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Okay, we know that tourists often flood New York during the holidays and natives blow town, but what we read in today's Times was just troubling. Lines at crappy theme restaruants, and nobody at the diverse collection of restaurants that make New York great.
Even some famous establishments, ordinarily packed, have had surprising lulls. On Sunday night, for instance, Lisa Magnino and her boyfriend, Jon Coifman, decided to see how long the line was at Grimaldi's pizzeria in Brooklyn. There wasn't one."We were like, hmm, it must be closed," said Ms. Magnino, who lives in Carroll Gardens. "But it wasn't, and when we walked in, we were seated right away. There was a couple sitting at a table for four, and they said, 'Can you believe this?' "
What is wrong with you people?!? The crazy tourists have been hitting up places like the ESPNZone, Jekyll and Hyde, and the Times Square Brewery for dinner, but shunning establishments that do plenty of business during the rest of the year. Why come to New York only to go to places that are comforting and "normal"? What gives? Are there so few natives in town that even places like Grimaldi's has no wait?
Are those of you in town finding the emptiness nice, or is there an eerie Vanilla Sky-like quality to it?
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Hey, i hear the Olive Garden in Times Square has the BEST italian in town!
The one time I ate at an Olive Garden, I got food poisoning and spent the night hunched over my toilet. Ugh, never again.
That's Hospitaliano!!!
actually, i just drove by Grimaldi's yesterday around 5:45 pm and it was one of the longer lines i've seen there in some time. perhaps the Times story leaked early and caused an early-dinner crunch.
I noticed the city emptying out this week, and decided to go to Wu Liang Ye, which always has a long wait for lunch. I went there, found midtown packed to the gills, and there was still an hour wait. D'oh.
I guess I should have gone to Grimaldi's.
I don't what city the rest of you are in but I can't get over how many friggin tourists are aimlessly milling around. I take the express bus back to Brooklyn each night and the amount of hillbilly idiots who don't know how to cross the street and keep traffic from moving jamming the streets is insane. It seems worse now than the weeks leading up to Christmas. I guess everyone came just in time to freeze their ass off in Times Square to see the ball drop.
What I can't believe is that Jennifer 8 of Wonkette fame earlier this year, quotes the same person, one Amanda Tree, in both this article and this one from yesterday:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/29/nyregion/29hawk.html
Everyone else really MUST be out of town.
GRRR!! Sooo many tourists. I work near Rockefeller Center (aka tourist central) and it's such a pain to go anywhere. For the last month, I've just gone to the deli in the building rather than trudge through busloads of people milling around.
Thank you tourist for spending your money here, but we new yorkers still have to work!
I'm with Johnie. I also work in Rock Center, and it is insane! Tourists walk 7 across, trailing kids and all sorts of bags and strange accessories. Its pretty much impossible to get a sandwich - even in my local deli.
As for the foreign tourists - I second that. They are *swarming* Union Square.
Such sophisticated little wankers you all are! I imagine most of you posting comments here are not from New York either. So tourists enjoy TGI Fridays - BFD. Any of you noticed how homogenized and stale NYC is these days? Help explain the Home Depot (the temple of sububanism) in Chelsea. Just because you happen to live in NYC, doesn't mean you're hip.
"Dollar reaches new low against the Euro."
I guess this is how full-year "townies" feel when hordes of NYCers invade their quiet communities en masse during vacation periods. Out-of-towners always seem to be mucking around and making things worse, be it villager or city-dweller. How about a little peace, love, and understanding in '05?
andrew, i assume you mean the one near rock center? you could try it for dinner or their other locations. or all the other szechuan places that are opening up.
Hate to change topics (on topic, the city is oozing with Brits spending those oh-so-strong pounds against our oh-so-week $), but who knows of fun (+ cheap) things to do between 10 and midnight tomorrow (New Year's)?
while i'm always happy that tourists are too stupid to ruin the good places left in the city, its sad that they travel all the way over here to spend their money in essentially the same national franchises they have wherever theyre from instead of putting into locally owned businesses. the huge tax break privileged corporations are reaping all the profits from their brain washing homogenising marketing campaigns
Down in Soho this afternoon, it was like, well, Soho on a Saturday. And Balthazar's take-out still had all of their best sandwiches and salads even at 4pm!
Vanilla Sky is my favorite movie...and tourists need to go to the good resturants in NYC! why come from nowheresville where they can go to olive garden, romano's macaroni grill, pizza hut, wendy's, etc etc, when they can go to many of the fine resturants around here! driggs pizza on driggs avenue between north 7th and north 6th is one of my favorite resturants, as is Vinny's on Smith street between Union and Sackett. if you're really willing to spend money, Pontevecchio is on 4th avenue between 87th and 88th streets. All Italian food! :)
Why are we complainiiiing that lines are too SHORT? What are we nuts...KEEP IT A SCERET from the tourists...HEY TIEN MAO...ARE YOU A CAPITALIST ROADER?
Ruby Foo's in midtown had a line out the door tonight, so I guess even the local "chains" are benefiting. From high above times square, all you can see are the packed sidewalks. We've been ordering in at the office, rather than brave the hordes.
went to grimaldi's tuesday around 7pm. no wait, no line. but it was basically full. still, in the summer at that time on any day there was at least a half hour wait, if not an hour.
I think the lesser known places need to put big, neon signs in front of their restaurants to grab attention. Billboards too.
I've recently moved to NYC. Though I'm not new to the city, living here is new to me. Before Christmas, I took a visiting friend to 5th Avenue. We spent some big money at Sak's and then went to fight the body to body crowd to see the Christmas Tree. Once on the other side, a young man visiting from Idaho or so asked my friend and I if he could take our picture (no, not one of those guys charging 10 dollars.) We asked him why he wanted our pic and he said, "you look sooooo New York." And we did. We had dinner at the wine bar across the street and were happy to go home to my new place. Now, where to go on New Year's Eve? Suggestions welcome.
some of you sound like you just moved to nyc yourselves. or are teenagers?
manhattan is always packed to the gills with shoppers and tourists between thanksgiving and new year's. this is news?
it's just like the hamptons, jersey shore and the cape are filled with the likes of many of you during the summer. welcome to the big city -- get used to it kids.
Self-important yuppies - no more, no less. Makes them feel really special to talk about those fancy dinners they enjoy on Saturday nights while most true New Yorkers struggle to pay rent and put food on the table.