Beware the Castle AstoriaAstoria: People who live in this building get their very own Rapunzel balcony in their very own profoundly ugly castle. Call this style Middle Ages middlebrow. [OuterB via Curbed]
Bushwick: This cancer survivor who runs the music joint Goodbye Blue Monday is a cool dude. But when he says you could toss a cat in any direction around here and hit a building owned by his landlord, we hope he doesn’t mean that cute kitty he’s holding in the photo. [amNY]
Harlem: Guess which Manhattan neighborhood didn’t make it onto this (clever but not quite accurate, given gentrification) “White Folks’ Map of the NYC Subway System”? [Gothamist]
Neighborhood Watch
Gusto Now Going to Look and Taste Like Centro VinotecaChelsea: It doesn’t look good for those who are just getting used to the belly; pig’s ears are the latest trend, and even the version at stellar tapas spot Tía Pol was described by Peter Meehan as “crunchy and sticky with a funky pigskin flavor.” [Mouthing Off/Food & Wine]
Financial District: Don’t forget, the trial run for the proposed year-round seasonal market at South Street Seaport starts on December 16 (and Molto Mario will be there). [Grub Street]
Park Slope: Tempo Presto is closing this Friday because the restaurant can’t keep up with the pricey rent. [Gowanus Lounge]
Upper West Side: Dovetail‘s opening next week. [Zagat]
West Village: Sasha Muniak must feel really good about the Centro Vinoteca formula; after tapping chef Anne Burrell to take over for Amanda Freitag, he plans to redesign the Gusto space by next year with help from Centro Vinoteca and Jean Georges designer Thomas Juul-Hansen. [Restaurant Girl] Andrea Strong unveils renderings of Jason Neroni’s new gig, 10 Downing. [Strong Buzz via Eater] Magnolia Bakery will be open regular hours every day this holiday season except for Christmas, and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on December 24, kids can pick up a cupcake that comes with a note to Santa. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Williamsburg: A benefit party at Supreme Trading tomorrow night promises an open Bass Ale Beer bar from 7 to 8 p.m. and “one of the most difficult cuisines to find in New York City: Rwandan.” [Cakehead]
Foodievents
Seaport Market Puts Hopes in Batali, Grass-fed SteerThe supporters of New Amsterdam Public, the proposed year-round seasonal market at South Street Seaport, have called in the big gun, Mario Batali. At a demo market day on December 16, Batalli will make porchetta while Centovini’s Patti Jackson, Applewood’s David Shea, and Butter’s Alexandra Guarnaschelli concoct locally sourced dishes.
neighborhood watch
Curbed Takes on Red Hook, ‘New York’Red Hook: OMG, you guys, like, every post on Curbed today is about le Hook Rouge! And half of them provide photo evidence aiming to disprove New York’s latest story saying that gentrification there bombed. We might just have to get our writer to react to this! More soon. [Curbed]
Chelsea: We don’t want to start any blasphemous rumors, but, well, yes, that was Depeche Mode shooting a (gypsy-filled?) video at the Chelsea Hotel last night. Reportedly. [Living with Legends]
Fort Greene: If you go to the greenmarket here on Saturdays, you’ll not only get an ecosensitive reusable shopping bag, you’ll meet many “engaging and beautiful” neighbors. Is this a front for an escort service? [Clinton Hill Blog]
NewsFeed
Overtime Suits Officially a Buzz TopicWe’ve learned that Juan Garcia-Espinoza, a dishwasher who worked at Carmine’s for two and a half years is suing the South Street Seaport dive (no relation to the Upper West Side pasta joint) for allegedly violating overtime laws by paying him a miserly $260 to $300 for workweeks as long as 58 hours. We’ve pointed out that these cases are increasingly becoming “man bites dog,” and the cover story of this week’s Business Week proves it: In the last few years, companies have blown about $1 billion resolving them. At this point wouldn’t even Mr. Burns agree that that money is better spent fairly compensating workers in the first place?
Related: Wage Wars [Business Week]
NewsFeed
Will the Seaport or Hudson Yards Get the Market?
New Amsterdam Public, the locavores trying to build a year-round indoor market at South Street Seaport, last night issued a strongly worded statement to the city while cold-shouldering uptown suitors for a new food market. At a fund-raiser catered by Essex Street purveyor Saxelby Cheesemongers, New Amsterdam founder Robert LaValva insisted that the city owed the public a food hall in two old Fulton Fish Market buildings. “This place has markets in its blood,” LaValva told us, while supporters sipped wine and nibbled. The city’s reaction has been tepid, and one of the megadevelopers vying to build Hudson Yards recently approached New Amsterdam about a bid there.
Neighborhood Watch
Tony ‘No Reservations’ Bourdain Hearts Ali’s Offal in AstoriaAstoria: Anthony Bourdain featured Ali’s Kebab Cafe on No Reservations, and here’s the video of him downing offal. [Joey in Astoria]
Boerum Hill: Workers are renovating the old Independence Bank for Trader Joe’s. The space may even retain its character! [Lost City]
East Village: AvroKO and Public boys Brad and Adam Farmerie hope to score a liquor license for their new place, Superior. B Flat applied for a license at the same Bond Street space a few months back and was denied. [Eater] E.U. will accept euros as payment from August 24 through Labor Day. You can eat 34 cents more on the dollar! [Grub Street]
Financial District: Stonehouse California Olive Oil has moved to the South Street Seaport and refills bottles at $2 off the regular price. [NYT]
Hell’s Kitchen: No free Cuban for you today; unfinished construction indicates the new Sophie’s on 40th between Seventh and Eighth is in no way ready for a grand opening. [Midtown Lunch]
The New York Diet
Performer Julie Atlas Muz Eats Chocolate Chips at 5 A.M.
If you’ve seen Julie Atlas Muz’s genre-bucking burlesque acts (a couple of which she’s performing throughout the summer at Absinthe), you know she has a thing for food. The blonde dynamo has subjected sausages and ice-cream cones to unspeakable acts. “It’s much better if you use ghetto ice cream,” she says of incorporating the latter. “I prefer old-school frozen popsicles that are stuck to the back of the freezer at the bodegas.” But what does she actually eat? Nothing at all till 4 p.m., it turns out.
NewsFeed
Landmark Maritime Building Hauls in Downtown Gourmet MarketplaceThe city’s seafaring future smells like tapenade and baguettes, now that a grand second-floor space at the Governors Island ferry terminal belongs to the Poulakakos family, the clan behind both H Bayard’s and the dainty downtown bakery Financier. According to a press release from the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the Dermot Companies will develop the Battery Maritime Building at South Ferry into a boutique hotel.
Openings
Spiegeltent Gives New Reason to Visit South Street SeaportNow in its second year, the Spiegeltent at South Street Seaport is already becoming a summer standby akin to the Cyclone and ducking out of the office to quaff ’seccers at Café St. Barts (fashion girls, see you for lunch). This year grub provider Heartland Brewery has stepped things up in the food department and, under giant umbrellas near the performance tent, is serving entrées like poached lobster and crabmeat gazpacho in addition to the usual brews and booze available at the adjacent bar and outdoor beer garden. The Green Room, as the makeshift restaurant is called, is open daily from 5 p.m. (last seating at 1 a.m.), and there will be the occasional D.J. or live-music act. Given the marching bands and individual waterside hammocks, it’s safe to say this is one lobster-roll-serving eatery that isn’t a copycat.
The Green Room menu
The Green Room, South Street Seaport, 19 Fulton St., at South St.; 212-730-016.
developing
South Street Seaport: Some Fresh Food With Your Towers?
The old Fulton Fish Market never caused such a stink. Word leaked last week that the new owner of South Street Seaport, General Growth Properties, wanted to create a tower and open space over what’s now the morose “festival marketplace” of Pier 17 — and last night, area residents attempted to slap down the idea. “People in this room are terrified at the idea of towers,” declared Jeffrey Schneider, head of the 117 Beekman Street condo association. General Growth’s architect, Gregg Pasquarelli, whose firm SHoP worked on the city’s plan to build pavilions and parkland on nearby East Side piers, promised that squeezing the mall’s square footage into a tower was just one of “25 plans” he’s mustering for the new owner. Neighbors want playgrounds and schools; Pasquarelli mentioned the possibility of an outdoor market. Indeed, civic types have proposed New Amsterdam Public, which would be a year-round healthy-food cornucopia. Locally grown kumquats near historic vessels sounds lovely, but General Growth rep Michael McNoughton tells us he expects “several more months” of public talks before his firm proposes a plan. Talks, indeed. As a 119 Beekman resident said: “If you think we’re difficult, wait until you deal with Brooklyn Heights.” —Alec Appelbaum
the morning line
Edward Egan, Landlord
• Cardinal Egan made parishioners cry when he pulled a brusque landlord trick to get rid of a tenant. He summoned the pastor of the crumbling, doomed Our Lady of Vilnius for a meeting, then ordered guards to shutter the church while the priest was out. Smooth. [NYP]
• Hey, you know where else we can fit a 50-story condo tower? Before you come back with something obscene, here’s where: South Street Seaport. If built, it will be the first building of its sort to the east of the FDR Drive. [amNY]
• Hizzoner rarely makes us remember that he’s a Republican, but one reliable reminder is his distaste for garish court settlements. The city just tried to cap the awards to the victims of the 2003 ferry crash at $14 million, citing a dusty maritime law. A federal court said no dice. [NYT]
• Just days after reports that the westward extension of the 7 line was in jeopardy, the MTA has thrown the $35.8 million contract open to bids. The city is forking over $2.1 billion. Until the next time we hear that it isn’t. [MetroNY]
• And a Queens man was arrested for selling porny versions of copyrighted costume characters, including Barney and Scooby-Doo, to furry fetishists. In the words of the News, “Kinky Costume Caper Crushed.” (Weak. The Post would have gone with all Ks.) [NYDN]
the morning line
The Cost of Utopia
• The city’s doing so well financially that some City Council members — Democrats, even — are raising the specter of a tax cut. With the Independent Budget Office projecting a $688 million surplus in 2008, why not? [NYP]
• A souped-up playground is coming to South Street Seaport. One suggested game: groups of children “loading containers with sand, hoisting them up with pulleys and then lowering them down to wagons.” David Rockwell designs the kiddie labor camp, pro bono. [NYT]
• Time to check in with our pal Koral Karsan, Yoko Ono’s driver turned attempted blackmailer, now that the full text of his demand is public. Stalking points: Karsan frames his $2 million demand as compensation for “pain and suffering,” threatens to expose John as a “wife-beating asshole,” and boasts friendship with “NY media.” And yet, Koral, you never call anymore. [NYDN]
• Say what you want about the new Village Voice, but at least it’s not afraid of readers’ letters. From the new issue’s crop: “You … take a dying paper and kill it over and over again.” “The Village Voice is dead.” “Reader’s Digest is edgier than you are.” [VV]
• And a city Department of Sanitation cap is apparently a huge seller and a nascent fashion staple; Scorsese, Liv Tyler, et al have been spotted in them. So reports the Scotsman, our trusted source for apparel news. [Scotsman]
