Apple Seeds brings child’s play to Chelsea

Apple Seeds co-Founder Alison Berna and daughter Madeleine, 2, of Chelsea at the Lego table in the playground’s construction area.

By Marsha Lebedev Bernstein

On a solemn stretch of Chelsea along 25th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, a pleasantly incongruous window beckons passers-by with its merriment and mirth. A plush red-and-white monkey hangs from a rope, its arms secured by a wooden clothespin. All the while, two furry friends perch below, enjoying their tea atop modern espresso-colored chairs. Pushing through the glass doors to the left of this whimsical scene brings more of the same, in the form of an expansive mural featuring lollipop-shaped trees and a Lilliputian deli where the organic produce is magically non-perishable.

To the uninitiated, Chelsea might sound like an unlikely spot to open a play space for preschoolers. For many, the neighborhood is synonymous with painting canvases and cocktails, not jungle gyms and juice. But earlier this month, Apple Seeds became the area’s first all-in-one indoor play space for the 5-and-under set, signaling a shift toward family-friendliness reflective of the new demographic taking hold nearby.

On a recent Wednesday morning, the interior globe pendant lights at Apple Seeds offset the overcast sky outside. With clutched umbrellas, parents scampered inside and valet-parked their strollers while their kin shed their puffy coats with anticipation.

Strolling in for some play time with her 17-month-old daughter, Ava, Gramercy resident Elana Satisky expressed elation about having a local venue that “provided new opportunities” for toddler activities. Together with friend Theresa Tarby and her 2-year-old daughter, Kelsey, the Satiskys removed their shoes, placed them in the Granny-Smith-apple-green cubbies and stepped inside the sprawling playground.

Nearby, area resident Gina Ma chatted with a friend while watching her 10-month-old son, Oscar Blum, climb into a play vegetable bin. Given the weather, she was thrilled to have an indoor destination that was only two blocks from her apartment. “On a day like today, you either…go crazy or get out and socialize a little bit.”

Apple Seeds is the brainchild of Alison Berna and Allison Schlanger, two Chelsea moms that met while each were navigating a double stroller into a tiny elevator on 23rd Street. A friendship developed and, bemoaning the lack of “kid stuff” in the neighborhood, the two entrepreneurial moms began discussing opening a play space “for the community.”

Their husbands are also their business partners, and not of the silent variety. Craig Schlanger, a former Wall Streeter, is now at Apple Seeds full-time (“I live here,” he joked). Bobby Berna, on the other hand, maintains his current job as a partner at the advertising firm BoxTop Media but is very much involved in the day-to-day operations of the business. “I just emailed [Bobby] about 18 projects to work on,” Schlanger pointed out.

At the beginning, the moms thought their aspiration was a “pie-in-the-sky dream.” Less than a year later, however, Apple Seeds opened its doors—and the timing could not have been more perfect.

The Chelsea area has experienced a marked demographic shift in the last decade. In that time, a growing number of urban professionals stopped viewing the area as a hip hangout for cocktails and began to settle down in the neighborhood with their growing broods in one of the many luxury high-rises that have sprouted up, Starbucks-style, on every other corner.

These are changes the Schlangers witnessed firsthand. “We’ve lived in Chelsea for over 10 years…and saw the development that was happening with Madison Square Park,” Schlanger explained, referring to the renovation of the park in the adjacent Flatiron district that began in 1999. “It’s become so much more residential,” she continued, “so much more family-friendly.” The Bernas, transplants from the West Village, also noted this changing face of Chelsea and moved into one of the area’s newer constructions two years ago.

While big-box retailers like Buy Buy Baby noticed this transformation and put down Chelsea roots to provide parents with all the diapers, sippy cups and board books their apartments could contain, Berna feels businesses are still behind the curve. “[They] have not [yet] caught up with the residential boom in the sense of [providing] child-friendly spaces,” she pointed out. Berna views Apple Seeds as one of the nascent ventures filling a void and hopes “that families making the choice to move to this area are able to stay [because they have Apple Seeds].”

In the short time it has been open, Apple Seeds may have already established itself as the godsend Berna hoped it would be, both for nearby residents and not-so-nearby residents.

Ma has lived in the neighborhood “a long, long time...before the giant [residential] buildings.” While she and Oscar take Music for Aardvarks, a music class offered an another space on 26th Street, she found that the cramped quarters dictated they be “in and out.” By contrast, at Apple Seeds she could hang out with Oscar in the playground indefinitely; there was no need to extricate the plastic head of broccoli from his little hand and rush for the door.

As for her pre–Apple Seeds routine, Satisky used to travel to the Upper West Side’s Jewish Community Center with Ava for their Young Families Program, which offers various classes for tots. Now she can ditch her Metrocard and simply stroll over from her Gramercy Park home. “I haven’t signed up [Ava] for classes [at Apple Seeds] yet,” she said, “although I’m planning to soon.”

But Apple Seeds is not just a convenient wonderland for downtown families—it is also quickly becoming a destination play space. Midtowners Keenah Armitage and her 22-month-old son, Jhett, came to Chelsea from the West 50s for want of some toddler fun, as her neighborhood lacks any such place. But why Apple Seeds? Armitage said she chose the Chelsea play space because it appeared “unique, and I like the fact that it’s new.”

Add spacious to that description.

Apple Seeds covers 15,000 square feet of real estate in the Chelsea/Flatiron area and features a 2,500-square-foot New York City–themed indoor playground containing all the city’s mainstays—albeit cleaner and cuter versions of the real things—including a neighborhood deli, an apartment and garden area, a construction area and, of course, a taxi.

The color palette and design throughout are stimulating but modern, a look that Michele Reese, a Chelsea resident for the last 18 years and mother of 2-year-old Milena, found “fabulous…really beautiful.” There is no Elmo-red or Big Bird-yellow in sight. Instead, the colors are fresh and modern: The playground’s painted sky is a robin’s egg blue, the grass is a soft chartreuse, and instead of orange, there is tangerine.

The park area of the playground was designed for the youngest members of Apple Seeds and contains a soft playnest, an obstacle course, shape sorters and a pull-up bar. For the Richard Meiers of tomorrow, there is a construction area to build skyscrapers out of yoga blocks, as well as a Lego wall and Lego tables. There is also a sports playground area with soft gym equipment and basketball nets, the perfect place to tire them out before nap time or bedtime.

The class offerings at Apple Seeds include art, science, music, yoga and cooking.

For the city’s youngest emerging artists, there is “my Chelsea art opening,” the art class Armitage chose for Jhett, who happily donned a smock to create what is sure to be one of his first abstract masterpieces. At the end of each semester, Apple Seeds plans on holding a gallery opening to display students’ artwork and give parents a chance to mingle beyond the easel-filled classroom.

When it came to its science curriculum, Apple Seeds took the concept of family business beyond its four founders. Peter Leikind, an elementary school teacher and also Allison Schlanger’s brother, teaches “Ooohhh…Aaahh…Iiiccckkk,” a science class for children ages 3 to 5 that introduces lotions, potions and magnetry to preschoolers. In their first science class at Apple Seeds, Tayo, Jude and Jacob (ages 4 1/2, 4 and 5, respectively) learned how to make bouncing balls out of glue, water and borax (who knew?).

The music options are Music Together and Little Maestros, two established music programs that are different enough to “operate in the same space yet also complement each other,” Schlanger explained. (In the former, children actively participate in making music; the latter is more concert-based).

For yoga classes, Apple Seeds has partnered with Next Generation Yoga, whose founder, Jodi Komitor, is a pioneer in the kids yoga movement. It was only the first week of class, but 17-month-old Liliana Castaneda, who attended yoga with her mom and area resident Annie Murdock, was already learning about basic body and breath awareness, simple stretches and fundamental poses like downward dog.

To introduce children to the kitchen (beyond the banging of pots and pans, that is), Apple Seeds offers Cooking Monsters for ages 2 and up. Kids get to make a mess in the kitchen, while adults can be relieved the culinary experimentation is nowhere near their living room’s white sofa. Through cooking, preschoolers are not only exposed to new tastes but also learn about table manners, colors, mixing, measuring and counting.

While membership is required to enjoy the indoor playground (this was done initially so that Apple Seeds could accurately monitor the ebb and flow of playground usage; Berna and Schlanger said they may “revisit the idea of day passes at some point”), it is not a prerequisite to enroll in any of the classes, shop in the boutique located near the entrance or eat at the forthcoming café. These are all open to the public.

And just when parents start to feel like it’s all about the kids, a few surprises: a parent “hang space” with Wi-Fi access where adults can read their email and enjoy a latte (“as long as they are within arm’s reach” of their young ones in the playground, Schlanger stressed), a library lounge for parents to unwind after dropping off an older child at class (there will also be children’s books, of course), and seminars for parents on topics such as starting solids and finger foods (there are also adult-only yoga classes).

Leslie Buxbaum, mom of 2-year-old Hailey, experienced another parent perk at Apple Seeds, albeit an unexpected one: Hailey’s lack of separation anxiety. Buxbaum found this to be the “big difference at Apple Seeds” and described it as a “miracle.” Hailey was having so much fun, she simply forgot about her need to cling. Buxbaum had to actually go looking for Hailey—a first.

Apple Seeds is located at 10 W. 25th St. between Broadway and Sixth Avenue (212-792-7590; appleseedsnyc.com). Hours: Mon.–Fri., 9 a.m.–6 p.m.; Sat.–Sun., 10a.m.–4 p.m.