2010 Winter Restaurant Week set for Jan. 25 to Feb. 7
NYC Winter Restaurant Week will return Jan. 25 through Feb. 7 with prices frozen at the same rate as in recent years: $24.07 for three-course prix-fixe lunches and $35 for three-course prix-fixe dinners.
The deal does not include beverages, tax or tip. It’s suspended on Saturdays and only some restaurants partake on Sundays.
The dates were announced today by NYC & Co. the city’s official tourism marketing group, but participating restaurants have not yet been named.
Museums, zoos, ice rinks, clubs open Thanksgiving Day
In case you find yourself in New York City on Nov. 26, 2009 looking for something to do besides share a bird with your beloved family members, here are some places that will be open on Thanksgiving Day in NYC:
The Macy’s 83nd Thanksgiving Day Parade will begin at 9 a.m. at 77th Street and Central Park West. The new route this year starts out the same, traveling south down Central Park West to Columbus Circle. But this year it will skip Broadway,and instead turn onto Central Park South and then south on 7th Avenue. Once it reaches, 42nd Street, the parade will head east until it reaches Bryant Park at 6th Avenue. The parade will continue south on 6th (Avenue of the Americas) until it reaches 34th Street, where it will turn towards Macy’s at herald Square.
Cirque du Soleil’s “Wintuk” at Madison Square Garden - performances at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.
Broadway Thanksgiving Week schedule includes Thanksgiving Day performances of “Hamlet” at 7:30 p.m. as well as “Chicago,” “Oleanna,” “Phantom of the Opera” “West Side Story” and “White Christmas” at 8 p.m.
World Series game day: Times Square rally, free food
Tonight at 7:57p.m., the New York Yankees host the Philadelphia Phillies for Game 1 of the 2009 World Series. Here’s the feed from the hype machine:
Times Square today at 12:30 p.m. will host a Yankees Pep Rally. The event will take place on Broadway between 44th and 45th streets. Be there or watch via the Times Square webcams.
The Empire State Building tonight and Thursday will light up blue and white for the Yankees.
There will be free Yankees cupcakes today courtesy of Crumbs and the Cupcake Stop Truck.
Free cheesesteak sandwiches — courtesy of the Greater Philadelphia Marketing and Tourism Commission — today at Shorty’s on Ninth Avenue from 4 p.m. until game time at 7:57 p.m.
First Lady Michelle Obama and the vice president’s wife, Jill Biden, will attend tonight’s game, NY1 reports.
FishBowlNY has pictures of the morning’s front pages, featuring plenty of trash talk.
Ticket brokers say resale prices for World Series tickets are going lower, the Associated Press reports.
El Museo to reopen with more space, free Saturdays
After a $28 million renovation, El Museo del Barrio will reopen Saturday with a free open house to debut its 10,000 square feet of new space filled with Latino art with a very strong connection to the New York City experience.
“It’s a long tme coming, but we finally look like a museum,” Tony Bechara, the chairman of the board of trustees of El Museo, said Wednesday during a media preview.
The museum, now 40 years old, started in a classroom, migrated to a storefront and in 1977 moved into its current multi-use Fifth Avenue building, which was originally an orphanage. Twelve years ago it drew fewer than 20,000 visitors anually; before it closed for renovations last year, more than 125,000 people came through the museum’s doors, El Museo director Julian Zugazagoitia said.
The renovation not only provides extra gallery space, but has opened up the Central Park side of the building with more glass and a redesigned courtyard with an entrance to El Cafe, (which has a Pan-Latino menu culled from 17 cultures.) The goal is for the courtyard to serve as a gathering spot for East Harlem and the Upper East Side at the top of the Museum Mile, said architect Jordan Gruzen. (Although Zugazagoitia noted they’ll cede the “top” title to the Museum for African Art when it opens at 110th Street.)
The art itself is as much about New York City as it is Puerto Rico, Latin American or the Caribbean. The inaugural exhibition, “Nexus: New York: Latin/American Artists in the Modern Metropolis,” focuses on the avant-garde art produced from 1900 to 1942 in NYC as well as Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Peru and elsewhere.
Displayed in airy galleries featuring bold colors and text in Spanish and English, the walls are filled with works by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and the caricatures of Miguel Covarrubias, (who Al Hirschfeld credited as an influence.)
Michelin adds Daniel to list of best NYC restaurants
The New York City 2010 Michelin Guide hits the shelves today, proclaiming Daniel, Jean Georges, Le Bernardin, Masa and Per Se the best restaurants in NYC.
One notch below, each with two stars: Alto, Corton, Gilt, Gordon Ramsay at The London, Momofuku Ko and Picholine. Forty-four other restaurants get one star.
The additional Bib Gourmand list (“Inspectors’ Favorites for Good Value,”) is available online.
The Michelin guide, now in its fifth year covering New York City, for this edition adds a symbol to denote restaurants with worthy cocktails or sake, expands its under-$25 listings, beefs up its Brooklyn and Queens coverage and adds a “small plates” classification.
The two-week Queens Restaurant Week begins today, offering $25 prix-fixe menus at 80 venues, including Water’s Edge, Donovan’s Grill & Tavern, Tournesol Bistro Francais and Delhi Palace.
The $25 price is a little flexible in Queens. For example at some restaurants — such as Deluge, La Fusta , O Lavrador or Mezzo Mezzo — $25 gets you two lunches. Ice Fire Land and Gandhi Haute Cuisine of India has two dinners for $25. Others do a straight $25 for dinner.
Queens Restaurant Week prices are offered Mondays through Thursdays until Oct. 15.
Open House NY reservations-required free tour list
Open House New York will open hundreds of sites for free tours during the weekend of October 10 and 11. Several locations will require reservations. Here’s the list of some of the most interesting OHNY tours that promise to fill up fast.
(Editor’s note: The final update to this list was Thursday night.)
Lefferts Historic House - cellar-to-attic tours from noon on Saturday and Sunday. (718) 789-2822 ×10. Update: Only two spots remain noon on Sunday, all others full.
Betances Community Center - Saturday tours with the architects in the Bronx. info@syarch.com. (All tours still have openings as of Thursday at noon.)
Trinity Church Cemetery & Mausoleum tours of Manhattan’s only active cemetery with historian Eric K. Washington. (212) 939-0994. All four tours — Saturday and Sunday at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. — still have a few spots open (as of Thursday at noon) with the Sunday at 1:30 p.m. most likley to fill soonest.
Wild Project - weekend tours with Alive Structures landscape architects. (Spots still open on Sunday at 10 a.m.,noon and 4 p.m.) marni@alivestructures.com
W hotels - tours of the Times Square, Union Square and Lexington Ave properties. rebecca.snyder@bbg-bbgm.com for Lex; nychappeningsrsvp@whotels.com, for others, specify which hotel. (As of noon Thursday, there are confirmed openings for W on Lex.)
The New School: Orozco Room - Saturday at 11 a.m. tour with Silvia Rocciolo, cocurator of the New School Art Collection, and James Wechsler, an independent scholar. Updated RSVP info.
Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church - Saturday and Sunday tours of the Romanesque Revival Church with Tiffany stained-glass windows. lrogers@lapcbrooklyn.org. Update: Reservations not required. “Just simply arrive during the allocated time (Sat. 12-1 pm, Sun. 1-5pm).”
Louis Armstrong House Museum - weekend tours still available (as of Thursday afternoon.) info@louisarmstronghouse.org
Brooklyn Museum - Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. tours of the Sackler Wing with Polshek architect. A few spaces are still available both days (as of Thursday afternoon.) grouptours@brooklynmuseum.org
Woodlawn Cemetery - weekend tours of private mausoleums by designers McKim, Mead & White, Carrere & Hastings, John Russell Poper, Tiffany, and Hunt & Hunt. Update: Reservations are preferred; spots available on the Saturday at 10 a.m. tour and Sunday at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. tours. (718) 920-1470
Locations that may still have spots open: (NewYorkology has reached out to each of these groups to confirm availibility.)
Brooklyn's Country Boys named best street food vendor
The Country Boys of the Red Hook Ball Fields on Saturday won the 2009 Vendy Award, earning bragging rights as the best food cart vendor in the New York City.
In the dessert category, Wafels & Dinges (operated by Thomas DeGeest,) was named the winner. The Grey Poupon People’s Taste Award went to Meru Sidker’s Biryani Cart. Winners were chosen Saturday at a cook-off at the Queens Museum of Art.
Country Boys/Martinez Taco Truck, operated by Fernando and Jolanda Martinez, are known for their Mexican food, especially the huaraches. During weekends of warm months, they can be found at the Red Hook Ball Fields (at Clinton and Bay streets) as well as at the Brooklyn Flea (at Lafayette and Vanderbilt) on Saturdays.
Tickets on sale for New Yorker Festival, Oct. 16-18
Tickets go on sale at noon today for The New Yorker Festival, which this year will include Rachel Maddow, Salman Rushdie, Tyler Perry, Steve Earle along with book signings, music and theatrical stagings.
And Calvin Trillin will again lead his popular “Come Hungry” food tour from Greenwich Village to Chinatown.
The New Yorker Festival runs from Oct. 16 through 18.
