People, Please! Hasta La Vista to ‘Buena Vista Social Club’On Monday night, we stopped into Terroir (Hearth’s already-packed new wine bar), where conspicuously mustachioed Thomas Crowley of Bar Veloce happened to be sampling his neighbor’s wares. We’re sure he loved the food and drink just like we did, but the bartender was concerned that he might not be digging the music. That’s because during the entire time we were there, we had to listen to Buena Vista Social Club.
Neighborhood Watch
The Hidden History of Starbucks; Café Carlyle Still Bumpin’Astor Place: The building that houses Starbucks has such interesting history (saw a bloody theater riot in 1849 at what was once the Astor Place Opera House; held a barber shop where mobster Albert Anastasia got slaughtered while sitting in his chair) that Lost City has decided to target “kudzu-like chains” around town and attempt to uncover their past incarnations. [Lost City]
Chinatown: Dumpling House has reopened and the renovations include tables and chairs! [Eater]
East Village: Bar Veloce is returning to the space it once occupied before transforming into now deceased Room 4 Dessert. [Eater]
Tribeca: Harrison Tavern has already closed after a July opening. Clearly, offering ranch-chicken pizza did not bring in herds. [Grub Street]
Upper East Side: Café Carlyle has added a D.J.-hosted soirée Thursday through Saturday from midnight to 3 a.m. to its cabaret-night repertoire, and a new cocktail menu comes from the mixologist at Bemelmans Bar. [Zagat]
West Village: Pichet Ong is renaming his dessert bar P*ong & Batch at the end of the month when he’ll be expanding the space to include a retail bakery. [Zagat]
Williamsburg: Breakfast mecca egg (it’s too cool to have a capital letter) deigns to open for dinner. [TONY]
NewsFeed
Bar Veloce GM Moonlights As Raffish FopWe never know what to think when we see the “Best Dressed Real Men in America ” in the pages of Esquire . Are they freakish dandies, movie-set extras posturing for imaginary cameras, or are we just shlubby? The answer might be the former, going by Bar Veloce manager Thomas Crowley, who appears in the current issue. So who is he, really? A visit to Crowley’s MySpace page reveals a veritable shrine to preening dorkery.
