Results tagged “wholefoods”

The team behind the Yes Men movie are doing a great job getting audiences at Film Forum to participate in direct-action stunts after the screenings. On Wednesday night organizers persuaded most people in the audience to head over to a nearby Chase bank and write political stuff on the sidewalk with coal—because JP Morgan Chase underwrites Massey Energy, which does a lot of mountaintop removal coal mining. Anyway, last night they kicked it up a notch.

If the outer boroughs aren't willing to come into the city for their Whole Foods, then the city is making sure it finds a way to get Whole Foods into the outer boroughs. Yesterday the City Planning Commission approved a plan to encourage grocery stores with fresh produce, meats and dairy to expand into poorer areas by allowing them to sidestep existing zoning and development regulations. Supporters of the plan say it would encourage gentrification to continue its sweep across the boroughs.

The long-awaited Whole Foods at Columbus and 97th Street is opening on Thursday, but yesterday it opened its doors to the neighborhood—for $15 admission, which went to the Riverside Park Fund. MyUpperWest reports, "The store itself occupies two vast floors, outpacing the Columbus Circle in terms of size and selection." And Racked, which calls it a kid-friendly location, adds, "This store won't be selling as many different prepared foods as its downtown compatriots, but what it lacks in variety it makes up in kosherness—a nod to the demographics of the neighborhood," and found that the wine shop (Whole Foods' first in the city) does indeed sell three kinds of Ed Hardy wines. But can someone tell us if the UWS liberals were up in arms about Whole Foods CEO John Mackey's "anti-health care reform" op-ed (here's his unedited version)?

While the fate of a proposed Whole Foods in Gowanus Brooklyn remains an open question, a group of Upper East Siders are hankering for their piece of the Whole. NYC the Blog spotted this desperate entreaty on Lexington Ave between 86th and 87th Street. Did you know it's tough out there on the mean streets of the UES? It's true; the sign says so: "I'm sick of eating out! We need to take action! They have taken away many of our amenities, making it hard to live in this area! We should have a say in what stores are welcome in our neighborhood." The community urgently needs a tiny violin shop, for one thing. According to an article in Crain's last year, a Whole Foods on 57th and Second Ave is expected to be completed by 2012, so that's a start. Hang in there Upper East Siders!

Gowanus-area residents, there may be a Whole Foods in your future—maybe! After an earlier report that the supermarket was abandoning its plans for a Third Street location, the company sent a memo to Community Board 6. Via Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, Whole Foods manager Mark Mobley writes: "I am writing with just a quick update to let you know that recent reports of Whole Foods Market's demise in Brooklyn seem to have been greatly exaggerated! As you may have seen, the Brooklyn Paper published a story this week that inaccurately suggests we have definitively decided not to pursue the development of a store on our property at 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue and further that we are planning to sell the property. This is simply not true and we have sent a letter to the Brooklyn Paper editor clarifying our position and requesting a correction. You may recall that last Fall I sent you a memo explaining that Whole Foods Market had begun re-evaluating our plans for our property and that we would be working to identify potential development partners for a Brooklyn store. That is exactly what we have been doing in recent months and we are continuing these efforts in hopes of arriving at a potential development scenario that will enable us to finally come to Brooklyn..."

Back in 2006, Whole Foods held a groundbreaking ceremony for its first location in Brooklyn, in Gowanus on Third Street. Now, the high-end supermarket chain is abandoning those plans. Brooklyn the Borough reports that a Whole Foods spokesperson said, “At this juncture we do not have immediate plans to open a new store in Brooklyn but do hope to be there someday soon." The Brooklyn Paper also mentions that a spokesperson "suggested that the land would be sold." The demise of Whole Foods had been rumored for a while, given the polluted nature of the area, and there was opposition to the size of the proposed parking lot.

Out of 30 tuna fish sandwiches bound for the trash, 57-year-old Whole Foods employee Ralph Reese set aside one for himself, to be eaten at the end of his shift last November. But an unnamed supervisor at the Union Square supermarket (let's call him Inspector Javert) noticed the sandwich sitting on the deli counter and demanded to know why it wasn't on its way to a landfill. After Reese explained that he intended to eat it, Javert threw it out, and Reese was fired two days later, because, the company claims, he was essentially attempting to steal the sandwich; Whole Foods policy dictates that food cannot consumed by employees without being purchased.

In these desperate times, even basic necessities like groceries are becoming a luxury for more and more New Yorkers. Thankfully, there's a way to adapt to a reduced income without sacrificing your appetite—assuming you don't have any ethical qualms about theft. One local freelancer who often subsists on a very limited budget has for years eaten like a gourmand by stealing groceries from fine supermarkets. This person agreed to speak with us on the condition of anonymity, for obvious reasons, and shared some invaluable tips for hungry shoppers in search the best five finger discounts in town.

Mark Bello wants to teach you how to make a perfect pizza at home. With fresh dough and carefully selected local and Italian ingredients, Bello makes delectable thin-crust pies using his standard home oven in Chinatown, or, through his catering and cooking class company, Pizza a Casa in your home oven as well. He spreads the pizza gospel throughout the city teaching classes at the likes of Murray's and Astor Center and at private events.

An unlikely pairing of food sellers are in the news today for questions surrounding the quality of the products they're serving to New Yorkers. Local Whole Foods Markets joined in the voluntary recall of ground beef that was sold during the last two months by the high end grocer. Almost fifty people have fallen ill from potential E. coli contamination.

The most eco-friendly way to eat on Earth Day – and any day – is by growing your own food, eating it raw and composting the scraps. But for those of us who aren’t urban farmers, there are some good green options happening on or around April 22nd.

Last decade's decrepit property along a foully polluted industrial canal is just next decade's prime waterfront lots, ready for development by one the nation's premiere luxury homebuilders. The Gowanus Lounge uncovered a "scoping" document filed with the Department of City Housing by the Toll Brothers construction company. The early renderings portray a spread of mixed-use development between 2nd and Carroll Sts. and bounded by Bond St. and the Gowanus Canal itself.

The notorious Brooklyn House of Detention – immortalized by everyone from the Beastie Boys to Jonathan Lethem – has been closed since 2003, but plans to reopen the jail at twice its previous size are still moving forward. Last year many newcomers to the steadily gentrifying neighborhood decried plans to bring back the detention center, located at the intersection of Atlantic and Smith.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a serious trauma at East 16th St. and Moore Pl. in Brooklyn, a water search at Kosciusko Bridge in Brooklyn, and a bank robbery on Lexington Ave. in Manhattan,
• Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who popularized transcendentalism in the West with the support of The Beatles, died yesterday at an undetermined age.
• Postmodern reality at its best: Silvercup Studios, where "Gossip Girl," is filmed could actually become an educational institution.
• A Whole Foods location is opening in Gowanus, Brooklyn, after groundbreaking last spring and much consternation.
• Going against the grain of many city mayors who are declaring their municipalities a safe haven for illegal immigrants, Mayor Mark Boughton of Danbury, CT wants to align his police force with federal law enforcement to crack down on undocumented workers.
• Brooklyn's 4th Ave. has undergone a dramatic transformation over the last five years. The new-and-improved version seems equally unimpressive to some.
• Customers at the Grand Central Oyster Bar who want to order New England clam chowder will have to ask for "Giants Clam Chowder" this week.
• Big Brother is a salesman. He wants to follow you to sell you stuff.

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an unconscious baby on Ralph Ave. in Brooklyn, a construction accident on Bedford Ave. and Crown St. in Brooklyn, and a found grenade at 54th Ave. and Junction Blvd. in Queens.
• Dave Chappelle made an unannounced appearance at a comedy club, where Radar learned he "took the stage at approximately 12:30 a.m. and didn't leave until club management turned off the lights at 4:20 a.m."
• Busta Rhymes got three years probation, 10 days of community service, $1,250 in fines and will have to cover court costs in relation to assorted offenses related to DWI and assault.

Have you made a resolution for 2008 to eat better and healthier this year?

Not everyone got an over-hyped "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" when it hit Whole Foods last year, so the powers that be had to step in and put an end to the bag's nemesis: The Plastic Bag!

On a recent weekend, we saw Jacques Torres loading boxes of delectable treats from a van into his new store Jacques Torres Chocolate store at 285 Amsterdam Avenue, near 73rd Street, leaving us impressed at his commitment as a small business owner. Today, the chocolatier and the store are mentioned in a NY Times article that examines the emergence of Amsterdam Avenue as an option for retailers, who have traditionally been attracted to Broadway and Columbus Avenues for Upper West Side locations.

We checked in with some folks recently for a little end of '07 "exit interview" before we enter a new year. Thomas Onorato was the subject of a tell-all titled Confessions From the Velvet Rope last year -- but what has the self-proclaimed "door bitch" been doing in 2007?

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an unusual rescue on 68th St. and Central Park West in Manhattan, a confined space rescue at Lorimer and Meserole Sts. in Brooklyn, and a shooting on Carpenter Ave. and 221st St. in the Bronx.
• Columbia University is a-brimming with protests, against things like torture and apathy.
• A young man and his family are recovering from a freak accident involving a fallen tree branch in Riverside Park that put him in a coma.
• Billionaire Ron Perelman is suing his ex-wife Ellen Barkin and her brother for draining a company they founded together of a few hundred thousand dollars.
• The Long Island man with the "GETOSAMA" license plates filed a federal suit against the DMV to have them returned.
• Regulatory and zoning issues continue to hold up the construction of a Brooklyn Whole Foods grocery store, despite a groundbreaking that occurred a year ago.
• A 37-year veteran with the DOT was arrested after being accused of accepting bribes in relation to bridge construction.
• The application for a zoning change to the St. Saviour's property in Queens has apparently been withdrawn.

The holidays are upon us, which means that it's busy season, and you probably have little time to do the grocery shopping, let alone cook yourself a hot dinner. Gothamist opted for one solution at the Whole Foods Market on Bowery, the megalith of a grocery store that you either love for its fromagerie, Ciao Bella gelateria, and free wi-fi upstairs--or hate for being so enormous you find it impossible to find anything--which offers...

There must be something in the air -- temperatures dropping or the crisp winds of fall, perhaps -- but whatever it is, it has caused two of our favorite local artisanal picklers to launch tasty new products. First, Jon Orren at Wheelhouse has created the Ploughman's Pickle, his take on the Branston Pickle Relish that graces the traditional English Ploughman's lunch. His version contains the wort from Sixpoint Craft Ales' Brownstone Ale (wort is the...

The folks over at the all delicious, all the time site Serious Eats rounded up and presented a bumper crop of recipes from the newly released Mark Bittman cookbook last week, the 996-page How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food. The latest in Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything” series, this giant book is exactly what those omnibus, fried-shallot-and-butternut-squash glossy vegetarian porn books strategically posed on chain bookstore discount tables purport to...

Come spring, Whole Foods is going to have some stiff competition on their uptown turf when a new Italian gourmet supermarket opens their first U.S. location on 48th Street. The wildly successful enterprise is called Eataly; since the flagship store opened last January in Turin, 1.5 million customers have flocked there for gourmet food, wine, dining and an array of culinary classes. By bringing his big-tent concept to America, owner Oscar Farinetti hopes to “stupefy New Yorkers” with imported Italian cheese, fresh-baked bread, cured meats, packaged foods, beer and wine. (Vegetables will be from local sources and the beef will be sacrificed by Piedmontese cattle in New Jersey, but most everything else will be from the Boot.)

A lot of the filming for the upcoming Will Smith zombie movie I Am Legend took place in Washington Square Park and at the Brooklyn Bridge, but Union Square gets the star treatment on the I Am Legend website. Well, star treatment if you consider a rather bombed-out looking New York to be glamorous.

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!).

Yesterday, developer Sheldon Solow's ambitious plans to redefine the East River skyline were examined in the Sun, as he is presenting the plans to a Community Board today. Solow proposes to build six towers south of the United Nations along the East River, with over 5 million square feet of residential, commercial and retail space.