Chef Anthony Bourdain Buys Big Apple Combo Condo

BUYER: Anthony Bourdain and Ottavia Busia
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $3,350,000
SIZE: 2,250 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Just about all the New York City-oriented property gossips have already reported that wildly and unreservedly opinionated high profile chef Anthony Bourdain and his Sardinian second wife, mixed martial arts fighter Ottavia Busia Bourdain, paid $3,350,000 for a two-unit combo condo in the unfashionable but hardly inexpensive upper reaches of the Upper East Side but we're gonna have a brief discuss on the matter anyways, okay?

In addition to being the former head chef and the current "chef at large" of Brasserie Les Halles in New York City's uptown and downtown locations, the quick witted and unapologetically acerbic Mister Bourdain is the author of several books (Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, The Nasty Bits) and at least one cook book (Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook). He may be best known as an Emmy nominated television host (Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown) and the fearless eater—he (in)famously an unwashed warthog rectum—recently announced plans to develop a major food market in an as-yet unannounced location with stalls that sell international street food.

Property records show Mister and Second Missus Bourdain selected for their Big Apple residence a three (convertible to four) bedroom and three bathroom combination apartment on a very low floor of the Carnegie Hill Tower, a 32-story, post-war condo tower with scant architectural intrigue but does have over-sized bay windows that allow for panoramic views from the upper floors plus a bevy of full-service amenities that include doormen, cold storage (for grocery and flower deliveries), a resident's only gym and bike room, laundry facilities, an attached garage (for additional fees, of course), landscaped mews, and a communal roof deck.

The somewhat unconventionally laid out apartment has, as configured in the floor plan included with online marketing materials, three bedrooms, a front door opens somewhat rudely directly into a wood floored, split-level living space comprised of two adjoining but separate spaces with a tree top vista that's verdant in the spring and summer and twig-filled in the fall and winter. Although it seems highly likely Mister Bourdain will install a spacious, all-knew and custom designed kitchen where he can practice his culinary skills, the existing kitchen located off the lower part of the living area looks dark and rather puny.

The larger of the two guest/family bedrooms nestled in behind the kitchen has a private bathroom while he other has access to a hall bathroom that is also the bathroom guests would likely make use. There's an unfortunate second entrance in the master bedroom that's located at the opposite end of the apartment off the upper level of the living space. Other less than optimal characteristics of the master suite as it stands in its current layout are a minuscule bathroom and limited closet space. Although easily remedied with a couple of walls and a door or two the laundry room also appears to be located in the master suite.

Your Mama's research indicates (but does not exactly prove) that for the last three or four years Mister and Second Missus Bourdain have occupied a three bedroom and three bathroom apartment on a high floor of an upscale if otherwise undistinguished 30-story full-service rental tower in the Yorkville section of the Upper East Side. We really have no idea exactly how much they cough up each month for rent but the three-exposure spread was last available on the open market in 2009 with an asking price of $8,000.

listing photos and floor plan: Douglas Elliman