Results tagged “tribeca”

Oh, my: The city's new school zoning may split residents of the same Tribeca building into different schools. Of course, the building is already split with two addresses and lobbies—101 Warren for the luxury condos, 89 Murray for the rentals and affordable housing units—and the luxury condo owners' kids would go to acclaimed P.S. 234 just two blocks away while the other children would need to schlep across City Hall to Beekman Tower. The Downtown Express reports that one 89 Murray resident said "that unlike the families in the adjacent luxury condos at 101 Warren St., families at 89 Murray cannot afford a nanny to help make the trek over to the Spruce Street School every day if they can’t go to 234"

On Sunday, the snobby, pedantic atmosphere that often dominates wine tastings will get rocked by the smug, over-sharing culture that always permeates Twitter! This City Winery event (which merits mention if only because of its name) is called "Spit & Twit." Who can resist? On Sunday afternoon, tweeting oenophiles will have the chance to try over 100 wines from 35 wineries around the world. But here's where it gets interesting or annoying, depending on your feelings about Twitter and those who hold forth on "tasting notes."

Not to be outdone by that measly $1 billion class action lawsuit filed against Greenhouse—the "eco-friendly" but allegedly black-unfriendly downtown nightclub—some other offended blacks have stepped up with their own $1.5 billion lawsuit! Greenhouse: the "big tobacco" of nightclubs. This new lawsuit is being filed today by Raqiyah Mays, a Kiss FM radio host, and three others who say that they were not let in "due to their race." Isn't it about time for Latinos, Hasidim, and Sikhs to get their piece of the Greenhouse bonanza?

Yesterday suspiciously perky cooking celebrity Rachael Ray, Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, City Council speaker Christine C. Quinn and other government officials held a press event at P.S. 89/I.S. 289 in Tribeca to preview a new menu that Ray created for NYC public schools. On Thursday, 600,000 students, from kindergartners to 12th graders, will have the option to sample the menu Ray developed: whole-wheat flatbread with roasted chicken, a ratatouille-style stew with beans, and corn salad on top. (Plus a side of broccoli.) But yesterday there was also a side of cockroach!

A man's home is his castle. Or, in Robert De Niro's case, a billionaire actor's illegal penthouse atop his swanky seven-story TriBeCa hotel (the $600-a-night Greenwich Hotel), is his castle.

Chanterelle, the 30-year-old restaurant in TriBeCa that changed the way NYC restaurants did business by making good food and service less stuffy, will close for good, the NY Times reports. The restaurant closed in July for extensive renovations and was due to reopen this month in advance of its November 14 anniversary; Owners David and Karen Waltuck explained their decision to the Times in a letter: "Through good and bad times it is a thrilling, passionate and rewarding journey. We are proud to be a part of this creative industry in this unparalled city of ours and look forward to what we will bring to you in the future..."

Of course: Some real estate marketers are bandying about a new neighborhood name for a sliver of already pretty tiny TriBeCa—it's "North TriBeCa"—and they tell the NY Times that North TriBeCa has turn-of-the-last-century buildings (or facsimiles of them); eastern TriBeCa has the high risey buildings which a broker says "feels more like the financial district." But another broker says, "As a marketing ploy, I’d say buyers who come to TriBeCa are among the more sophisticated, and they’re not going to fall for it."

Still no word from Sam Sifton, Frank Bruni's replacement at the Times, so let's turn to New York's Adam Platt, who files on Daniel Boulud's beer and sausage mecca on the Bowery, DBGB. Platt visits with his famous actor brother Oliver, and notes that "the menu contains fourteen varieties of sausage made by acolytes of the Parisian pâté genius Gilles Verot, plus a 'Tête aux Pieds' (Head to Feet) section, which includes an entire deboned pig’s trotter and little squares of crispy fried tripe, a Lyonnais offal specialty. 'This is right up my alley,' declared my giant fresser brother as he cut into the pig’s foot (I’m not touching that monster,' sniffed Mrs. Platt) and then the surprisingly delicate tripe, before working his way through the excellent sausages, which have catchy names like “Beaujolaise” (a deliciously fat, pork-stuffed link sweetened with red wine), 'Boudin Basque' (spicy, porky blood sausage over whipped potatoes), and 'Vermont' (more pork, garnished with melty curls of Cheddar and crème fraîche)."

Trattoria Cinque: It's all about the number five at this new 250-seat Italian restaurant, which, depending on your numerological stance, could signify the alchemist's five pointed star of quintessence or the Satanist's pentagram. We'll have to wait and see if owner Russell Bellanca's deal with the devil pays off, but it's certainly a good-looking establishment, with two fireplaces, spacious booths, and wooden tables that complement a grand Italian marble bar spanning the lounge area. Chef Mirco Grassini's rustic Italian menu includes just five dishes in each category (five small plates, five pasts, five desserts, etc.) and will change five times a year in tune with the, uh, four seasons. It's all priced under $25, and includes such options as Lasagna Bolognese ($18); Halibut al Guazzetto with roasted filet, potatoes, cherry tomatoes, olives ($24); and Pizza con Gorgonzola e Pere with pears, gorgonzola, white truffle oil ($12). 363 Greenwich Street; (212) 965-0555

A Tribeca resident should thank Lady Luck for suffering only minor injuries after falling 30 feet through a sidewalk grating on Murray Street on Saturday. According to a Chinese food deliveryman who witnessed the incident, Vincent Riggio, 59, exited the OTB parlor near Murray Street, "He had a cigar, he stepped on the platform and he fell. I looked down the hole. He was down there, squatting down. There was a lot of dust."

Angry Tribeca residents gathered at a Community Board 1 meeting Wednesday to confront the owner of Sazon, a newish bi-level Latin Caribbean restaurant and lounge. The basement salsa parties have become quite popular, and that's upsetting some neighbors like Barbara Spitzer, who decried the "party atmosphere... Reade Street feels like I’m living on Seventh Avenue." Another resident complained, "People are coming here to have fun. Fun is good, but it’s not very good on a residential street." Then owner Genero Morales detected a whiff of racism against his largely Puerto Rican clientele, and that insinuation infuriated Spitzer: "You really shouldn’t go there. It’s really inappropriate, and it’s quite offensive." The protests come at a bad time for Sazon, which is still waiting for liquor license approval from the SLA and has been selling booze under temporary licenses. Tribeca Committee chairman Peter Braus agreed with the neighbors, and told Morales, "There’s a discrepancy, clearly, between how you represented yourself [in January] and how the community perceives you." Morales is taking steps to quiet down, but downtown community boards won't really be satisfied until all bars are relocated to a designated "fun barge" somewhere off the southeast tip of Staten Island.

While building tenants were allowed back to their apartments and stores after a water main broke in Tribeca yesterday morning, the clean-up will take a while. Sean Hershkowitz, an owner of the terrific Balloon Saloon, said, "Everything has been totally destroyed. All of our inventory was in the basement," while A Uno clothing store owner Ann Benedetto lamented about computer equipment and clothing in her basement, "I have product here for fall that’s soaking." The main that broke at Duane and West Broadway was from 1870; the DEP told the Tribeca Tribune that it was just old. DEP Commissioner Steven Lawitts said, "Cast iron, after many years of freezes and thaws and street vibrations will break if not replaced." He added that even hough the city spend $200-300 million to replace old water pipes, "Unfortunately we can’t be everywhere with programmed replacement, so we still have these random occurrences, which we have to treat just as quickly as we can.”

Downtown residents and building owners got an unpleasant surprise early this morning when a water main broke at West Broadway and Duane Street at around 2:15 a.m. A number of buildings were evacuated and currently, the Office of Emergency Management reports, "Emergency personnel are on scene of a water main break affecting the area of West Broadway and Duane St. Duane St. from Hudson St. to Church St. and West Broadway from Reade St. to Worth St. are closed to vehicular traffic. The M20 Bus is being rerouted. There are no current impacts to subways." However, the MTA says, "In addition, due to a water main break in the area of the Chambers Street Station, please expect delays in service on 1, 2 and 3 trains and M20, M22 and X25 buses in both directions this time."

This week Frank Bruni at the Times weighs in on Locanda Verdi, the reboot of Robert De Niro's failed Ago, which the critic had such fun eviscerating last summer. His two star review radiates adoration for new chef Andrew Carmellini, whose "talent demands a bigger stage, and luckily for both him and us, Locanda Verde came along in the nick of time to give him that. It opened two months ago in the TriBeCa space inhabited briefly — and disastrously — by Ago, may it rest in peace... But it doesn’t amount to the exactly right situation or perfect fit for him. It’s not the Carmellini restaurant that many of us have been waiting and hoping for, though it has plenty to recommend it. Hit the menu’s strong spots and you’ll have a terrific meal at a reasonable price."

     

Step inside Sazon, the new Latin Caribbean restaurant and lounge from the team behind Sofrito, a popular mid-price Puerto Rican spot in midtown east. The bi-level place opened quietly last month in the Reade Street space formerly occupied by Fresh Tribeca; the swank and sexy interior design features bright tropical colors, black lacquered chandeliers, a tufted leather back wall, and a coveted private booth secluded behind thick drapes. The elegant yet relaxed vibe extends to the downstairs lounge—tagged wall-to-wall by street artist James De La Vega—where a second bar facilitates weekend salsa dancing parties.

reBar: This spacious bar/restaurant isn't new, but the chef and the menu are, so it's worth a mention for those making dinner plans in somewhat dining-deprived DUMBO. Self-described hippie owner Jason Stevens, who quit his job trading mortgage-backed securities at Merrill Lynch just before the crash, opened reBar in December 2006 in an old tea warehouse dating back the later 19th century. With an elegantly weathered, post-industrial design by the same guy who did the Zipper Factory Theater (RIP), the place has become a favorite watering hole for the locals. ($2 pints from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.!)

The owner of the 153-year old, five-story building on Reade Street that collapsed yesterday morning had been cited for numerous violations by the Department of Buildings over the years. In 2007, inspectors discovered a 15-foot-long crack and a section of a wall in danger of collapse, but the Times reports that owner Aharon Vaknin never addressed the violation. And in April the department received five separate complaints about the building's landmarked facade, including one just days ago warning that it looked unstable. On Tuesday, Vaknin began installing structural supports to the building, per DOB orders; he'd originally planned to build a boutique hotel behind the crumbling facade, but the recession stalled the project. According to the Tribeca Tribune, Vaknin had recently submitted plans to partially demolish the very section of the building that collapsed. But it seems gravity and neglect took care of that for him. Last night the DOB razed the remaining portions of the structure in a controlled demolition, and the department is investigating whether the construction of a planned six-story, 63,000 square-foot condo at 77 Reade St contributed to the collapse.

[UPDATE BELOW] Here's helicopter footage taken this morning following the collapse of a five-story building landmark building at 71 Reade Street between Church and Broadway. Channel 7 reports that first responders believe the mixed-use building to be vacant when it collapsed around 6:15 this morning, sending "debris and pieces of the building crashing onto parked cars and across Reade Street."

              

Last week Executive Director Nancy Schafer talked us through some of the fun events happening during the festival, which include free stuff like the drive-in movies and the family street fair, the post-screening Q&A's with directors such as Spike Lee and Steven Soderbergh, and a "work in progress" premiere screening of the documentary, Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful.

              

The festival continues through May 3rd, and while this year boasts less films than usual (approximately 150, down from roughly 200 last year), that also means it's a slightly more manageable festival. Last week Executive Director Nancy Schafer talked us through some of the fun events happening during the festival, which include free stuff like the drive-in movies and the fair street fair, the post-screening Q&A's with directors such as Spike Lee and Steven Soderbergh, and a "work in progress" premiere screening of the documentary, Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful.

NYPD detective turned Fox 5 reporter Mike Sheehan is saying "neigh" to charges that he was allegedly drunk when he drove into a mounted police officer on Monday night. Sheehan's lawyer Thomas Monagan said, "It is Mr. Sheehan's position that the horse ran into his car," according to the Daily News, which has a photo of the car showing a damaged driver's side window. Cops say Sheehan drove into the horse and cop on Varick at N. Moore Street in Tribeca, leaving the cop with a bruised leg and the horse with cuts, bruises and scrapes; they add that Sheehan refused to take a Breathalyzer test. Monagan said, "How do you hit a horse with the side of your car? You can't," and pointed out that a police officer's initial report found that Sheehan's breath did not smell of alcohol but then the cop apparently changed his story the next morning to say the newsman had "slurred speech and the smell of alcohol on his breath." (P.S. NYPD horses are referred to as 10-foot cops.)

Is it possible for a show to be simultaneously entertaining and annoying? Such is the paradox presented by Elizabeth Swados and Erin Courtney's propulsive opera Kasper Hauser at the Flea Theater. The performances by this talented young cast are uniformly excellent, the staging is mesmerizing, the music is fun and engrossing, and yet... at the nexus of all this dazzling theatricality is the title character, a pigeon toed half-wit with a tendency to drool and babble incoherently. He's sitting onstage as one enters the theater, manically rolling a toy horse back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. The performance was delayed on the night I attended, and after about 15 minutes I began fantasizing about jumping onstage and stomping the squeaky-wheeled toy to bits. That irritation never really abated, though it was balanced out by Swados's stellar score and dynamic direction.

Five people out partying in Tribeca last night ended up stabbing victims after a fight broke out outside a nightclub. Three men and two women were stabbed a little after 2 a.m. outside of the Deco Lounge on Brodway in Tribeca. 21 year-old Mario Almedo was arrested on assault and criminal possession of a weapon charges for two of the stabbings, one of a 23-year-old man in the head and one to the neck of a 21-year-old woman. A bouncer at Deco told the News, "It was just a fight. No big deal." All of the victims were taken to St. Vincent's Hospital and expected to survive. The club has a bad reputation with neighbors—one employee at a local bodega told the paper, "Every Friday and Saturday night, they fight."

When edgy chef Marc Forgione (pictured) opened up his urban-rustic restaurant last summer in a former TriBeCa dairy warehouse, he decided to call the place Forge, after his nickname. But, oopsy, there's already a Forge restaurant in Miami Beach, and in due time owner Shareef Malnik accused Forgione of trademark infringement. So this month he re-christened his place "Marc Forgione" to avoid a costly lawsuit and spare potential customers the confusion of getting lost in Florida on their way to his restaurant.

        

The focal point of Trigo, a big 150-seat Mediterranean-inspired brasserie in TriBeCa, is the earth-stone hearth, where chef Michael Garrett bakes new twists on rustic flatbreads, which include a French-inspired Onion and Tart Green Apple. As you can see, the 20-foot floor-to-ceiling windows, elegant iron latticework, and monumental columns make this quite the ambitious enterprise. Only time will tell if it can stare recession in the eyes and laugh, but the all-day breakfast, lunch and dinner service could help Trigo make regulars out of the locals.

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who recently started dipping her toes into the world wide web, is now opening a gym in Tribeca (she's a part-time resident of downtown New York). The Daily News reports that she's partnering with her trainer/friend Tracy Anderson (who is also responsible for scary Madonna arms), but that "no other details on the gym are available yet." It's doubtful you'll be sweating with the star anytime soon however, she told Oprah recently that her favorite gym is the one in her own home. Paltrow has been taking a big screen break and won't be seen in theaters again until 2010, and the paper warns that if she's looking to "push acting aside in favor of becoming an Oprah or Martha, she needs to tie things together."

This week Frank Bruni at the Times slams fancy Franch brasserie Secession, the new iteration of what was formerly Danube in Tribeca. It's not good. He's completely vexed by the "oddly organized riot of strangely mismatched options" on the menu, deeming it "the menu of an unfocused, distracted mind. And it’s a window into the present hyperextension of its guiding spirit, David Bouley [pictured]...Not much of what emerged from Secession’s seemingly overburdened kitchen rose far above mediocrity. And there were instances of outright sloppiness. A block of butter for the breadbasket had a hard, pale yellow ring around it, suggesting that it had begun to melt before being returned to the refrigerator."

This week Frank Bruni at the Times criticizes Corton, the new Tribeca restaurant helmed by enfant terrible chef Paul Liebrandt. Others at Time Out and NY Mag have raved, and Bruni's praise isn't exactly muted either: "At Corton [Liebrandt] calms down and wises up, accepting that an evening in a restaurant shouldn’t be like a visit to a fringe art gallery: geared to the intellect, reliant on provocation. It needn’t demand raptness. And it must, in the course of whatever else it means to accomplish, leave a person eager for the next bite and intent on the one after that." Makes sense, three stars.

          

The Employees Only crowd have joined forces with David Waltuck (chef/owner of Chanterelle and 2007 James Beard Award winner) to open Tribeca's Macao Trading Co., a big funky restaurant packed with antiques to evoke "the 1940s portside feel of Macao’s red lantern district." The space is bi-level and the menu's bi too, with Macao's history as a Portuguese colony reflected in both Chinese and Portuguese versions of ribs, bass tripe. Meals are served family-style in the 82-seat dining room and bar; other dishes include African fried chicken ($18), Portuguese Style Grilled Prawns with vinho verde & garlic butter ($28), and Chinese Style grilled sirloin with oyster sauce & Chinese broccoli ($32).

        

The fourth New York City location of The Palm restaurant opened on Friday in Tribeca. This outpost is located in a luxury condo on 200 Chambers Street, and some residents there are none too thrilled about their proximity to the popular steakhouse. One gripes on the Wired New York board: "The Palm Restaurant is ruining my life...The entire lobby smells of the exhaust of the Palm Restaurant. Also certain hallways in the building and interiors of apts are also complaining about the smell."