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kottke.org posts about NYC
The best and worst restaurant trends in
The best and worst restaurant trends in NYC for 2006. Among the worst, Mexican: “Zero progress on one of the most misunderstood and untapped cuisines in NYC.”
Event at the 92nd St. Y on
Event at the 92nd St. Y on Dec 4: The Art of the Book: Behind the Covers with Dave Eggers, Chip Kidd and Milton Glaser. Tickets are only $10 if you’re 35 or younger.
Craigslist desperately needs something like Listpic…simple
Craigslist desperately needs something like Listpic…simple pages of thumbnails from CL ads by category. Here’s the page for NYC furniture.
Ironic Sans has an interview with one
Ironic Sans has an interview with one of NYC’s quirkiest characters, Louis Klein, a man who has seen over 500 tapings of Saturday Night Live in person, including the very first show. “In the last 27 years I’ve missed 36 shows.”
Historical maps on Google Earth
Google Earth recently added some maps from the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection to their software, so you can just click them on and off on the globe. Included are a US map from 1833, a 1680 map of Tokyo, Paris from 1716, and a world map from 1790. I spent some time exploring the map of New York from 1836. Here’s a screenshot of the southern tip of Manhattan with the present-day buildings turned on:
A larger version is available on Flickr. Google Earth continues to be a fantastic software product. It’s almost more of a game than an atlas or educational program…so much fun.
Related: I did a project using Google Earth called Manhattan Elsewhere and made a scrollable, zoomable version of Viele’s Map of Manhattan.
Item of note included in the announcement
Item of note included in the announcement of Luke Hayman’s addition to the NYC Pentagram office: he and Paula Scher are completely redesigning Time magazine, due to launch in January 2007. Hayman was formerly design director at New York magazine.
I’ve got mixed feelings about NYC’s bikers.
I’ve got mixed feelings about NYC’s bikers. On the one hand, I wish there were bike lanes and secure, affordable bike garages everywhere in the city. On the other hand, bikers (especially the hard core ones) can be the biggest assholes on the streets, as much of a problem to pedestrians as cars are to them.
The USS Intrepid stubbornly remains in its
The USS Intrepid stubbornly remains in its Manhattan berth at Pier 86, stuck in the mud, four tugboats unable to pull it free. “The hulking Intrepid, which survived five kamikaze attacks in World War II, looked like a mule resisting the force of several farmhands.”
Melting pot
At one of the few chain restaurants in Chinatown today, I witnessed a Spanish-speaking cashier taking an order from a Cantonese-speaking customer off of an English-only menu. It took awhile, but the woman seemed satisfied as she left with her food.
A comparison: London’s Tate Modern versus the
A comparison: London’s Tate Modern versus the MoMA. The MoMA is a stuffy, inaccesible place, while the “Tate Modern is an enormously user-friendly place, physically comfortable and hospitable, with inexpensive places to eat and frequent opportunities to sit.”
The cheapness and small footprint of flat
The cheapness and small footprint of flat panel TVs has made it much easier for restaurants and bars to just hang them up any old where…and spurred on by the recent World Cup festivities, that’s exactly what’s happened in NYC.
Slideshow of photographs from the last show (+
Slideshow of photographs from the last show (+ archival photos) at CBGB, a beloved New York music venue. Several photos of the club’s final days are available on Flickr as well.
Good Italian take-out in Little Italy?
From the perspective of the outside observer, New York’s Little Italy seems like little more than a chunk of Disney World plopped down in the midst of lower Manhattan. On the ground, the reality is not much better, particularly if you’re out to find a good meal. Unlike neighboring Chinatown, Little Italy’s food reputation is not the best. Since we started working in our new office in Chinatown, a number of forays have been made into Little Italy in order to procure take-out to bring back to the office, particularly pizza-by-the-slice. The results have been disappointing; several slices of blah pizza and a deep-fried risotto ball with prosciutto, mozzarella, and peas (sounds fantastic, right?) that was way not fantastic.
Is there anywhere in this whole small country we can get good Italian food to go or pizza-by-the-slice? As it is, Little Italy is reflecting poorly on the mother country and its excellent cuisine, and it would be nice, if possible, to salvage some of that reputation.
Shopping in Chinatown at lunch: pork uterus for $2.99/lb.
Shopping in Chinatown at lunch: pork uterus for $2.99/lb.
The Wordless Music Series is an attempt
The Wordless Music Series is an attempt to bring together classical music and more contemporary music, the differences between which “are an artificial construction in need of dismantling”. The next concert is on 11/15/2006 in NYC and tickets are priced for young concertgoers in mind.
Gothamist Maps uses Google Maps to pinpoint
Gothamist Maps uses Google Maps to pinpoint news alerts (fires, robberies, car accidents, etc.) on a map of NYC. Pretty cool.
Where do Craigslist’s Missed Connections occur in
Where do Craigslist’s Missed Connections occur in NYC? Gawker has the breakdown by location and subway line.
Dealing with stuff that sucks
If you’ve ever used any of the various menu sites out there, you may have noticed that the menus are occasionally not as up-to-date or complete as they could be. A typical response in the blogosphere to a situation like this is to fire off a snarky missive about how menu sites suck, wish harm on the site’s owners and their children, and why don’t they just die already, those sucking bastards, and basically overreact in such a way as to make the writer feel temporarily better and all but ensures that nothing constructive comes of it.
Since its launch last year, I’ve admired the tone of Eater, a site about New York city food and dining. The site strikes the right balance between criticism, enthusiasm, insider knowledge, and detatched reportage while covering a topic where too much of any one of these is deadly for the reader. Last week, Eater took note of the menu site situation, but instead of just complaining, they went looking for some evidence and reported the results:
Last week, Eater began an exhaustive investigative series called MenuGate. For those who think we’d forgotten about it, ten-hut. Tomorrow morning, we’ll be conducting a SPOT INSPECTION of the major menu site players, then scoring them on how accurate (or inaccurate) their menus are. The benchmark will be the menu that’s freely available, at this very moment, on the restaurant’s official website.
In canning the snark, offering fair criticism, and letting the results speak for themselves, Eater made it possible for the menu sites to respond in a congenial fashion:
We saw you chose 11 Madison Park this morning to do a menu comparison and our menu was out of date. To be fair, we waited to let you investigate the differences before we updated the menu, even though we noticed the menu had changed. In any event, now that you’ve written your piece, we have updated the menu as we do for restaurants everyday. We have a team specifically assigned to update menus and we receive user submissions as well to let us know about restaurant changes.
The end result? The situation improved for everyone. A small improvement perhaps, but MenuGate is an ongoing Eater feature so we can expect future improvements. And perhaps when the menu sites get tired of taking their lumps each time around, MenuGate may lead them to think of better ways to keep their menus up-to-date and useful. Anil Dash wrote a post two years ago about how bloggers could take positive action against “Stuff That Sucks”:
I’m proud of what [bloggers have] done in creating so many different weblog communities, and I don’t want our legacy to be one of having the positives overshadowed by our frequent, though understandable, tendency to be unkind or uncivil to those we’re communicating with.
The way Eater has approached the menu sites issue is certainly a good example of what Anil was talking about. Good show.
Danny Meyer on the difference between service
Danny Meyer on the difference between service and hospitality: “Service is delivering on your promise. Hospitality is making people feel good while you’re delivering on that promise.” Meyer has a new book, Setting the Table, out tomorrow. (via eater)
Speaking of ecological footprints, Personal Kyoto lets
Speaking of ecological footprints, Personal Kyoto lets your track your energy usage and reduce it according to the Kyoto Protocol. It only works for NYC residents…just grab your ConEd bill, punch in your account number, and PK will display your energy usage for the last year, along with averages and your Kyoto goal.
Update: PK’s creator tells me that he’s looking to bring the project to cities other than NYC. Good stuff.
Want to go apple picking without leaving
Want to go apple picking without leaving Manhattan? There are three trees with ripe apples growing near where you get up on the High Line at 33rd Street.
“From September 27th - October 21 the Museum
“From September 27th - October 21 the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators will host ‘30 Years of Fantagraphics,’ a retrospective art exhibition of over 100 pieces of original art published by the Seattle underground giant.” Artists in the exhibition include Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, and Robert Crumb.
A paleontology grad student, while idly inspecting
A paleontology grad student, while idly inspecting a bronze cast of a dinosaur skeleton on the wall of the subway station, notices that the dinosaur in question was not cannibalistic as previously believed. Man, good science can be done *anywhere*.
Barnaby Furnas’ “flood” paintings are quite impressive
Barnaby Furnas’ “flood” paintings are quite impressive in person…check them out at the Boesky Gallery in Chelsea through Oct 18. Their sheer size and the degree to which their creation must have been out of the artist’s control is intriguing.
Eating cheaply in NYC
A reader dropped an interesting question into my inbox yesterday, and I thought I would open it up to the group. Darko writes that he’s in NYC for the next two weeks but doesn’t have a lot of money to spend because he lives and works in Serbia. So, he’s wondering a) what to eat on a daily basis that doesn’t cost a whole lot, and b) where to go for a splurge meal, a place with “really glorious food” that’s $80-100 for two.
Cheap everyday food has been the subject of many pieces online, including this kottke.org thread from Feb 2003, New York magazine’s Cheap Eats 2004, New York magazine’s Cheap Eats 2005, New York magazine’s Cheap Eats 2006, Eating Pleasure. Price: $2, and Delicious for a Dollar?
My recommendations would be: bagels, Chinatown (the five-for-a-buck dumpling places as well as some other restaurants), pizza ($2/slice anywhere in the city), street carts (particularly the hot dogs and pretzels, check out the best street food in NYC), sandwiches from a deli (although some delis can be expensive, particularly in Manhattan…anyone know of any cheap places?), Curry Hill (Indian food around Lexington and & 28th), getting out of the touristy places in Manhattan (head for the East Village or the Lower East Side), or getting out of Manhattan entirely (cheaper eats in Brooklyn, etc.). And to drink, New York City tap water is free and better than Evian.
The splurge meal is a bit tougher, although if you forsake having wine, you can eat pretty well for $50/person. It might be best to seek out this meal in Brooklyn…there are some great places there and you don’t have to pay the Manhattan premium. Going at lunchtime is another good option…you often get the same calibre of food at a lower price than dinner. Gotham Bar and Grill near Union Square has a prix fixe lunch for $25 (or used to…you should call ahead). I think Eleven Madison Park also has a similarly priced prix fixe at lunch (prix fixe = fixed price). Anyone have any other suggestions, particularly about good places in Brooklyn?
According to data from an annual FBI
According to data from an annual FBI study, New York City was the safest large city in the US in 2005. Least safe big city: Dallas.
For those unlucky enough not to get
For those unlucky enough not to get a slot, running in a marathon can be achieved by buying somone else’s bib or just photocopying a friend’s. Bibs for the upcoming NYC marathon are going for a few hundred dollars on eBay and Craigslist. (via clusterflock)
The New York Public Library’s Digital Gallery
The New York Public Library’s Digital Gallery has tons of great old photos of Central Park…among other things. thx, bryan
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