Tag Archives: NYC

Fun Fun Fun on the Lower East Side

Ludlow Street: Ain’t We Got 3(Fun)

This triptych is the result of a chance encounter with the newish sign outside of Fun Bar on Ludlow Street. Shot with a Canon point-and-shoot on the way up to Alphabet City.

While I lament the gentrification of the LES in a manner that makes Lou Reed seem positively chipper, this one sign is a welcome addition.


For the record, I had not been drinking at all when I shot these… unless you count monkey-picked green tea.

Creative Commons License
Fun Fun Fun by Jordan Matthew Yerman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Old Town Bar’s Urinals Turn 100

Old Town Bar on E. 18th St. Celebrates Urinal Birthday

Old Town Bar, est.1892, celebrated the 100th birthday of its classic Hinsdale urinals on November 1. Yes, you just realized that the bar existed for 18 years before it had urinals.

Aside from a public viewing (men and women, natch) and a written tribute, the Hinsdale urinals got a special letter from Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

I was in the middle of a NYC-NJ-PA-NYC-YVR mission, or I’d have been all over this.

Monday nights festivities, which are open to the public, will also include a urinals “viewing opportunity” for the ladies. Female customers “now and then” express interest in seeing the Hinsdales, according to Mr. Meagher.”What are you talking, Now and then?” sniffed Chip Sylvester, the Old Towns bartender. “All the time.”

WSJ

Were ever urinals so celebrated? Were ever urinals so adored?

Hidden NYC: Secret Sandwiches

Secret Sandwiches: NYC Rewards Locals

Are a New York City local? Is that right? Are you sure? In other words… do you know if your favorite eatery has hidden menu items? Culinary easter eggs, as it were?

Well, the secret sandwiches and hidden snacks are out there, waiting for you to discover and enjoy them. Thrillist outlines a few of the (no longer) secret menu items that lurk in NYC’s culinary corners and gastronomic alleyways.

Cabrito‘s pulled goat cemita  sounds especially intriguing…

Rubbed with ancho & guajillo chilies, dry roasted for 3hrs, then pulled w/ charred tomato & chili sauce, Cabrito’s goat is featured here on a sweet sesame Mexican bun with refried beans, iceberg lettuce, quesa de oaxaca, avocado, and home-grown papalo, a Central American herb that will leave you something to declare: that it’s delicious!

Secret Sandwiches | Thrillist.

NYC’s Underground Grilled Cheese Sandwich Scene

Grilled Cheese Dealer: Exploring the Mysterious World of Grilled Cheese Sandwich Delivery in New York City

When people buy drugs in New York City, they call a number (back in the day it was a pager), and a dealer would rock up with whatever you ordered. Or so I’m told.

One entrepreneur is taking that business model (and it’s clearly a viable one, as the practice persists) and applying it to a more legal mood-altering substance: the grilled cheese sandwich. His name is Ronnie, and he’s a grilled-cheese dealer.

Ronnie receives a text message from a client, and then delivers a $5 grilled cheese sandwich. That’s it.

How do you get Ronnie’s number? Through someone who has ordered from him before. This is the NYC illicit delivery scene: this is no Yellow Pages operation.

Ronnie’s business isn’t exactly legal, since he doesn’t have a restaurant license. That’s his next step, though.

RONNIE: Hey, how’s it going?

NEWNAM: You’re Ronnie? Do you have the stuff?

RONNIE: I do. I have the stuff right here for you.

NEWNAM: We didn’t even talk about price?

RONNIE: Price? This is a $5 sandwich.

via Marketplace From American Public Media

F-Train

NYC MTA Proposes the Death of the Fun Pass: Subway Changes

F-Train
Some empty seats that nobody peed on. Yet.

The MTA released its 2011-2014 financial plan (PDF), and it’s a shocker. Take that how you will. Basically, the Fun Pass is slated for execution, since hardly anybody uses it.

The biggest change would be the Monthly Pass: $99 will only get you 90 rides, or three rides per day. That’s the opposite of unlimited. Another option would be to hike the price by $5 to keep it unlimited.

The biggest O_o moment was reading that it costs the MTA 15¢ to collect each $1 in revenue. At that point, rider behavior ceases to be the issue, and the MTA must deal with how it does what it does.

While they’re at it, the MTA should look into fixing the stinky waterfall that pours through Canal Street Station every time it rains.

Poll: Will You Pay More To Keep Unlimited MetroCard? – Gothamist.

18th-Century Ship Found Beneath WTC Site

While excavating the World Trade Center site, workers found the skeleton of an 18th-century sailing ship.

Yes, I know you just thought of The Black Rock from Lost, and wondered if there was dynamite inside. There wasn’t. The ancient ship was found in an area of the WTC site that had not previously been dug up: had it been in either of the Twin Towers’ footprints, it would have been found already.

This wasn’t the first ancient ship found on dry land in Manhattan, strangely enough: another one was found beneath Water Street (duh) in 1982.

In the middle of tomorrow, a great ribbed ghost has emerged from a distant yesterday.

David Dunlap at the New York Times wrote that and then sat back with his arms crossed. He chose that line because “You got some Arzt on you” was already taken.

via 18th-Century Ship Found at Trade Center Site – City Room Blog – NYTimes.com.

AT&T Rips Off Christo and Jeanne-Claude

If you’ve seen the recent AT&T ad, you’ve probably noticed the remarkable resemblance of those orange-draped landmarks to the Christo and Jeanne-Claude installation The Gates, which stood in NYC’s Central Park.

You’re not alone. AT&T had to put a disclaimer on the ad stating that Christo and Jeanne-Claude were not involved(yeah, we know), but that really only draws attention to the obvious, doesn’t it? It’s impossible that nobody working in a professional capacity at an ad agency would not have heard of Christo and Jeanne-Claude

You be the judge: here’s the ad, and below that is a photo of The Gates, which I took in February 2005.

The Gates, New York, 2005
The Gates, NYC: February 2005

314 Fun Things to Do in New York City

You can almost hear the saxophone
Meanwhile, somewhere just off the Bowery...

Zoomdoggle has a vaguely 2002-sounding dot-com name, but offers hundreds of fun things to do in New York City. NYC is easily among the most exciting places in the world, but, if you’ve lived there for a few years, you can fall into a rut just as if you lived somewhere a bit less world-class .

Hopefully you don’t have to go through that, and this free .pdf download could be your ticket out of Rutsville, NY. There are some stellar suggestions on the list, such as a tour of the Steinway piano factory, Pintchik Oracle (wish I knew about that!) and Open House New York (which is amazing).

Either way, don’t forget to look up like a tourist from time to time. If nothing else, you’ll probably wind up with rosier cheeks, even in the off-season. How fun is that?

I ended up cutting my own hair for years in order to save precious pocket change with which to enjoy the tiny pockets of awesome that can be found the city. There was a shop in the East Village (whose address I can’t remember) that had a tiny art vending machine. Little handmade objects for two bucks. The other use for Sacajawea dollars besides the subway ticket machines.

(found via boingboing)