• New Neighbors: Wahoo's Fish Taco 
• Attention Retail Store Owners: Take this survey!  
• Flatiron Faces: Jake Schwartz of General Assembly 
• Discover Flatiron: The 40/40 Club 
• At the Galleries and Museums   
• District Deals, Walking Tours, Free Wi-Fi and more... 

The first East Coast location of this popular eatery has opened right here in the Flatiron district at 333 Park Avenue South near 25th Street.  The original Wahoo's Fish Taco was founded in Orange County, California by three surfer brothers, and that attitude translates to the new restaurant as surfboards, skateboards, and snowboards line the walls.  According to their website, Wahoo's offers a light and tasty fusion of Brazilian, Asian and Mexican fare.  Menu items include fish tacos, as well as a variety of other tacos, burritos, salads, and bowls with chicken, teriyaki steak, and shrimp.  There's also a full bar with six beers on tap.  Wahoo's Fish Taco is open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and weekends until midnight.  To contact the restaurant, call (212) 466-3330.  To view Wahoo's website, click here. 

To highlight some of the great aspects of the Flatiron district, the BID has asked notable residents, business and property owners several questions about the district they have chosen to call home. Fresh off his recent expansion of their second space in Flatiron, is Jake Schwartz, CEO and Co-Founder of urban tech campus General Assembly. 

Q. Describe the Flatiron district in three words:The perfect neighborhood.

Q. My favorite low-tech/analog thing about the district is: The line for Shake Shack.

Q. My favorite Flatiron district building is: 902 Broadway (I'm partial).

Q. Don't miss the swarming bands of feral tech entrepreneurs in the Flatiron district.  

Q. The Flatiron district needs more: Cell coverage!

Q. My favorite place to grab a bite in the district is: The roof of Eataly.  

Q. What is your favorite piece of Flatiron district history?  I love that it used be the center for the Toy industry.  We need to bring that back!

Q. Do you have a tip for visitors to the Flatiron district? Be sure to take a moment to hang out in Madison Square Park.  Amazing public sculptures and of course, Shake Shack.  

When the 40/40 Club opened in 2003, the lounge became an instant hit. "I love sports and wanted to create an environment that is conducive to match my lifestyle, while watching the games at the same time," co-owner and music mogul Jay-Z has said of the Broadway and 25th Street location. 

Since then, the club's growing brand of entertainment and a desire to "re-introduce a revolution in luxury sports-watching and the nightclub experience" led the Grammy-winning entrepreneur and his business collaborator Juan Perez to announce last June a $10 million renovation. The makeover was designed by award-winning architect Jeffrey Beers, who recalls, "The club was almost eight years old and needed a facelift. The individual spaces in the old club were segregated from one another, so our goal was to reconfigure it and open everything up to allow guests to experience the space holistically." 

The 12,000 square-foot property, which reopened in January, features four VIP lounges, state-of-the art LED TV screens, an illuminated top bar that surrounds an 18-foot tower, a marble stepped arena style seating area, an iPod dock, and offers patron party packages from "March Madness" to "Girls' Night Out." Sports memorabilia on display include the jerseys of Barry Bonds, José Canseco, Alex Rodriguez and Alfonso Soriano, the elite 40/40 group, a term for baseball players who have hit 40 home runs and stolen 40 bases in one season, and also the club's namesake.  

"The new space is open and has great movement, which really speaks to the lively social atmosphere of this club," says Beers. "You can watch games on one of the many TVs or simply watch the interaction amongst people from all over the club. It's an environment that invites a variety of spatial interaction with its creative layout and contemporary design accented by timeless references. The overall feel of the space is one of sophistication and urban luxury, devoid of the austere pretentiousness that one finds in many traditional nightclubs these days." 

The club's cuisine also got an upgrade when Mike Shand, Jay-Z's personal and head chef, introduced a series of "First Base" appetizers like herb crusted mac and cheese, chicken empanadas and grilled lobster and crab cakes; "Second Base" samplers such as the "We Want It All," which features beef and turkey sliders, fries, wings and southern fried catfish or chicken fingers; and "Third Base" entrées from braised beef short ribs to colossal shrimp. 

"Dug Out" sides include collard greens with Tabasco butter, whipped potato mash with truffle salsa and almond buttered broccoli. Banoffee pie, with banana and toffee whipped cream, sweet potato doughnuts with chocolate filling and warm pineapple upside down cake are some of the club's "Home Run" desserts. Specialty cocktail service covers their signature "40/40" drink of Stoli vanilla vodka and Godiva white chocolate with a chocolate syrup swirl to the "A-Rod Steal" with Grey Goose L'Orange vodka, Triple Sec, orange juice and Sprite.

Interestingly, the 40/40 Club isn't the first lavish venue to occupy this Flatiron space. It's also where a section of the Hoffman House stood, one of the district's premiere hotels during the late 19th century. But by 1915, the hotel had closed and was soon replaced by an office building, where businesses from the apparel industry to producers of novelty items sought leases for the next several decades. Tenants included button trade leader Rothschild Brothers & Co., who moved there in 1916; Ignatz Strauss & Company, a supplier of ladies' fans, in 1919; Savada Brothers, a manufacturer of boys' blouses, in 1934; John Dritz & Sons, maker of rugs, notions and yarn, in 1949; the Consolidated Sewing Machine and Supply Company, in 1952; F. Jacobson & Sons, specialists in men's shirts, sportswear and pajamas, in 1960; and the William Shaland Corporation, importers of toys, in 1964.

It would be the toy industry's dominant presence in the area that led property manager Adams & Company to consider the site as a single-industry building during the last decade. But increasing company relocations had the commercial brokerage firm reassess their plan. "I'm proud of the repositioning work we've done at 1115 Broadway," said James Buslik, a principal partner at Adams, in a New York Times interview last year that mentioned the 12-story building and the ground level club, which has a separate side street entrance at 6 West 25th Street. "The 40/40 Club is making a huge investment into the property."

Adds Beers, "Perhaps one of our greatest responsibilities in terms of design was to make the club something visually distinct that truly spoke to the Jay-Z business empire. This isn't a cookie cutter nightclub. It has a very distinct image. In turn, Jay-Z is a living legend with his own unique and highly recognizable persona. Therefore, creating a bridge between the two was perhaps one of our greatest accomplishments. The new design has elevated the 40/40 brand to an entirely different level that better represents the effortless cool and urban luxury of the Jay-Z brand."

(40/40 Club, 6 West 25th Street. Open Monday through Friday, 6 p.m. - 4 a.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 4 p.m.- 4 a.m. Telephone: (212) 832-4040. Website: www.40/40club.com).

Reinventing Landscape: This exhibition aims to challenge one's view of landscapes by presenting a collection of them as interpreted by a variety of artists from different periods and using diverse styles and mediums.   

135 East 22nd Street, February 17 through March 30. For more info click here.

AWay: An exhibit at the Greensquare Tavern with selected works by Hillary Altman, a Manhattan-based multimedia artist who has been shown worldwide.

5 West 21st Street, through March.

www.greensquaretavern.com 

Founded in 1941 as an auction house specializing in rare books, Swann Galleries now has separate departments devoted to photographs, posters, prints, drawings, books, maps, atlases and autographs.

Upcoming exhibitions and auctions:

February 28: Fine Photographs & Photo Books

March 1: Printed & Manuscript African Americana

March 8: Jean-Emile Laboureur: Prints, Paintings & Livre D'Artiste

www.swanngalleries.com  

Sustainable World: Bamako/New York Exhibition: The display features photographic work by student artists from the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers Multimedia in Bamako, Mali and their counterparts from SUNY New Paltz. Based on an examination of issues relevant to creating a sustainable world, the showing presents a variety of photographic means and styles from the metaphorical to the documentary.

22 West 22nd Street, 2nd floor, March 23-31.

www.calumetphoto.com 

Universe of Desire: Why We Like What We Like: Human desire as seen through the lens of digital behaviors. February 8 through November 4.
Ongoing Shows: 

The Sex Lives of Animals: Establishes a "new natural history" and exposes how humans may not be the only species in the animal kingdom engaging in sex for pleasure.  

Action: Sex and the Moving Image: Walks patrons through the rich visual history of sex on the screen, from the first kiss caught on film to the modern-day porn industry.

The Spotlight Gallery: Displays culturally significant artifacts from the Museum's Permanent Collection of over 15,000 objects, including art, historical ephemera and technological innovations.

233 Fifth Avenue  

www.museumofsex.com 

Check out special offers from Flatiron district businesses on the District Deals page. From discounts on beauty services, restaurant and bar happy hours to free tax time consultations, the District Deals page has it all.  For more information, click here. 

From the site of Stanford White's infamous love nest to the story of America's first community Christmas tree, the Flatiron Partnership's free walking tours offer a unique perspective of a historic neighborhood. Expert guides spin a spellbinding narrative filled with inside information about the area's more colorful figures and its architectural wonders like the MetLife Clock Tower, the Flatiron Building, and the exquisite NYS Appellate Courthouse.

The tour meets every Sunday (rain or shine) at 11:00 a.m. at the southwest corner of Madison Square Park, 23rd Street and Broadway, in front of the William Seward statue.  For more information, click here.