If whipping out a crumpled coupon following dinner at Le Cirque doesn’t exactly appeal, this might be the start-up for you. E-coupon innovator Village Vines has landed its first grown-up office.
“When we went to see the space, it helped that the agent said, ‘I know what you guys are. I just used you!’” the tenant’s broker, Elliot Warren of The Kaufman Organization, told The Observer. Village Vines then successfully landed its first 2,500-square-foot permanent digs near Union Square for five years at 37 West 17th Street.
The company is less than a year old, so for the less technologically inclined, he explained the concept thusly: Diners pay a $10 reservation fee to receive a 30 percent discount when booking through the Village Vines website. He added, “You have one guy paying $1,000 a bill for dinner at Le Cirque and another guy is paying $700.”
For those not accustomed to running up four-figure restaurant tabs, the asking rent was a modest $32 a square foot for an office a few blocks from the park and amidst Union Square’s bustling restaurant scene. “Union Square was important to us … but there are very few office spaces in that neighborhood,” Mr. Warren said.
The building is also home to Sushi Samba’s corporate office, Max Brenner and Basta Pasta, so we know where we’ll be freeloading our next meal.
Jake Mansher of The Moinian Group represented the landlord.
lkusisto@observer.com
