"Rough Trade NYC, on a not-quite-postindustrial block of North Ninth Street, near the East River, is the kind of place that most music fans had given up hope for in New York: an airy 15,000-square-foot temple to record retail, with a coffee counter and a 300-person-capacity performance space with a bar that will present concerts almost daily." B. Sisario Nov. 23, 2013

"The lobby bar, which serves cocktails and espresso, is a sequoia-brown brushed-marble altar loaded with wildflowers. To its right, a matching marble fireplace is flanked by rosewood Osvaldo Borsani shelving loaded with art books from Assouline, more vases of wildflowers, and other curios." C. Olson Nov. 28 2019

"Inside, the restaurant has some disco-era curves and some Central European coffeehouse elegance, and many square yards of windows. A lot of the seating is at midnight-blue banquettes and booths. Framed photographs on one wall show the remains of a house from which whole sections have been removed. It is the work of Gordon Matta-Clark, the Chilean American artist who altered buildings with chain saws, at some risk to their structural integrity and his own safety." P. Wells Apr. 5 2022

"For one, it means his philosophy of celebrating raw ingredients in cooking translates into the design of the space. 'It’s a lot about these simple, raw ingredients — wood, steel, concrete, things that we almost take for granted,' (Kluger) says. 'We pulled them out and made them the forefront.' Walnut wood was sanded and oiled for parts of the restaurant, and concrete was treated to become the bar and some stairs." S. Dai Nov. 30, 2016

"The two-story row house originally in this space, which was demolished down to the basement and common walls that it shares with the neighbors, was 1,200 square feet. The new building is 2,000 square feet. The entrance level, an open kitchen and living space, has 20-foot ceilings; the wide stairs have thick glass banisters; the master bedroom, on the top floor, has sliding doors of translucent glass between master bedroom and bath, which can be opened so the claw-foot tub is part of the bedroom." J. Wadler Jan. 2 2013

"The restaurateur behind one of Brooklyn’s best pancake spots (Greenpoint’s Chez Ma Tante) is jumping boroughs and making his Manhattan debut. Josh Cohen’s Hidden Leaf, which opened Wednesday, is no breakfast joint, though. It’s a new pan-Asian restaurant within a soon-to-open performance venue near Penn Station, hoping to appeal to gastronomes and art connoisseurs alike." T. Latham Jul. 6 2022