Tradicionale will make your date like you (and Filipino food)

Elevated yet breezily approachable. You will meet people in your life who are crisp and stylish in an effortless way; then you’ll find out that they have some secret technical skill like they speak five languages or are a nationally recognized figure skater. Do not compare yourself to these casually beautiful people or put too much thought into how they are nailing the little things, seemingly without really trying. Just take it all in and maybe even patronize the restaurant equivalent that we’re personifying here: Tradicionale on 19th Street & 9th Ave.

Tradicionale bills itself as a “Filipino-Spanish bistro and bar” yet we bill it as a date-night spot with a person you genuinely like. The decor goes back and forth between dark and bright: French bistro-style floors; marble bar top; deep and dark wood tables; and then a leafy pattern on the walls that is no doubt paying homage to the tropical maritime climate of the Philippines. Add all of this up, together with the soft, moody lighting and lounge music, and heto!, you’ll find yourself sitting across from someone way more smitten than you remember them being last time.

Then there is the food. Here is the block-approved move, which comes from our bartender and genial restaurant manager, Paulo: the Chicken Liampiang Shanghai to start and the Kare Kare Short Rib for the main. The former is a Filipino egg roll stuffed with ground chicken and vegetables and served with a red sweet and sour sauce; confuse your tastebuds in the best way by going back and forth between the spice in the rolls and the sweetness of the sauce. The real star for us is the short rib—and our recommendation is that you come hungry for this because it is hearty. A soft and fatty short rib, eggplant, green beans, and bok choy are stewed together in a deep red peanut sauce (reminiscent of Massaman curry) that you basically don’t have to even chew and is worth closing your eyes for. Throw all the shrimp paste they give you right in the bowl for a blast of saltiness, and soak up the last of the rich, creamy, savory, peanut-infused sauce with the white rice you get on the side. There is also a great and creative selection of drinks that we haven’t tried yet, including the Bloody Manang, the Filipino take on a Bloody Mary, and a vodka, coconut, and apricot liqueur combination charmingly called Girl Dinner.

We understand from the owners that Tradicionale is about to set up some tables outside as well, which naturally we’re here for. So we’ll be back soon to try the Lobster Palabok, a lobster and pork rind medley which we very nearly picked last time for our main, and the beautiful outdoor European cafe experience that we’ve written about before on 9th Avenue.

Highly recommend.

Help save the world by learning about plants on October 8, 2026

Guys, the robots are just about to take over and so someone really should give some thought to how to save the world. Hear me out on this: plants. The answer might be plants. On October 8, 2026, the High Line is putting on an event called Plants can save the world: Green space solutions for a resilient future. Below is a description—it’s a very cool panel event on the High Line itself at 14th Street:

Plants are the foundation of life on earth, and yet they’re often the last thing we consider when looking for systems that can build climate resilience. This panel will bring together plant and nature experts to discuss how plants and gardens can enhance human health and well-being while providing solutions to mitigate the detrimental effects of climate chaos. Join our moderator, Richard Hayden, Senior Director of Horticulture for the High Line, and panelists Tami Lin-Moges, Director of the Cities Program in New York for The Nature Conservancy, and Uli Lorimer, Director of Horticulture for the Native Plant Trust, for a series of short presentations followed by a lively discussion and audience Q&A.

You can RSVP at the link above—and thank you Wei, at the High Line, for telling us about this.

You really should see on October 4 a film about the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses

Neighbor Renee, president of the tenants’ association for the Elliott-Chelsea Houses, writes in with the following news: on October 4, 2026 at 5:30pm, a special screening of a new documentary called A Home Worth Fighting For‍ is filming at SVA Theatre on 23rd Street between 8th & 9th Avenue. We have written repeatedly this year about the Elliott-Chelsea and Fulton Houses, the housing complex between 9th & 10th Avenues on 16-19th and 25th-27th Streets; with the backing of the city and private developers, the whole complex is slated to be imminently demolished and rebuilt.

Here’s a description of and invitation for the screening from Renee:

Please join us on Sunday, October 4th for a special screening of  A Home Worth Fighting For at the SVA Theatre in Chelsea.

Hear directly from residents fighting to save our homes, and learn what is happening right now at Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses.

A Home Worth Fighting For is a powerful film documenting Fulton and Elliott‑Chelsea residents as we fight back against the proposed demolition of our homes. It highlights the truth, the organizing, and the community strength driving this movement.

Join us for the screening and a community conversation with the director, resident leaders, housing experts, and advocates. We’ll dig into what’s at stake for public housing and how residents are pushing back against demolition plans.

Get your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-home-worth-fighting-for-tickets-1999428856533 (free but there aren’t that many left). This is a critical issue for our neighborhood and we’ll be in attendance.

Thom Browne closes out New York Fashion Week at The Shed

The latest New York Fashion Week ran from September 10 to September 15, 2026 (for the unfashionable: the week is for designers to showcase their spring and summer 2027 collections). The grand finale took place at our very own The Shed, the arts center in Hudson Yards, where designer Thom Browne came through with his signature quasi-preppy, quasi-corporate look. You can see celebrities catwalking into The Shed here and an article in Vogue about the looks here (and another article here). Spring bugs were the motif (snippet from the last link above):

The Shed at Hudson Yards was transformed into a surreal, over-the-top, delightfully dark garden replete with giant leaves, huge daffodils, and a glamorous cocoon at the center of it all for Thom Browne’s spring 2027 show. It was the final runway presentation of the NYFW spring 2027 season, and per usual, the designer made it dramatic as ever. Browne was thinking of the campy children’s film A Bug’s Life and turned his usual remixed tailored suits into wearable garden-scapes blooming with layers of floral motifs, ant embroidery, and butterfly-wing gowns. “For me, it was a very naive childhood story, and I thought it would bring smiles to everybody’s face,” he said backstage right after the show. “I was using the story and working with all the techniques I’ve been working with for the last couple seasons.”

Always here for the stylishness on our block.

Shark Tank guy at Chelsea Industrial

We see activity this week at Chelsea Industrial, the event space on 28th Street between 10th & 11th Avenue. Evidently it is for a blockchain conference called “Avalanche Summit,” which takes place this Wednesday and Thursday (9/16 and 9/17/26) and describes itself as “where the business and technology leaders driving the future of digital assets come together.” Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank fame is the headliner. On the second link above you can see the rest of the “best minds in the business” in attendance (incidentally they also look like a group of guys who could go a very long interaction before asking you a single question).

We at High Line 28 Blockchain Association will be there and will report back on how it went.

Owners of vacant lot on 29th & 10th looking to sell

Neighbor Conor, owner of the much anticipated Zebra Building opening this fall, writes in with a comment on our post last week regarding the vacant lot on 29th Street & 10th Avenue. The owners of the lot (who have owned it since at least the 1980s) have retained a broker called BK Real Estate Advisors to sell the lot; here’s an article on the lot, and shown here is a rendering of what may be possible for the space.

The lot is zoned “COMMERCIAL OR MANHATTAN RESIDENTIAL,” though from the rendering and article, it looks like the broker is pitching it as a residential opportunity:

Development sites that combine a prime Manhattan location, favorable zoning, construction readiness, and multiple pathways to increased density are increasingly difficult to find.

As residential demand continues to grow in West Chelsea and Hudson Yards, 327 Tenth Avenue offers developers a unique opportunity to deliver a boutique project in one of New York City's most dynamic neighborhoods. The combination of zoning flexibility, location quality, and immediate buildability positions the site as a compelling investment opportunity.

We’ll reach out to the brokers for any more information. Would be great to get a new building in this space along with the other buildings that are supposed to be sprouting up in the neighborhood (note: our latest information is that the Scores development has stalled).

The Roman filming on 28th Street between 10th & 11th

The Roman, an upcoming Netflix series about the Las Vegas casino world (not sure I saw that coming given the title), is filming next Tuesday, September 22, 2026 on 28th Street between 10th & 11th Avenues. Martin Scorsese, of The Departed and Goodfellas and Wolf of Wall Street fame, is the executive producer—feel free, film buffs, to tell us in the comments what an executive producer does. Oscar Isaac (from Ex Machina) Alec Baldwin (married to a Spanish woman) are in the cast. Here’s a description of the series from Netflix:

The hour-long drama is set in the high-stakes, sharp-elbowed present-day Las Vegas casino business, which is a modernized but still dangerous version of the legendary city. At the center of it all stands Robert “Bobby Red” Redman, president of the hottest hotel casino in town, who has to make some long odds moves to try and secure his position and take more ground.

No news yet that we can find on exactly when this will launch on Netflix.

About that vacant, sometimes lush lot on 29th Street & 10th Avenue

It is not too far from the truth to say that this block association was formed around the wild little empty jungle we have on 29th Street & 10th Avenue. I won’t scroll all the way back to our 5-year old posts, but suffice to say that we made a rendering of a what a community garden in the lot—designated by the city as Block 700, Lot 36—would look like and even drew up a proposal for changing its tax classification. The dream never actualized unfortunately and so the lot remains what you see here today.

We wrote last week about the vacant storefront on 29th & 10th, right next to this empty lot, and observed that the vacant-next-to-vacant situation is causing a situation‍ that we don’t need to put into a thousand words. This empty lot remains owned by the same owner we spoke to 5 years ago, and the total value of the land has stayed virtually the same over that period (around $3.8m). “Improvement value,” which is the city’s way of valuing what you’ve actually put on the land (like a house or apartment building), sits at a clean $0. This is our neighborhood dinosaur; a glimpse of the prehistoric era of West Chelsea that existed before the glassy building you’re probably reading this from sprung up.

We’re going to reach out to the owner again to see if there are any plans for the space, which is currently burning through about $190k/year in taxes ‍and not generating any income (unless there are crops in there or something). Will let you know what we hear back. ‍

New bagel place called Pio opening on 23rd Street & 10th Avenue

A new bagel place called Pio is about to open on 23rd Street & 10th Avenue (northwest corner)—thanks to neighbor Eric Marcus for pointing this out to us. Our investigative team went up and visited another Pio location on 39th & 9th, which is the picture to the right you see here. You can see the Yelp reviews for the Hell’s Kitchen location here (the reviews are very good); their menu here; and their Instagram here. Upshot is this is a classic New York-style bagel place with some Latin flair. It specializes in the cream cheese blends (or “schmears,” which candidly is a word I’m not yet entirely comfortable with), egg sandwiches, smoothies, and pastries.

Can’t beat a New York bagel or breakfast, and so happy to have this right near our block.

Annual London Terrace street fair on Saturday, October 3rd

London Terrace is the massive brick apartment complex that covers an entire block, from 23rd to 24th Street between 9th & 10th Avenues. We have repeatedly referenced the president of the London Terrace tenants’ association, Inge Ivchenko, as an individual with impeccable taste‍. Inge writes in with a reminder that on Saturday October 3rd, we should all wander down to 24th Street between 9th & 10th Avenues for the annual London Terrace Street Fair. Here’s the description:

Saturday, October 3 from 10:AM to 5:PM

It’s almost October 3, and The London Terrace Street Fair will be here!  Word has spread once again.

Free Balloon artist from NOON to 2PM.

Still the best street fair/vintage market in NYC!  Shoppers, come stroll along their beautiful tree lined street for the best annual event in Chelsea!

There will be vendors, familiar faces, neighbors, elected, and visitors from afar!  Celebrate this annual unofficial start of Autumn, and pick up some holiday gifts while you’re at it!  

We’ll see you there, Inge, and thanks for all the work that we know goes into this!

ZZ’s Club in Hudson Yards is available to you for a small $20k initiation fee (and $10k/year)

Some days I think we really need to raise the dues of this block association, which currently sit at $0/year. At ZZ’s Club, a private members-only club at 35 Hudson Yards (same building as Equinox and Kendall Roy’s swanky apartment), for an easy $20k initiation fee and then just $10k/year, you get the privilege of being able to tell other people that you belong to ZZ’s Club AND book a reservation at two restaurants (called ZZ’s and Carbone) that the rest of us can’t find on OpenTable.

Exclusivity is the point here, and so even your paper won’t get you in; you have to know a guy, and that guy had to know a guy, and probably so forth. Here’s a handy article called Can You Actually Get Into ZZ's Club New York? which explains the application process yet which we at H28’s Club will summarize for you: No. Now that’ll be 20 thousand dollars.

Wolf Building on 26th Street & 10th Ave remains for sale (for $170m)

The Wolf Building, on the southwest corner of 26th Street and 10th Avenue, was put up for sale in December 2024 for $170 million, and as far as we can tell, remains up for sale today. There is some serious history to this building, which like the rest of West Chelsea, is a haven for art galleries. Per our sister publication The New York Times, the building was constructed in the early 1900s and originally used for printing and binding books; in the 1970s, it was purchased by a Holocaust survivor (named Raymond Naftali) who turned it into a garment warehouse; and in the 1990s, Raymond’s wife Gloria turned the space into a collection of art studios. Here’s an incredibly charming passage about Gloria Naftali from the NYT article:

After Mr. Naftali’s death [in 2003], his wife continued fussing lovingly over her creative brood, dancing at parties into her nineties and making pledges that the building would remain an artists’ community forever, tenants said.

Gloria died in 2022, and representatives of her estate made the controversial decision to sell the building in 2024, saying that the building was “just not profitable enough.” All right. Here at High Line 28, we have to respect the decision of property owners to sell when they want to sell, though we’re also of the view that the artists and the studios and the exhibitions are what make Chelsea Chelsea. We’ll reach out to the estate representatives here to find out what the latest is on the sale process.