The popular Park Slope hot doggery is expanding their franchise with a new, seasonal Manhattan location on warm weather mainstay The High Line. On May 26th the stand will open its "doors" at the Chelsea Market Passage on 10th Avenue between 15th and 16th streets serving an abridged version of their restaurant menu. Choose from a classic dog, veggie dog or Nueske's Smoked Cheddar Brat for the tubular offerings and a hamburger or veggie burger for something between-the-buns, all priced under $7. You can also customize your meal with free toppings like sweet pepper relish, diced red onions and sauerkraut from the Fixins Bar to make your own special creation.
Bark Hot Dogs Is Bringing Their Meat To The High Line!
Can You Find These Tiny Statues On The High Line?
While we wait to find out if a giant locomotive will be dangling over the High Line in the future, a much smaller-scale exhibit has popped up along the elevated park. Starting today, the Lilliput exhibit—named for the island of little people from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels—is taking over tiny parts of the park. Six artists have created the miniature sculptures, which are all "installed in unusual and unexpected places at the High Line... to create an art treasure hunt for visitors." Click through for a little preview before stumbling over the pieces yourself—they'll be there through next April.
New Billboard Asks New York: "How Are You Feeling?"
Artist David Shrigley has designed a new billboard which is currently basking in the shadows of the High Line, where it will remain through May 7th. The speech bubble asks: "How Are You Feeling?" And immediately delivers depressing responses, like, "I'm feeling very unstable and insecure. I also feel very worried and anxious about everything." And on and on and on. At least we're alone, together? The 25-by-75 foot billboard is located at West 18th Street and 10th Avenue... how are you feeling about it?
The High Line Is The Drunkest, Kissiest Park In The City
A toast is in order to the High Line today, which just took top honors in terms of drunk people, or at least drunk people who get caught drinking. The Parks Department has given out more summonses this past year—113, to be exact—for illegal drinking in the High Line than at any other park in the city. That's a lot of tickets for a petite seven-acre park—certainly enough to warrant a fresh bottle of bubbly, don't you think?
Photos: Artist Confuses New York With Cloudy Messages
So, why was the sky offering you a "Last Chance" yesterday? Art, of course. For about two hours yesterday (starting a little after 4 p.m.), the sky above Lower Manhattan displayed a series of somewhat confusing skywritten messages like "Last Chance" and "Now Open," but don't fear, it wasn't the work of a depressed skywriter. No, the messages were a part of an art project called "The Sky Is The Limit/NYC" by Kim Beck and sponsored by the Friends of the High Line. Which is to say, messages like "Lost Our Lease" were not technically related to the ongoing occupation of Occupy Wall Street!
Escape From The High Line: Teen Suing City For $2.5 Million
A New Jersey teenager who seriously injured his leg after jumping down to the street from a fence around High Line is suing the city for $2.5 million, claiming that he was locked in the park and had no choice. "I crushed my knee, rupturing my ACL, and hurt my back. It really messed me up," 18-year-old Kirk Rasnick told the Daily News. Rasnick claims that the injuries he sustained on June 13 have prevented him from playing football during his senior year at Dickinson High School in Jersey City, and "you can't put a price on that." Except in this case: the price is $2.5 million, which works out to be around $700K per missed pep rally.
1920s-Era Auto Shop Under The High Line Getting The Heave-Ho
The High Line: Unparalleled urban oasis or maelstrom of gentrifying malevolence? After reading about poor Alan Brownfeld and his imperiled Brownfeld Auto Service, we're gonna go with both. The Chelsea auto body shop was started by Brownfeld's grandfather back in the 1920s, but now its days are numbered, and the High Line is allegedly to blame. Why couldn't they have made it a little less gorgeous?
High Line Lawn Closed To Clean Off Your Sins
It didn't take long for the High Line lawn to become this generation's Plato's Retreat, with plenty of young New Yorkers flocking there for some action. Most recently we were even sent photos of one couple looking very happy after getting to second base in broad daylight (see below). And now, the High Line lawn has been closed for "restoration"—which means the rain didn't wash away all the sins last week, and this grass is getting sanitized! Or maybe it just got all muddy from the rain. Who can say! Either way though, it wouldn't hurt to give it a nice Purell bath.
Photos: The High Line's Phase II, After Dark
You've seen the High Line's Phase II in broad daylight, but the ol' gal looks even better at night.
Is The High Line's Lawn The New Plato's Retreat?
Last night photographer Katie Sokoler dropped by the High Line to grab us some shots of the newly-opened Phase II after dark. She reported back today, saying, "Since there's a lawn now, it's just full of couples making out and rolling around. I zoomed in on this shot and saw this girl totally grabbing onto this guys crotch with all these people around!" Is the lawn destined to become the new Plato's Retreat, and more importantly: is there a way to sanitize the grass each day, or maybe cover it in latex?
No Halloween on the High Line
The High Line seems like a lovely place to spend Halloween, no? Too bad for trick or treaters that it's shutting down early Saturday night. Curbed reports that the Parks Department announced: "Due to anticipated heavy event-related crowds in the neighborhood during the Village Halloween Parade, the High Line will be off-limits starting at 5 p.m." The guests of the Standard hotel will likely still be up to their old tricks, however.
Gothamist's Week in Rock: Boycott Terminal 5 Boycotters Edition
We've come around on Hot Chip in a big way over the last few years as they've risen to stateside popularity. Their latest album is a total burner, highlighted by a killer lead single, Ready for the Floor, and the last few times we've seen them live it's been a blast. So needless to say, our expectations for last Saturday night's show at Highline were through the roof. Did they live up to them? Nearly. It was a great time, the crowd was into it and the songs still rule. The band, however, seemed a touch off that night. It may have been a due to the band not having played these songs a whole lot live before, but, especially with the new jams, it didn't seem to flow as well as we'd hoped. Obviously you don't go see a band live to hear them play the songs exactly as they are on record, but their minor tinkering seemed slightly for the worse. That said, a mostly great show, and we can't wait for them to return to Terminal 5 in a few months. (Pic via Ryan Dombal's Flickr)
Suzanne Vega, Musician
. Along the way she’s had a divorce and a daughter (Ruby, now 13), married the man who proposed to her back in her pre-Luka days, and been dubbed "The Mother of the Mp3" when her song Tom’s Diner was used as the model for the algorithm that compresses the Mp3!
Developing a Plan for the East River Waterfront in Midtown
One casualty of MAS's proposal would be the Robert Moses Playground, home of the East End Hockey Association. The mostly featureless lot hosts the local roller hockey league, which is claiming that Robert Moses Playground is the only area of its type on the East Side that it can use. MAS is proposing that the playground be traded to the U.N., which would build a 35-story tower on the land, in exchange for waterfront access to complete the greenway.
The High Line Brand
NY Mag recently talked about the unexpectedness of the High Line brand. Of course venues are rebranding more and more, but the High Line is taking it to a new level - as it is, and started out as, much more than just a venue. With a festival curated by David Bowie, a neighborhood with proposed condos that allow residents to park their car on an elevator right next to their living space, and of course the park - 20 years ago no one would have dreamed all of this.
DeNiro And Bowie Duke It Out Downtown
Are Robert DeNiro and David Bowie battling it out in a sort of festival turf war? Though both turned up at the Vanity Fair party thrown in honor of New York's Tribeca Film Festival - it seems there's some animosity in the air...or at least in the press. Bowie's High Line Festival begins on May 9th, just three days after DeNiro's Tribeca Film Festival ends. NY Mag describes the difference between the two:
Design Team Chosen For High Line
The City and the Friends of the High Line have selected Diller, Scofidio & Renfro and Field Operations to design the master plan for the High Line on the West Side of Manhattan. Naturally, their plan includes renderings with all sorts of crazy scale figures dancing around.
Highline Design Finalists Selected
The Friends of the Highline have selected four design teams to compete for the coveted project of turning the Highline, the elevated train tracks on the West Side, into a public park. Among the finalists involved are Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid's firm, artist Olafur Eliasson of Weather Project fame at the Tate Modern, and a number of other top architectural firms. Curbed has details on the teams, per the Friends of the Highline press release. The designs submitted by the four teams will be on display at the Center for Architecture, beginning July 15 (which is also the night of an opening panel discussion). Gothamist is very excited by this, but we're still fond of the abandoned nature of the Highline, rusting train trestle and wildflowers growing haphazardly. But better for the Highline to be a park rather than be demolished.
Previously on Gothamist
Plus, take a look at our new Events page which can help you plan at least four possible options for the first part of the evening and at least five more for the later half; thanks to editor Mindy and editorial assistant Willa Paskin for a great first week.
Highline
The Friends of the Highline held a competition to further think of new ways to save the abandoned elevated railroad line on the West Side. The Times reports on the winners of the competition, who come from all over the world. Though none of the designs will get built, Gothamist loves hearing around ideas like winners Takuji Nakamura's proposal "illuminated shafts penetrating the viaduct, with stairs and elevators" and Nathalie Rinne's imagining of the space as a 7,920-foot-long swimming pool. And the Times notes that the presence of City Planning Director Vishaan Chakrabarti on the jury for the competition may mean that the city will consider measures to preserve the space.

