Food and coffee are focal points. The coffee bar, which at evening events can double as a real bar, serves four kinds of coffee and offers five different preparation methods.
The daily cafeteria menu is created by Facebook New York’s executive chef, Nate Eckhaus, who has worked at such city restaurants as Eleven Madison Park and Blue Smoke. At different stations, labels note the provenance of the fare — as in, organic red cabbage from a New Jersey farm or shaved organic fennel from Pennsylvania.
“A company like that would have influence wherever they go, between the local retail and local businesses,” said Jim Wenk, executive vice president at real estate service firm JLL. “They also have a lot of high-paying jobs.”
Name: Ben Bahud
Occupation: Owner, New York Ink, Magazine and Convenience Store
Location: Avenue A, between East Fourth Street and East Fifth Street
Time: 12:30 pm on Sunday, Nov. 10
I was born in Israel, but my background — I’m Palestinian. I’ve been here almost 25 years. I was 22 when I came over and I’m 47 now. I came by myself. I worked for somebody back home who had a restaurant here on St. Mark's Place. They liked my work and asked me if I wanted to come, and as a young man you always want to get out there and do better, you know?
I worked in Café Mogador on St. Mark's Place for almost six years and then I started my own restaurant. I worked in the kitchen as a cook. I was a chef. But, you know, I never really wanted to be a good chef. It was just something to start with, and then I opened my own restaurant. I opened a few stores like that.
I always wanted to do business. I love business. I always did investments here and there and there. Any small investment that I believe in I will put money into. Right now I just invested in a cleaning store on 6th Street. Any opportunity out there, if I feel it will be successful. So far, I haven't done any bad investments. The worst, I got my money back.
I work online now, day trading. I always had a broker and then one day I saw in the newspaper, I’m talking about like 20 years ago, an add for E-Trade where you could do it yourself. I just couldn’t believe it. And back then I couldn’t speak much English and said, ‘Oh wow, really?’ Because money with brokers, you don’t do very much. I started on my own. I was losing, losing, losing, and making, and losing. Then, you know, as you grow up, kids, college, you start becoming more serious. I trade the right stuff.
I love Avenue A. The storefront glass was broken when I first took the place. This is how bad this area was. [This spot] wasn’t my choice really. You look for an empty spot and it was a few blocks away from St. Mark's Place. I started as an investor. I never wanted to leave my job.
My landlord, rest in peace, was a German concentration [camp survivor]. He had a mark on his hand. I loved him. I worked with him many years. My partner worked as a waiter in the restaurant that I worked in. I asked my partner to go to talk to the landlord to get the place and he wouldn’t give it to him. Then I went to talk to him and he gave it to me. He probably thought, ‘This guy he came from another country, he’s planning to work hard.’ My landlord would always teach me stuff. Do this, do that, why don’t you do this? He was funny but at the same time he was a lawyer and a very good businessman. He passed away and now I work with his daughter. They’re very reasonable.
[Eventually] my friend had to go. He didn’t do very well. He was more artistic. He was nice. He had the place looking much better than it’s looking now, but money wise, no money. So I bought him out and I put somebody else in and then I came in. Then I tried it myself, it worked and I stayed here, and my wife came and worked with me another seven years. When I got in I could tell that I really liked it. I never thought that one day I would be selling cigarettes and magazines, but I did it. I liked it. It was alright.
The neighborhood definitely changed, big time. When I first took this store, I used to pay like $700 a month. And the people — the people were totally different. Especially the magazine business, it’s nothing like before. It’s nothing like 2008, not too long ago. People look at everything online now. People still buy here and there, but nothing like they used to. Newspapers especially. I used to sell like 60, 70 New York Times. Now I sell like 10, 15. There are still drinks, cigarettes. You end up making it. It’s not bad.
No offense to anybody but that’s the truth, you know. Before it was real bad. You even couldn’t walk on this street. The homeless and the rehab places are still here, so you still feel that 20 years ago thing, but it is to me, cool. It’s not bad or good, but it’s true. It’s mixed. Believe it or not, I get along more with people like this. They’re more human. Somebody you could talk to, you could laugh, we joke, they tell you their story. It’s not a hi-and-bye thing. I love them and I hope for the best for them. Hopefully they’ll heal.
Where I come from… I don’t know how to call it, but we’re street people too, so I get along with everybody. It was scary here but when people knew you and how you talk and stuff. I’ve just been blessed, thank God. No problems. I get along with everybody.
BLDG must petition the city for the variance in order to install the retail component and build out the oddly-shaped lot to full capacity, according to its application. BLDG officials hope to use an inclusionary housing bonus by paying for affordable units elsewhere rather than including them in the new project, the application says.
VICE announces the forthcoming VICE After Dark With John Lurie, to be live-streamed on VICE.com via YouTube, and hosted by musician, artist and cult icon John Lurie. The show marks VICE's first-ever live Internet radio show.
The mini-series will premiere tonight at 9 EST, with Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers as a special guest; with additional guest to be announced. Lurie will also provide his musings on a wide-range of subjects in the experimental 90-minute format, throughout which listeners will be invited to call-in and contribute to the show.
Listeners are invited to join the conversation with John Lurie at (347) 474-0415. The second episode will air on Nov. 19, with more episodes to follow.
For the last 12 years, Lurie has focused on painting. His works, which are viewable here, have been shown in galleries and museums around the world. Prior to painting, he produced, directed, and starred in the television series and cult hit "Fishing with John," now available on DVD through the Criterion Collection. Lurie also co-founded the jazz group the Lounge Lizards in 1978, and has composed the scores of more than 20 films. This is his first collaboration with VICE.
And evidently, slide removal increases a condo's value by $1.1 million because the unit just returned to market for $5.45 million. The one-time fun house sold to a software millionaire for $3.3 million in 2012...
We will be temporarily closed for renovation ... Hold on to your VIP cards WE ARE COMING BACK. Getting ready for a new look this fall!
Before starting Sweet Generation, I dedicated my career to Arts education. I first taught Art in 2004 at an alternative high school that was a last resort for teens — there I witnessed the dramatic and profound transformation that my students experienced when nothing else had worked for them. They gained confidence, developed a stronger sense of self, and assumed greater responsibility for their own success. I spent 8 years running Arts programs and then worked with the City of New York to expand and improve Arts programs in low-income communities.
The problem is the negative impact that funding cuts have on the quality and availability of the Arts to children. In fact, government funding for the arts has decreased by 31% since 1992! I noticed that organizations tried to bridge the gap through bake sales and community events, but the ones that needed it most could not make up the loss.
At the same time, I returned to my lifelong love of baking as a personal creative outlet and before I knew it, I was being hired to cater weddings, art openings and corporate parties. Demand grew to the point that I was baking all night, going to work in the morning, running out to do a delivery on my lunch break, and then starting all over again… and that’s when I came up with the idea for Sweet Generation, a bakery that removes barriers between children and art.
Sweet Generation not only funds Arts education for youth, but engages young people in the business itself. A portion of Sweet Generation’s sales are donated to Arts organizations, and we support their fundraising efforts through in-kind donations of our baked goods. We also started an internship program that teaches baking, work readiness, and entrepreneurship to teens and young adults from low-income communities.
Some of the organizations that Sweet Generation supports are: Theater for a New Audience, Arlington Center for the Arts, Children’s Museum of the Arts, Citizen Schools, Urban Arts Partnership, The After School Corporation (TASC), Precious Dreams Foundation and the Hip-Hop Re:Education Project.
BARA is a new French/Japanese tavern being opened in December by chef Ian Alvarez with cocktails and drinks from Kyle Storm.
The data experts at Yelp put together a series of maps that show the frattiest neighborhoods in 10 American cities. Yelp documented how often its users mentioned the word "frat" in reviews, and then plotted those locations on a heat map.
Nearly all of Manhattan's east side, with some areas in the surrounding boroughs, is covered with fratty heat spots likely due to New York's colleges and job opportunities that draw crowds of students and recent grads. The Lower East Side, Murray Hill, Midtown East, and the Upper East Side are popular fratty spots in particular; the bar and nightlife options, paired with slightly cheaper living costs than on the west side, appeal to recent graduates.
"The Sturgeon Queens" will air on Thirteen WNET New York Tues, Dec 2, 10 pm. On WLIW Dec. 3, 7:30pm. Rest of the country will have to wait til 2015, but lots of fest and theatrical screenings still coming...
Four generations of a Jewish immigrant family create Russ and Daughters, a Lower East Side lox and herring emporium that survives and thrives.
Produced to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the store, this documentary features an extensive interview with two of the original daughters for whom the store was named, now 100 and 92 years old, and interviews with prominent enthusiasts of the store including Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, chef Mario Batali, New Yorker writer Calvin Trillin, and 60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer.
Rather than a conventional narrator, the filmmakers bring together six colorful longtime fans of the store, in their 80s and 90s, who sit around a table of fish reading the script in the style of a passover Seder.
New York City, 1977 - It was a time when the city had fallen into decay, with too few jobs, money, police, schools, and social services. There was a city wide blackout with major looting, a serial killer on the loose, and the Bronx was burning. And yet out of the chaos emerged one of the most creative times any city has ever encountered.
The documentary uses groundbreaking animation to help tell the story, and features interviews with those who lived it, including Ed Koch, Geraldo Rivera, Jimmy Breslin, Gloria Gaynor, Afrika Bambaataa, Chris Stein (Blondie), Richard Hell, KRS-One, Grandmaster Caz, DJ Disco Wiz, Legs McNeil, Annie Sprinkle, Al Goldstein, Tommy Ramone, Jellybean Benitez, Lee Quinones, and many more.
NY77 THE COOLEST YEAR IN HELL Documentary from guranjeslitice on Vimeo.
Lucky Cheng’s was in the process of acquiring the space when the landlord pulled out at the last minute, [general manager Richard Huguenot] said.
“Basically, I don’t think the landlord wanted us over there,” he said.
Lucky Cheng's is now searching for a space big enough to host its new format, which will include circus acts, burlesque, contortionists, and aerialists along with its signature drag show.
Huguenot said the restaurant wants to remain in the Lower East Side, where it first opened in 1993. The ideal space would be about 4,000 square feet and able to accommodate about 150 people, he said.
