Psilakis Seeks Site for a Late-Night Downtown Restaurant — and a New DonaYou might think that Michael Psilakis would have had enough of opening restaurants: In the past year, he created Kefi on the Upper West Side, a low-end sensation, and midtown’s Anthos, a major undertaking. Now the chef tells us that he’s looking to open not one but two more restaurants. “I’ve been thinking about opening something downtown,” he says. “I don’t know if it would be another restaurant just like Kefi, or maybe something a little more in between Kefi and Anthos. I want a presence down there, but a lot depends on the space, the lease, and the location.” Psilakis likes the idea of a late-night dining scene, presumably along the lines of Ssäm Bar. There’s no question about the food, though: “It would be Greek, for sure, whatever it was.”
Ask a Waiter
Carrie Jennings of Spotlight Live Doesn’t Mind If You’re Horrible at Karaoke
When we karaoke, we don’t really like to see ourselves on a screen — it usually means the Japanese guy at the front desk is replaying closed-circuit footage and telling us why he needs to keep our security deposit. But Spotlight Live, the restaurant that projects your performances onto Times Square, is a decidedly more civilized place, as we learned when we tried, rather unsuccessfully, to get Carrie Jennings to reveal the horrors of working amid amateur renditions of Vanilla Ice. According to Jennings, who moved here from Florida six months ago with a degree in musical theater, her job is about as sweet as a big ball of cotton candy.
intel
For ‘The Sopranos,’ Everything Must GoThe Sopranos is over, so the show’s producers are having an estate sale. A Silvercup Studios warehouse is selling off set dressing (cash and carry!) all this week. So what’s there? Actually, nothing we recognized. We didn’t see Junior’s kitchen table; we didn’t see Tony’s desk at the Bing. But there were lamps and rugs and placemats aplenty. History only you will recognize, for a small fee! Plus you have to go to Long Island City.
Movie Company Set Dressing and Warehouse Sale [Craigslist]
Related: The Long Con [NYM]
party lines
Tina Fey Likes It When Soledad O’Brien Is MeanThe estrogen was flowing nearly as freely as the cocktails at the Marriott Marquis last night, where American Women in Radio and Television brought together lots of, well, women in radio and television for the 32nd annual Gracie Awards. The night’s biggest-name winner was 30 Rock creator Tina Fey, presented with the award for outstanding female lead in a comedy series. Fey told the crowd that she was thrilled to be honored along with her “favorite anchor,” Soledad O’Brien. “I loved Soledad because she always seems like the only other woman on TV who was as overworked and grouchy as I am,” she joked. “You could always see it in her eyes in her promos. She was like, ’American Morning, every day at 6 a.m. 6 a.m.”
Neighborhood Watch
Varietal’s Kitchen Closes in ChelseaBronx: Italian pastry shop Egidio has a history steeped in family feuds, politics, and adultery; now a cannoli-wielding former owner has opened up shop nearby. [Lost City]
Chelsea: Varietal has closed its dining room, though wine’s still being served at the bar. [Restaurant Girl] Great Small Works performing-arts group will host a Spaghetti Dinner this Sunday evening on the roof of the 14th Street Y. Besides bowls of garlicky pasta, ticket holders can look forward to “puppet theater [and] New Orleans brass band music.” [Blog Chelsea]
Greenpoint: The Original Soup Man (a.k.a. the Soup Nazi) joins other chains on Manhattan Avenue and shocks customers by charging $9 for some selections. [Gothamist]
Hell’s Kitchen: Alex Garcia’s new restaurant, Gaucho Steak Co., at 752 Tenth Avenue, is now open for lunch and offering delivery. [Grub Street]
Soho: Savoy’s Clambake Dinners start July 6 and run through the end of the month. [Restaurant Girl]
neighborhood watch
Park Slope Kids Experiment With Spontaneous PlayBrooklyn Heights: The scaffolding at 185 Montague, up for years, is finally down, revealing a stunning Deco façade. [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
Highbridge: Cycling advocates want the graceful 1848 High Bridge, connecting the Bronx and Washington Heights, to be bike-friendly now that it’s up for refurbishment. [Streetsblog]
Lower Manhattan: The naked or undie-clad illustrated hotties once populating the Website for André Balazs’ forthcoming Beaver House condo have disappeared. Perhaps under the orders of a new sales team? [Curbed]
Park Slope: Parents loosen scheduling death grip and encourage kids to play pickup baseball. [Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn]
Sunnyside: Signs pleading “no dumping your garbage here” are lavishly decorated. [Newyorkshitty]
Williamsburg: Nearly a year after it was hastily erected, this Kent Avenue synagogue still doesn’t have a proper façade … or a certificate of occupancy. [Brownstoner]
Prices Slip on Chelsea Condos
Who says you can’t get a new-construction condo on the cheap in Chelsea? Well, maybe not exactly “cheap.” (This is pricey, trendy Chelsea, after all.) But still, this two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath apartment at the Chelsea Stratus (101 West 24th Street), supposedly the tallest condo in the neighborhood, has had two price changes, according to Streeteasy.com. The most recent slash was two days ago, lowering the asking by more than 20 percent to $2.88 million. If this floor plan’s not to your liking, there are more than a dozen left on the market, all of which are outfitted with name-brand kitchen appliances (Fisher & Paykel, Sub-Zero), high-end finishes, and other de rigueur luxuries. Par for the condo course, the building’s larded with goodies like a wine cellar, billiards room, and indoor basketball court, too. S. Jhoanna Robledo
Would Hillary Put Jack Bauer in Charge of Iraq?
Spelunking in the Clintons’ financial disclosures brings all sorts of rewards. First came the mini-skirmish about Bill’s lucrative teleconferencing with Hong Kong on an anniversary of 9/11, defused with an instant Clintonian classic (“It was 9/10 where I was”). Now there’s a fascinating nugget in Bill and Hillary’s recently dissolved blind trust, which the couple just divested to avoid conflicts of interest. We’ll say! One of the trust’s holdings was stock in News Corp. This makes Hillary a (admittedly unaware) shareholder in the Post and Fox News — a fact akin to, say, Daniel Goldstein discovering he’s invested in Forest City Ratner. But it’s too bad she got out when she did — has a Democrat ever owned The Wall Street Journal?
Clintons’ Trust Invested in News Corp. and Berkshire [Bloomberg]
photo op
Our Bodies, Our Storage
We spotted this latest installment in Manhattan Mini-Storage’s inarticulate we’re-trying-to-show-we- share-your-politics-but-we-fail-at-it ad campaign (has anyone actually ever figured out that Cheney ad?) on our way down the West Side Highway Sunday night, and we were as confused by it as the Copyranter is today. Our best guess at its message: Once Alito & Co. overturn Roe, at least a storage locker will be preferable to an alley! And you know how we all love decreasing-civil- liberties humor.
Better interpretation? Let us know.
Back Alley Advertising [Copyranter]
Let Them Read BooksFINANCE
• At a New York Public Library fund-raiser held in his honor, Steve Schwarzman said the place did amazing things for “regular people.” [Deal Journal/WSJ]
• Former Bank of America CFO Alvaro de Molina is the latest big name to join Cerberus. When asked about his title, he said: “It’s Al. That’s not the way they work.” [Deal Journal/WSJ]
• A field guide to summer finance interns for creepy older guys. [Leveraged Sell-out via DealBreaker]
Michael Moore, at ‘Sicko’ Premiere, Either Is or Is Not Outraged About Film’s Online Leak
The Ziegfeld’s red carpet nearly buckled last week under the Zeitgeisty weight of Brangelina, and things felt nearly as heady last night at the premiere of Michael Moore’s health-care doc Sicko. Like Angie, Moore was looking his skinniest, and, also like Angie, he was barely available for quotes. (Okay, granted, his handlers were bum-rushing him past reporters to make the already-delayed screening.) Passing B-listers, on the other hand, were much easier to buttonhole. Comic Robert Klein called Moore’s earlier films “not always right on their facts” but said he admires the iconic schlub’s satirical genius and flair for awkward confrontations. Morgan Spurlock checked out his spiritual forefather’s trimmer look. “He’s a handsome man,” the anti-fast-food muckraker said approvingly. When we got our 30 seconds with Moore, we asked how he felt about Sicko leaking to YouTube. He was outraged! “People should see the movie in the way I meant it be shown on the big screen.” Or was he? “But I don’t agree with copyright laws in this country. I believe in sharing, and I think that’s only good in the long run. I just want people to see it.” We would have asked him to explain at the after-party, but we weren’t invited. —Justin Ravitz
Hear more from Moore and Spurlock and learn what Swoosie Kurtz and Carol Apt had to say at our Interactive Party Lines.
Related: Michael Moore: Medicine Man [NYM]
gossipmonger
Next Year in ‘Playboy’!Some female Israeli government officials are not happy that the consulate sanctioned Maxim’s “Women of the Israeli Defense Forces.” Bloomberg staffers overbooked a dinner at the home of L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and had to uninvite people. Harvey Weinstein is going after people who illegally downloaded Sicko, which he produced. Megan Ruddy may be the scribe behind the Southampton Press gossip column. A movement is afoot to get Isaiah Washington back on Grey’s Anatomy — and it’s being spearheaded by a gay activist. Paris Hilton’s neighbors aren’t pleased that her release from jail will cause a media frenzy at her house. A lot of famous people showed up at the funeral of former gossip reporter Claudia Cohen.
