Centre Market Pl, Little Italy

Centre Market Place just runs one block before turning into Baxter. It's not really a Market Place at all . . in fact, there's nothing close to any kind of marketing on this block. And, yeah, I guess it kind of is in a centre, but centre of what I'm not sure.
There's not much on this block except for a luxury apartment unit that used to be a Police Headquarters until the '70's. It was a big supermodel building: Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington have all owned units in this building . . .as well as Winona Ryder. So, I'm guessing these apartments are about as nice as they come. But, the outside still definitely looks like a police station and I'm not sure if I like that or not.
Across the street from the luxury building is a long running restaurant called O'Nieals. It has been around since the early 20th century and has been a speakeasy, a gambling den and a brothel. Apparently, there was a tunnel connecting the building to the police station when it was a brothel which is really disturbing. The inside is lovely, though. They used it as the interior for Aidan and Steve's bar, Scout in Sex in the City so I guess I'm not the only one that thinks the space is gorgeous.

A street only a block long isn't much fodder for a review, but that may just be the point with this one. The area surrounding it is walkable and beautiful and full of spots you want to linger and look longer. O'Neal's is on this street, a big, bland, restaurant-lounge. I don't know what kind of business it does, but I can't imagine it's so much as to really cause a ruckus outside. Then there are a few very attractive, very quiet residential buildings, one shop, a parking lot, and that's all, folks. On the other side of the street is the back of a huge beaux-arts style office building that houses the Chinatown Planning Council, and also happens to cushion the street from noise. So the interesting thing about Centre Market Pl is how very likely it is that no one has ever heard of it. It is a hidden gem where you'd be lucky to get to live, considering the location and the quietude together. The area surrounding it is so fantastic in so many ways, with Chinatown in one direction, SoHo and NoLita just around the corner, and everything within reach on foot in minutes. If I were in the market for real estate, I might go for a nondescript little snippet of a street like this, where you can live idyllically, right in the middle of everything.