Results tagged “warnercenter”

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is in charge of construction on the new 1 World Trade Center – AKA the Freedom Tower – is now seeking developers to design, build and operate a 34,000-square-foot restaurant on the 100th and 101st floors; whoever wins the bid may also win rights to operate the observation deck planned for the 102nd floor. The Authority is gazing into its crystal construction ball and seeing a Grand Opening in 2013.

The last sentence uttered before all hell breaks loose is, “Forget about the rest of the world and hold onto the ones you care about.” Though probably unintentional, those words of brotherly advice – spoken to a lovesick young yuppie named Rob – perfectly sum up the prevalent attitude in fin de siècle New York: the world’s spinning into a cataclysm of total war and catastrophic climate change, but fuck it; let’s party and get ours. And in Cloverfield, the well-connected young Manhattanites at the story’s center do indeed get theirs, just not the way Gossip Girl said they would.

Earlier this week, the NY Times had an article about how Apple's retail stores were uncommonly successful. The Apple Stores contribute to 20% of revenue, unlike other big brands whose brick-and-mortar offerings tend to be more about brand presence than actual ringing of cash registers (example: the Samsung Experience store at the Time Warner Center doesn't actually sell Samsung products).

October 11: Restaurant Reviewing in New York City

The center of the paparazzi universe might be the Waldorf Towers at 100 East 50th Street. That's because Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and their brood of children are renting a $100,000/month apartment at the hotel. The Post reports that the Jolie-Pitts "began recently living in a newly renovated, roughly 6,000-square-foot apartment" that has "five bedrooms plus a library that they have converted into a sixth, up to six baths and a huge gourmet kitchen." And there are terraces (plural!).

The Michelin Guide announced selections today for its third New York Edition, which officially goes on sale Wednesday.

In time for next week’s Columbus Day festivities, the Post’s Steve Cuozzo lets his Ital flag fly with two gushing columns on Italian cuisine. He points out that Italian restaurants outnumber all other kinds of restaurants in New York by a big margin (and that’s not because of the ever-metastasizing Olive Gardens.) He cites seven “marvelous” eateries – Del Posto, A Voce, Abbocatto, Insieme, Fiamma, L'Impero and Alto – that “establish Italian as the cuisine to beat.” Nobu can sleep with the fishes.

Earlier this afternoon, we watched Scholastic transform Mercer Street between Prince and Spring Streets in "Harry Potter Place" in anticipation of the 12:01AM release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - early reviews be damned! Not only was the Whomping Willow ready, there were owls (stuffed), messages on the Muggle Message Board, and a copy of the book signed by JK Rowling.

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to the new Landmarc in the Time Warner Center, awards the restaurant one star. “It’s three times the size of the original Landmarc in Tribeca,” he says, “whose menu and competent cooking it replicates but whose warmth it largely lacks.” He compares the food to what you’d find at a Midwestern Marriot, but says that perhaps it’s just what the overly self-conscious Time Warner Center needs.

">Bruni goes to Gramercy Tavern, awards the restaurant--now helmed by chef Michael Anthony--three stars. It was last reviewed by William Grimes, when Tom Colicchio was cooking and when it also received three stars. Bruni says the restaurant delivers what diners want: “a kind of unstrained graciousness and unlabored sophistication.” Nearly everything he tasted was “exquisitely cooked,” and while the desserts aren’t the best ever, “there are some fine choices.”

">Bruni two-stars Belgian Resto. Loves the beers, the fries and mussels, and the hint of Asian seasonings in some dishes: "Resto's version of Belgium is neither clichéd nor isolationist," he says. It’s not great for your arteries, either, he points out, but sometimes it's worth the health risk.

Landmarc is the latest restaurant to open at the Time Warner Center, thankfully providing an affordable option to TWC visitors who want to sit down for a casual meal without waiting in line at the basement Whole Foods or the neighboring Bouchon Bakery.

READINGS: Russell Simmons has written a self-help book and will be at Border's today promoting it (okay, now all of this recent noise he's making makes more sense)! It's called "Do You! 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success." None of the laws include any of these three words.

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Esca, calls chef Dave Pasternack a "fish whisperer" (um, OK Frank) and awards the restaurant three stars. "In an era when too many restaurants try to be everything to everyone," he says, "Esca has a specific agenda: show what the sea can yield." The restaurant was previously awarded two stars by William Grimes in 2000.

Yesterday at the Time Warner Center, Chef Marc Murphy somewhat stealthily opened the doors to the uptown outpost of Landmarc, his 3 year-old, well-regarded Tribeca restaurant. Murphy began to look northward last year when he opened Ditch Plains in the West Village. With Landmarc firmly established as a neighborhood bright spot with serious food (like the $12 roasted marrow bones with onion marmalade and grilled bread, pictured), and with Ditch Plains going strong with its clam bar/set count aesthetic (the only thing better than its all-day breakfast is its bric-a-brac seafood add-on options- you can order Anson Mills grits with oysters and lobster if you want), many have wondered if the new version of Landmarc can possibly retain the charm of the original inside the glass and steel canyons of a giant mall. With the same Brasserie/New American menu and a big emphasis on straightforward kids' meals (from carrot sticks & peanut butter to orecchiette with plain butter sauce, and toothache-inducing cotton candy), as well as a thoughtful wine list, the new Landmarc stands to remedy the fine dining fatigue suffered by diners who aren’t really feeling another array of microscopic quail egg custards, or truffled whatever du jour (you know who you are). Additionally, Chef Murphy and crew seem to have a fully formed battle plan that includes delivery from Fifth to West End Avenue, from 55th to 66th, and 300 seats to work their magic.

Today the NY Times introduces us to the man behind some of the city’s most boring buildings.

Despite the warm winter weather, coat drives have not lost momentum this season in comparison to coat sales.

There are special, electrical treats tonight. In Brooklyn, Prospect Park in Lights will be illuminated, with a special ceremony at Grand Army Plaza at 6PM. If you can't make it there in time, take comfort in knowing that four of the park's entrances will be lit up through January 7.

There's a wonderful feature on department store Lord & Taylor by Toni Schlesinger in the Observer today. Earlier in the summer, it was announced that the Lord & Taylor chain had been sold to an investor group including the folks that backed the Time-Warner Center; though the deal isn't finalized yet, when Schlesinger wonders if condos could be built on top of the 424 Fifth Avenue location, lead investor Richard Baker says, "Yes, we could build on top. But we have made no decision what to do with the existing building." And he added, “I’m getting a lot of e-mails: ‘Don’t mess with Lord & Taylor!’”

Excellent - the New Yorker has updated its 2003 story on Bill Jones, the Whole Foods employee who became an institution at the Chelsea location for directing shoppers to available registers, providing comfort with his reassuring, "Number 5 is yours!" and a wonderful smile. When the Time Warner Center Whole Foods opened up at Columbus Circle, we suggested that they should clone him. But wouldn't you know, Bill Jones himself was working at the Columbus Circle location, greeting shoppers at the store's entrance. This is where an online-only New Yorker story picks up:

In February, 2004, a Whole Foods opened in the Time Warner Center, at Columbus Circle, and the company offered Jones a healthy raise and transferred him and his sonorous baritone uptown. The Columbus Circle store boasts almost twice as many checkout counters as in Chelsea, but Jones isn’t line-directing—the cashiers there take turns. Instead, five days a week, he stands at the base of the escalator that leads into the subterranean supermarket, to greet customers and offer directions. “When they come off that escalator, their mind is someplace else,” Jones says. “What I was doing in Chelsea was much more fun.”

- And if you were wondering why Bubba Sparxx, Rick Ross, and Dem Franchise Boyz were at the Time Warner Center today, it's because they got Gold/Platinum certification for their (duh!) - photographs from MGChan on Flickr

They say that history repeats itself, but this is re-dunk-u-lous. Moynihan Station, the long-planned Penn Station expansion into the Farley Post Office that is intended to make up for the destruction of the late, great, original Penn Station (above) hasn't even been built yet but developers are already vying to build a new Madison Square Garden on top of and around it. And yes, this would be MSG number 5 for those of you keeping count at home.

Although we didn't have much more than an iced coffee on our visit this time around, we wanted to share some pictures of the beautiful Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner Center. The pastries looked gorgeous, and we were quite tempted both by the macaroons (we were sent home with some after our visit to per se) and by something they were calling a nutter butter that appeared to be two large peanut butter cookies with peanut butter sandwiched between. Yum. We'll be back to taste next time we aren't headed to the gym. In addition to the takeout counter, there's a full-fledged cafe right nearby.

You know it is Friday afternoon when... you find yourself sitting at your desk completely captivated by Ironic Sans' "60 Seconds in the Life of" series. For instance, we just lost a good, oh, 60 seconds of life watching the below video of people getting on and off of the escalators at the Times Warner Center...

- And sometimes we wish this bus driver was our bus driver - unless we're the guy outside

- And the AP interviews the blogging taxi driver, Melissa Plaut, who is awesome

Well, one vacant restaurant at the Time Warner Center filled, one to go!

Ooh - the owners of an East 18th Street Manhattan brownstone are under fire for their wacky Christmas display. The Post puts the Krupnik-Castellanos display - "a skinny, bloody-bearded Santa holds a knife in his left hand and the severed head of a doll - blood gushing from its eye sockets in the other" - on its cover. The owners, Joel Krupnik and Mildred Castellanos, explain its their protest against Christmas's commercialization. Well, it's not Dyker Heights, that's for sure! But people in the neighborhood are pretty upset, with some neighbors chasing Castellanos and others imploring the police to do something (they can't). Plus the little kids are scared. Gothamist thinks this is kind of great, if grisly; we'd like Krupnik and Castellanos put up decorations year round... maybe a strung out Valentine's Cupid, depressed Leprauchan, drunken Easter Bunny... the possibilities are endless.

Hmm, this is quite a follow-up to a summer story about men cruising certain subway stations for sex: An undercover cop broke up what the Post delightedly calls a "group grope orgy" at the Jay Street-Borough Hall station in Brooklyn. The Post also enjoys mentioning that the "six men outside the men's room coming and going in two- to three-minute intervals" were doing this "right below NYC Transit headquarters." Words escape us. At least two men were charged with public lewdness and indecent exposure. Is Jay Street really "Gay" Street? When the Daily News wrote about it, the main hypothesis was that dingy Bronx stations were hotbeds for hookups. Maybe it's like we learned in our gay studies cinema class - once you look for homosexuality, you start seeing it everywhere! Hello, Time Warner Center bathrooms!