I met someone this week who I immediately disliked. He had a European accent and a bit of an attitude. Today, I realized why I didn't like him. He reminded me of Armand, a guy who showed me an apartment back in 1999 when I was moving to NYC. I had the address of the apartment on Attorney Street in the LES and an afternoon appointment to see it. I had plenty of time, so I went by early and the building was open. I went in, walked around a bit and saw one of the other apartments they were in the process of remodeling. Very nice indeed.
I had plenty of time to kill, so I ended up walking aimlessly. I ended up in front of Manitoba's, the bar owned by Handsome Dick Manitoba of the legendary punk band The Dictators. So I went inside, figuring I could possibly meet Handsome Dick, have a beer, draw in my sketchbook and kill an hour or so before my appointment to see the apartment. And that's pretty much what happened. Handsome Dick was behind the bar. We chatted a bit and I had a beer. As soon as I finished it off, he asked if I wanted another. "You might as well," he said. "It's free." It was happy hour and all drinks were buy one, get one free. How could I resist? By the time I finished that one, it was time to go. It was about 6 or 8 blocks back to the apartment. As I exited the bar, I saw a tall man in a long black coat walking the same direction I was headed.
As it turns out, it is Armand and he does see me leave the bar. At the apartment, it's all new, marble floors in the bathroom, new appliances in the kitchen, nice hardwood floors. It's approximately 400 sq ft and $1000/month. We talk and I sort of waffle on it a bit. He interviews me a bit, asks why I'm moving to NYC, if I have relatives in the tri-state area. I told him that I had a good job lined up in the dot com industry, which he seemed to take a dim view of. And, curiously, he asked me if I was "a drinker." It took me years to realize that he'd seen me leave Manitoba's and had pegged me as someone who spend all their money at the bar leaving no money for rent. Plus, he wanted to have someone take possession of the apartment the following Monday. So I back out of the deal. And there were a few other prospective tenants.
I get back to my friend Michelle's apartment where I'm staying for the week. I tell her about the apartment and how I liked it, but passed on it since it'd sit empty for a month before I moved in. Michelle tells me that if I like it, I should go ahead and take it. I call Armand back and arrange to drop off a deposit check and check for doing a credit check. Plus, I had to have my parents co-sign and have credit checks done on them as well.
The apartment went to someone else. And Armand seemed pretty smug about it. The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. In retrospect, I sort of wonder if I would have gotten it if he hadn't seen me coming out of Manitoba's. But I think he just didn't like me off the bat anyway.
Oddly, I remember his name and his business name, so I googled him to see if he's still there. Seems like he's got the same office on W 57th, but I didn't find much on his real estate business. I did see that he's applied for a patent. Some kind of toilet paper dispenser that dispenses both wet and dry toilet paper. That left me completely baffled. I miss NYC.
