Friday, August 17, 2012

This is the smallest kitchen(ette) that I've probably ever seen


It's in a nice little studio ($1,595) on East 13th Street ... here's the listing ...

To clarify, I've been in apartments that didn't have a kitchen... well, at least one with functioning appliances. Sort of a Bill Cunningham thing ("Who needs one?") where people used the kitchen for storage, etc. And I've been in living spaces, like some sort of quasi loft, that never had a kitchen to begin with ...

But this might be the smallest advertised kitchen(ette) that I've seen...

Anyway, do you really need a kitchen? Maybe just a mini fridge by the bed for beer or Powerade? Maybe some bologna and cheese?

15 comments:

Axis of Eville said...

I'm starting a new lease this month, paying 1695 for a rent-stabilized 450 sqft 1-bed at 11/2nd

Brian Van said...

It's nice that NYC gives you the freedom to live without a kitchen if you don't have access to one (or just don't feel like cooking, ever), but it's a sad erosion of basic living facilities to see more and more apartments being provided with lamely-stocked kitchens just because it's cheaper for the landlord. I've seen apartments that HAD full kitchens get renovated and end up with basically a minibar fridge and countertop and that's it; what are you going to do with that? You buy ketchup, milk, and eggs, and now what room do you have left? Not even enough for vegetables.

It's also worth noting that most food that we're traditionally used to cooking and eating at home ends up, on average, to be far healthier than what restaurants serve. The presence of a deep fryer and buckets of lard in most commercial kitchens would tip the balance as it is, but you also look at restaurants like Chipotle dumping a full cup of cooked rice into their dinosaur burritos (unless you order something like the salad bowl), and I don't know anyone who isn't slightly ill after consuming one of them.

For what it's worth, colleges and universities often set up students with poor access to self-cooking facilities in on-campus housing, and have a concessionaire take care of feeding everyone, so the problem starts back then. You're an 18-year-old high school graduate and you're not even allowed to cook your own pasta primavera... I know one girl who used to sneak into the dorm's kitchen (one small kitchen for 150 people!) every once in a while and crank out a batch of brownies from powdered base. That was about all you could do, and they were barely setup for it. It's kinda sad. Anyway, college grads are mostly used to not-cooking, and they move here and eventually turn into 30-year-olds who are used to ignoring their kitchens in their "random roommates" real estate phase, and that's who likes to rent these apartments. There is no better lifestyle they're achieving here. They just eat like shit and lack the life skills of a 12-year-old African pygmy child.

Jenny Woolf said...

Does it actually have a cooker? We had one like that in a a rental apt. it was downright dangerous to actually use..

abrod said...

And yet.... is that... no, it can't be... is that a fuckin dishwasher?!

There's no cooking facilities, but there's still a dishwasher... a metaphor for the world we live in today, if there ever was one.

EV Grieve said...

@ abrod

I think that's a mini fridge...?

But I do hope that it *is* a dishwasher...

East Village Eats said...

I'm thinking mini-fridge too. Most likely just for beer. I don't think I could live without a kitchen... Seriously, that thing is tiny!!!

DrBOP said...

Not sure why, but these "combo mini-frige, two-burner stovetop, WITH (fairly normal-sized) single sink and small-storage space"-units are ALL the rage among the fiscally-discerning slumlords THROUGHOUT North America.....Canada AND Mexico included.
I understand why the cheap-asses go for them, but I've been doing renos/restorations on and off for 35 years, and ALL OF A SUDDEN over tha past 3 years or so these thingys are showin' up EVERYWHERE!
I remember the slightly-stunned awe when my crew and I first saw one of these....it was like Steve Martin's bit = "Wottinthell IS that?......WHAT the hell is THAT?.....etc :+)

Anonymous said...

Could that be a tiny two-burner hot plate built into the space next to the sink?

Honestly, this set-up is perfectly excusable and even acceptable if the rent were, say, $400 a month. But the rent is most certainly not $400 a month.

Anonymous said...

HIS TABLE IS HIS BED

EV Grieve said...

@ anon 1:09

Ha!

THE NOTORIOUS L.I.B.E.R.A.T.I.O.N. said...

I like the rogue cabinet by the windows!

When I was looking at apartments in May it was frightening to see what people were calling kitchens. This pathetic little burner/sink/fridge combo was pretty common, as was the prison sink in the bathroom. Not sure what one would do in this area other than make tea or lights butts off the burner.

On the flip side, some other apartments went ALL OUT with the stainless steel appliances. I looked at a few apartments in a building next door to Veniero's and the kitchens were such a spectacle, they consumed the rest of the space.

Anonymous said...

Looks like you could easily fix up ramen for four on this setup, what's the big deal.

Seriously, what a depressing little of slice of humanity. Probably the average cave man had a more useful kitchen setup. This is some real primitive tenement shit going on here in 2012.

abrod said...

Ah yeah it does look like a mini-fridge. Sorry, early-morning appliance identification isn't one of my strengths!

In all seriousness though I lived in an apartment with no real kitchen - just a sink, a fridge, some cabinets, and two tiny burners that I ended up just covering over with a cutting board so that I could have some counter space. Not too cool, that.

jose garcia said...

if this is on 13th between a/b i used to live in this very apartment, or one exactly like it, in the early 90s back when when mona's was fun the squatters got 'tanked' and the riot finally happened in the park. was a great summer all the way around. think the building was owned by bob at tower brokerage or at least he got me the lease. was a lot of fun there.

Unknown said...

I wouldn’t even give a place with no kitchen a second glance. Even if you don’t generally make meals for yourself you still need to have a place to make a coffee or cup of tea, a sandwich, some pasta, toast. The basics! That can’t be called a kitchen; it’s just a fridge and a sink slotted into the hall storage space by the looks of things.