IAN DUKE, RESTAURATEUR

LIVING IN THE HAMPTONS FOR SEVERAL YEARS, IAN DUKE HAS HAD QUITE AN IMPACT ON SOUTHAMPTON’S SOCIAL AND CULINARY SCENE. WITH SEVEN UNIQUE CONCEPTS UNDER HIS BELT, IF YOU ASK HIM, HE’S JUST GETTING STARTED …..

By Rosanna Perez

Living in the Hamptons for several years, Ian Duke has had quite an impact on Southampton’s social and culinary scene. With seven unique concepts under his belt, if you ask him, he’s just getting started ….. Even with more potential shutdowns in sight, nothing will curb the optimism of Duke who without a shadow of a doubt, believes that the best is yet to come. “The pandemic has done irrevocable damage to our industry. One thing I will say though is that ours is a business where you never know what’s going to happen. Everyday something breaks or goes awry. That is every day in a restaurant, aside from the pandemic. So, with that said, restaurants are perhaps as well-suited as anyone to handle the challenges of running a business that the COVID-19 pandemic has presented. We have all spent a career pivoting, and we will continue to do so as long as is necessary,” said Duke who owns several restaurants in the Hamptons and Manhattan.

During the pandemic alone, Duke and his team have launched the award-winning Union Sushi and Steak in Southampton, the smash hit outdoor restaurant The Baylander (built on an actual aircraft carrier) on Manhattan’s upper west side. These to accompany the team’s other establishments: Southampton Social Club, Lucky’s Famous Burgers, Prohibition Live Music Bar and Union Burger Bar. BUT wait – there’s more!

The group is opening a new take out / food pick up concept in Southampton called The Coop on December 1st. Union Sushi and Steak will be transforming into a dining gallery starting December 10th when they partner with Alysha Markos of UEast75 gallery for a month long art show entitled “Musing and Mastering The Ordinary” featuring a slew of talented South American and Cuban artists.

Finally, I asked Duke who is approaching his 50th birthday in a matter of weeks what was next on the docket for him and his team else he simply said, “I think I’d like to do a hotel……I think that could be some fun.” Fun indeed.

New York commercial landlords are seizing a unique opportunity to make a difference. By 2024, most buildings larger than 25,000 square feet – some 50,000 buildings across the city -- will need to drastically cut emissions to comply with NYC’s building emissions law, Local Law 97 of 2019. By 2050, those caps on carbon emissions will force building owners to reduce emissions by 80. That’s a tall order, especially during a global pandemic that has been felt acutely by commercial building owners. But wit most workers having yet to return to the office, some landlords are using this unprecedented moment to start working on their buildings, with the goal of meeting these stringent new standards years ahead of schedule. In Noho, Renaissance Properties is leading the charge. “The question is how do we get people to invest now, in the middle of a crisis, in sustainable practices,” said Bradley Fishel, Vice President of Renaissance Properties and Chairman of the Board Noho Business Improvement District. “The new climate act for New York City means that building owners are going to have to meet sustainability standards in the coming years anyway. So, we are pressuring buildings ownersin the Noho BID to meet those 2024 standards before any other neighborhood in Manhattan.”

Renaissance Properties – whose portfolio includes 632 Broadway, 627 Broadway, and 264 West 40th Street – has already made the city’s recommended changes as of two years ago, Fishel said. For instance, at 632 Broadway -- a landmarked Classical Revival mercantile building designed by Robert Maynicke and built in 1897 – the family company led by President Kenneth Fishel replaced all lights with LEDS, switched to solar energy utility credits, installed touchless faucets and touchless light switches, updated all HVAC units to VRF systems, replaced all windows and conver- ted the buildings from heating oil to natural gas. They also added the Merv 13 air filtration to the building in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. www.renaissancepropertiesny.com