brian.
T-shirts are they way our generation memorializes moments.
Yeah.
♪♪
Doing a New York episode, talking about downtown,
talking about the creative community, we had to have my mans, Brian Procell,
because we've been doing this together for 10 years, man.
- Yeah. - I've been trying to sell you T-shirts since, like, 2006.
- Yeah, let's talk about that. - I used to have a store on Clinton Street.
Coat of Arms.
I think that's where I first met you.
Other people were selling new streetwear, but you were mining old street wear
for people from the original streetwear culture.
So we can't tell you where we are because this is the vault.
It's one of five secret storage units in New York City
that are part of the Procell empire.
Don't ever try to find this place.
♪♪
I'd rather be in Chyna.
- "Silence of the Lambs." - Buffalo Bill, he, like, threw jizz on somebody in the movie?
And lotion.
First-wave Snoop Dogg merch.
There's a lot of pictures of Biggie wearing it.
Yeah.
This is dope, Brian.
T-shirts are the way our generation memorializes moments... Yeah, totally.
And experiences.
♪♪
We're going to come check out a neighborhood that, for a little bit, was forgotten,
not very populated, Tribeca.
One dude was very responsible for the turnaround of this neighborhood,
the godfather of, I would say, the modern New York food scene, Papa Drew Nieporent.
What's up, Drew? How's it going?
- Look who it is. - Good to see you.
My man.
It's great to have you guys here.
- Cheers. - We're going to eat some good food.
Yes.
Yeah, that's great, man.
♪♪
I honestly felt like you gave the blueprint to a lot of people
of how to come into a neighborhood and really become a part of its fabric.
Well, New Yorkers like adventure.
They like to go to places where they've never been before.
So I opened this restaurant in April of 1985.
We served a $16, that's one six, $16 menu.
Three courses.
Seven weeks after we opened, the New York Times gave us three stars.
I could have filled Shea Stadium.
It was like storming the Bastille.
You never saw anything like it. The phone never stopped ringing.
I just realized that I could do it better, I could do it cheaper,
and I could do it downtown.
In the course of just a few years, we opened Tribeca Grill
up the block, and that was 1990.
And then, in '94, Nobu.
Me, my obligation is to serve the best food that I know how to purvey.
- I'm hungry, man. - I'm starving.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
This has become somewhat of a signature because it's the pastrami spices
that make it very special.
You've got octopus in a million different guises, but...
- Yeah. - ...you know, you're in New York,
So that's a little ham hock, rye croutons.
Wow, thank you.
- A pastrami octopus... - You like that, right?
- It's very, very nice. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- No, it all works well, right? - Mm.
This is amazing.
♪♪
Everywhere I've gone in New York City in every kitchen,
there's not even one degree of separation from you.
Beautiful piece of horseradish, very nice.
Every kitchen you go to in New York, somebody has worked with you
within one or two degrees.
It is kind of crazy. I'll be honest.
I'm like the Kevin Bacon of food.
- Yeah, yeah, you are. - I'm more like Bacon.
You are absolutely six degrees of Papa Drew.
I always believe in the food world as a community.
Chefs should be helping chefs with personnel people, helping people get better jobs.
Restaurateurs like myself though are becoming a bit of dinosaurs
because the chefs are the new restaurateurs.
You see Markus in the kitchen.
He's very even-handed.
He's very fair, and we get along.
We really... We have no conflicts.
Markus, I got to say, it was delicious, very nice.
Thank you.
- Oh, wow. - That one's good, man.
Wow, this is a soufflÃ©d schnitzel.
I want to point out how that's soufflÃ©d.
- You see the way the breading puffed off the fingers. - Mm-hmm.
I want to cook it and cook it light with a lot of clarified butter.
And the typical garnish is lingonberry jam and... I know the lingonberry from IKEA.
Oh, wow. This is good.
♪♪
I mean, what's the secret?
- You know... - If you could tell any of the young restaurateurs anything...
Keep something in mind, Eddie. I'm not a chef.
I'm a restaurateur.
You have to add something special to the proceedings.
Whatever you do, you know, directors matter.
You know, sometimes, the artist doesn't want to take direction.
Anytime I interview anybody, I look at them.
I go, "Can you take direction?"
They look at you cross-eyed, like, "What do you mean by that?"
See, Drew, my thing is, I would take direction if I was getting any direction.
You know, the best directors let you improvise.
That's true.
- This is laissez-faire directing. - Yeah.
I'm just writing down to get some shots of Tribeca Grill.
♪♪
It's a transformative place. I mean, it transformed you, right?
And the year that I was running this place changed my life.
♪♪
It is a real pleasure of mine to introduce to you
my version of Yoda, the man that took me from a mixtape-blog
writer to actual writer to put out two hit records.
Hit records.
- All right. "Fresh Off the Boat," - "Double Cup Love."
- Nothing happens - Without Chris Jackson, bro. - For real.
So, we're back in your old neighborhood.
This is my hood. This is my old hood.
Started off on 125th, grant housing projects.
You started out here, and now you got your own publishing imprint, One World.
One World, that's right.
First Harlem, then the world.
Tell them some of your hits, Chris.
- "Fresh Off the Boat." - "Between the World and Me."
"Between the World and Me," a National Book Award winner.
- Jay-Z, I did a book with him, "Decoded." - Yes.
Trevor Noah, we have a book out right now, "Born a Crime."
"Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson, one of the great human rights lawyers.
Is this a spot you used to come to as a kid?
The last time I lived here, I lived on 120th Street down here
on the other side of Marcus Garvey Park.
And this place was, like, crazy good.
You have, in a lot of ways, reached, like, the apex of publishing,
National Book Award books, things like that.
Right.
But we both started off... our inspiration is hip-hop and these neighborhoods.
Right. I mean, I lived in the neighborhood, and there were book stands up and down.
I would find the kind of street classics of books.
Yeah.
And that would be things like "Iceberg Slim," "Donald Goines."
It would be this kind of alternative histories
that people were writing that were, like, Afrocentric, right?
Yeah.
There's a whole other world of literature up here.
When I started to listen to Big and I really got deep into hip-hop in middle school,
I started realizing, yo, there is a knowledge in a voice
that feels more familiar to me.
- Right, you know, and that's the thing. - The thing about Shakespeare,
- the thing about Jonathan Swift, - People like that, they were writing
At the time for people in the language of their time, and that's what hip-hop was for me.
- Yeah. - They were just able to do the thing that classic
English literature did, which was speak in the language
of the people and take that language and elevate it and amplify and turn it into art.
And the fact that hip-hop then started in these little hoods in New York
and then took over the world, that gave me the sense that,
you know, you can do that in any kind of literature.
You know, when we met and we start talking about
"Fresh Off the Boat," that was the kind of thing
that I was thinking, here's another chance to do that,
you know, to take an original voice,
an original idiom that feels relevant to this moment,
then to elevate, amplify, turn it into art.
I met you.
You were the first black person I met in publishing.
- Mm-hmm. - You came in by yourself with me,
And you talked to me and said, "I love this. I love this.
This is a story we have not heard."
And I remember you immediately hit it on the head.
You were like, "There's a form of intelligence here that goes, like, unnoticed."
Mm-hmm.
And you were all in with me on this kind of experiment
- and bet we were going to make... - Right.
Which was that intelligence comes in many forms.
Right.
And it sounds like this, and looks like this, but, like, give us a chance.
♪♪
You got to sing it like Michael Jackson sing it.
♪ Ooh, yeah ♪
- This had been my house - For 7 years.
I remember when we were in law school, I was working at the Innocence Project.
- I was printing up the Obama tees. - Yup.
That was our first business.
You were our first salesman ever at Hoodman.
Not a good one, but... No, not a good one. You did get fired.
I did get fired and then
- hired soon thereafter for something else. - Yeah. Hired soon after.
Then in 2009, we were the opening staff at... Baohaus.
Yeah.
I remember when we opened, people asked, "What kind of restaurant is it?
Is it a Taiwanese restaurant, Chinese restaurant?"
I would tell people, "We come from skate shops.
We come from video stores. We come from streetwear."
- Right. - "You know, and we're telling our story through sandwiches."
Yeah, I mean, you see it on the wall, all those tags up there.
I mean, we've kept these boards up here for a while.
- And this is the second - Set of boards. - This is the second set
Because, every 2 years, we put up new boards.
And we've saved in storage all the tags, all the photos, all the stickers
because you got to make room for new New Yorkers.
It's a transformative place.
I mean, it transformed you, right?
♪♪
I hope that cats around the world see this and say,
"You don't need shit to create a movement,"
because what I've done with Baohaus is created four walls,
taken it to a point and asked my friends, my family and my community
to bring their stories as well.
Everyone has tried to explain New York, and I've accepted every story is valid,
every language is understood, and everyone is good enough.
♪♪