Tag Archives: New York
West Chelsea Galleries
This past Saturday, the New Yorker held a “Passport to the Arts” event that brought hundreds of people out to art galleries across the city. Of course, you don’t need a New Yorker festival to check out the latest works of art. Excellent exhibits such as Edward Burtynsky’s photo series “Oil” at the Hasted Hund Kraeutler Gallery on West 24th Street are still on view now.
Something about taking gallery tours makes people want to dress cool. Saturday’s crowd didn’t disappoint. Her oversize blazer, draped scarf with metallic trim and black sunglasses are the ultimate in chic simplicity. (more…)
Henry Public
If you didn’t know this Cobble Hill space was an old TV repair store until just a couple months ago, you would think new gastro pub Henry Public had been here forever. Past an antique bar, refurbished gas lamps and black and white photos of Frederick Douglass and the old Brooklyn Eagle headquarters hang in the dining room, where the wood paneling and marble fireplace date the room to sometime around the turn of the last century. But this carefully curated mix is actually the result of years of scavenging by owners Jen Albano and Matt Dawson, also the team behind the Brooklyn Social Club, who’ve created an old-timey bar and restaurant that actually feels authentic.
Though it opened just a couple weeks ago, the place was already packed with a mostly local crowd on a recent weekend night. Many were there for the drinks: pre-Prohibition cocktails involving things like egg whites and obscure liqueurs. (more…)
Posted in American, Boerum Hill, food, New York restaurants, restaurants
Tagged bars, beer, Brooklyn, burgers, fireplaces, gastropubs, New York
Comments Off on Henry Public
Lower Broadway
So long, bare legs and flip flops: the chill of late autumn settled in this week on lower Broadway in New York, where layers and coats were the order of the day. Most people opted for a palette of neutrals (so much easier to coordinate), though every once in a while a flash of fall colors walked by, as on this stylish woman, below.
Love the vintage feel of this rust-colored fall coat. Look for more pom pom and tassel hats like this as the weather gets colder. The azure blue of her shoes is such a nice contrast. (more…)
Lunch: Cafe Boulud
The rules for restaurants are different on the Upper East Side. Take ho hum Italian spot Via Quadronno on East 73rd, which charges $10 for tomatoes on toast, and no one so much as bats an eye—especially not that Real Housewife of New York in the corner. But there’s an upside to this kind of disposable income when it’s applied wisely: the presence of a captive wealthy audience also means that expensive but exquisite restaurants have a place to thrive and prosper.
Café Boulud, the Daniel Boulud restaurant on East 76th, closed for renovations and just reopened last month. It’s already packed at the prime ladies-who-lunch hour, 1pm on a recent weekday. (more…)
Posted in food, French, New York restaurants, restaurants, Upper East Side
Tagged New York
1 Comment
Lobster Alert: Brooklyn Fish Camp
If Sam Sifton’s dining brief on Rocky Sullivan’s lobster night made you crave lobster, you don’t have to go as far as Red Hook to get in on the action. The other night we walked without a reservation to Brooklyn Fish Camp, the Park Slope companion to Mary’s Fish Camp, and settled down to an excellent lobster right away. Though you can get the 1 1/2 pound lobsters grilled, the char can distract from the true lobster flavor. They’re excellent Maine-style: boiled to bring out the sweet, saline, deep-sea taste and served with drawn butter alongside. Get one with a pint of Six Point and a side of Old Bay fries.
Brooklyn Fish Camp
162 Fifth Avenue between Degraw and Douglass Streets
Brooklyn, New York
718-783-3264
brooklynfishcamp.com
Posted in American, food, New York restaurants, Prospect Heights, restaurants
Tagged Brooklyn, New York, seafood restaurants
Comments Off on Lobster Alert: Brooklyn Fish Camp
Central Park
On a beautiful fall Sunday when the rain finally cleared, New Yorkers emerged to stroll around Central Park. Knitwear, shades of yellow and orange, and more flat boots were some of the best seasonal looks.
An aristocratic look, accessorized with dog. (more…)
Street Chic: Soho
On a recent afternoon in Soho, it was warm enough to walk around in short sleeves – maybe for the last time in a long time. Sportswear is the direction fashion is going for the foreseeable future: Think layered tees, vests, and leggings. Major influencers for this trend: Phillip Lim, Alexander Wang, and Stella McCartney’s collection for Adidas. Despite the towering platforms on view at Fashion Week, the sans-chauffeured-Escalade set took to the streets in oxfords, sneakers, and flat boots, many of them tough looking biker boots. And the favorite print right now is leopard, wherever possible.
Three women hailing a cab. One reason dancewear/sportswear is so popular now is that it can be sexy and comfortable at once. Neutral colors of black white and gray are the way to go. Love the black leather vest in the middle. (more…)
Vinegar Hill House
Dumbo: It used to be the kind of place where women didn’t walk alone at night, artists and musicians got home just as day laborers were waking up, and the only place to eat was Pedro’s, though you wouldn’t necessarily want to eat there, either. The nearest deli was in Brooklyn Heights, and there were no grocery stores. You could get a deal living in an old graffiti’d gun factory, if you were willing to rig up your own electric heating system and build your own bedroom wall. The streets were empty, the views were spectacular, and no one else knew where the hell it was.
Fast forward thirteen years to now: “Dumbo,” a woman in a silk wrap said into her cell phone in the middle of Vinegar Hill House the other night. “The neighborhood is called Dumbo.” A half hour later, her friends arrived. (more…)
Posted in American, Dumbo, food, New York restaurants, restaurants
Tagged beef, Brooklyn, foie gras, New York
1 Comment
The Crosby Bar
The idea of an $18 cocktail may seem crazy in this economy, but you’ll find little price resistance among the crowd at the Crosby Bar in the new Crosby Street Hotel in Soho. It’s worth going for the design alone – a very cool, British pop interior with mod globular lighting, folk and modern art, and interesting touches throughout. (The parent company, Firmdale Hotels, owns several hotels in London.) There’s a long pewter bar, double-height ceilings, and a cocktail seating area that feels very Fez like. It’s already attracting trendy crowd – think pretty women clad in fur vests, over-the-knee tights, fancy handbags, etc. It could be the next Rose Bar.
Alas, the Crosby Street Hotel opened just before winter, so we won’t get to use the beautiful outdoor courtyards very soon. But if you can stomach $18 cocktails, the bartenders mix them well. We tried a couple classics, a Manhattan and a Sidecar. The only thing I found aggravating was that champagne cocktails cost an additional $2, bringing the price up to $20. Maybe they should have just charged $18.50 across the board and called it a night. More stealth photos, after the jump. (more…)
Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote
“It’s like the Ray’s Pizza of Paris,” I said to Marie Fromage, trying to describe the complicated history of L’Entrecôte. “There are several of them, and each one claims to be ‘the original.’”
Unlike New York’s various “original” Ray’s Pizza shops, however, all of the L’Entrecôtes of Paris dish out steak frites with a delicious mystery sauce from the same grandfather’s recipe—they are just owned by different branches of the same Gineste de Saurs family. They all have a rabid following in Paris, though there is some debate as to which one is “the best.” Now L’Entrecôte is finally in New York.
The one off note that kept us from going until now was the location. The Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecôte, with locations in Paris and Barcelona, landed on the bottom floor of a brutish Midtown office building, a far cry from its charming centuries-old building in the 17th arrondissement. Inside, New York’s L’Entrecôte is cheerful, with bright lighting, as in Paris, a mural of Venice on the wall, as in Paris, banquettes, glass partitions, and no bar, also as in Paris. Once you’re inside, the most jarring difference is the absence of a thick haze of cigarette smoke floating above the tables – that and the fact that there are no lines or hour-long waits. We walked right in with a party of five and were seated immediately. (more…)
Posted in food, French, Midtown East, New York restaurants, restaurants
Tagged beef, New York, steak
Comments Off on Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote
Street Chic: Oceana Benefit
The glamour quotient was high at Monday night’s party for Oceana, hosted by Alexander and Brenda von Schweickhardt at their beautiful Upper East Side apartment. Founded in 2001, Oceana is a nonprofit international advocacy organization dedicated to protecting and restoring the world’s oceans. Sam Waterston, Denise Rich, the Hilfigers, Mick Jones and many more came to show their support.
Two models dressed as mermaids set the scene, lounging on a window ledge off the apartment’s winding staircase. (more…)
Posted in fashion
Tagged benefits, New York, street chic
Comments Off on Street Chic: Oceana Benefit
The Ten Bells
You know the feeling: You get older, but the neighborhood stays the same age. So it is on the Lower East Side, where beer-soaked dens with an American-Apparel-clad clientele don’t have the same appeal after you’ve been there, done that umpteen million times.
Fortunately, there’s the Ten Bells, where you can actually get decent – make that very good – wine by the glass. We didn’t go as obscure as Eric Asimov did in his recent visit, but we also got some sparkling fresh, briny Malpeaque oysters ($2 each) and deceptively spicy papas bravas ($5) with a nuanced 2006 Rioja Arbanta Llorens for $9 a glass.
Best of all, it’s all enjoyed amid the company of grown-ups.
The Ten Bells
247 Broome Street, between Orchard and Ludlow Streets
New York, NY
212-228-4450
thetenbells.com
The National Cafe
CLOSED
The task of opening a restaurant has gotten even more daunting in the past few years: getting the investors, the space, the chef, the liquor license, and the staff is only the first part of the challenge. The second, impressing your diners, now begins on opening night, because even if the Times waits to give its verdict, Yelpers wait for no one.
The National is one of a growing contingent of restaurants (like the Redhead) that opened in stages. It first served just coffee, then lunch, then dinner when the liquor license came through. This smart strategy allows the restaurant to start making money on day one, instead of sitting on an expensive lease while waiting for all the elements to come together at once. It also means the chef and the staff have some key practice time. (more…)
Street Chic: New York Women’s Foundation Benefit
The invitation says cocktails and dinner, not black tie, but the setting is the glamorous 1920s bank now known as Gotham Hall, and Mary J. Blige is performing. Stepping Out & Stepping Up, a benefit hosted by the New York Women’s Foundation, showed that the sisters are doing it for themselves – not just by funding over 240 nonprofit organizations that benefit the lives of five million women and girls in New York City, but by redefining the once-strict rules for formal wear.
Most notable was what was going on below the belt – dresses are no longer a must, as women of all ages branch out into silk pants or even over-the-knee boots. And red made a splash, as on guests Ann Rapp and Jean Shafiroff, above. (more…)
Street Chic: Atlantic Antic Brooklyn
The annual Atlantic Antic festival on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn isn’t your average tube-socks-and-Italian-sausage street fair: Hundreds of local Brooklyn businesses set up shop, from clothing shops like Steven Alan to favorite neighborhood restaurants like Building on Bond. Oysters on the half shell, vintage dresses, pulled pork sandwiches, live music and Six Point Ale: it’s all here. Many came out in their Sunday best to check out the festivities.
Love the flower in her hair, green eyeshadow and beads. (more…)