Gothamist: Hello? Is Anyone Out There?

baxi

Sun, 02 Jan 2005 18:34:58 -0500

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.

meesalikeu

Sun, 02 Jan 2005 12:25:12 -0500

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.

Lola

Fri, 31 Dec 2004 12:10:00 -0500

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.

Connors

Fri, 31 Dec 2004 08:33:51 -0500

I think the lesser known places need to put big, neon signs in front of their restaurants to grab attention. Billboards too.

julie

Fri, 31 Dec 2004 00:37:02 -0500

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.

whatisee

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 23:20:03 -0500

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.

Doofus

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 23:09:09 -0500

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?

Clayton

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 21:02:38 -0500

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! :)

Jim

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 18:47:45 -0500

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!

sp

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 18:45:29 -0500

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

Micah

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 18:25:03 -0500

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)?

tien

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 17:21:27 -0500

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.

Dave H.

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 17:20:23 -0500

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?

la depressionada

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 17:04:48 -0500

"Dollar reaches new low against the Euro."

Jim-bob

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 16:51:26 -0500

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.

SecondThat

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 16:45:17 -0500

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.

Johnie

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 16:17:49 -0500

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!

Ingrid

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 16:08:01 -0500

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.

the Hamster

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 16:05:29 -0500

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.

Andrew Hyatt

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 15:26:19 -0500

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.

jamie

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 15:24:43 -0500

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.

worse

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 15:16:21 -0500

That's Hospitaliano!!!

Dirk

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 15:11:04 -0500

The one time I ate at an Olive Garden, I got food poisoning and spent the night hunched over my toilet. Ugh, never again.

Dustin

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 14:43:32 -0500

Hey, i hear the Olive Garden in Times Square has the BEST italian in town!