Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Lenny Kravitz Lists Creole Cottage in The Big Easy

SELLER: Lenny Kravitz
LOCATION: New Orleans, LA
PRICE: $775,000
SIZE: 1,725 square feet, 1 bedroom, 2 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Listen puppies, we don't need to hear any crap from y'all today about our lack of discussion yesterday. Not only did our San Francisco-based b.f.f. Fiona Trambeau work our last nerve all damn weekend with her regrettable ways that, we're sorry to say, continued right into Monday, we had trouble at the airport last night and we lost our stoopid iPhone. Needless to say, Your Mama is in a sour mood today. Okay?

Anyhoodles, thanks to Mardigras Mary, a gal with her lacquered nail square on the pulse of the NoLa real estate scene, we learned over the weekend that high-heel boot wearing and man-purse sportin' musician Lenny Kravitz recently listed a home he owns in New Orleans, LA with a price tag of $775,000.

Although four time Grammy Award winner Mister Kravitz's salad days as a rock star were in the mid-1990s and the early 2000s, he still tours extensively around the world and in 2009 made his feature film debut in the Academy Award winning Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire. Mister Kravitz, for those who do not know, comes from a Hollywood family: He is the son of producer Seymour Kravitz and actress Roxie Roker (The Jeffersons). He also happens to be the second cousin on his mother's side of annoying Today show weatherman Al Roker and the ex-huzband of Lilakoi Moon, otherwise known as Lisa Bonet from The Cosby Show and A Different World, with whom he made a daughter, actress-singer Zoe Kravitz (No Reservations, The Brave One) who will soon be seen in on tee-vee's Californication and on the next installment of the X-Men film franchise.

Previous reports reveal that the celibate, spiritual and kinda kooky Mister Kravitz picked up his 220-year old Creole cottage in the Vieux Carré–aka the French Quarter–in May of 1994 after coming down to New Orleans to see Aretha Franklin work her thing at Jazz Fest. He liked the city so much he stayed and paid, according to property records, $360,000 for the narrow and modestly sized house.

Mister Kravitz, who fancies himself a bit of a designer, owns an eponymous design firm that has mostly done up the day-core for his own homes–including this one–as well as a recording studio at The Setai hotel and The Florida Room bar at the Delano hotel, both in Miami, FL. Some reports indicate Mister Kravitz and his team were hired to do over the day-core for a private residence in Portland, OR but we don't know nuthin' specific about that.

Listing information shows the house measures 1,725 square feet and includes just 1 bedroom and 2 poopers. The weathered exterior gives the house an unassuming look of abandonment that fits nicely with the historic neighborhood and belies nothing of the glitzy and glammy bachelor pad interior spaces that the New York Times once called 'bordello-modern.'

Mister Kravitz reportedly occupied the house for a number of years before he blew out the interior walls of the original cottage and inserted a very contemporary, cocoonish rock star style hideaway with few windows, exposed brick walls, a vaulted exposed beam ceiling, and gleaming ebony colored hardwood floors that bounce light around. The main living space includes a Lucite grand piano that once belonged to Ingrid Bergman, wing-backed chairs upholstered with zebra skins that match the zebra skin rug, eye popping shimmery silver wallpaper by Flavor Paper, a flat screen tee-vee mounted into a mirrored niche, an over-sized pink portrait of Billie Holiday, and a sizable sectional sofa with gleaming black material that looks like slippery alligator skin that would stick to naked thighs on a hot, humid southern summer day iffin the air conditioner were not cranked up to high.

Mister Kravitz sectioned off a small part the interior area for his bedroom and clean-lined private pooper. Overnight guests can be accommodated in a sleeping loft, accessible only by a built in ladder, that overlooks the main living area. Uh, no thank you. We'll take a hotel, please. Who wants to have to shimmy down a damn ladder to get to the terlit when nature calls in the middle of the night? Not Your Mama, that's who.

A small courtyard at the back of the property is described in listing information as "Metro Chic," a look that apparently calls for over-sized wicker patio furniture with white canvas cushions, a huge vaguely Asian glass top coffee table, some bamboo and lots of potted ferns. Your Mama is not sure if this is "Metro Chic"–or even what "Metro Chic" means–but what we do know is that the courtyard reminds us of the sort of place Your Mama's Momma, our foul-mouthed Auntie Jennie and their b.f.f. Carly-Ruth might have gone to back in the 1980s to gossip and down a few mai-tais.

Despite the obvious energy and deep thought that went into doing over the interior spaces of Mister Kravitz's new-fangled Creole cottage, Your Mama finds it over-sexed, recherché, and oddly impersonal, like a lobby of a hotel in South Beach. But then again, all of Mister Kravitz's homes that he's sold over the last few years have had Your Mama running and screaming for the exit.

Mister Kravitz has always been a collector of high-priced real estate but has recently sold off a number of his posh and nightclub sexy residences. Most recently he sold a doo-plex penthouse pad in New York City's SoHo neighborhood for $12,750,000 to preggers singer Alicia Keys and her baby daddy/fiancée Swizz Beatz. Prior to that, in July of 2009, he unloaded an exuberantly decorated waterfront house in Miami Beach, FL for $2,450,000.

According to many other reports and sources, Mister Kravitz currently owns an architecturally spectacular residence in Paris worked over in his signature sexy style, a rustic 50+ acre ocean front compound on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas, and a somewhat remote 1,000-ish acre organic farm about 4 hours outside of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

listing photos: French Quarter Realty

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

I presume the reason it looks so awful from the street is that NO is a dangerous place, full of crime, and you need to put people off, making them think you live in a dump and are not worth burgling or worse. Final question: why live there at all? Food no good anymore, and nothing much else to recommend it.

Anonymous said...

Love it!

lil' gay boy said...

"...we had trouble at the airport last night and we lost our stoopid iPhone."

Oh no, Mama! I certainly hope someone isn't wandering around the airport precincts, using the "Grindr" app to impersonate you for nefarious purposes...

;-)

Methinks our dear little Lenny is a frustrated friend of Dorothy ––– perhaps there's a religious conflict there? I mean, really; Ingrid Bergman's Lucite piano?!?

Although it's very much the "man cave" ("Methinks the lady doth protest too much..."), I think as a pied-a-terre it could be quite successful for short stays (much like Lenny himself). The outdoor space may be somewhat dated, but that's easily remedied.

As for the "overnight guest" situation, well, a loft is as good as a beard, ain't it?

Anonymous said...

NOLA is still going strong in terms of food, music, and a good time.
The asking price seems a bit steep, but you don't get what you don't ask for.
Sorry about your phone, Mama.

Lady J

Carla Ridge said...

There's a name I just made up for this kind of decor: Swag Suite Deluxe. Seriously, it looks like the parking lot sale at, say, Mogul*.

*just kidding, I like Mogul. I also know they don't have a parking lot.

PS to LGB: !>snap<! for that hilarious grindr comment.

Anonymous said...

Actually I visited New Orleans recently, and it's coming back nicely from Katrina and the oil spill. Still a wonderful place to visit in the Fall and Spring, but it's hot as blazes in the Summer. The food and music are as good as ever. Sure there is crime there like every other city. You just have to know where to go and where not to go which is pretty easy to figure out.

The Garden District down St. Charles has always been a favorite of mine and still is. Just grab the trolley on Canal Street and enjoy the beautiful live oaks and and lovely, lovely old homes.

Anonymous said...

Wow!
This place is just oozing atmosphere.
I think I love it.
The Aussie

Anonymous said...

Lenny is CELIBATE?

What a waste :-(

I just had a 'moment' imagining him on that faux fir setee........

Anonymous said...

Wasn't he rubbing nasties with Nicole Kidman at one stage?

SDraw said...

The space is awesome, I'll take it.
He can have his fabulousss furnishings though, too gay glitzy for me, and I'm a homo designer. Go figure.

Thanks Ma, you're the best!
xo

Anonymous said...

Anon 2:52. Where do you go to eat well? What is your idea of "eating well"?

Anonymous said...

Name me ONE restaurant in New Orleans with just ONE Michelin star. There are none, as far as I know, in spite of the supposedly "French" nature of New Orleans cuisine.

Anonymous said...

Some of you need to step down from your high horses and away from thinking all New Orleans food is French. It's not.

I'm talking soul food. To die for food. You could eat your way through New Orleans having the best local food on earth. Fresh oysters, shrimp, red fish like you have never had cooked hundreds of ways. Brennan's, Commander's Palace, Pascal Menales, K Paul's to name a few of the many, many fine places to eat. Belly up to the bar at Felix's Oyster Bar or have a fresh homemade PoBoy and a bowl of fresh seafood gumbo from Mother's. You would take one bite, smack your mouth, and beg for more.

Now to the Kravitz home for sale. Many of the homes in the quarter look like his. They just pretty much leave the exteriors like they have always been and just gut out and redo the interiors. When you walk around the French Quarter and other areas of New Orleans, too, you always know behind the ugly exteriors there are some beautiful homes with really fantastic patios/gardens.

Aunt Gina said...

to anon 7::47: not to belabor the point, but it is my understanding that the Michelin guide (that is to say, the red one) does not review New Orleans' restaurants, which would explain why none are "starred", as opposed to what I sense is a thinly veiled insinuation that none are deserving.

personally, I'd rather dine on Lenny Kravitz...

Anonymous said...

Dear Aunt Gina:

Well if it can give stars to a restaurant in Yountville, CA, I would preume it could do the same in NO, if it thought any were warranted. The reason it skips NO, I suspect, is that there aren't any restaurants there that it thinks merit any stars. Americans tend to have very exaggerated ideas about how "haute" their cuisine really is by world standards. You can find better restaurants in Caceres, Spain (El Atrio) than in all of NO.

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:58. Really, Brennan's is vastly over-rated; its cooking is pure kitsch (i.e., vulgar; not as in kitchen). Felix's fried oysters (like Col Saunder's chicken) may be tasty, but it ain't fine cuisine. Go to Paris, to Tokyo, to Madrid, to Lyon, and discover what truly fine cuisine is. It doesn't resemble what you get in the Big Easy.

Anonymous said...

Let me rub it in a bit. Julia Child's gastronomic epiphany didn't take place in NO, but in Rouen, France. I doubt a trip to Brennan's or fried oysters at Felix's would have turned her into the chef she became.

chris said...

http://www.hotel-martinez.com/restaurants/Lists/Restaurants/Attachments/6/menus%20plaisir%20collection%20GB.pdf

Compare this to Brennan's and laugh.

Anonymous said...

To Anonymous who wrote "I presume the reason it looks so awful..."

This is historic architecture from 200 years ago. That is why is looks that way, dumbass. There are laws and codes that you have to follow in historic areas to preserve the architecture. You probably live in a really dull and boring place, so you might not know that.

Princess Shotsavodka said...

That house is the perfect place for a relapse

Anonymous said...

food snobs need to shove their fois gras where the sun don't shine and go finish licking the cheese off your McDonalds wrapper.

kaye said...

NOLA FOOD: eat at 1) Praline Connection 2) Stanley's and 3) Stella's. Great food. Real food.

FonHom said...

NOLA & food - back in bizness! We visit every year or two and the city never fails to surprise.

I know Yo Mama told us at some point about Lenny Kravitz's design jones - see www.kravitzdesign.com

This NYT article - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/21/garden/21star.html - has some details on the NOLA renovation.

I'm still fascinated by his dalliance with Nicole Kidman...makes them both seem hotter, somehow.

Anonymous said...

Encouraging to see so many McDonald's fans and Col. Saunders' aficionados moving up to Stella's and Stanley's. Every step upward is to be applauded. They may reach the Paul Bocuse level before they die (and again they may not).

Anonymous said...

http://www.theworlds50best.com/past-winners/2009

Stella's and Stanley's must be #s 51 and 52 for sure, right?

Anonymous said...

Say what you will, but brunch at Commander's Palace with Eggs Benedict and a bottle of good champagne is one of life's great pleasures.

Anonymous said...

Sure thing about the Eggs Benedict at Commander's Palace, and the BBQ shrimp at Pascal Manale's is to die for, too. People just keep coming back and back and back again to these two restaurents in New Orleans for more. Honestly, don't knock it if you haven't tried it. Why do you think people love big conventions and big sporting events in New Orleans? It's the great food and music.

Anonymous said...

It is always amazing to me that there are so many ignorant and hateful people in the world. Let me make it easy for you –
If you think our historic architecture is ugly, then do not look at it. If you think our cuisine is tasteless, then do not eat it. If you think we have too much crime, then do not come to visit. New Orleans, its food, its culture, its architecture, its music, and its people are all beautiful and unique. If you do not like New Orleans or anything about it that is your prerogative but, quit complaining about us and go out and enjoy what you like. And, please quit trying to dictate how everyone else should feel, eat, and live. We did not ask for your commentary and quite frankly we would appreciate it if you would move your hate-mongering on to some other locale. We appreciate those of you who see the beauty in our area and who continue to support and promote NOLA to others.

Taffy Davenport said...

honestly why does everybody want to bash a city that has endured so much trauma? go pick on lindsay lohan or somebody your own size :)

Jeannified said...

LOVE THIS PLACE!!! Beautiful and decorated well. I agree it is a bit rock and roll and full of testosterone, but I really like it...ESPECIALLY that black alligator sectional! (I agree though, that you'd probably stick to it in the hotter months, unless the air is cranked.) Still, really cool! Don't know that it would work for me, as I am married and have a three year old, but super cool place for a single, hip rocker to live and hang with friends. I could definitely see me gossiping on that back patio with friends. I am ANOTHER "Auntie Jeannie!" :-)

Victoria Eulaerts said...

I don't think I have ever read such a rude posting anywhere and I am ashamed it is originating from our State of Louisiana where courtesy, and a certain Southern grace were once the by-word. You may do pretty houses, but you certainly make ugly comments. This is not appropriate. In any context. I don't usually feed out lessons, but your Mama should have raised you better if she didn't and if she did, you must bring her no small shame. I can imagine a rude comment will ensue, but I assure you it will be water off a duck's back from someone who vents like this for the public. This is low-level communications that makes me burn with shame.