Many New York City renters are likely aware of this scenario. You're on your fourth apartment tour of the day when your broker unlocks the front door and leads you into the kitchen. The layout may seem unremarkable at first glance, but it draws the eye to every corner. Wait, is that a bathtub?
Often held up as an example of what New Yorkers must endure, living in a quirky kitchen has become an experience that unites lifelong residents and new immigrants. Some are quaint, like a shoebox kitchen with a built-in shower in the wall, while others have anachronistic details, like an austere 20th-century oven.
Many of the city's unique kitchens are snapshots of history. After the New York Tenement Act of 1901 was passed, all homes were required to have sinks and bathtubs to meet the city's sanitary standards. In rowhouses across the Lower East Side and East Village, bathtubs are only installed in the kitchen, often the largest room in the apartment.
Space-strapped kitchens may not have a single full-size appliance. Despite these quirks, New Yorkers find ways to make do with, and even fall in love with, their quirky kitchens.
Small appliances, big cooking possibilities
This Upper West Side apartment ticked all the boxes for Phoebe Lifton and her partner, Arthur Cañedo: proximity to grocery stores, parks, restaurants, and picturesque street views with trees in bloom. But when the couple moved into the space in 2020, the kitchen setup was a bit of a shock.
To the untrained eye, Lifton's kitchen looks like it's been hit by a contraction ray. The refrigerator is miniature. The stove, if you can call it that, is just two small burners on the countertop. No oven. Still, the couple was determined to go through with it.
They bought a toaster oven, stashed an extra mini-fridge in the closet, and invested in an Instant Pot. Lifton, 32, took inspiration from Julia Child, who had her most nifty kitchen tools strewn across a pegboard, and installed a space-saving cork board to store mugs and other knick-knacks. did.
Even with just a few inches of space in the kitchen, the couple created an enviable meal. They turned to a number of one-pot recipes, like shakshuka and carrot and saffron risotto, but said goodbye to roasted chicken and copious amounts of homemade kombucha.
Other than the beginning of the pandemic, the prolific home cooks have never felt disturbed in the kitchen. “There was a baking craze,” Lifton said with a laugh. “So necessarily I couldn’t be a part of that.”
Bathtub perfect for parties
In 2021, Elise Schatz began her apartment search with a clear goal. It's all about finding the biggest apartment within your budget with the best light. She found an East Village studio with lots of north- and south-facing windows and a large bathtub in the kitchen. “As soon as I walked in, I thought, 'Oh, this is my apartment,'” she said.
Most rooms in her apartment have kitchen bathtubs, a vestige of the tenement era. “When you talk to people who aren't familiar with New York real estate, they get confused and think it's funny,” said Schatz, 29.
She rarely bathes in the tub, but wants to use it as a quirky storage area. “If I was having a party, I would put ice in there and drinks in it,” she said.
refrigerator for books
When Edith Hughes settled into her Lower Manhattan apartment in 2021, one unpleasant noise kept her up at night. The culprit was the studio's lowboy refrigerator. This refrigerator is usually installed in restaurant kitchens rather than residential homes.
“It was too loud for this small space,” Hughes, 33, said of the large appliance. She decides to unplug it and doesn't use it for food. “I use it to store my books,” she said. (Mr. Hughes bought a small refrigerator to store his groceries.)
Ms. Hughes often enjoys reading a book she keeps in the refrigerator in her snug bathtub next to the kitchen sink. Also, storing old calendars and folders in the refrigerator frees up space on her shelves to store her various collections. No walls are left bare, which is Hughes' preferred method.
Kitchen, bathroom, and photo studio all in one
Living with a shower in the kitchen doesn't faze Nicole Naroy, but the fact that the only sink in her Greenwich Village apartment is shared between the kitchen and bath space has created some new habits. . While taking her shower, she has easy access to her steaming cup of chamomile tea on the counter. Sometimes she finds herself putting makeup on top of a pile of dirty dishes.
“It's kind of luxurious in a weird way,” she said.
Since moving into her apartment in August, she has also unintentionally turned a multipurpose space into a studio for freelance photo shoots. The bright white walls of the kitchen contrast with the red kettle and pots, creating an atypical yet striking backdrop. Just a few days after her move, Ms. Naroy, 23, began taking photos of her friends, models, and, of course, a few bands who wanted to pose next to her kitchen shower.
“Random girls on Instagram reached out to me and said, 'Can I do a photoshoot in your bathtub?'” she said.
Oven trapped in the past
When Scott Bordener bought his Prospect Heights apartment in 1997, he inherited quite a few outdated appliances. The kitchen had original enameled metal cabinets and an outdated cold spot refrigerator that hadn't been manufactured since the 1970s.
“The whole house felt like it had wandered into another era, and somehow into our own,” he said.
Even though it wasn't rented, it remained abandoned for decades. But even after renovating her kitchen during the pandemic, Bodener, 53, chose not to replace her oldest appliance, a 1929 Verbilt oven.
Without a pilot light, Bodener uses matches or a USB lighter to ignite the burner. The real struggle comes whenever you have to restart the oven. “You actually have to pull out the broiler drawer, stick his hand in there and light it,” he said. “It's still okay, but it looks a little campy.”
Since the renovation, Bodener has decorated the kitchen with ornaments and personal touches inspired by her travels with her husband, Fabio Tobrini. There are dozens of engraved versions and an absurd painting of the Last Supper with an animal head instead of a human head. In her honor, Mr. Bodener installed a golden dragon-face faucet above the sink in Mr. Tobrini's fountain in her hometown of Malcesine, Italy.
“I don’t think there’s another kitchen like ours,” Bodener said. “But I think New York is the perfect place to find them.”
