Local Counsel with Jonathan L. Mechanic

Favorite building  –  The historic Seagram Building located at 375 Park Avenue. It’s a modernist masterpiece and New York City landmark.

Best restaurant  –  Carbone—it’s a great Italian-American restaurant on Thompson Street in Greenwich Village.

Favorite quote about New York  –  “The City That Never Sleeps” best captures the energy here.

Best view in the city  –  The world-class observatory located on the top three floors of the 1 WTC building.

Weekend getaway  –  I like to go to East Hampton when I am able to get away for the weekend.

Weekend activity/ritual  –  Tennis.

Best place to take a client  –  U.S. Tennis Open.

Favorite thing about your office  –  It overlooks New York Harbor and offers a spectacular view of the Statue of Liberty.

Favorite city law  –  I love this city and anything that promotes the quality of life here, so … I would have to go with the pooper-scooper law.

Favorite place for a slice  –  Pizza is not my thing, or so my wife, Wendy, hopes. But if I had to pick a place, I’d get a slice at Fresco’s.

Yankees or Mets?  –  Yankees.

Giants or Jets?  –  Giants.

Favorite lesser-known tourist attraction  –  The Tenement Museum in the Lower East Side. The building once housed thousands of working-class immigrants.

Favorite lunch spot  –  Casa Lever and Four Seasons.

Favorite park  –  Central Park … which, as they say, is “the heart of the island at the center of the world.”

Go-to sports venue  –  Sportime Randall’s Island Tennis Center.

Go-to arts venue  –  Carnegie Hall is an exceptional venue for a concert or performance.

Favorite museum  –  The Whitney Museum of American Art in its new building overlooking the High Line.

Favorite theater  –  The historic Palace Theater on Broadway in Times Square, which is to be restored to its original grandeur as part of a billion-dollar mixed-use project being carried out by one of my favorite clients.

Most beautiful spot  –  Battery Park, which is across the street from my office. The recent renovations have made this 200-year-old site even more beautiful. 

Best place for people-watching  –  Freds at Barneys, because of its energetic atmosphere.

Best thing you learned from your mentor  –  One of my mentors, the late Howard P. Ronson, once told me that the key to negotiation is to care but not too much. You need to negotiate hard, but you need to always be able to walk away.