It's been a rough year for the carbo-kings at H&H Bagels, and it looks like things could be getting worse—the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the company may be evicted from their 639 West 46th Street mass-manufacturing plant. Is no bagel safe?
H&H Bagels Edges Toward Extinction As More Eviction Threats Loom
Rumormongering: Is Steak 'n Shake Coming To New York?
Could the dreams of thousands of transplanted Midwesterners finally be coming true? It appears that beloved Illinois-based burger chain Steak n' Shake, which prides itself on thin, crispy "steakburgers" and hand-dipped milkshakes, is indeed coming to New York, at least according to this job posting on Monster.com.
Putrid Puddle Takes Over West 33rd St
Big news, you guys: there's a giant puddle on West 33rd St and it looks really gross and everyone around there hates it because "it smells like death." Gross.
Two-Alarm Fire at James A. Farley Post Office
Last night around 10:50 p.m., heavy smoke was reported at the landmark James A Farley Post Office on Eighth Avenue. Dozens of people were evacuated as the city's only 24-hour postal service branch was shut down so firefighters could locate the cause.
Mourning and Stealing at Staten Island Funeral Homes
A truly strange set of robberies has been solved in Staten Island. Strange because many took place at funeral homes. Jacqueline Garbutt hit three funeral homes a number of times, stealing purses from mourning family members and even jewelry belonging to the dead as she posed as a mourner herself. Police nabbed Garbutt after surveillance images from grocery stores, convenience stores and pharmacies where she used stolen credit cards and checkbooks. Her first haul was a woman's purse at a beauty salon and the police are questioning her about other robberies.
Attention All NYC MILFs
Yes, we wrote MILF, because that seemed the best way to approximate the call for women to participate in the Hottest Mom in America auditions. Uh huh - hot moms in the NYC area will get to strut their stuff this Saturday at the NYC auditions. The search for the Hottest Mom in America is for some sort of reality competition. It's being cast in Dallas, Miami, Chicago, Atlanta and LA as well, though we think the NYC competition will be pretty stiff. And the prizes are $25,000 in cash, $25,000 in scholarship money for a child, and being the spokeswoman for Restylane (it's a wrinkle-filler-in or something)! In the words of Chicagoist, it's a sending your kid into years of therapy is a small price to pay if you can be the Hottest Mom in America.
New York City's Tomorrow
New York Magazine decides to look at the city in the year 2016 in terms of architecture and real estate development - and how that'll impact New Yorkers. It's a great look at how drastically the city could change in ten years, which is all overwhelming, exciting, and kind of scary, because for every rendering of glassy buildings, what does that mean for the neighborhoods? Are they plans for more affordable housing to meet up with the luxury condos and pleasure palaces? At any rate, it's all interesting to see how the post-September 11 and Bloomberg administration have suddenly encouraged all this planning buzz.
Trumpistan Partly Broken Up
It was a kinder and gentler time back when Donald Trump started to build Trump Place south of West 72nd Street and Riverside Drive. Sure, it was pure bombastic Trump, battling neighborhood groups and neighboring apartments to develop Trumpland, even if he was going to extend Riverside Park by 21 acres, but it was a time when we didn't know the phrase "You're fired" was just scary, not funny in a yooge way. Now, Trump, plus a group of investors who bailed him out during the mid-90s, has sold three buildings and 77 acres for $1.8 billion, in what is considered the biggest residential sale in the city's history. The buyers are Extell Development Corporation and the Carlyle Group; Extell is expected to build eight more apartment buildings (a total of 3,000 units), to ensure the real estate bubble remain bubblicious. Of course, Trump is keeping four condo buildings along the made-up street, Riverside Boulevard, so Kelly Perdew can keep his job. We think.
Spring Sucks
We're not going to sugarcoat it... We're getting screwed. Now is the time when we are supposed to be braking breaking out the flip flops flip-flops, trying out the new warm weather gear, fueling our mojo, and gearing up for the unofficial start of summer Memorial Day Weekend. But instead it's cold, it's grey, it's windy, it's "damp" and it's starting piss everyone off.
Time Warner Center Suicide
The tabloids are noting there might be a curse at the TWC: A construction worker died during the construction and there was that fire that delayed Per Se's opening. Two other incidents we can think of: Falling debris and the unhappiness of chefs.
Bush and Kerry Mean Traffic
Check out the NY Times' Elizabeth Bumiller's political memo about the differences between Bush and Kerry's speaking styles.
Party Crasher Dies In Midtown West
Casa Mono
After conquering the West Village (with Po, Lupa, Otto, and Babbo) and Midtown West (Esca), Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich set their sights on Irving Place by taking over the former Irving on Irving space with Casa Mono, a variation on Spanish tapas bar. Gothamist checked out Casa Mono one evening to see that the Batali-Bastianich touch and name bring the foodies comin'.
Springtime for Larry David
Inimitably elegant photo blogger, rion, tells us that Gothamist's favorite crank, Larry David, has been hanging out in Midtown West, with the likes of Mel Brooks. Then she mentioned a poster of The Producers with Larry David and David Schwimmer on it. As the wheels started to turn, we thought, "Hmm, this smells like an episode of Curb!" Of course, rion was ready for our barrage of questions and directed us to this link that gives away the premise of season finale of the upcoming Curb season, which is okay, because as we know with Curb, you never know what will happen.

