W42ST Magazine Issue 4 - Great Things to do in Hell's Kitchen

w42st

ISSUE 04 MARCH

welcome to

W42ST Top of the mornin’ to ya. Grab a Guinness, kiss the Blarney stone and

tickle a shamrock. This month we’re celebrating St Patrick’s Day (p50) and the start of spring. So don’t miss out on the gazillions of things you can do in Hell’s Kitchen (p32), from visiting a new restaurant (p41) to trying a 99¢ pizza (p44) – we dare you! – to working out under a disco ball (p70) and so much more, there just wasn’t room to fit it in here THE TEAM THAT BROUGHT YOU W42ST PUBLISHER PHIL O’BRIEN phil@w42st.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF SIMON KIRRANE simon@w42st.com

EDITOR RUTH WALKER ruth@w42st.com

(646) 535-4407

(646) 535-1159

(646) 847-9645

OPERATIONS MANAGER CAROLINA PAULINO (646) 828-7813

SENIOR ART EDITOR LEE CAPLE

NEW BUSINESS DIRECTOR JEREMY KAPLAN jeremy@w42st.com

PHOTOGRAPHER RICKY CAMP

PHOTOGRAPHER JAIME TORLINCASI

PHOTOGRAPHER SEAN TURI

(646) 820-2753

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR HILLARY REEVES

CONTRIBUTOR CIERA COYAN

CONTRIBUTOR DR TAMA LANE

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR SANDRA MANGAN sandra@w42st.com

PHOTOGRAPHER ORTAL MIZRAHI

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used without written permission of the publisher ©2015. Please note: Every effort has been made to avoid errors, misspellings, and omissions in this publication. However, if you spot one please accept our sincere apologies.

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IMAGE: PHIL O’BRIEN

FROM THE BRIGHT LIGHTS OF FASHION WEEK ...

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IMAGE: PHIL O’BRIEN

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TO THE PROMISE OF CHINESE NEW YEAR ...

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IMAGE: GARY HERSCHORN

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... A NEW SEASON IS DAWNING ON HELL’S KITCHEN

CONTENTS March

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COMMUNITY 13 WAY TO INDIEGOGO

Manhattan Boathouse raises $30,000 after its floating dock is mysteriously stolen.

14 IMPORTANT DATE

A Hell’s Kitchen firefighter has designed a commemorative badge for FDNY’s 150th anniversary.

15 NOT BROKEN

How Jessica Chen danced her way to health after a near-fatal car crash.

16 OUT & ABOUT

Spotting the great, gorgeous and glamorous, out in force at Sean Kelly gallery openings and New York Fashion Week.

19 MY HELL’S KITCHEN

Contortionist Jonathan Nosan recalls the twists and turns the neighborhood has taken – and reveals the best place for cookies with his beagle, Clover.

WHAT’S ON 20 WHAT’S ON

Never want for an activity again with our calendar list of local events and activities.

22 THE MAN WHO SAVED HELL’S KITCHEN

Meet Fred Papert the man who revolutionized the advertising world before cleaning up our streets

24 MUSIC & THEATER Long-running shows and new openings in Hell’s Kitchen.

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55 12

62 50 28

28 SQUATTERS’ RIGHTS

We speak to Artistic Director William Carden about Ensemble Studio Theatre’s working methods, its mission to deliver new exciting work and its upcoming schedule.

MAIN FEATURE

31 GREAT THINGS TO DO IN HELL’S KITCHEN We look at just a few of the things that you can get up to in the neighborhood this March. Spring is here and it’s time to get out and about!

36 MOST WANTED

We’re going green this month. Well, it IS St Patrick’s Day. And now’s not the time to come over all shy and retiring.

FOOD & DRINK

62 OLD MEETS NEW

We sample bison borscht – and are betting you’ll want to too; visit the latest restaurants to open, and pick up a bargain in New York Restaurant Week. Dinner for $25? It’d be rude not to.

64 FRONT ROW FIXTURE

41 HELL’S PANTRY NEWS

43 MIX & MATCHA

Have you tasted the latest superfood taking New York by storm? If not, why not?

We talk to the interior designer behind the ‘monochrome paparazzi suite’ – created in collaboration with legendary photographer Ron Galella – in the Row hotel, and find out how you can recreate the look in your own home.

44 CHEAP EATS

66 STEM SELLS

46 MIDDLE MEN

HEALTH & BEAUTY

We put the neighborhood’s 99¢ pizzas to the test – you might be surprised at how good some of them taste.

Sandwich experts Jonah Levy and William Widmaier take us on a tour of the best places to butter up.

48 TOP CLASS

Student chefs create prize-winning dishes and they’ve shared their recipes with us.

50 St PATRICK’S IN HELL’S KITCHEN

Map out where you’ll be going for this year’s celebration.

53 PINKY AND PERKY

Jeremy Kaplan sings the praises of rosé wine.

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54 MAD FOR IT

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Inside the 53rd and 8th development, inspired by the area’s artistic community.

Bring a touch of spring to your interiors with these floral beauties that don’t even need watering!

68 CROWNING GLORY

Liana Zetterholm of David Ryan salon takes us step-by-step through daytime curls to catwalkready hair.

70 FITNESS

Where Hell’s Kitchen’s misfits, weirdos and gymphobes go to work out – man, does Mark Fisher make serious fitness serious fun.

73 NEW BEGINNINGS

Dr Tama Lane sees spring as a time of renewal - and taking that long, hard look in the mirror isn’t as hard as you might think.

Ciera Coyan gets a touch of March madness – but only for the beers that make her think of spring.

PETS

55 STAFF SURVEY

More gems of wisdom spilt from the lips of Hell’s Kitchen pooches.

Are you one of Bettibar’s kooky customers? If so, Megan Splain is talking about you!

56 GALLERY

Anyone with an eye for a picture and a half-decent cameraphone is in with a shot at getting their work in our mag. Hashtag your pics #W42ST, and we’ll do the rest.

74 WAGGING TALES 76 CREATURE COMFORTS

Cats and dogs have never had it so good – here’s our gift guide for your furry friends.

78 DIRECTORY

PROPERTY

Local businesses that have signed up to the #W42ST sticker get listed here... if you want to sign up too, email news@w42st.com

61 PROPERTY NEWS

82 PHOTO FINISH

A loft development above a working post office, a television team looking for home-owners with a project ... and do you live near a Starbucks?

Then we have good news for you.

When community gardening made a real difference to Hell’s Kitchen’s children.

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COMMUNITY

What’s up, dock?

Manhattan Community Boathouse has raised $30,000 to ensure the future of its free kayaking sessions – after someone stole the jetty!

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ho would steal a floating dock?

Why? And, perhaps most intriguingly, how?

More than 20,000 people every summer enjoy free kayaking sessions at Manhattan Community Boathouse, on Pier 96. Some are regulars – coming almost every day for a fix. “They can be groups of friends, families, first dates and solo paddlers. For most of them, it is their first experience on a boat and on the Hudson River,” says Kaitlin Petersen, president.

“Our program closed Columbus Day weekend. We returned to the boathouse two weeks later to do some routine maintenance and discovered that the dock was gone.

“We filed a report with the NYPD, and both the US Coast Guard and the US Army Corps of Engineers helped us search up and down the river for the missing dock. Unfortunately, it was never found and no leads have come in.

We have no idea who took the dock or why they took it.”

Without the dock, the boathouse was sunk and the summer-long free kayaking experience will no longer be a part of the Hudson landscape. The group launched a crowd funding campaign to raise $30,000, to enable them to buy a bigger, better dock. And, just as W42ST went to

Above: All summer, visitors enjoy free kayaking on the Hudson.

press, the crowd funding campaign had reached its ambitious target.

But Kaitlin says the fund raising won’t end there. “Our Indiegogo page will remain open, and all the funds we raise will support our free public kayaking program. We can’t wait to celebrate, and are looking forward – now, more than ever – to a terrific 2015 paddling season.”

Around the world … by bike and by boat Prepare to welcome the awesome Sarah Outen to Hell’s Kitchen this month. The adventurer has spent almost four years traversing the globe using only human power, raising money and challenging others to look beyond their own horizons.

Leaving London Sarah kayaked, cycled and rowed to Tokyo and then Alaska.

Next she saddled up and cycled across North America to the east coast.

“This work visualizes the various sound waves that pervade the city”

At the group’s two sites – on Pier 96, where the dock was stolen from, and 72nd Street – there are also donation boxes. “Many people who have enjoyed their time on the water make a contribution. Those funds are how we keep the program going: pay rent and insurance, as well as maintain or replace equipment.

“There are a lot of big projects we’d love to have the funds to tackle, like expanding our fleet of boats so we can accommodate more paddlers.

“This program is incredibly special,” she says. “It combines some of the very best things – being outside, being close to the water, connecting with others, doing good – into a fun, active package.

I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to help people into kayaks all summer long.

Basically, I spend each weekend making people happy, showing them a side of their city they’ve never experienced.

“Also, public boathouses like ours are about more than kayaking. We live in a city surrounded by water, but most people don’t ever experience the harbor beyond looking at it. Public access points expose people to the waterfront, often for the first time. I always tell people the river belongs to them, ‘so get out there and take advantage of it’.” manhattancommunityboathouse.org

Now, on the home stretch, she’s due to make a triumphant entrance to Hell’s Kitchen on March 10, before spending the month in the city.

She’ll then head to Cape Cod and row all the way back to London across the Atlantic.

She has met physical, emotional and financial challenges along the way – she had to be rescued from the Pacific during Typhoon Mawar – but continues to inspire everyone she meets.

To follow Sarah’s progress, and to contribute to her fundraising, see www.sarahouten.com.

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COMMUNITY

Badge of honor

A Hell’s Kitchen firefighter has designed a patch that recalls 150 years of the NYFD

AUCTION PACKED

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he ghost of the Twin Towers stands alongside their contemporary replacement in a dramatic commemoration of New York Fire Department’s 150 years of service to the city.

The image appears on a memorial patch designed by veteran firefighter Richard Miranda, of Rescue Company 1, which is itself celebrating 100 years in Hell’s Kitchen. The design looks to the future as much as to the past – with the new World Trade Center overshadowed by the annual Tribute in Light, which remembers 9/11 so poignantly.

“The first thing I had to do was the skyline,” said Richard, who won a competition to design the patch. “Let’s put the Freedom Tower in there. But you have to remember the old too,” he added.

“How do I get the Twin Towers in there without their being so prominent? Then it struck me: ‘Oh, my God, it’s so simple.

I love how every September 11 we do the towers of light. I’ll put them in a slightly paler shade of blue to show they’re still there.’”

The Statue of Liberty, he said, “represented that we’re the Fire Department of New York, the Fire

Local Hero

Above: The home of Rescue Company 1, on W43rd st.

IMAGE: DAVE MACK

It made headlines when it closed in October. But now, the 60-year institution that is Smith’s has been given a new lease of life, thanks to actress Hayden Panettiere’s father, Skip.

He plans to reopen the bar on 8th ave this month, and regulars should notice

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Department of America and the Fire Department of the world”.

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Richard was on a day off. But, hearing the news on the radio, he and fellow firefighters commandeered a bus and spent the day searching through the wreckage for survivors.

The design won’t replace firefighters’ currently badges, but is intended as a collector’s item. All proceeds will go to the FDNY Foundation, which provides fire safety and cardiopulmonary resuscitation programs for the public.

This month 43rd Street Kids Preschool is auctioning a number of what they call “fun and unique items” to raise money for the organization.

Providing care for children as young as nine months up to age four, the Manhattan Plaza-based family cooperative school has been providing daycare in the area for more than 35 years Board member Aleta LaFargue said: “My mother was one of the founding members and now my son, who is 21 months, is attending his first year and we are loving it.

“The beauty of the school is they offer financial aid based on need and welcome all different types of families. But I have become aware that the school was for the first time very under-enrolled, which is threatening the future of the school financially.

“With all the new families moving in, we would like to let them know about this hidden gem.”

To help, see http://bit.ly/ w43stpreschoolauction

little has changed. Panettiere said he wanted people to “have back that home that they thought they had lost”.

“First, when I took it over, the idea was to change it,” added the retired New York firefighter.

Then, when there was such an outcry over its closure, he said: “Why don’t we just keep it the same, so everything in New York doesn’t get ruined.”

COMMUNITY

CRASH AND TURN

A near-fatal car accident gave dancer Jessica Chen a second chance at life – and a new performance celebrates her remarkable story of survival

HEADSHOT IMAGE: VANESSA GONZALEZ-BUNSTER

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ugust 2012, and Jessica Chen was driving from the wedding of a friend in California.

To this day, she doesn’t remember what happened next – but she woke up from a coma 13 days later with injuries so severe her loved ones feared she may not survive.

The car she was traveling – a Mini convertible, top down – had been driving along the winding roads of vineyard country when it hit a stretch limo coming towards it in the wrong lane. Swerving, the Mini flipped over three times before finally landing upside down. Jessica was left with broken bones, open wounds and major head trauma. She spent eight hours in brain surgery immediately following the accident.

“The doctors told me I would probably not be able return to dancing professionally,” she says. “For them, my injuries were too severe and too many to get back to the physical shape I was in.

“I do remember hearing them and I don’t even remember being mad or upset. I nodded, told them I understood and said I was just grateful to be alive.

And in reality, I just didn’t believe them.

I knew that I was going to dance again, and I just told myself that the doctors didn’t know any better. They didn’t know who I was and what I was capable of.”

For the 30-year-old, who had been living in Hell’s Kitchen since 2006, getting back to her New York home was fundamental to her recovery.

“My boyfriend urged me to come back to NYC as soon as I got the OK from my doctors. He knew it would be good for me to spend time around my community and the life I built here. He was right.

“When I walked through the front door of my apartment, I let out a huge exhale because I truly felt like I was home.

My community here was so important to me, to give me the inspiration and support to fully recover.”

Two and a half years later, she has created Never Was Broken: a dance through

Above: Jessica Chen created Never Was Broken as she recovered from her injuries

“I just didn’t believe the doctors. I knew I was going to dance again. They didn’t know who I was and what I was capable of.” life and death and life, to celebrate what she describes as her “second chance”.

“This show examines the concepts of living, letting go of and recreating your life,” says Jessica. “Everyone has their own reality. Rules they live by. Boundaries they create and ones they break. Each journey is unique. Everyone is working

through their own things. Everyone has a gift to share with the world. But it takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before, to test your limits, to break through barriers.

“I’ve learned to have faith in my ability to turn challenges into victories. It is clear that a slight shift of perspective can change your world, because the idea of ‘being broken’ is only one way of looking at a situation or a person.

“I hope this performance will ignite emotions and inspire conversations well beyond the end of the show. I want people to take a chance on themselves, to see the beauty in their lives and find gratitude in all the magic they already possess.”

Never was Broken: a dance through life and death and life is at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, 26 and 27 March www.jchenproject.com

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COMMUNITY

OUT & ABOUT

Two new art exhibitions draw the bold and the beautiful to Hell’s Kitchen

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he great, the glam and the influential braved the snow and freezing temperatures to mark two exhibition openings at Tenth Avenue’s Sean Kelly gallery. Alec Soth’s Songbook focused on community life across the United States in a series of 25 evocative black and white photographs.

Hugo McCloud’s Palindrome was in complete contrast. The Brooklyn-based artist combines industrial materials like tar and aluminum with traditional woodblock printing techniques to create large-scale, abstract pieces.

Clockwise from above: Gus Soth, Alec Soth, Sean Kelly and the writer Colm Toibin; Loco Dawtson, Bree Zy and Najah Wakil; L Be and Max Steiner; Sophia Lane, Irene McCloud and Nate McCloud; Hugo McCloud, Penny Hunt and Mary Sissel; two art enthusiasts contemplate Alec Soth’s work; Henry the dog, Kevin Moore, Seul Cheong Kwon and Suen Adolph; Hugo McCloud and Thelma Golden, curator of The Studio Museum, Harlem

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COMMUNITY #NYFW

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ashion editors, photographers, bloggers, style watchers... all braved the cold in layers, leather and fur for the Thakoon New York Fashion Week show at Stage 37, W37 st. Next time you complain about the plunging temperatures, take your lead from this lot.

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COMMUNITY

My Hell’s Kitchen Jonathan Nosan bends over backwards to big up the area

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ontortionist Jonathan Nosan’s work has taken him all over the world, including an extended stretch in Japan. Next stop is Nashville, where he’s shooting an ‘extreme flexibility’ training program called Contorture (www.contorture.org).

Imagine yoga, circus and Crossfit having a fitness baby, he says, making you cry until you laugh.

IMAGES: ELLIOT FRANKS

What has your experience of Hell’s Kitchen been over the years?

The mom and pop shops and deep character of the neighborhood drew me up from West Chelsea, and thankfully some have persevered. I like that HK has just enough grime and shine to feel like Sesame Street with Kiehl’s. The buzz of the industry is good – being able to grumble and create with my stalwarts on the corner while seeing the bright eyes bounce in and out of Broadway Dance and Rosie’s.

What do you eat in the area?

One of the things I love most about New York is the ability to travel and taste the world within a few blocks. Totto Ramen takes me right back to the three years I lived in Kyoto. When I just want to smell Japan, I walk into the Slurp Shop in Gotham West Market in the morning when Ivan Ramen is brewing his dashi hits the spot.

If I’ve been abroad for a few months I almost always hit 5 Napkins for a burger and fry fix right after landing.

One of the best secret dishes in Hell’s Kitchen is the Fish Soup at Tulcingo – massive amounts of fish floating in a thick, red broth of spicy depths makes this Pisces happy.

I’m thrilled Fika opened next to Yotel – they have great space, coffee and the most amazing salmon wrap that takes me right back to the clean flavors of Denmark.

And, of course, the farmers’ stalls on

compact spot to duck into a quiet glass of red.

What’s your favorite place locally?

Hands down (on a wheel), Mud Sweat and Tears pottery studio. I started potting there five years ago and ceramics has since become a major part of my life. Walks with Clover fuel my idea factory and we generally find ourselves at the end of Pier 84, best on a snowy blizzard day with nobody in sight and the Hudson frozen over in floating ice sheets. And I always look forward to Hell’s Kitchen Park for its fireflies in the late fall dusk and cherry blossoms falling in the spring.

What one thing do you think could improve Hell’s Kitchen?

Whole Foods.

“I like that HK has just enough grime and shine to feel like Sesame Street with Kiehl’s.”

57 & 9th Saturday and Wednesday, Stiles and Westerly Market keep the contortion machine running.

What local bars or cafes would you recommend?

For coffee I love Schmackary’s. Sitting on a stool out front with the NY Times, Clover, my dog, and a black coffee, handed over without needing to ask is one of the things I long for most when performing away from home.

If I’m doing some writing, Blue Bottle in the Gotham West Market is ideal until the lunch crowd arrives.

Briciola wine bar on 51st is the perfect

How do you think the neighborhood compares to other areas of Manhattan?

Despite massive gentrification and rent increases causing the demise of some loves (RIP Kyotofu), the neighborhood still maintains some of the quirky qualities which attracted me initially.

Almost no other neighborhood has a fishmonger like Seabreeze, with sweetest gruff service making it feel like my big brothers are taking care of me; or the International Grocery next door for every grain, spice, olive or home-made Mediterranean salad.

Nothing compares to our centrality and convenience to get anywhere in a moment – whether Citibike, subway or Vespa.

Who do you admire in the neighborhood?

Luisa and Nicki at DOMUS – I can always count on them for a gorgeously wrapped, unique gift. Finally, great admiration goes to photographer Eric Lee Bowman following in his grandfather’s steps and creating a new art form with old technique.

BIOGRAPHY Jonathan Nosan settled into W45 st 14 years ago. His travels range from the Trans Siberian Railway to the countless countries his performances have taken him to, most recently with the Spiegeltent show Limbo. Offstage he’s either making ceramics (recently shown at London’s Royal Academy of Art) or walking Clover the Beagle.

Jonathan’s Hell’s Kitchen BARS Briciola 370 W51st - 8th/9th COFFEE SHOPS Schmackary’s 362 W45th st - 8th/9th Blue Bottle 600 11th ave 44th/45th RESTAURANTS Totto Ramen 464 W51 st - 9th/10th Ivan Ramen’s Slurp Shop 600 11th ave 44th/45th 5 Napkin Burger 630 9th ave - 44th/45th Tulcingo 665 10th ave 46th/47th Fika 566 10th ave 41st/42nd

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what’s on in

10 March Small Mouth Sounds

MARCH

Every day’s a playday with our calendar guide to one-off events and ongoing offers around Hell’s Kitchen

3-15 March Whoopee The Lion Theatre, until 15 March

Featuring classics like My Baby Just Cares For Me and Makin’ Whoopee, this musical comedy hits all the right notes.

We challenge you not to sing along. www.theatrerow.org

5 March The Armory Show Piers 92 and 94, until 8 March

Now an institution in the US art calendar, this is an unmissable opportunity to see some of the most important works of the 20th and 21st centuries. www.thearmoryshow.com

8-10 March IBS Javits

The country’s top beauty professionals gather under one roof to network and find out about the latest developments in the industry. www.ibsnewyork.com

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1 March Bad Dancing Finals Roy Arias Studios

The city’s most dodgy dancers shake their groove thangs in a demonstration of how NOT to do it. Suddenly your own moves will look positively smooth. www.royariasstudios.com

Ars Nova, until 11 April Expect plenty of awkward humor and big ‘meaning of life’ questions in this performance about six strangers, escaping from their stressful city lives, who meet on a silent retreat. www.arsnovanyc.com

5 March Volta NY Pier 90, until 9 March

This exciting art fair has just moved to a new home at Pier 90. Now a neighbor of The Armory Show, it cements the area’s reputation as a creative hot spot. www.ny.voltashow.com

7 March Quiet Clubbing Charley O’s

You’ll never need to shout over too-loud music in a club again. Rent headphones and dance to a choice of tunes that are as loud or as mellow as you like. www.ironbarnyc.com

9 March Small Plates, Big Hearts Food and Finance High School

Hosted by chef Marc Murphy, this fundraiser is a taster’s dream with chefs’ tables and samples of everything from chocolate to beer – you’re going, right? www.biddingforgood.com/foodandfinance

7 March Salute to Texas Independence Day

8 March Kids’ Commercial Casting Experience

Terminal 5

Actors Connection

12 March Double Down

13 and 27 March Lady Gaga #ARTBIRTH

Pat Green, the Josh Abbott Band and Hudson Moore headline. Flash a Texan tattoo and your first drink is on the house. www.terminal5nyc.com

Bar Nine

This swing band reckon they’re New York’s best-kept secret, with a modern twist to everything from classic Sinatra to hits from the 1980s and 1990s. www.doubledownswing.com

Seven to 17-year-olds are put through their paces on camera. No experience necessary – just a willingness to have fun. www.actorsconnection.com

Laurie Beechman Theatre

As outrageous as Gaga herself, Athena Reich plays the pop star, about to give birth in front of her fans. We’re promised dancing, singing and ‘artbirth’. www.TheArtbirthShow.com

15 March Irish extravaganza

14 March Roland Guerrero

14 March Cosmic Colors

Columbus Library

Intrepid Museum

Irish Arts Center

17 March St Patrick’s Day

19 March Perfume Genius

20 March First day of spring

21 March Fat B*tch!

US-wide

Laurie Beechman Theatre

26 March Clinton the Musical

24 March Girls’ Night Out: tapas party

An opportunity to hear this accomplished musician who has played with diverse greats from Dizzy Gillespie and Wynton Marsalis to Andre 3000 of Outkast. www.nypl.org

US-wide

Marking the festival of Ireland’s patron saint, there is no better excuse to sink a Guinness and indulge in some serious craic. See our feature on pages 50 for ideas on what to do in the area.

How do photographs of outer space look so colorful? Now’s your chance to find out. Kids can even and paint their own versions of Hubble’s far-out images. www.intrepidmuseum.org

Stage 48

See Seattle’s Mike Hadreas before he hits major league stardom. His mix of theatrical art-pop and electronica signals him out for great things. www.stage48.com

Learn to play the tin-whistle, get your face painted – as a leprechaun? – and explore your untapped tap-dancing skills in this annual celebration of all things Irish. www.irishartscenter.org

The vernal equinox signals longer days, warmer temperatures and the rebirth of nature. That should be enough to put a spring in your step – see page 31 for tips on getting out of hibernation.

New World Stages, until 4 April US politics as you’ve never seen them before, exploring the two very different personalities of President William Jefferson Clinton. www.newworldstages.com

16 March Shakespeare Talks The Pearl Theatre

Ben Crystal romps through the joys of Original Pronunciation – speaking Shakespeare’s words in the earthy accent of the time they were written. www.pearltheatre.org

Erica Watson explorse society’s obsession with weight, race and class and how black women’s bodies are subjected to both admiration and ridicule. www.westbankcafe.com

Sur La Table

Shrimps, tortilla and piquillo peppers are on the menu in this hands-on class designed for groups of girls. www.surlatable.com

#ArtHappeningNYC An inspiring place, full of V.I.P. Art – Visual, Interactive, and Performance Art. Join artists Bronwyn Rucker and Mischa Kischkum for interactive art exhibits and audience participation events March 5-30.

Open daily from 10:00 a.m.

Gallery visits are free, and events are free with expected donation.

JMC Gallery, 674 9th Ave, 2nd Floor (next to Amy’s Bread Midtown). arthappeningnyc.com

27 March Next W42ST out All around Hell’s Kitchen

The April edition, packed with family fun ideas, hits Hell’s Kitchen today.

Got any news or want your event featured? Email us at news@w42st.com www.facebook.com/w42st

31 March Art of the Mannequin Museum of Arts and Design

All mannequins are not created equal, as this exhibition about Ralph Pucci – who has worked with Diane von Furstenberg, Anna Sui and Christy Turlington – reveals. www.madmuseum.org

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COMMUNITY

THE MAN WHO SAVED

HELL’S KITCHEN The inspiration for Mad Men, Fred Papert recalls his revolutionary career and how, with Jackie Kennedy, he rescued the neighborhood

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COMMUNITY

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ew of the many creative and talented people who live in our neighborhood would credit their presence here on a real-life Don Draper; a charismatic ad man who cleaned up the streets and made the area habitable. But that’s exactly what happened when Fred Papert left behind his glittering Madison Avenue career to devote his life to saving Manhattan from itself.

Fred who, at “pushing 90”, still works out of his office on W42nd st, recalled for us the agency that became the inspiration for Mad Men and the role he played getting the drugs and prostitutes off the mean streets of Hell’s Kitchen.

ADLAND

At the turn of the 1960s, Fred Papert was an ad man on a hunt and his prey was talent. He was revamping his agency and the people he eventually bagged were the finest available: Julian Koenig and George Lois.

Koenig, who died last year, was one of the greatest copywriters who’s ever lived, his Think Small advert for Volkswagen transformed the industry and in 1999 was voted the No 1 campaign of all time

by Advertising Age. Meanwhile, Lois generated some of the most stunning adverts ever and 32 of the covers he created for Esquire magazine are on the wall in MoMA. Together, the three set up an agency: Papert Koenig Lois (PKL) and revolutionized the industry. No one had previously formed an agency with an art director as a partner but Papert’s respect for creative talent went further and, when I asked him what made PKL so successful, he was forthright in his answer: “We were successful because of one shift in thinking. The only people in the agency who could decide what campaign was going to be shown to the client were the art director or the copywriter. The account executives could not affect those decisions.”

With creativity at the heart of their strategy, PKL made some of the 1960s’ best advertisements. After forming in 1960 it became the first agency since 1929 to go public and by 1967 it had become the 17th largest agency in the US, with billings of $40 million Fred did explain, however, that sometimes their successes were down to dumb luck: “I set out one Saturday and

“We cared about 42nd. We believed that visitors to New York think that this street is one of the great things about New York.” there’d been a snow storm the day before so there were no cars out so I decided to pull my girls down the street on their sled to the office, partly because it would be fun but mainly because I’d left my gloves there. Then, when I got to the office, I got a call from Xerox asking did we want to pitch for their business? Of course I said yes. Then later, after we’d won the business and I was talking to this guy from Xerox, he said, ‘You know, we were so impressed that, on one of the worst days for travelling in the city, you were there working away in your office.’ I never corrected him.” Fred chuckles.

A MAN WITH A PLAN

After transforming the advertising industry, Fred then reinvented himself as a man of causes. While working with The Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) he teamed up with former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to save Grand Central Terminal, which was under threat of having a huge office block built over its south side, effectively obliterating it.

Their success in securing the iconic building’s landmark status in turn passed the New York City Landmarks Law, which set a precedent nationally for historic preservation. At the same time he had set up the non-profit 42nd Street Development Corporation.

Fred, Jackie and the 42nd Street Development Corp then looked westward, to our very own patch, and an ambitious plan that was 25 years in the making. When I asked Fred where his idea to transform 42nd st came from he was unequivocal: it came from Jackie.

“Onassis said that her mother had said, ‘You may never go alone to the west end of West 42nd Street.’ When she told me that quote, I said, ‘My mother said exactly the same!’”

What Fred managed to do was close down the strip joints and massage parlors and transform the area into theater use, what we know now as Theatre Row, with the wonderful Chez Josephine and Playwrights Horizons.

That combined with the rescue in the 1970s of Manhattan Plaza, which was falling into disuse before being given over as the largest performing artists’ housing complex in America.

They made a once desolate, dangerous part of New York a great and vibrant area. As Fred concluded: “We cared about 42nd. We believed that visitors to New York think that this street is one of the great things about New York and for it to look like a bum at the west end of the street was just unacceptable. And we just yakked and yakked this to everybody and then we walked along and found out that we could buy the whole street because in 1976 you couldn’t get people to drive by, let alone develop anything.

“Our goal was to make the city’s once most famous street worth the reputation it had by making it nice, and the best way we knew how was to bring art. We could buy all the buildings on the south side of 9th avenue for almost nothing. The guys who owned it were making little to nothing and they were trying to get out of the prostitute business. Suddenly the neighborhood changed. It went from low class to very high class.”

When I ask Fred if he’s pleased with the way Theatre Row turned out. He’s pretty direct: “Oh God! It’s been a triumph! Theatre Row was an exceptional thing. That would be my proudest accomplishment.”

Far left: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Fred Papert outside Playwrights Horizons. Left: One of PKL’s adverts for Wolfschmidt’s vodka.

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MUSIC & THEATER

A DATE WITH DESTINY A very modern tale of online romance leads Playwrights Horizons into unexpected territory

P

CHOICE

laywrights Horizons never disappoints, so we can’t wait for their latest. Iowa opens on March 20 at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater with a two-month run. The world premiere offers a truly American tale, a fish-out-of-water story straight from the heartland. We expect a nuanced, challenging play that will leave us thinking.

“Nothing can prepare them for what they’ll find. A perfect companion?

A Norman Bates dressed in his mother’s clothes?

A completely made-up character created by a catfisher? Or, maybe something else altogether …”

But our less refined selves can’t help wonder if Iowa will involve a ‘Catfish’ scenario a la the MTV docu-reality series. Don’t believe us? Playwrights Horizons describes their new musical, written by Jenny Schwartz with music

by Todd Almond, as a tale of an online romance. Teenage Becca gets carted off to Iowa when her mom heads to the Hawkweye State to be with the soul-mate she’s met on Facebook. The description of the show wraps up with “nothing can prepare them for what they’ll find”.

A perfect companion? A Norman Bates dressed in his mother’s clothes?

A completely made-up character

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Where it’s @: A musical about online dating feels timely and relevant.

created by a catfisher? Or, maybe something else altogether … we might be getting a little carried away.

Regardless, a musical centered around online dating feels like exactly the sort of modern, relevant piece of theater we’ve come to expect from Playwrights Horizons.

Keep an eye out for their casting announcement too. The country’s

best actors can often be found on the Playwrights Horizons stages, from familiar names to up-and-comers you’ll want to know first.

IOWA

MARCH 20 – MAY 10

PETER JAY SHARP THEATER, W 65TH ST, WWW.PLAYWRIGHTSHORIZONS.ORG

MUSIC & THEATER

IMAGE: GREGORY CONSTANZO

QUICK LOOK

Preview STRAIGHT TALKING

Preview WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Let’s get this out of the way: the idea of the GBF (Gay Best Friend) is pretty offensive. Gay men are not, we repeat, NOT an accessory. That said, if you’re a gal who has the true pleasure of finding a genuine pal who also happens to be a gay man, count yourself one of the lucky ones. Swapping, er - let’s call ‘em ‘war stories’ - with a good friend who happens to be working with the same equipment as the apple of your eye?

That’s some expert advice, girl.

As of early February, we still had no word on what, exactly, Athol Fugard’s new work at Signature Theatre will entail. Signature Theatre seems to be banking on Fugard to deliver and for audiences to buy tickets without knowing too much ahead of time. And when you’re working with one of the most prolific living playwrights, that’s a pretty safe wager, we’d say.

The South African playwright has over 30 works to his name, plus more awards and recognitions than we care to list: the Tonys, the Obies, the Drama Desk Awards - he’s got ‘em all and then some. Fugard will also direct this new production. His work is known for dealing with the political and social structures in South Africa, and condemns apartheid. If you’re not a theater regular, familiarize yourself with his work by watching the Academy Award-winning film based on his novel Tsotsi.

“Wish you could hang out with the gang from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy?” Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man asserts just that premise and the results are a hilarious, yet informative combination. Always wished you could hang out with the gang from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy so you could pick their brains about fashion and home decor? It’s like that. But maybe better. Consider this one for your next girls’ night out!

SEX TIPS OPEN RUN

THE 777 THEATRE, 8TH AVE - 47TH WWW.SEXTIPSPLAY.COM

UNTITLED NEW WORK BY ATHOL FUGARD OPENING NIGHT: MAY 11

SIGNATURE THEATRE, 480 W 42ND ST WWW.SIGNATURETHEATRE.ORG

FRESH PICKINGS Playwrights Horizons will open its 2015/2016 season with a New York premiere of The Christians, a new play by Lucas Hnath. The run will begin in August.

Playwrights Horizons W42 ST - 9/10

WINNING CAST Congrats to the cast of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, which won the Grammy for best musical theater album.

Commiserations to West Side Story, which was also nominated, and which holds a special place in our hearts, for obvious reasons.

BEAN SCENE Mike Hill provides the delicious crooning while you drink your coffee at 10th ave’s The Cafe Grind. Hear his mellow tunes every Saturday afternoon.

The Cafe Grind 10TH AVE 36/37

Preview STAR TURN Amanda Seyfried. Thomas Sadoski.

2econd Stage Theater always packs its plays with the stars we want to see on stage. The Way We Get By by Neil LaBute, with its two young stars, is no exception. Surely audiences will be drawn by Amanda Seyfried. Not only will the casual theatergoer recognize her from hit films such as Mean Girls, but she’s also earned favor among drama types with her roles in movie musicals like Mamma Mia! and Les Miserables. As for Sadoski, he’ll attract a whole other set, coming off his role in HBO’s The Newsroom. This will be his sixth collaboration with 2econd Stage.

“Surely audiences will be drawn by Amanda Seyfried, from Mean Girls and movie musicals like Mamma Mia!” The Way We Get By tells the story of Beth and Doug, two singles who end up spending the night together after a wedding. And then they’ve got to deal with all of that one night stand awkwardness.

THE WAY WE GET BY

PREVIEWS FROM APRIL 28

SECOND STAGE THEATRE, W 43RD ST WWW.2ST.COM

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MUSIC & THEATER QUICK LOOK KIDS ARE ALRIGHT

Preview Preview INDIE CITY DENTAL BREAKDOWN Rocket to the Moon is a 1938 play

by Clifford Odets, which transports audiences to New York during the Great Depression, when steam locomotives ran up and down 11th ave. It tells the story of one man who’s in a depression of his own. Ben, a dentist whose practice and marriage are failing due to financial woes, begins an affair with a young dental assistant, taking the suggestion from his hedonistic father-in-law. The romance uproots his life, but opens up Ben to new possibilities.

New York has been kind to Odets in recent years. The Big Knife appeared as part of Roundabout’s 2012-13 season.

Golden Boy was a hit with critics when it played at Lincoln Center Theater, though it closed after a short run in January 2013, and Awake and Sing ran at Walkerspace in TriBeca that same year. We’re looking forward to this latest revival from one of the best 20th century American playwrights.

ROCKET TO THE MOON ENDS MARCH 28

THEATRE AT ST CLEMENTS, W 46TH ST 9TH/10TH WWW.THEPECCADILLO.COM

Ready for a late night with the cool kids?

As much as we love a high-brow night at the theatre, we all need a raucous rager once in a while. The Cold War Kids stop at Terminal 5 (one of the best concert venues in the city, not just a highlight of Hell’s Kitchen) on March 20 during their months-long national tour.

It’s hard to believe we’ve been loving this band for almost ten years, but it’s true. Their hit debut Robbers & Cowards,

“It’s hard to believe we’ve been loving this band for almost ten years, but it’s true. Their hit debut Robbers & Cowards, came out in 2006.” which featured ‘Hang Me Up To Dry’, came out in 2006. If you’re unfamiliar with the band, find that tune on Spotify.

We guarantee you’ll recognize it after hearing those first few grungey chords.

Before the show, give a listen to their latest, Hold My Home, released in October. The danceable indie rock tunes will make your trek over to 12th Avenue worth it.

COLD WAR KIDS MARCH 20

TERMINAL 5, 12TH AVE WWW.TERMINAL5NYC.COM

Actors Billy Crudup and Michael Potts, of Book of Mormom, will perform plays by the nine and tenyear-olds of 52nd Street Project on the weekend of March 27-29.

52nd Street Project, 10TH AVE

CHANGE OF SCENE A suburban partner swapping party is the setting for Playwrights Horizons’ upcoming Qualms. It made Time Out’s ‘pick of the season’ so is one to watch.

Opens May 22.

Playwrights Horizons, W42ND ST - 9/10

SHADES MORE Possibly something to do with the release of a certain movie, 50 Shades!

The Musical Parody! has now extended its run to 6 September Elektra Theatre, W43RD ST

Preview PRIME VIEWING New World Stages experienced a bit of a British invasion this winter when Churchill came to town, following its run at Chicago’s Greenhouse Theatre Center.

Ronald Keaton adapted and stars in the play, which exhibits a post-WWII Churchill, who’d just lost the re-election for Prime Minister, arriving and traveling through the United States on his way to speak at Westminster College at the invitation of President Harry Truman.

The moment stands out in history thanks to the now infamous quote delivered on that day by Churchill: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.”

One Chicago reviewer declared Keaton’s portrayal as “a very enjoyable and surprisingly emotional new one-man show”. Find a day to see it and then treat yourself to some whiskey, cognac or champagne afterwards - all the Prime Minister’s favorites.

CHURCHILL OPEN RUN

NEW WORLD STAGES, 340 W 50TH ST 8TH/9TH WWW.CHURCHILLTHEPLAY.COM

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MUSIC & THEATER

SQUATTERS’ RIGHTS Its origins are - um - hazy, but Ensemble Studio Theatre has been the springboard for some of the biggest names on Broadway. It’s all very much in step with the values of Hell’s Kitchen, writes Simon Kirrane

W

hen describing how Ensemble Studio Theatre was founded, artistic director William Carden is candid in his reminiscences. “I think they just came in and squatted in the building … almost. I think they got an abandoned floor, which they shaped into this theater and these offices. It was a very raw space when founder Curt Dempster arrived.” That was in 1968 when Hell’s Kitchen was a rough and ready area and about to get rougher still: “When I became an Ensemble artist in 1978, as an actor, if there were actresses performing here you had to walk them up the street when they left at night. You had to. In the 1980s there were crack vials in the gutters. This was a very rough neighbourhood and this theater has been here the whole time.”

Ensemble Studio Theatre is a favorite place for W42ST. It’s certainly not a stuffy theatrical space. With its huge output of plays, there’s almost always something new happening, and its brunches on the first Sunday of every month are great fun get-togethers … it’s like they want theater to be enjoyed or something!

We managed to get some time with Carden (Billy to most everybody) in between a production meeting, a performance and a fundraiser. With so much going on, you wonder that the place isn’t just shaken to dust by the activity.

Billy admits that, at first glance, the building can look a little, well, tired: “Our digs are somewhat run down but one of the reasons we’re able to do what we do is because our rent is so low. We are able to say, ‘Take this space, work on that play’.

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EST develops new work constantly and that new work is also constantly finding new life when it leaves the theatre.

MUSIC & THEATER “In the 1980s there were crack vials in the gutters. This was a very rough neighbourhood and this theater has been here the whole time.”

Other theaters have to rent space at thousands of dollars a week and that’s what’s giving us the freedom to do what we do.”

But change is coming. The theater has been given a private donation of $1million and with that it is going to the city to try and raise more.

The grand plan is to build a 99-seat theater on the first floor and renovate the current main stage. So, just like the neighborhood, money is coming in and change is on the way, but it seems Ensemble wants the change to be limited solely to the bricks and mortar.

“Even as we’re looking to do that,” says Billy, “we’re saying we have to do that in a way that is still going to allow us to function. The challenge for a theater like ours is how do you grow deeper but not wider? How do you do more work but not build a bigger theater which changes your contracts or your whole way of working and you go into another business? We want to stay in the developmental theater business and that means we need to keep our performance spaces manageably small and that allows us to take risks on a play.”

It’s pretty sound logic because if we’re all attending the ‘if it ain’t broke’ school of thought then there’s nothing to fix in terms of what Ensemble actually does. For example Hand to God, a play that was written

by Robert Askins while a Youngblood member, is opening on Broadway on March 14 after a premiere that received rave reviews. Hand to God was worked on for two years by the theater, and Askins. In addition lead actor Steven Boyer, who opens the show on Broadway, is the same actor who has played the main character throughout the work’s development.

”Our digs are somewhat run down, but that’s what’s giving us the freedom to do what we do.”

Askins was working as a barkeep throughout the play’s evolution. In fact, he’s still a barkeep. But when he starts getting his Broadway royalties, that will all probably change.

Getting under the hood of Ensemble is an interesting prospect because it does so much.

What, for example, is the Ensemble Youngblood program? We turn to Billy again: “Ensemble Youngblood is a program for playwrights under 30. Eric Dufault, for example, is 24 and he can be in the program for six years. He’s already written a play called Year of the Rooster that’s got a lot of notice and won him numerous awards. So that’s a program that is dedicated to

Clockwise from top: The EST brunch is a low-key, fun event, Curt Dempster founded the theater in 1968, Hand to God opens on Broadway on March 14.

continued over

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MUSIC & THEATER WHAT’S COMING UP AT ENSEMBLE These are just a few of the upcoming shows and events at Ensemble Studio Theatre. Check out www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org for full details.

Ensemble’s artistic director William Carden. Or, as we know him, Billy

“We’re trying to provide opportunity, we’re trying to allow many voices to be heard.” supporting those artists at a critical point in their development.

We develop their plays and eventually produce them when they’re ready.

“We are supporting playwrights and we’re saying the last important part of that process is we produce new work.”

This is actually the crux of Ensemble: the search for new work and the support of new and established writers because, as well as Youndgblood, it also has The Playwrights Unit for midcareer playwrights. This group meets weekly and shares ongoing work.

“If you’re working on a play and you want to get some feedback on what you are doing, you bring it into the group and different people will read the parts and listen to the play and give suggestions and feedback and ideas,” Billy explains.

There is also the Sloan Project, where Ensemble receives a grant from the Alfred P Sloan foundation

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to commission, develop and produce plays that deal with science and technology. Right now 40 plays are under commission, with constant readings and workshops.

One production a year comes out of that particular program. So it’s not as if there are any slouches round here.

We talk again about Ensemble’s vision, which has stayed true to that of Dempster when he “liberated” the space in the 1960s. “We’re trying to be inclusive, we’re trying to provide opportunity, we’re trying to allow many voices to be heard. I grew up doing theater in New York in the very early 1970s, when many more plays were being done (both off Broadway and off-off Broadway) than are being done today so we feel it’s important to provide opportunity and access. That’s part of what we’re doing.

“We’re not a theater that’s looking to put forward a season of plays to present to the public. We’re looking at plays and as they come up we’re saying, ‘Yes! Let’s do this one now and let’s do this one now’ and the work we’re doing comes out of the work we’re developing.

“Most other theaters are looking out to get the next hot play. We don’t do that because we are not only developing the play, we’re also developing the artist.” www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org

Five Times In One Night Playing now until March 14

by Chiara Atik The strap line is “2 actors, 5 stories, 1 sexy night”. This is, as it says, two actors playing different characters in five short plays that take place at different times about sex and couples. Billy’s verdict: “This is from a really talented playwright from EST Youngblood called Chiara Atik. She’s a wonderful writer. It’s really skilled.”

Unfiltered Festival March 5 – April 4 This is four new plays which are rehearsed for three weeks and given five performances on a workshop set.

The aim is to give Youngbloods the chance to see their work on stage, in front of an audience, and to hone it over the five performances. Unfiltered is a key way in which EST supports artists to make the best work they can.

Marathon of One Act Plays May-June

Described by the New York Times as “always entertaining and rich in solid performances”.

EST has presented this festival of new, one-act plays for 38 years. It is the longest-running, mostcelebrated one-act play festival in the country. It is open to all and this year it received over 1,000 submissions, reviewed in-house. Previously it has included plays

by José Rivera, David Auburn and David Mamet (all of whom are Ensemble artists) so expect a level of extremely high quality.

The Brunch Bunch April 5 (monthly)

The first Sunday of every month, Ensemble hosts its brunch where Youngbloods put on five, ten-minute, one-act plays while the audience gets involved in mimosas and bloody Marys; bacon, eggs and pancakes. Each brunch has a different theme and this is reflected in the terrible pun appended to the title. So, for example, the brunch in February had the theme obsession and was entitled Every Brunch You Take. You have been warned.

GREAT THINGS TO DO

HELL’S KITCHEN

We’ve trawled through just a few of the things you can get up to this month. So what are you waiting for?

ILLUSTRATIONS: LIZE MEDDINGS

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GREAT THINGS TO DO

HELL’S KITCHEN

I

t’s beginning to feel like winter’s icy grip has finally slipped and the winds that have been howling through Hell’s Kitchen are abating.

The ice in the Hudson has retreated and, with spring a whisper away, our lives are just about to start firing up again.

With that in mind, W42ST has decided to show you the diversity of activities available in Hell’s Kitchen this March. It’s time to cast off the duvet, shut down Seamless, nix Netflix and explore the 80-plus blocks that make up the neighborhood.

Some of the things on these pages you may not have heard of but many we’re sure you will.

The point, though, is not to reveal secrets but to cajole you into activity.

This list is to serve as an inspiration and a reminder, as we all emerge from hibernation, that there is a wonderful world of great food, art, music, entertainment and fun to be had in Hell’s Kitchen and we should all be out there getting a piece of it.

See you there!

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ART

Go to the World's Leading Art Fair The Armory Show features works directly from artists’ studios so it’s rightly viewed as the bleeding edge of the contemporary art scene. And this isn’t a museum, it’s a marketplace so you can experience art in its natural, commercial habitat.

Whether you want to see or even score some of the best modern art the world is producing right now or are just interested to pop your head inside the art scene bubble this is a cultural event that is entirely NOW.

THE ARMORY SHOW Piers 92 and 94, 12th ave – 55th st March 5-8

MUSIC

Party with the Broadway Set at Birdland Open mic gigs can sometimes seem little more than an occupational therapy session set to music, but when you are drawing from the talent of Broadway it’s a different matter. Held every Monday night, Jim Caruso hosts a wildly entertaining cabaret featuring up-and-comers alongside showbiz superstars (and some ‘where did they come from’s). This is hugely popular among the city’s show folk so get in and mingle.

JIM CARUSO’S CAST PARTY Birdland 315 W44th st 8th/9th www.BirdlandJazz.com

FILM

Watch (and understand!)

Dogme 95

The Dogme 95 movement was started in Demark by Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg as a reaction to the special effects extravaganzas that were taking over cinema. The pared-down style caught on and the Museum of Art and Design’s program of nine officially recognized Dogme 95 films shows how far and wide their ideas spread.

March Screenings (runs through to May) The Celebration Friday, March 13 The Idiots Friday, March 20 The King is Alive Friday, March 27

THE DIRECTOR MUST NOT BE CREDITED: 20 YEARS OF DOGME 95 2 Columbus Circle, 8th ave/Bway www.madmuseum.org

FOOD

Have a non-liquid St Patrick's Day Treat

We couldn’t squeeze this into our St Patrick’s Day pages (see page 50) but what could be more traditional on that day than cramming your face with a delicious cookie? Well, if you’re the type of person who needs an excuse to eat a cookie then get yourself a Schmackery’s Dirty Leprechaun. It’s a feast of dark cocoa, mint chips and semi-sweet chocolate.

They hadn’t gone on sale at time of press so check the website for details.

SCHMACKARY’S 362 W45th st – 8th/9th www.schmackarys.com

GREAT THINGS TO DO

HELL’S KITCHEN ENTERTAINMENT

Mock our Robot Overlords Gather the children ,either real or inner, and take them along to see science and technology in action and in our favorite guise: robots!

Javits hosts a variety of activities, spectacles (battling robots, anyone?) and the sort of engagement that most science teachers glimpse only in their wildest dreams. If you’re not sure if the kids will be that interested, just tell them there will be LEGO.

FIRST ROBOTICS COMPETITION Jacob Javits Convention Center, 655 W34th st – 12th/11th March 13-15

FOOD

Get a donut from a carwash We’ve already told you about this place – but it’s so good, we figured it was worth another telling.

And maybe another after that. When it started, it was because it was fun and quirky. Who sells donuts out of a carwash? It turns out a food genius does. For us, these are the best donuts on the island, hands down, and the coffee is good too. Have you noticed how clean all the cars are looking nowadays?

FOOD

Experience a W42ST Obsession

OK, not everyone on the team is obsessed with this, but one of our number is so taken with the Eggs on Rice at Danji that they WILL NOT SHUT UP ABOUT IT. It’s a simple enough dish made here to be a complex mix of flavors of sesame, quail yolk, seaweed and spicy cod roe. However, as it’s always the first dish we order, it also heralds a night of exemplary Korean fare, both traditional and modern, as well as some amazing cocktails. If you haven’t been yet, make like an ancient Chinese strategy game and Go!

UNDERWEST DONUTS 638 W47th st – 12th/11th www.underwest- donuts.com

DANJI 346 W52nd st – 8th/9th www.danjinyc.com

THEATRE

Watch Billy Crudup Up Close Hell’s Kitchen is renowned for it’s Off-Broadway dominion (and hopefully W42ST is doing it’s bit to remind everyone about that). It’s the place to be to see the freshest work from the newest voices. And they don’t come much fresher than this.

With Playmaking, The 52nd Street Project produces a selection of short plays by its nine and ten-year-olds. The kids go to a writing retreat, work with theatre professionals then put the plays on, performed by actors. Go along, show your support and be inspired by another one of this neighborhood’s great initiatives (and see Billy Crudup).

PLAYMAKING – THE 52ND STREET PROJECT 789 10th ave – 52nd/53rd www.52project.org

continued over

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GREAT THINGS TO DO

HELL’S KITCHEN FOOD

ENTERTAINMENT

Secret Tacos

Watch a Slice of Televisual History, Live

If you’re going to take the price down a notch, make sure you don’t take the food quality down a notch too. This place, one of the best-known secrets around Hell’s Kitchen, serves amazing tacos, tortas and burritos at the best prices in the neighborhood. The new Taqueria Tehuitzingo opened on 9th behind the Port Authority last year but we prefer the original.

We haven’t even said goodbye to Letterman yet (May 20) but it seems our very own Jon Stewart is walking off the screen now. Stewart has reinvented satire since he’s been on The Daily Show but we can still get to see him before he goes and is still being the funniest thing on TV. You can reserve tickets online or, for a chance of a standby, get to 11th ave well before the stand-by ticket sign goes up at 2:30pm on the day of the show. Or you can always just watch him on a screen like the rest of the world.

TAQUERIA TEHUITZINGO 695 10th ave – 47th/48th www.tehuitzingo.net/

THE DAILY SHOW 733 11th ave – 51st/52nd www.thedailyshow.cc.com

DANCE/MUSIC/THEATRE

Get inside the Creative Process

This month the Baryshnikov Arts Center will host seven artists and companies who will work on and develop their latest projects. The residences also come with informal public showings of artists’ and companies’ works in progress. This is a great way not just to look around the amazing 20,000 sq ft BAC but also see how the creative process works across these diverse disciplines.

BAC SPACE SPRING 2015 – STUDIO SHOWINGS 450 W37th st – 9th/10th March 18-20 www.bacnyc.org

MUSIC

Rediscover your love of Live Music In Terminal 5, Hell’s Kitchen has one of the best live music venues in the city, right on our doorstep. Sure, we can’t get Billy Joel once a month …. (well ,we can if we just head down a few blocks to MSG) but what we can get are some of the hottest acts in the country a short stroll away. This month sees the diversity of Pat Greet (March 7), Cold War Kids (March 20) and Action Bronson (March 24).

TERMINAL 5 610 W56th st – 11th/12th www.terminal5nyc.com

SPORT/FOOD

Shoot hoops at Clyde Frazier's This is like one of those easy quiz questions. If you know the answer, you’re like: “Oh, I knew that.” But if you don’t it’s like: “Wait, what?” So this is for the “wait, what?” people. That’s right, at Clyde Frazier’s, where you can get great salads and amazing steaks, you can also shoot hoops because there’s a mini basketball court in the restaurant.

CLYDE FRAZIER’S WINE AND DINE 485 10th ave – 38th/37th www.clydefraziers.com

If there's an event coming up you'd like us to know about, email us at news@W42ST.com

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You live in Hell’s kitchen, the rising star in the greatest city on earth!

But you know few people!

How do you get connected, meet new people, have new conversations, develop new ideas?

Climbing Fish exists to curate real connections with like-minded Hell’s Kitchen-ites.

http://climbingfish.com http://facebook.com/climbingfish @Climbingfish

MOST WANTED

s n e e r g g n i r Sp

Day on With spring in the air and St Patrick’s ing green the calendar, this month W42ST’s go

GOLD STAR TAKES THE BISCUIT

Give a man a St Patrick’s Daythemed cookie and he will snack for a day, but teach a man to make his own St Patrick’s Daythemed cookies and he will snack every day for the rest of his life!

On second thoughts, maybe hide these novelty cutters.

Themed cookie cutters, $3.69

No one will doubt your green credentials upon sight of this Irish-themed charm bracelet, featuring shamrocks, claddagh and a leprechaun hat.

Gold plate and crystal bracelet, $24.98

Catalog Favorites, www.catalogfavorites.com

Wilton, www.wilton.com A SIP OF MAGIC

Kids will love this magical cauldron, full of hot chocolate that turns green when water is added. A charming way to commemorate the occasion. Features eight servings.

Luck O the Irish Hot Chocolate, $10

Candy Warehouse, www. candywarehouse.com

A RIGHT PAIR

Truly, these St Patrick’s Day socks hit new heights of adorability, transforming your tiny tot (0-24 months) into a confirmed St Paddy’s fan courtesy of this Irish dance soft shoes design alongside a set of striped socks.

Koala Kids’ girls’ socks, $4.99

Toys ’R’ Us, www.toysrus.com

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MOST WANTED HEADS UP

Be the center of the party with this leprechaun outfit, with such an oversized head that revellers will recognize your costume from a mile off.

Features hat headpiece with vision panel, face chestpiece and leprechaun tunic.

Leprechaun costume, $59.99

Party City, www.partycity.com

HANG UP YOUR HAT

If you thought tinsel was just for Christmas, think again, as this shamrockshaped design brings it all the way into March. This leprechaun hat is a novel (and sober) way to celebrate the day.

Tinsel hat, $5.99

Party City, www.partycity.com

PUPPY LOVE

Dare to be different on St Patrick’s Day with a yellow T-shirt, rather than the usual green. This friendly design, featuring a dog with its drinks lined up, is a subtle but insistent invitation to your fellow party-goers.

Dog Drunkard T-shirt, $25

Threadless, www.threadless.com

FANCY-PANTIES

What could be handier than a pack of panties that can see you through St Patrick’s Day and right into Comic Con? The Joker, the Riddler and Poison Ivy all have a piece of underwear dedicated to them in this villanous set.

Poison Ivy, $24.99

Think Geek, www.thinkgeek.com

HIT PARADE

Now even the young ones can join in the fun. This St Patrick’s Day Parade Set features four Little People (including one leprechaun), along with a two-car train that plays an Irish jig as it’s pushed along.

Fisher Price St Patrick’s Day Set, $25

Fisher Price, www.fisher-price.com

SHAKE A LEG

These furry shamrock leg warmers extend from knee to foot and fit over your regular shoes or boots, holding in place with elastic.

Shamrock leg warmers, $19.99

Be Wild, www.bewild.com

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Pantry Hell’s

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Chewing over the best of Hell’s Kitchen food and drink

St PATRICK’S IN HELL’S KITCHEN SEE PAGE 50 Find all the Irish bars in the neighborhood with this handy guide to where to go to get your Guinness on!

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FOOD & DRINK

SIMPLY THE BORSCHT Step aside juice – soup is the new fitness food for healthy New Yorkers

S

hom Chowdhury is a remarkable specimen of humankind. When people talk about their body being a temple – his really is. Still tingling from a five-mile morning run in the Battery Park ice, he arrives fresh-faced at his haven of healthy eating in Gotham West Market.

He’ll have one of their beetroot and carrot juices to refresh the parts a bacon omelet and hash browns won’t reach then, later, a hearty, wholesome soup.

Shom practices what he preaches.

Formerly a juice evangelist, as COO of JuicePress, he missed the protein fix that a juice diet can’t deliver so went in search of something new.

The result is IndieFresh, created with chef and personal friend Akhtar Nawab, star of the Iron Chef Food Network series.

Everything that leaves their kitchens is made with natural ingredients, is gluten and dairy free, with no added sugar or salt, with a menu that includes hearty and diverse offerings such as tomato, hemp heart and lentils, turkey and black bean chili, ginger chicken broth and – an eat-tothe-beet headliner – bison borscht.

“My wife’s Russian,” he explains, “her name’s actually tattooed on my neck. I wanted to prove the business to my inlaws so I said, ‘Look, we’ll make the best borscht you’ve ever tasted.’”

But getting the ingredients just right was a long process of trial and error, and the pair tried every lean meat they could find before finding one that fitted their exacting standards.

“The elk really tasted good,” says Shom, laughing, “but we thought, if we put elk in

Above: Shom Chowdhury wants to convert the world to the joys of soup.

AND THEN SUM ...

“The elk really tasted good, but we thought, if we put elk in it people would be like, ‘These two guys, let’s kill them now, they took Bambi and put him in a bottle!”

it people would be like, ‘These two guys, let’s kill them now, they took Bambi and put him in a bottle!’

“The thing with bison is you can’t beat the leanness, but it’s very difficult to get tender. We ended up cooking it for about ten hours.”

The broccoli, hemp and coconut curry is one of his favorites – but it almost didn’t even get past first base. “I was like, ‘No vegetarian stuff!’ And that’s what’s great about working with your friend. Akhtar said, ‘Come on, man, what are you? You’re like the guy who gets cheated on by a girlfriend and dumped and then you never want to date again.’”

He’s now gone a step further and embraced a fully vegan and veggie soup – Moroccan carrot and red pepper. And he’s so immersed in Hell’s Kitchen life he even takes orders on his personal phone. “I love it! I want to be a neighborhood guy.”

Come summer, while he insists he’ll still be lunching on a piping hot butternut squash and chicken soup – “I eat soup all the time” – the brand will be expanding what it calls its ‘smuthie’ range.

“They’re not typical smoothies. We don’t intend on adding ice. Instead, we’ll take fresh fruit and we’ll freeze it, so the fruit itself becomes the cooling agent.

“The Swedish have a good word for it – they call it fruktsoppa. Fruit soup.

We’ll also do gazpachos, ceviches, and we’re thinking of doing a protein popsicle – freezing a smuthie and eat it like an ice cream.”

Bring on summer. www.indiefresh.com

Dim sum master Sam Yan started training in the art of cooking in Hong Kong when he was just 14. Now he’s bringing the Chinese delicacy to W 46th st. Dim Sum Palace opens this month, and the menu will include classics like har gow — dumplings filled with shrimp — and Peking duck sliders. www.edeggnyc.com

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FOOD & DRINK

THERE’S A NEW TACO IN TOWN

MEAT THE NEIGHBORS

A new restaurant is raising the steaks and the temperature - in Hell’s Kitchen

T

here’s a new name on everyone’s lips, as South American-style diner K Rico bring its trademark wet and dry-aged prime beef to the neighborhood.

The restaurant’s USP is that all its meat is cooked on a state-of-the-art plancha grill, searing it at temperatures as high as 1,600 degrees. That process locks in all those delicious flavors, before the steaks are then grilled to order.

Newly opened on 9th ave - 51st/52nd, veteran restaurateur/chef John Greco has brought in his brother Tommy Greco, owner of W46th st’s Ritz Bar and Lounge, to take care of business front of house.

“I’ve always wanted to do a bona fide steakhouse,” explains John. “I thought one with a South American twist, incorporating the region’s love of fresh

EATS FOR A WEEK 42

Above: K Rico is the brainchild of brothers Tommy and John Greco.

meats and produce, will be enjoyed by diners.”

Tommy, who is making his debut as a restaurateur, adds: ”This is a lifelong dream. My brother and I are a solid team.

He runs the bustling kitchen while I oversee the dining room and the libation end of the house.”

Specials on the menu include entraña skirt steak with chimichurri sauce and black Angus steak 16oz New York strip sirloin, while non-meat options take the shape of oak plank seared corvina and broiled Chilean sea bass with salsa verde and fufu balls.

And that name? Apparently it’s a pun from the Spanish expression “How delicious”. www.kriconyc.com

Eating out was virtually invented by New Yorkers, and it’s even more of a tasty proposition when you can dine out out for less dollars. NYC Restaurant Week is the the biannual celebration of the city’s eateries. Gourmet three course lunches are up for grabs for $25 and dinners for $38 at

LA, meets Mexico … meets Hell’s Kitchen, as Otto’s Tacos looks set to spread its wings and expand in the neighborhood. Already established in the East and West Villages, it is now reported that the chain is in the process of applying for a liquor license at 705 9th ave - 48th/49th, in a space that was once home to Japanese restaurant Kyotofu.

The brand prides itself on the fact that all salsas and marinades are made from scratch, so expect the menu to include Otto’s classics, such as carnitas and shrimp tacos in freshly made corn tortillas, as well as its famous masa fries strips of masa dough, fried, salted, and served with a homemade chipotle mayo.

more than 300 restaurants. The event runs until 6 March. And if you’re unlucky enough to have missed this one, it’ll be coming along again in July.

To see a list of Hell’s Kitchen restaurants involved, and to make a reservation, see www.nycgo.com/restaurantweek

FOOD & DRINK

THE GREEN PARTY

Step aside flat white – there’s a new kid in town, and its name is matcha Fans say it works as an alternative to coffee, providing energy without that caffeine buzz. It is also said to reduce stress and aid weight loss. Just one glass is the equivalent of ten glasses of green tea in terms of nutritional value and antioxidant content.

It gets that bright green color courtesy of chlorophyll, a powerful detoxifier. And because matcha is grown out of direct sunlight, it has a much higher chlorophyll content than other green teas. So, really, it does leave all other drinks in the shade.

HELL'S KITCHEN - MATCHA TERRITORY Schmackary’s

Y

our mom was right – eating your greens really is good for you.

Typically low in calories and carbs and high in antioxidants and immunityboosting nutrients, chances are that anything green is going to be health gold.

With the exception of green M&Ms. That would be cheating.

But not all greens were created equal.

And where New York’s favorite new health food is concerned, we’re dealing with a super-green.

Matcha is a powdered tea – but you don’t just drink it. These days the bright green powder is increasingly finding its way into everything from cookies to cocktails to ice-cream.

Dedicated matcha bars are beginning to crop up anywhere and everywhere the cool kids hang out, but it’s actually an ancient ingredient, introduced to Japan as far back as the 12th century. Monks would whisk up the leaves with hot water and drink the resulting brew in an elaborate tea ceremony, finding it could improve their focus – keeping them alert yet calm – during long hours of meditation.

362 W45TH ST

Above: Helps you concentrate, lose weight and fight disease – is there nothing matcha can’t do?

“The green powder is finding its way into everything from cookies to cocktails.”

This Hell’s Kitchen legend makes its green tea cookies with matcha green tea, white chocolate, macadamia nuts and a green tea glaze.

Modern research can now back that theory up: matcha has been found to be rich in a rare amino acid called l-theanine, which has a powerful effect on brain function. While stress causes beta waves – making us even more agitated – l-theanine causes alpha waves, resulting in that relaxed consciousness the monks experienced. And while l-theanine is present in most tea, matcha contains up to five times more than your common or garden black and green teas.

Like so many other green foods, matcha is high in antioxidants, which are thought to prevent cancer, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. And, because the whole ground leaves are consumed, almost all of the nutrients are absorbed compared with those more traditional brewed teas.

The Hirata Milk dessert: green tea ice creme parfait with red bean, shiratama mochi, matcha jelly and almond coconut milk.

Ippudo West Side 321 W51ST ST

H Bake Shop 601 W 57TH ST

We’re told the Nutty Fella with chocolate matcha green tea with key lime center was to die for. A onetime season special, we’re starting a campaign for its return!

PLUS Puff Cha Ramen, 457 W50th st; Vivi Bubble Tea, 607 9th ave; Per Se, 10 Columbus Circle

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FOOD & DRINK

The slice is right We put the area’s cheap and cheerful 99¢ pizzas to the test – are they value for money or do you really only get what you pay for?

2 Bros

9th ave - 40th/41st A pleasantly thin, flavorful pizza – not too spicy, with a very cheesy taste.

A thick sauce, garlicky flavor and a well-cooked combo Port Authority Food Court

8th ave - 39th/40th A deeper base this time, with a very thick, tasty, garlicky sauce. They’ve piled on the tomato here, and the combo is all well-cooked.

IMAGES: ORTAL MIZRAHI

99 Cent Fresh Pizza Villa Cafe

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W42 st - off 9th ave A strangely crispy but also doughy combination – not unpleasant, just unexpected – this pizza is otherwise light on the tomato, and the cheese taste doesn’t stand out.

At times crispy, at other times doughy ... and light on the tomato

FOOD & DRINK It might not be our go-to pizza but it's pretty darn close

Off Broadway Deli & Pizza

8th ave - 45th/46th Tasty and thin are pretty much all we wanted out of a 99¢ slice and this didn’t disappoint at all. It might not be our go-to pizza but it’s pretty darn close.

The Best Pizza

9th ave - 50th/51st A very thin crust, with a spicy tomato, this pizza manages to be light and crispy, with just the right amount of cheese.

Looks like this place was well named after all!

The Best Pizza really is well named - this one's the pick of the bunch

Halal Food - NYC Fried Chicken

W39 st - off 8th ave This version of the classic has a doughy base and is light on the tomato sauce.

There’s a nice cheese flavor though, which rescues it slightly.

Light on the sauce, but rescued by the tasty cheese flavor 45

FOOD & DRINK

Bread and better

Hell’s Kitchen has plenty of sandwich options, but to slice through the unimaginative and boring, experts Jonah Levy and William Widmaier take us on a tour of spots that really earn their crust

F

orget five-dollar-foot longs.

Forget chicken gyros from the halal cart. It’s time to eat sandwiches that are thoughtfully prepared and exceptionally delicious.

These Hell’s Kitchen favorites will become your new go-to spots – and for good reason.

It’s no coincidence that some of the best sandwiches in New York City are concentrated in Hell’s Kitchen. A sandwich in and of itself, it’s a residential neighborhood smack dab between the bread slices of Times Square and the Hudson River. This means that what was once the busiest commercial port in the world has historically had a certain need for grab-and-go eats; compounded by the roughly 300 million square feet of office space that the Crossroads of the World contain.

COURT STREET GROCERS GOTHAM WEST MARKET

www.courtstreetgrocers.com

IMAGES: PHIL O’BRIEN

“A sandwich in and of itself, Hell’s Kitchen is smack dab between the bread slices of Times Square and the Hudson River.”

Furthermore, all the struggling actors, writers and stage hands that are busting their butts in Off-Broadway theaters and moonlighting at the endless night spots of Hell’s Kitchen need to eat on the move.

We’ll start with Amy’s Bread on 9th ave 47th/46th, and its grilled NY state cheddar cheese sandwich ($7.25+tx). It’s a pressed sandwich with sharp cheddar cheese, tomatoes, spicy-smoky chipotle pepper puree, smattered with cilantro and red

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“The pork shoulder sandwich is an experience that should not be missed.

It tastes like an Italian holiday.”

FOOD & DRINK

AMY’S BREAD

9TH AVE - 47TH/46TH

www.amysbread.com

CARVE

8TH AVE - 46TH/47TH

www.carve.cc

SULLIVAN ST BAKERY

CITY SANDWICH

www.sullivanstreetbakery.com

www.citysandwichnyc.com

W47 ST - 10TH/11TH

onions. Don’t overthink it, and don’t hate cilantro. Take one bite and you’ll realize why this sandwich has a hall-of-fame status. Take two bites and you’ll be forever addicted to the combo of salty, spicy, smoky and delicious.

An avenue and a half over is Sullivan Street Bakery on W47th st - 10th/11th.

Their bread is reason enough to go, but it’s what they put between it that makes this a stop on our tour of sandwiches. The true star of this sandwich spot is the seasonal PMB – pancetta, mango, basil. It’s only available in summer when champagne mangoes are in season ($9.25). Other times of the year, they swap the mango for tomato – still an excellent sandwich.

But when mango is in season, you need order nothing else than the PMB. The salty pancetta is crispy and crackling, the mango is unfailingly sweet and smooth, the basil is fresh and pungent. The bread is a phenomenal contradiction of crunchy,

Feeling peckish?: There’s a sandwich in one of these joints with your name on it.

9TH AVE - 45TH/46TH

“Thanksgiving on a Roll: carved turkey, apple stuffing and cranberry mayo make up this holidayin-one-bite sandwich.” moist, thin and chewy. If you only eat one sandwich all season, make it the PMB. For the true NYC melting pot experience, swing over to City Sandwich on 9th ave - 45th/46th for the ‘Henrique’ ($9.95). A savory concoction of Portuguese Alheira sausage, melted mozzarella, sauteed onions, kale, tomato and olive oil, this sandwich will take your mouth for a ride through years of history and flavor.

Alheira is a Portuguese sausage that is traditionally made without pork, but

shirking tradition for flavor, City Sandwich uses a combo of pork and chicken. They tout other Portuguese ingredients like the blood sausage, morcela, and Portuguese smoked pancetta. Get creative, because you can add ingredients to your order. And don’t overlook their selection of sauces for an add-on of 75c.

Can’t decide what sandwich to get? Carve is calling you. On 8th ave 46th/47th, this cafe is great for a quick bite. The top sandwich pick is ‘Indecisions’ ($10). It’s a mini combo of their three best sandwiches and is a great way to have a lot of food without committing, because it can be hard to choose just one. The three sandwiches? ‘The Fourth of July Picnic’, ‘Thanksgiving on a Roll’, and ‘Steak House’. ‘Fourth of July Picnic’ is a spiced fried chicken sandwich with grilled corn slaw and BBQ mayonnaise on a baguette (regular size for $8.50). Simple and delicious. ‘Thanksgiving on a Roll’ (regular size for $9) is exactly what you think, and delivers on its promise. Carved rotisserie turkey, apple stuffing and cranberry mayo on ciabatta make up this holiday-in-onebite sandwich. ‘The Steak House’ ($9.50 for the regular size) is a classic sliced roast beef sandwich with tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, crispy onions and potatoes with blue cheese dressing and steak sauce served on a ciabatta. It’s like a steak and a wedge salad rolled into one.

Gotham West Market is our last stop, and we’re headed there for Court Street Grocers, the Brooklyn-born institution that serves up sandwiches daily at this Hell’s Kitchen location. The pork shoulder sandwich ($12) is what we’re focused on. A confit of pork shoulder with spicy pickled peppers, sharp provolone, sharper pecorino romano, broccoli rabe and mayo served on a Caputo’s hero roll will grab a hold of your taste buds and make you submit to it’s well-crafted flavor profile.

Everything in this sandwich is balanced by another ingredient, and the whole thing is an experience that should not be missed. It tastes like an Italian holiday.

Maybe you get the sharpness of the double cheese, then the spicy vinegar punch from the pickles wakes you up, and the whole time the pork confit is reassuring you, telling you it’s going to be okay, because just when you’re sure it’s over, the bitter edge of broccoli rabe let’s you know that you’re still going.

Now go grab a growler of beer and forget you’re on a lunch break. www.levysuniqueny.com

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FOOD & DRINK

LIFE ON THE veg Two students serve up their healthy, prize-winning recipes – and there’s not a piece of meat in sight

Vegetable ragu with tagliatelle and ricotta salata

Season with salt and pepper. Cook for about five minutes.

5

Add the carrot, onions, celery and peppers and sauté everything until tender. This should take about five minutes.

6 7

SERVES 6 PREPARATION TIME: 1 HOUR

Add the drained eggplant to the cooked vegetables, adjust the seasoning and cook, covered, for about ten minutes until the eggplant begins to soften. If the vegetables begin to look a bit dry, drizzle about a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil over them and toss to coat.

INGREDIENTS 2 large eggplants, peeled and cut into large dice 1 tbsp kosher salt 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, more for finishing drizzle 1 ½ pounds baby portabello mushrooms, sliced 1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into large dice 1 large carrot, cut into medium dice 2 ribs celery, cut into medium dice 1 each bell peppers (red, yellow, orange), cut into medium dice 1 small yellow onion, cut into small dice 7 cloves garlic, sliced thinly 1 pound pasta (tagliatelle or rigatoni work well) 15 plum tomatoes, chopped 1 cup basil, chiffonade 1 cup ricotta salata 1 cup Italian parsley, chopped salt and pepper, to taste

8

Drop the pasta in the boiling salted water and cook according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

9

Add the chopped tomatoes, juice and all, to the cooked vegetables. Cook uncovered for about seven minutes.

A thin sauce should be forming. Add the mushrooms back to the sauce and gently stir to combine.

10

Adjust the seasoning as needed, remove the vegetables from the heat and add basil. Let the sauce sit for about five minutes.

Method

1 2

Bring a pot of water to boil and add a little salt.

Sprinkle the kosher salt over the diced eggplant and drain in a colander for about ½ hour.

3

In a large skillet heat 1 tbsp of olive oil over a medium heat. Add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and sauté until tender, about six minutes. Remove from the skillet and store in a heat-safe bowl.

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Add another tablespoon of olive oil and add the butternut squash.

Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about three minutes.

Above: Darwin Acosta’s vegetable ragu, for Meatless Mondays.

“Create a nest of pasta by twisting a two-pronged fork around the pasta and gently plating in the center.”

11 12

Add the pasta to the sauce and toss lightly to coat.

To plate: add some ragu to the bottom of a round plate or bowl.

Create a nest of pasta to the plate by twisting a two-pronged fork around the pasta and gently plating in the center.

Add more sauce to the top of the pasta, being careful not to collapse the pasta nest. Shave a small amount of ricotta salata on top and garnish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and parsley.

FOOD & DRINK Meet the young chefs Darwin Acosta is a 17-year-old senior at Food and Finance High School and an aspiring pastry chef from Queens. He has recently been accepted into Johnson and Wales University, where he will study baking and pastry arts. After graduation, he hopes to work his way up in a hotel or corporate setting to the role of executive pastry chef, then open a catering company or cake decorating shop.

At the beginning of the year, Darwin, with help from his chef instructor, Adrienne Terzuoli, created an original dish for the Careers Through Culinary Arts Program’s (C-CAP) Meatless Monday recipe contest. Students were to take a traditional meat-inspired dish and make it meatless. Darwin won first place for the state of NY. His dish will now be judged against the other six C-CAP locations across the country.

The first prize is a $5,000 scholarship and an all-expenses-paid trip to Canyon Ranch in Massachusetts, where his dish will be served up on the menu.

Kristopher Lopez is a 16-year-old senior from the Bronx, who will be attending Johnson and Wales University, studying culinary arts/ travel and tourism. Kris recently completed an internship at the restaurant Maialino.

When he graduates, he would like to spend a year working on a cruise ship, eventually opening his own food truck.

Kris wants to “be adventurous, explore and prepare good food for people to enjoy”.

He entered his original recipe in the C-CAP Small Plates recipe contest. Kris had to create a recipe that was heart healthy, as well as ‘super food’ friendly and maintain a certain calorie content; not an easy task.

Like Darwin, Kris’s dish won first place for NY and he too will now compete for a $5,000 prize.

Mediterranean faux-lafel with cucumber dill sauce

SERVES 6 PREPARATION TIME: 55 MINUTES INGREDIENTS For the sauce 1 cup Greek yogurt 2 mini cucumbers, cut into medium dice 2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped, keeping a few fronds for garnish 1 tsp lemon zest 1 tbsp lemon juice salt and pepper, to taste For the faux-lafel 1 ½ cups cooked quinoa 1 ½ cups baby spinach, roughly chopped, keeping 2 spinach leaves for garnish 1 cup crumbled feta cheese ½ cup plus 1 tbsp red bell pepper, cut into small dice 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley ½ small yellow onion, cut into small dice zest of 1 lemon ½ lemon, juiced 1 ½ cup panko salt and pepper, to taste 2 eggs

3

When the quinoa is cooled, in a mixing bowl combine the quinoa, spinach, feta, pepper (all except 1 tbsp), parsley, onion, lemon juice and zest and panko.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

4

Make a small well in the middle of the mixture and crack one egg. Wet your hands and mix the first egg into the quinoa mixture. Repeat with a second egg. The mixture should be slightly tacky and able to be formed into a ball.

5

Using a ¾oz ice-cream scoop, scoop the mixture into your hands to shape into a ball. (Note: Do not roll like meatballs; gently pack using your palm as a ‘cup’).

6

Place on a sheet pan that has been sprayed with coconut oil. When all the balls have been formed, spray the tops with more coconut oil.

7

Method

Bake for 18-20 minutes. The outsides should be crispy with a little give when you touch it. Remove from the oven and let stand for two to three minutes before serving.

2

8 9

1

Heat the oven to 3500F. Then start preparing the quinoa according to package directions.

While the quinoa is cooking, prepare the sauce. In a mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, cucumbers, dill, lemon zest and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator.

Remove the sauce from the refrigerator and mix with a spoon.

To serve: plate three faux-lafel and top with a small dollop of sauce. In between each faux-lafel place a spinach leaf (facing the opposite way). Finish with a few small fronds of dill for garnish and red pepper for the plate.

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FOOD & DRINK

ST PATRICK'S IN HELL'S Looking for a pint of the ‘black stuff’? Get started here...

1

SCALLYWAG’S IRISH PUB & RESTAURANT

508 9th ave – 38th/39th

4 LANSDOWNE ROAD

599 10th ave – 43rd/44th

This fun sports bar is host to some serious parties, with shot-dispensing machines and an ‘ice rail’ that runs the length of the bar to ensure beer arrives in your glass suitably chilled. www.lansdowneroadnyc.com

12th Ave

A friendly haven that’s just a hop from the bustling madness of Port Authority. Scallywag’s is a W42ST fave, with live music every night, a great food selection and super-friendly staff. www.scallywagsnyc.com

W59th St

clashes, to Premiership and Champions League football as well as NBA, NHL and MLB. www.quinnsnyc.com

RESTAURANT 5 McQUAIDS & PUB

7 5

589 11th ave – 44th

2TIR NA NÓG

315 W39th st – 8th/9th

Despite a name taken from Irish folklore as ‘The Land of the Young’ this bar is rooted in the now with a great selection of craft ales. www.tirnanognyc.com/timessquare

Another one of the W42ST team’s favorite bars, McQuaids, which is just by ad agency Mother and across from Gotham West Market, offers great value beers on tap, friendly staff and a filling menu.

4

W42nd St

6 PLAYWRIGHT CELTIC PUB 732 8th ave – 45th/46th

3 QUINN’S BAR AND GRILL 356 W44th st – 8th/9th

Right on the edge of theaterland, Quinn’s offers a huge array of games to watch, from all the NFL

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This three-story pub also hosts a beer garden for when it gets slightly warmer. It has live DJs on Friday and Saturday as well as a wide selection of sports on TV. www.playwrightcelticpubnyc.com

W34th St

KITCHEN 14

HAPPY ST PATRICK’S DAY!

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From everyone at Scallywags

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Come and join us for a pint

Live Music Every Night

12 11

Two Happy Hours Every Day 4pm-8pm 12am-2am

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6

8th Ave

8

9th Ave

9

3

Brunch from $11

(complimentary Bloody Mary, Mimosa or Bellini)

Bottomless Brunch add $15 Every Saturday & Sunday 11am-4pm Fully-catered private parties available

2 1

508 9th Ave, (Bet. 38th & 39th Street) (646) 490 4803

continued over

Scallywagsnyc.com facebook.com/scallywags.com 51

FOOD & DRINK

7 LANDMARK TAVERN

8 THE GAF

9 GOSSIP BAR & RESTAURANT

10 MOLLOY’S IRISH PUB

11 HIBERNIA

12 McCOY’S BAR

IRISH PUB & 13 RUMOURS RESTAURANT

14 D J REYNOLDS

COLISEUM BAR & 15 THE RESTAURANT

626 11th ave – 45th

Back before there was a 12th Avenue, the Landmark sat on the water’s edge. It’s been in the city since 1868 and serves up Irish beers, food and entertainment. www.thelandmarktavern.org

737 9th ave – 49th/50th

With a pool table, fussball, 22 beers on tap and sports screens to boot, Molloy’s gives the sporting Irish fan all the distractions they could ever want while having a drink. www.molloyspub.com

933 8th ave – 55th/56th

Rumours has a great selection of imported beers and a very robust menu – for St Patrick’s Day why not try the Guinness Irish beef stew? www.rumoursbar.com

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401 W48th st – 9th/10th

A great local just off 9th, The Gaf is host to regulars and 9th Avenue wanderers alike. If you’re in the middle of Hell’s Kitchen come St Patrick’s, it would be a shame not to pay a visit. www.gafwestnyc.com

401 W50th st – 9th/10th

Hell’s Kitchen’s unofficial Steeler’s chatroom. With a famed lamb stew, a love of partying and a flat-out desire to provide the ‘craic’ Hibernia is one for the livlier, and hungrier, revellers on St Patrick’s Day. www.hiberniabar.com

351 W57 st – 8th/9th

A family-run establishment that offers traditional Irish food and drink, so if you fancy a pint of Guinness and some Dublin-style fish and chips for lunch on St Pat’s look no further. www.djreynolds.com

33 9th ave – 49th/50th

Spread over two floors, with the restaurant upstairs and a vast bar downstairs (with 13 TV screens for sports) Gossip will be serving traditional Irish fare come St Patrick’s Day. www.gossipbarnyc.com

768 9th ave – 51st/52nd

If you fancy yourself an artist you can decorate a Jameson’s bottle to go on display with the collection, but there’s always a great atmosphere here in a very neighborly pub. www.mccoysbarnyc.com

312 W58 st – 8th/9th

The Coliseum has colorful history and features in the book The Westies by TJ English. Now, though, it’s a great, friendly bar with great menu. www.coliseumnyc.com

Drink responsibly

FOOD & DRINK

THE COLOUROF SUNNY It gets a bad press, says Jeremy Kaplan of Veritas Studio Wines, but a rosé is the perfect springtime tipple that deserves a second taste

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h - it’s that time of year again.

Rosé time. That first warm afternoon, when thoughts of the beach and summertime BBQs are enhanced by a glass of rosé wine.

Long the ugly duckling of the US market, rosé is more popular than ever but it still has it’s doubters. Unfortunately, for the uninitiated, it is often thought of as being sweet and simple – harkening back to the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s when it was associated with brands such as Lancers and Mateus in their oddshaped bottles. Interesting, since most of those who turn their nose up to rosé weren’t even born then.

Though rosé wines from Provence may be the benchmark by which many are judged, the fact is high-quality rosés are made in every wine-making country in the world, from an equally wide range of grapes. Its origins are debated, but many point to the wines of Bordeaux during the middle ages that were consumed by the English. Pale in color, they were referred to as ‘claratum’ wines. And the name stuck – to this day the English call Bordeaux wines claret.

There is no doubt about it – rosé may be more verastile than either red or white wine. It can be crisp and minerally, it can be round and mouth filling, it can show characteristics of spice, or earth and more ‘organic’ flavors. And in some instances, it can age gracefully for a decade or more.

First, how are they made? It may be of some surprise, but the majority are not made by blending red and white wines, but rather from one of two methods. The first and most popular is through limited skin contact. Rosés are made from red wine grapes and limited contact with the skins produces a light-colored wine.

Typically 12 to 72 hours of skin contact is enough. A second method is called the ‘saignée’ – or bleeding – method. Grapes are pressed, and maceration begins, and after some time has passed, rosé wine is poured off, leaving behind a concentrated

Above: Rosés are traditionally drunk during the summer, but should really be enjoyed yearround.

mix that will produce a powerful, inky and dark wine.

Though rosés are usually consumed during warmer months, they should really be enjoyed year-round. Here at Veritas, though the temperatures might be low, we have eight still and four sparkling rosés to choose from.

Avi Turgeman, beverage director, Chef Driven Group at Marseille, says he sees increased consumption year after year and that men are a growing part of that consumer group. He likes rosé from Provence but also Corsica.

Kelly McCaffery of Adella Wine Bar agrees many still think rosés are sweet and simple, but happily reports that consumption is up. At Adella you can usually find at least three by the glass.

Meghan Boledovich, forager at Print, thinks people should think outside the rosé box and look for wines from places such as Italy, Austria, Greece and Long Island.

Christopher Russell at East & West Yotel reminds people to think about sparkling rosé, which he feels is immune to changes in temperature.

So if you need a reminder that summer is around the corner, reach for a bottle of rosé and let it transport you to wherever you want to go. Vinum rosé vivat. Long live rosé.

CORKTALK ECONOMIZE

PUEBLO DEL SOL, TANNAT, JUANICO, URUGUAY, 2013 An unlikely grape from an unlikely region. Spicy and more full bodied. $12.

MID-RANGE

DOMAINE JAS D’ESCLANS, CRU CLASSÉ, PROVENCE, FRANCE, 2013 One of the top estates in Provence, this domaine makes a bright and vibrant wine. $20.

SPLASH OUT

DOMAINE LES LUQUETTES, BANDOL, FRANCE, 2013 Perhaps the benchmark for rosé, made from a minimum of 50 per cent mourvedre the height of rosé elegance. $27.

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FOOD & DRINK

HERE comes the sun Refreshing springtime beers help keep the March madness at bay, says Ciera Coyan

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arch madness is a term with two meanings. College basketball finals spawned the phrase but I use it for something else entirely. March madness is what I call the anger and frustration I feel when winter should be over but it’s still standing, albeit on its last legs.

Technically the first day of spring is in March, so I say we all participate in a little bit of denial and drink as though every day is a beautiful spring day. What with March madness and St Patrick’s Day, we’re wrapped up in a warming, liquid comfort blanket all month anyway, right?

“Sours are what got me into craft beer in the first place. They are life changing.”

The perfect springtime beer, for me, is a saison, a style with an interesting history. Saisons were originally brewed in Belgian farmhouses in the winter, some say as a way to provide work for year-round farmhands, and served in summer to the seasonal workers (saison means ‘season’ in French). They tended to be low ABV, easy-drinking beers, basically treated the way Americans treat pilsners. Saisons fell out of fashion for many years but are currently experiencing a renaissance, particularly in America. These days they often have a higher ABV but those same herbal, fruity, sometimes tart flavors still linger. I love a good saison because they manage to be both light and very complex in taste.

For the more adventurous of palate, the next step has to be a sour. Sours are what got me into craft beer in the first place. They are life changing. A lot of people get intimidated by them when they shouldn’t be. The style is

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A LOTTA BOTTLE

Saison beer

Above: College basketball finals spawned the phrase March madness, but you don’t have to be a sports fan to feel a bit nuts come springtime

so vast there’s something for all taste buds. Yes, they can be surprising, even shocking when you first taste them, but if you know what you’re getting into, they’re so rewarding.

If you like lemonade, you’ll probably like a lighter sour beer with more citrus notes. If you liked sour cherry candy when you were a kid (or now, no judgment) there are plenty of sour fruit beers out there. The key is to build your palate and know what it is you’re tasting.

One of my favorite beers of all time is not a sour but drinks like one: Westbrook Gose. Goses (pronounced goes-uh) can range in tartness, but this one in particular has a nice mouthpuckering bite to it. It’s brewed with coriander and salt. Although those are two flavors not often found in beer, your mouth recognizes them and can help your brain register what it’s tasting. Plus many have low ABVs, which means you can crush plenty while watching the tournaments.

If all that sounds a little too light and springy, I have the middle ground. An Imperial red/amber ale is just the thing to transition you from dark winter beers to fresh, crisp, springtime drinking.

A decent balance of hops and malt, Imperial red ales have a foot in each camp. The sweetness and full body of a malt backbone will keep you nice and warm while the hops remind you of the growth and plant life that’s on its way.

www.brooklynbrewery.com A world-class saison is made right across the river: Brooklyn Brewery Sorachi Ace. The brewery describes it as “sunshine in a glass”.

What could possibly be better this time of year?

Look for it in local beer stores or head into Brooklyn for a tour of the brewery itself.

Westbrook Gose

www.westbrookbrewing.com Beer Culture on 45th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue carries Westbrook Gose in the can.

For a classic sour, check out The Jolly Monk on 9th Avenue and 48th Street. They have Monk’s Cafe Flemish Sour Ale in the bottle. It’s a good level of tartness for someone curious.

Imperial Amber

www.troegs.com Troegs Nugget Nectar is a crazy popular, delicious imperial amber. It’s a seasonal release and available now, so look for it at your favorite bars with rotating tap lists, like The Pony on 10th Avenue and 45th Street. It will also be in grocery stores with craft beer sections.

FOOD & DRINK

STAFF SURVEY

Megan Splain contemplates serving celebrities, mixing the perfect bourbon sour, and her past life as a professional dancer How long have you worked at Betti Bar?

I’ve been here for just over four years.

I waited tables for a little while before being moved to the bar. I started managing the bar about a year ago now.

Where do you travel from?

I’m a local girl. You just can’t beat this neighborhood (or the five-minute walk to work).

What is your favorite thing on the menu?

Food wise I would have to say the short ribs. They are the ultimate in comfort food.

As far as drinks go, I’m a whiskey fan, so our made-from-scratch and to-order bourbon sour holds a place in my heart.

What is the most fun part of working at Betti Bar?

Our customers are amazing. It’s the kookiest mix of performers, stage hands, restaurant professionals, locals and brave tourists ever.

If you could serve anyone, who would it be?

Being in this area we get a lot of Broadway celebrities and other famous performers. Most of the time, I have to admit, I don’t know who they are. I know, I’m awful, right? Honestly though, it’s the

IMAGE: ORTAL MIZRAHI

“Our customers are amazing. It’s the kookiest mix of performers, stage hands, restaurant professionals, locals and brave tourists ever.” friends I’ve made in this business that will make my night every time.

What is the question you are most often asked by customers?

Probably where I grew up. People are usually surprised to hear I’m from Long Island. They say I’m “too nice”.

Are there other places you like to eat and drink in Hell’s Kitchen?

Of course. To start, I’m a total coffee addict. Everyone should check out Green Nature Coffee House on 42nd and 11th.

I also love The Marshall – they are farmto-table and the staff are amazing. A new neighborhood favorite is K Rico on 9th between 51st and 52nd. Oh my God! Amazing steak.

Do you have a career outside of Betti Bar you are pursuing?

Above: Megan doesn’t just know her beers - she’s also a bit of a coffee geek.

Nope, I am a full-time restaurant girl. I was a classical dancer up until around the time I started here. It’s amazing still being around artists every day. I can relate to the crap they go through, but I don’t have to do it myself anymore.

What is the team atmosphere like at Betti Bar?

This place is built on giant personalities, and I won’t lie and say it’s always smooth sailing. We have definitely had our moments. But that’s why I love it.

At the end of the day we get the job done, laugh our asses off in the process, and do it all while being completely authentic.

BETTI BAR 212.265.2060 www.hourglasstavern.com W 46TH ST - 8TH/9TH

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GALLERY

#W42ST Hashtag your Instagram pics and they could star in the mag!

When Hell’s Kitchen freezes over, two types of people emerge. Or rather, one type emerges, keen to capture this cold new world on camera. The other type stays in bed until it’s over.

Our Instagram friends are part of the former group, snapping the frost as the frost snaps at them. Get involved and tag your Instagram pics #W42ST – they might just end up in the mag!

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GALLERY

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W42ST

PROPERTY

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Keeping it real estate with the lowdown on high rises

OLD MEETS NEW SEE PAGE 62 HFZ’s development at 53rd and 8th is inspired by everything that is great about Hell’s Kitchen.

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Join The Community ‘Like’ W42ST on Facebook and join the the rest of the neighborhood to see and share what’s happening in Hell’s Kitchen go to WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/W42ST or search W42ST FACEBOOK

PROPERTY

LOFT IN TRANSLATION

NEWS IN BRIEF

A working post office is to get a first class face lift

TWIN IT TO WIN IT

HGTV’s Property Brothers are scouting for New Yorkers to take part in the show. Identical twins Drew and Jonathan Scott help couples transform fixeruppers into dream homes. So, if you’re at least 21, in need of expert help, have a budget of at least $65,000 already secured – and a lively personality that will come across well on camera – they want to hear from you. www.propertybrothers. castingcrane.com

IMAGE: ARCHITECTURE OUTFIT

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oft living was pretty much invented by ingenious New Yorkers, who manage to convert any available space – from former fire stations to insane asylums – into desirable places to live.

Enter, then, the newest development on the theme – to be built atop a working post office in Hell’s Kitchen.

Oases Real Estate has had its plans for 44 condos at 320 West 52nd Street, between 8th and 9th, approved – and the company insists the construction work will not disrupt the post office’s day-today operations.

The top floor of the building will be converted into residential properties, with a further two stories added, taking the whole to 42,500 square feet. The design brief will be handled by Little Italy-based Architecture Outfit and the Financial District’s Gary H Silver Architects, and future residents can expect elements that echo the 1900s post office below, such as large gridded windows, iron mullions and spandrels.

However, the new floors will be clad in

THANK YOUR LUCKY STARBUCKS

Main picture: Interior touches include faux ceiling beams.

Above: How the development will look

horizontal grey masonry to distinguish it from its downstairs neighbor.

Other details will include faux ceiling beams and terraces with wood decking and pergolas. An added bonus – or not, depending on how you look at it – is that you’ll never have an excuse for sending a late birthday card again.

If you live near one of Hell’s Kitchen’s Starbucks branches, not only do you have the benefit of flat white on tap, you could also be sitting on a caffeine-fueled property hot spot. Because research by Zillow.com has shown that homes within a quarter-mile of the coffee chain have as much as doubled in value over the last 17 years.

That’s in sweet contrast to properties near Dunkin’ Donuts, which only saw a 65 per cent increase.

Crucially, said the report’s authors, Starbucks appears to be driving, rather than following, the higher home values.

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PROPERTY

ARTISTIC IMPRESSION A reputation for creativity has brought a luxury new development to the neighborhood, at Fifty Third and Eighth

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dynamic blend of old and new”, along with the area’s deep-rooted artistic heritage, has inspired the latest exciting development to spring up in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen.

“We pulled inspiration from the neighborhood to offer buyers the opportunity to experience true New York character with residences showcasing modern, sleek finishes and timeless layouts,” said Ziel Feldman, chairman and founder of HFZ Capital Group.

Fifty Third and Eighth is a 25-story luxury condominium at 301 West 53rd Street, made up of 252 one, two and three-bedroom apartments - some with private outdoor space.

Designed by BP Architects, luxury features include white oak wood flooring, marble baths, quartz countertops and high-end appliances including a Bosch refrigerator, Bertazzoni gas oven,

IMAGES: CHRISTIAN HARDER

“Residents benefit from proximity to the area’s countless cultural offerings and ongoing additions to Manhattan’s flourishing West Side.” stainless steel Bosch microwave and energy-efficient dishwasher.

Apartments that face west make the most of their panoramic views of the Hudson river, while those facing east look across the iconic Manhattan skyline.

“We foresee unprecedented interest as Fifty Third and Eighth offers buyers a rare and highly desirable combination in today’s market-modern, luxurious residences for immediate occupancy, at

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PROPERTY

W59th St

Opposite page: A contemporary bedroom and living room. This page:

301 w53 st

Living room space; the block looks over Manhattan;

8th Ave

12th Ave

high-spec kitchen.

W34th St

an accessible price point,” said Susan de Franca, president and CEO of Douglas Elliman Development Marketing.

“Buyers will value the opportunity for a turn-key home offering this caliber of finishes and overall attention to detail.

“Residents will also benefit from the proximity to the area’s countless cultural offerings and ongoing exciting additions to Manhattan’s flourishing West Side, from 57th st to exciting developments on the far West Side.”

Prices are from $1.1 million to $3.25 million.

For pricing and more details, call 212.757.0053 or visit www.53rdand8th.com

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PROPERTY

WE’RE NO SQUARES In the beating heart of bustling Times Square there is a haven to old-style Hollywood glamour, inspired by the most famous paparazzo of them all

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little bit old Hollywood, a little bit Studio 54, a little bit Palm Beach. Whichever way you mix it up, you’re looking at a whole lot of glamour.

When the Row NYC, on 8th ave 44th/45th, collaborated with Ron Galella on its newest suite, the ingredients included dark hardwood floors, cut crystal and marble, palm leaves and white leather couches that echoed the most famous images taken by the celebrity photographer. Some of those images hang on the suite’s walls.

“We were primarily informed by Ron’s photographs of the late 1970s and early 1980s,” says Heidi Avedisian, the designer behind the interiors.

“Ron was considered the ‘original paparazzi’ in America – and New York was his most famous muse. His shots are some of the most iconic of our time: Bianca Jagger on the white horse, Jackie O with her wind-blown hair walking down Fifth Avenue, Mick Jagger and John Lennon sharing a cigarette…”

There are elements like Missoni pillows, and a central architectural nickel Marine tripod lamp, which Heidi describes as “a real conversation starter”.

“Times Square is the heart of New York,” says Galella, “and this suite celebrates my work and love for the city that never sleeps.”

It’s is part of a $140m, two-year redevelopment of the hotel, but Heidi insists the look can be achieved on any budget. “It sounds so clichéd,” she says, “but it’s an issue of prioritizing.

And the look that results from the right balance of high and low is always the most interesting. You don’t want your place to look like a flea market – nor an unapproachable museum.”

Her advice is to focus on your floors.

“You just can’t get around bad flooring, and a deep ebonized floor is great in almost any application and can be achieved with a variety of inexpensive

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Above: The Galella suite is all mirrored bar, leather chairs and angular furniture.

Right: The entrance to the suite – a New York street scene. Opposite page, top: Neon lights bring the atmosphere of Times Square indoors.

Opposite page, centre: Coffee table books and a rooftop view. Opposite page, bottom: Simplicity in public areas using subtle lighting and fringe curtains.

PROPERTY woods. I’ve used paint in a pinch too, but it doesn’t wear nearly as well.

“Next, shop the sales for the basics.

I love Restoration Hardware and come back to them for something on almost all projects. They have particularly great sofas, mirrors and end tables – and regular sales. I loved their cantilevered leather and steel armchairs for this project. Keep things simple, with clean legs. Mix your mediums. It’s all about finding the right balance of materials and using them in the right doses.”

She advises using heavier materials – wood, leather, skins and metals sparingly, and lighter materials like mirror, glass, leafy palms, linen and fabric, more abundantly.

Next, see the light! “I’m a stickler for good, properly scaled light fixtures in a space – and there are just so many bad ones,” said Heidi. “Go on Etsy for an hour and explore. I just did a project where I used a husband-wife team in Indiana who create fixtures out of wonderful piping and antique shades and canvaswrapped cord right in their garage. They were incredibly reasonable and are now the talk of the space.”

Have some fun with your project and don’t take it too seriously. “Every

“You don’t want your place to look like a flea market – nor an unapproachable museum.” room needs something fun and a bit unexpected. The white leather sofa in the suite was already in place and it had great clean lines and stitching, but was way too sterile and uninviting – the kind you slip around on when trying to get comfortable. Just reupholstering the inner cushions in a remnant of crazy 1970s faux leopard fabric and adding a pair of black hide kidney pillows completely reinvented the piece.”

Heidi’s approach to interiors varies very little, whether she’s working on a commercial project like the Row NYC or an individual client’s home. “I have my favorites and I find they adapt to so many different venues. I tend to gravitate towards Calcutta Gold marble, and grass

cloth wall coverings in natural or metallic tones. I love classic, over-scaled black and white photography on the walls.

“And mirrors, mirrors, mirrors – they can completely reinvent a room. I glazed an entire wall and an adjoining alcove in mirror in the Ron Galella suite and it became a sexy little bar that we just love.

We dress it up for small evening events with antique cocktail shakers and cut crystal, and in the morning, guests use it as a vanity to put their make-up on and do their hair. It has the best angles of the back of your head and is flooded with light – and you just can’t beat getting yourself ready while looking at those gorgeous reflected views of the Hudson.”

But, while Galella’s photographs are predominantly monochrome, the suite has a scattering of neon – a reflection of Times Square’s billboards just on the hotel’s doorstep. “It’s all so personal but I am not a fan or bright colors strewn everywhere, yet they can be so effective when used in small doses and perfectly appointed places,” says Heidi.

“By keeping the architecture and finishes in the suite very clean - white walls, lots of mirrored spaces and rich ebonized flooring – I was able to use a hot tangerine bed linen, a few fabulous zig-zag Missoni pillows, and deep emerald fresh Monstera leaves tucked in to just the right places.

“It’s the same for furniture. Some pieces just need to be basic, quiet and Plane Jane, so that somebody else can be the star.” www.rownyc.com

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PROPERTY

HEAVY PETAL Inspired by springtime blooms, W42ST looks at introducing florals to your interior

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or many, March hails being over the hump of winter, or for the optimist, into the beginning of spring. Now, instead of watching out for patches of ice up ahead or rogue snowballs, we’ve got an eye trained to find the tulips and crocuses poking their skinny stems above earth. To pay homage, W42ST has some interior-inspiring ideas for bringing florals into your home.

Perhaps you’re still too traumatized by winter to face going outside right now, but that doesn’t mean you can’t channel traveler chic in your home. Melody Maison’s vintage floral suitcases are as practical as a chest of drawers, but more stylish by a mile. And speaking of vintage, this coral floral bedding is a ruffled retro delight. A triple-gathered skirt in gradated coral tones and teal topsheet make for stunning nursery styling Nature’s finest artwork, florals are simply made to adorn cushions. This rustic orange throw pillow from Pillow Decor is an abstract take on the look, while their blooming tulips design bursts off the cushion with vibrancy and color.

Alternatively, why not cut out the middle man and plump for a lounge chair that’s adorned with flowers? This vivid offering from Oscar & Eve is a real statement piece that can jazz up the most magnolia of living spaces.

Celebrate the end of hibernation with an afternoon tea, and what better way to bedeck your home for guests than with some petal-inspired designs? This floral table runner is a charming way to add some oomph to your interior, while the cakes might find themselves upstaged by this gorgeous regency cake stand. Should it still be a little nippy underfoot, this bespoke hand-tufted rug from Rug Couture is just the ticket to keep toes toasty.

And finally, is there a better way to bring florals into your home than literally, as with these floral wooden ‘home’ blocks? The pretty four-piece set is the last word in vintage style.

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WOODEN ‘HOME’ BLOCKS $13.65, Melody Maison

www.melodymaison.com

REGENCY CAKE STAND

$45.75, Cloth Ears

www.cloth-ears.co.uk

FLORAL TABLE RUNNER $54, Koromiko

www.koromiko.com

PROPERTY CORAL FLORAL BEDDING

LIME ROSES VELVET ARMCHAIR

$172, Jack and Jill Boutique

$824, Oscar & Eve

www.jackandjillboutique.com

www.oscarandeve.co.uk

WOOL BESPOKE RUG

RUSTIC ORANGE THROW PILLOW

$195.50, Rug Couture

www.rugcouture.com

$49.95, Pillow Decor

FLORAL SUITCASES

www.pillowdecor.com

$33.49, Melody Maison

www.melodymaison.com

BLOOMING TULIPS THROW PILLOW $49.95, Pillow Decor

www.pillowdecor.com

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HEALTH & BEAUTY

Curls’ night out

As New York Fashion Week rolled into town, Liana Zetterholm of David Ryan salon guides us through simple daytime waves to a catwalk-ready fishtail braid Loose wave blowout

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TIME: 15 MINUTES

1

You will need: Volumizing mousse/root lifter, long duckbill clips, heat protection spray, blowdryer, light to medium hold hairspray, large barrel curling iron (we used one and a half inch), medium to strong hold hairspray, round bristle brush, velcro rollers (optional), wide tooth comb

1

Start with clean, towel-dried hair. Apply volumizing mousse or root lifter to the roots then blow-dry upside-down, concentrating on the root area. Pull the roots out with your fingers while drying for extra volume. Flip your head right side up and smooth out the front of the hair with a round brush and your blow dryer aimed at the root. This would also be a good time to preheat your curling iron.

2

3

While your hair is still warm, take a wide section from the top and roll into a large roller or, if you don’t have one, curl the hair with your hands and secure with a clip. Make two curls if you don’t have bangs. Spray the rest of the hair lightly with heat protector.

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Take vertical sections from the side of your face to just behind the ear. Wrap the middle of the section around the curling iron,

4

5

6

HEALTH & BEAUTY away from your face, and while slowly turning the curling iron, roll your wrist until the hair gets wrapped around to the ends (you will need to keep your finger on the clamp to make sure it’s open enough for the hair to slide through). Hold for a few seconds then gently unwind to release. For a stronger look, spray the sections with hairspray before curling.

4

To curl the back sections, part hair vertically down the centre. They don’t have to be perfect. Take each side and hold them straight out to each side of your head (if you have thick hair you may need more than two sections). Roll each section in the curling iron the same way you did the sides, wrapping the hair away from your face.

Loose fishtail braid

3 1

2

4

5

finish

5

Remove the rollers and section your hair horizontally, holding the hair straight up. Wrap the hair in the curling iron in the same way, starting at the midsection and gently rolling until the ends are wrapped. This should also be done in the direction away from your face. For extra volume, pull the hair forward instead of straight up before wrapping them. Don’t roll the hair all the way down to the root - stop about an inch away to keep volume.

Clip each section from the top back and push up the root area to let the hair cool and still keep the volume.

6

Remove the clips and turn head upside down, gently drawing a wide-tooth comb through the hair (not your hands - this will create frizz) while spraying the ends with hairspray. Keep head upside down for a few moments before flipping back up and separate the curls with fingers and sealing with medium to strong hold hairspray.

finish

TIME: 20 MINUTES

2

Divide the ponytail in two and, with the index finger of one hand, hold one side and section out a small part of hair from the outside, bringing it across to join the section of hair on the opposite side. Repeat on alternate sides, keeping it loose at the top but tighter as you reach the ends. Secure with elastic.

3

Take the loose section of hair and wrap it around the top elastic, securing with a bobby pin close to the scalp.

You will need: Dry shampoo, small hair elastics, texturizing spray/cream, medium to firm hold hairspray, bobby pins, long duckbill clips

1

If your hair has lost some volume through the day, spray a little dry shampoo at the roots. Flip your head upside down and spray lightly with texturizing spray or scrunch your hair with a small amount of texturizing cream.

Let the hair hang upside down for a few seconds to set before flipping it back over.

Pull hair into a loose side ponytail, keeping a small section at the nape free. Secure with elastic just below the ear.

Stylist: Liana Zetterholm @Hair_By_Liana_NYC Makeup: Yelena Boltyan @makeupbyyelena

4

Gently pull at the braid with two fingers of one hand, while holding the middle part to steady it with the other hand.

Start at the top and move your way down, pulling out less as you go. This is what will give the braid a ‘messy’ look. If pieces come out from the back or the sides, pin them back, or curl them with the iron to make them more defined.

5

When you have achieved the look you’re after, spray your hair with a medium to firm hold hairspray to set it in place.

Model: Shavana Wong @pocaalma Photographs: Jaime Torlincasi

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HEALTH & FITNESS

Misfitness

A place where New York’s fun-loving introverted extroverts go for serious fitness? That’ll be the clubhouse of glory and dreams …

IMAGES: KYLE YOUNG

I

t’s not every day you’re greeted at the gym by a man wearing teeny tiny swim trunks and plastic lei.

And it’s not a regular gym where the boss arrives for a meeting resplendent in chicken hat. Which stays on for the duration, despite the rising temperatures. But then, Mark Fisher Fitness is not any old gym.

In fact, it doesn’t even call itself a gym; it’s an “enchanted ninja clubhouse of glory and dreams”. It’s a place where clients are called ninjas and trainers are called unicorns and where mirrored balls, graffiti and disco lights take the place of the usual utilitarian gym furniture.

“We like to keep things colorful,” says Mark in understatement. “So there are lights. There’s a closet with costumes, so if the trainer feels like dressing up in Victorian era garb or an S&M unicorn, there’s a leash they can wear – whatever feels good.

“But one thing that’s also important to us is just taking people where they’re at, so a lot of the ninjas who come here AREN’T insane. We say if someone wants to come to a dance party and someone wants to take off their pants and someone wants to cry quietly in a corner because they’re having a really bad day, everything’s perfect, you’re OK wherever you are.”

Mark describes himself as once that “classic skinny, awkward, Martian man, afraid-of-girls guy” who only properly found his place in this world when he started to work out in high school.

“I was also a professional actor – which is partly how we’ve become such a fixture in the Broadway community – and throughout my twenties I fell more and more in love with the training. It was like

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“I fell more and more in love with the training. It was like the mistress I slowly left my wife for”

the mistress I slowly left my wife for.”

A few years ago he quit acting completely and committed himself to the training.

“My own experience in the gym, starting as someone who didn’t feel very good about his body and didn’t feel like an athlete, it was very difficult for me. And I was from New Jersey so everyone was wearing flannels and jeans and workboots – it was terrifying at the beginning. I really wanted to create a place that would speak to my friends.

“We like to say, in the most affectionate way, that the ninjas are like an isle of misfit toys – all manner of humanity, all ages and colors and backgrounds that are generally united in that we all have a feeling of being an outsider at times. I just wanted to celebrate that, and also to provide really good fitness information. I’m a huge fitness nerd, so it’s very important

Above and left: Disco balls and grafitti join the usual gym paraphernalia. Top: Three cheers for Mark Fisher!

HEALTH & FITNESS we provide a really good service with results.”

So if you want clear, no-nonsense weight loss and are willing to put in the hours, the intensive six-week Snatched programme might be your bag. Alternatively, there are group classes, and semi-private training packages, Mark’s cheaper but just as effective version of a personal training programme, where you train with two other ninjas and a dedicated unicorn.

Unsurprisingly, many of your fellow gym goers will be from the Broadway community. “We’ve worked with a lot of performers who came with a very specific physical fitness role. One of our ninjas had to get ready for a Broadway show where he played a boxer in Kinky Boots.

“The trainers, too, are a colorful bunch, counting among them one of Chelsea Pier’s best known drag queens and a professional clown.”

“And a lot of them work backstage,” says Mark. “We train a lot of composers and directors and casting directors – and from their friends it’s trickled out to other professions; people who maybe work in white collar jobs but are a little bit weird. The nature of their life means they perhaps don’t get to be as creative as they’d like so they can come in here and do whatever they want to do.”

The trainers, too, are a colourful bunch, counting among them one of Chelsea Pier’s best known drag queens, a gay porn star, a tattooed graphic artist who was a skate punk in a former life, and a professional clown who, at the last minute in med school,

Above: Rich Ferraro and Matt Wilson in the ‘Dragon’s Lair’. Left: Trainer Brian Patrick Murphy welcomes new recruits.. Right: A class in full swing.

decided he wanted to be a clown not a doctor. Which is fair enough.

“We need people to be really great coaches, but we also need then to be really authentic and comfortable with who they are.

“We also need to make sure the clubhouse stays safe for existential sadness,” says Mark. “I’m aware that it can seem so over the top and sparkly and whimsical. I’m obviously quite an extroverted person but at heart I’m kind of an introvert so I’m not sure how I would take this place. I take the most pleasure from finding the people who feel most introverted and making it a safe place for them.”

And a holistic approach means this crazy, dysfunctional fitness family doesn’t just take care of your physical fitness; it offers life coaching

workshops, classes on book keeping for financial fitness, advice on time management …

“We hope to be a place where people come for general betterment,” explains Mark.

“Fitness is so transforming becºause you’re able to be more creative and stable and braver with your life. You’re feeling better about yourself, you’re eating well, you’re sleeping – we know your brain is going to work better.

Additionally, it’s interesting to see how much of your life you can control.

New York can be an isolating town – particularly for performers, who spend a lot of time getting rejected. So there’s a certain power one discovers when you know you can control what you eat and how you look.” www.markfisherfitness.com

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Established 2010

GET YOUR BUSINESS IN FRONT OF 20,000 HELL’S KITCHEN RESIDENTS W42ST Magazine is a free monthly magazine that is delivered across the neighborhood

Advertise in W42ST Magazine Join up now using the code

W42St T and ge $75 off!*

CrossFit Hell’s Kitchen 315 West 36th Street between 8th and 9th

CrossFit Hell’s Kitchen - one of the original CrossFit gyms in NYC. 646-234-8425 anthony@crossfithellskitchen.com *Discount applies only to “Beginner/Barbell Basics” introductory month.

Valid for new members only. Other restrictions apply, email for details.

For a media pack email carolina@w42st.com

HEALTH

On reflection ...

Taking a long, hard look at ourselves takes courage but need not be scary, says Dr Tama Lane

A

s we embrace the start of the year and leapfrog into spring, we are filled with the anticipation of new beginnings. Typically, our ideas about change are packaged in New Year resolutions. Hence, we make heartfelt promises that are often quite challenging to maintain. As the end of the year approaches, many begin the arduous and sometimes painful task of looking back to reflect on personal and professional disappointments, ways to improve and strategies to be and do better. However, the silent messages are that we are not good enough and need an overhaul to be happy and content.

The hope of spring provides a second chance – a new perspective not solely focused on the critical assessment of self, but adjusting how we view the world, relationships and our choices. As JK Rowling, wrote in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” Our choices illuminate our personality, strengths, vulnerabilities, fears and hopes.

There are many more details within the mosaic of life than those we actually see. Adjusting the focus and looking at another part of the picture provides an entirely new perspective. We are the experts of our life with the strength and, sometimes, untapped internal resources to change the experiences we wish to have.

Search and engage life with a vengeance

To step out of the shadows and examine the many layers of our life is, quite frankly, uncomfortable and scary. When we take the risk of facing ourselves, we often feel exposed and vulnerable. When we feel vulnerable, our natural emotional

“We are wonderfully imperfect. One should never be afraid or paralyzed by the mystery of selfdiscovery. Cultivating a healthy relationship with ourselves forces us to participate in our life rather than be a critical bystander.” reflex is to automatically defend, feel shame or withdraw. Finding the courage to show up and be seen allows us to actively engage in our life, see the blind spots, areas of self-deception, search, explore, discover and learn new life lessons.

Engaging life grounds you, permits you to accept your limitations, vulnerabilities, imperfections and the soft spots with compassion and understanding; to gain control and make decisions with greater fortitude, and open yourself up to unrealized possibilities and potential.

Firing your inner sideline broadcaster: challenging negative assumptions and living an examined life The sheer power of inner negative self-talk lowers self-esteem, influences mood, makes us feel discouraged and less motivated to change. It is our personal sideline life commentator that annoyingly magnifies and

exaggerates every perceived error.

There are a ton of self-help books that provide advice and strategies on how to neutralize negative emotions by increasing positive self-talk, hope and optimism levels. But let’s take a first step before trekking to Barnes & Noble. We are wonderfully imperfect. One should never be afraid or paralyzed by the mystery of self-discovery. Cultivating a healthy relationship with ourselves, practicing self-loving discipline, self-acceptance and abstaining from self-destructive empty calories forces us to participate in our life rather than be a critical bystander. To live an examined life is the greatest gift we can give ourselves.

Friend management: practice compassion and be authentic

Refocus and pay attention to the quality of connection with friends. And I’m not talking about the vast assortment of your social media network. Our social and emotional brain craves interaction and companionship, and does not thrive in isolation. Regardless of how much time is devoted to improving mental and emotional health, we have a need to authentically connect, belong and find shelter in friendship. Look at friendships like a daring new adventure that requires us to bend, tolerate, explore fear of connecting, practice compassion, and to celebrate strengths and struggles.

The season of spring is the start of your new tomorrow. To vigorously engage in life keeps us anchored to hope, which allows us to view life from different angles – recognizing, accepting, learning, letting go of nostalgia and focusing on the magic of the moment.

Dr Tama Lane is a clinical psychologist who is a proud resident of W42ST. She has her own private practice on the UWS www.nypng.com and operates a pro bono site for survivors of trauma at www. drtamalane.com You can email her at drtamalane@ gmail.com.

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PETS

Wagging

IMAGES: PHIL O’BRIEN

Pearl Human’s name: Elle.

Breed: Mini poodle.

Age: Nine months.

Best friend: I don’t have any yet – I’m too young.

What makes me bark: I never bark!

What words describe me best: Playful and clingy.

My confession: Sometimes I poo in the apartment.

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Mazzy Human’s name: Jordan.

Breed: Basset hound.

Age: Five and a half.

Best friend: A cat called Katt.

What makes me bark: Seeing my toys after I’ve been for a run with my human.

What words describe me best: Playful yet docile.

My confession: Sometimes I rip up my toys when I get really excited.

Mr Sinclair Human’s name: Gregory.

Breed: Goldendoodle.

Age: Six months.

Best friend: A lady dog at daycare called Leah.

What makes me bark: People and loud noises.

What words describe me best: Excitable.

My confession: I’m a good boy, but sometimes jump up on people to make friends.

tales Koukla Human’s name: Gale.

Breed: Chow shiba.

Age: Nine.

Best friend: Spot, Jordy and Joey.

What makes me bark: Horses, motorcycles and boxer dogs.

What words describe me best: Loveable and a good friend.

My confession: When I was a puppy I once bit a hole in my human’s moccasin, and nibbled at the phone cord, but now I’m really well trained.

PETS These camera-happy canines took a time out from the morning stroll for a quick Q&A with W42ST

Colby Human’s name: Jessica.

Breed: Australian Shepherd mix.

Age: Five years.

Best friend: My dad Daniel.

What makes me bark: Noisy vacuum cleaners.

What words describe me best: Loveable, adventurous and very loyal.

My confession: I wake everyone up when I bark at deer in the middle of the night.

Tobey and Tootsie Human’s name: Jimmy.

Breed: Beagles.

Age: Nine years.

Best friend: Each other.

What makes us bark: The doorbell.

What words describe us best: Smart, a handful, with lots of energy, but fun to have around.

Our confession: Our human can’t leave the garbage out or we’ll find a way to get into it.

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PETS

Creature comforts Treats for cats and dogs have moved on since the days of balls of wool and sticks – check out these purrfect presents for new ways to cosset your pet

SCRATCHING THE SURFACE

DAWSON’S SQUEAK

CAVE IN

SPOT THE DOG BED

Catpod, $70, Etsy Now your cat can scratch its own furniture with Catpod, a sturdy structure roofed in claw-friendly, industrial-strength corrugated cardboard that can be used for taming talons by day, and snoozing in by, er, day.

Snoozer cozy cave pet bed, $49.99–$89.99, PetSmart You snooze, you win when it comes to this disc-shaped dog bed, which allows your pet to tuck themselves in through winter, or doze on top come summer. A great way to keep burrowers from out of your blankets.

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My Squeaky Pup gift set, $27, WelcomePup.com Possessive pups everywhere will relish this squeaky gift set, which has exactly what they‘re thinking inscribed on each item. Double stitching means their new favorite toys will last twice as long!

Tetford Square bed, $545, Lux Deco This divine dog bed simply oozes sophistication, from its super-comfortable hollow-fibre filling to its removable, easy-clean polka-dot cushion cover. Three sizes available means there’s a model for everydoggy.

PETS

ALL ZIPPED UP

SNUG LYFE

NIP IN THE AIR

EAR TODAY

SOFA LOAFER

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE RUSK

Piccadilly Circus Red Body, $595, Bitch New York Walkies are sooo two-thousand-and-lame, don’t ya know. For classy pups, when it comes to getting some air, the view is everything, and this snappy carrier will offer your pet a vantage point with clear advantages in the too-chic-for-the-sidewalk department.

Bunny ear cat costume, $7.99, PetSmart Bridget Jones reenactments, Easter celebrations and Playboy mansion parties all just got a little closer for your cute kitten, with the advent of these faux satin cat bunny ears, new and exclusive to PetSmart.

Sweater, see site for price, Bitch New York This turtle-inspired turtleneck offers retro prints based on the abstract shapes of the reptile’s shell.

Handmade by women’s collectives and earthfriendly, your dog is not the only beneficiary of this lovely snuggly sweater.

Love Seat, $26.25, Petshop USA Get your cat up to scratch by teaching them to keep their claws off the sofa – your sofa, at least. This mini three-seater model is a great way to keep your pet occupied and your home intact. Comes with a free bag of catnip.

Fat Cat Zoom Stuffer, $3.99, PetFlow There’s a party in this kitty’s pants and your cat’s invited! Simply stuff a catnip pod into the toy pouch then leave your cat to enjoy the alluring scent as they play with their new friend. Comes with two pods, replacements available.

Dental Dinosaur dog chew, $5.99, PetFlow You know what’s not extinct? Good dental hygiene.

Brontosaurus, stegosaurus and T-rex all lend a hand – or rather their whole bodies – with canine teeth cleaning with these novelty dental sticks from Nylabone.

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Directory Animal Care

(212) 209-7500

730 11th ave - W52nd/W53rd (212) 956-5822

The Pony Bar

Coco and Toto

www.cocoandtoto.com

The Spot Experience 600 W42 st - 11th/12th (646) 767- 4199

www.thespotexperience.com

Westside Animal Hospital 453 W46 st - 9th/10th (212) 247-8600

www.westsideanimalnyc.com

Auto Services

Cyber Tire and Car Care 726 11th ave - W52nd (212) 265-1177 www.cyberttire.com

Bars & Clubs

Alquimia Bistro Bar

506 9th ave - W38th/W39th (646) 370-3578 www.alquimianyc.com

House of Brews 302 W51st - 8th/9th (212) 541-7080

www.houseofbrewsny.com

www.pachanyc.com

637 10th ave - W45th/W46th (212) 586-2707 www.theponybar.com

Tartina

Mr. Biggs Bar & Grill

596 10th ave - W43th/W44th (212) 246-2030 www.mrbiggsnewyork.com

www.grandcruny.com

www.internationalgrocerynyc.com

www.ninthavenuevintner.com

9th Avenue Barbershop

669 9th ave - W46th/W47th (212) 664-946

495 9th ave - W37th/W38th

Ninth Avenue Wine & Liquor

Albano Salon

www.ninthavenuewine.com

www.9thavenuebarbershop.com

450 9th ave - W35th/W36th (212) 967-4726 www.albanosalonnyc.com

David Ryan Salon 429 W46 st - 9th/10th (212) 956-1830

www.davidryansalon.com

Erik’s Barbershop

660 10th ave - W46th/W47th (212) 459-2884 www.eriksbarbershop.com

www.luxe-den.com

www.molloyspub.com

International Grocery

570 11th ave - W43th/W44th (646) 682-9278

Beauty & Well-being

www.tartinanyc.com

www.ironbarnyc.com

737 9th ave - W49th/W50th (212) 247-3400

Grand Cru Wine & Spirits

Ninth Avenue Vintner – Liquor Store

Luxe Den Salon & Spa

Molloy’s Irish Pub

Garden City Deli

507 W42 st - 10th/11th (212) 736-1375

653 9th ave - W45th/W46th (646) 590-0577

Iron Bar

713 8th ave - W45th/W46th (212) 961-7507

42nd Street Wine Loft

519 8th ave - W35th/W36th (212) 971-6100

Pura Dermatology 446 W38 st - 9th/10th (646) 706-7747

www.puradermatology.com

West Vibe Hair Salon 451 W46 st - 9th/10th (212) 265-6794 www.westvibe.com

607 9th ave - W43rd/W44th (212) 974-0573 543 9th ave - W43rd/W44th (212) 279-1000

Port Deli

681 8th ave - W43rd/W44th

Poseidon Greek Bakery 362 W45 st - 8th/9th (212) 757-6173

860 9th ave - W55th/W56th (212) 265-5130

Schmackary’s Cookies

Veritas Studio Wines

Stiles Farmers’ Market

Cyclist Shops

Westerly Natural Market

693 10th ave - W47th/W48th (212) 247-3300

www.westerlynaturalmarket.com

527 W45 st - 10th/11th (212) 581-3163

Al’s Cycle Solutions

www.alscyclesolutions.com

Enoch’s Bike Shop

480 10th ave - W36th/W37th (212) 582-0620 www.enochsbikes.com

362 W45 st - 8th/9th

www.schmackarys.com

352 W52 st - 8th/9th (212) 582-3088

911 8th ave - W54th/W55th (212) 586-5262

Florists

Fresh Cut Flowers, Inc. 444 W43rd st - 10th/11th (646) 473-0274 www.freshcut444.com

Liberty Bicycles

Health & Fitness

www.libertybikesny.com

315 W36 st - 8th/9th (646) 234-8425

846 9th ave - W55th/W56th (212) 757-2418

Metro Bicycles – Hell’s Kitchen 653 10th ave - W46th/W47th (212) 581-4500 www.metrobicycles.com

Delis, Food & Drink

CrossFit Hell’s Kitchen NYC www.crossfithellskitchen.com

Manhattan Plaza Health Club 482 W43rd st - 9th/10th (212) 563-7001 www.mphc.com

Bread & Honey

MedRite

www.breadandhoneynyc.com

www.medriteurgentcare.com

New York Beer Company

Beer, Wine & Spirits

941 8th ave - W56th/W57th (212) 245-0007

www.nybeercompany.com

460 W34 st - 9th/10th (212) 564-6830

Empire Coffee & Tea Company

Rolates Pilates

www.empirecoffeetea.com

www.rolates.com

321 W44 st - 8th/9th (212) 245-2337

Pacha New York

618 W46 st - 11th/12th

34th Street Wine & Spirits

www.34thstreetwineandspirits.com

568 9th ave - W41th/W42th (212) 268-1220

330 W42 st - 8th/9th (212) 695-4444

939 8th ave - W55/W56 (212) 247-9603

Want to meet other Hell’s Kitchenites? Connect for conversations with other locals via Climbing Fish.

Sponsored by:

Professional Services

Azuri Cafe

The Jolly Monk

(212) 247-2562

501 10th ave - W38th/W39th (212) 931-5731

www.azuricafe.com

www.jollymonknyc.com

Lucky’s Famous Burgers

Gotham Mini Storage

www.gothamministorage.com

Hartley House

413 W46 st - 9th/10th (212) 246-9885

465 W51 st - 9th/10th (212) 262-2920

Baluchi’s Indian Food

493 9th ave - W37th/W38th (212) 695-2222

www.hartleyhouse.org/space-rental

Better Being 940

Jadite Custom Picture Framing

www.betterbeing.net

662 10th ave - W46th/W47th (212) 977-6190 www.jaditeart.com

Keep Your Home Clean 353 W48 st - 9th/10th (646) 238-5924

www.keepyourhomeclean.com

Lanyon36

365 W36rd st - 8th/9th www.lanyon36.com

M2 Organic Cleaners

826 9th ave - W54th/W55th (212) 954-7417

Prudence Design & Events

537 9th ave - W40th/W41st (212) 353-1986

Bis.Co.Latte

667 10th ave - W47th/W48th (212) 581-3900 www.biscolatte.com

Bricco Ristorante 304 W56 st - 8th/9th (212) 245-7160

www.bricconyc.com

The Cafe Grind

477 10th ave - W36th/W37th (212) 279-4100 www.thecafegrind.com

545 9th ave - W40th/W41st (212) 465-1530

The ReGallery

Dafni Greek Taverna

362 W36 st - 8th/9th

www.cupcakecafe-nyc.com

www.facebook.com/theregallerynyc

325 W42 st - 8th/9th (212) 315-1010

Restaurants, Diners & Cafes

Green Nature Coffee House

42nd Street Pizza

647 W42 st - 11th/12th (212) 594-4312

www.42ndstrestaurant.com

Adella

410 W43 st - 9th/10th (212) 273-0737 www.adellanyc.com

Afghan Kebab House

764 9th ave - W37th/W38th (212) 303-1612

www.thelandmarktavern.org

Kava Cafe

370 W52 st - 8th/9th (212) 247-6717

www.kavanyc.com

Market Diner

www.luckysfamousburgers.com

470 W42 st - 10th/11th (212) 239-4442

La Scarpetta

572 11th ave - W43rd/W44th (212) 244-2888

www.jonnypanini.com

Nano Ecuadorian Kitchen

439 9th ave - 9th/10th (646) 484-5733

Landmark Tavern

www.marketdinernyc.com

626 11th ave - W46th/W47th

691 10th ave - W47th/W48th (212) 244-2888

continued over

www.nanobarnyc.com

TO GET YOUR HELL’S KITCHEN BUSINESS LISTING IN HERE:

Cupcake Cafe

347 W36 st - 8th/9th

www.prudencedesignsnyc.com

701 9th ave - W48th/W49th (646) 657-0080

www.dafnitaverna.com

#W42S ITN

AVEN IT’S HE KITCHEN HELL’S

Get one of these in your window

555 W42 st - 10th/11th (917) 916-9408

www.ohmygoshcoffee.com

Hell’s Chicken

641 10th ave - 10th/11th (212) 757-1120

www.hellschickennyc.com

#Yourbiz

Il Forno

713 8th ave - W45th/W46th (212) 247-1978 www.ilfornonyc.com

Email us at sticker@w42st.com

Join at www.climbingfish.com

EP-PAINTING INC Home improvement licensed contractor

Interior & exterior painting Bathroom & kitchen remodeling Tile + marble Wooden floors

First time costumers 20% off

Call 718-600-3639

Sponsored by:

Ninth Avenue Vintner

(212) 239-4390

www.ninthavenuevintner.com

Troy Turkish Grill

Restaurants, Diners & Cafes (cont)

www.troyturkishgrill.com

669 9th ave - W46th/W47th (212) 664-946

Noodies

830 9th ave - W54th/W55th (646) 669-7828 www.noodiesnyc.com

Pio Pio

www.staghornsteakhouse.com

539 9th ave - W39th/W40th (212) 465-0888

Tulcingo Del Valle

665 10th ave - W46th/W47th (212) 262-5510

www.tulcingorestaurant.com

604 10th ave - W43rd/W44th (212) 459-2929

Uncle Vanya Cafe

www.piopio.com

315 W54 st - 8th/9th (212) 262-0542

Pom Pom Diner

Zoob Zib

610 11th ave - W45th/W46th (212) 397-8395 www.pompomdiner.com

Quinn’s NYC Bar and Grill 356 W44 st - 8th/9th (212) 445-0131

www.quinnsnyc.com

Route 66 Cafe

858 9th ave - W55th/W56th (212) 977-7600 www.route66nyc.com

Sangria 46

338 W46 st - 8th/9th (212) 581-8482

www.sangria46nyc.com

Sea Breeze Fish Market 541 9th ave - W40th/W41st (212) 563-7537

www.seabreezefishmarkets.com

Sergimmo Salumeria

456 9th ave - W35th/W36th (212) 967-4212 www.sergimmo.com

SIRI Thai

641 10th ave - W45th/W46th (212) 245-4601 www.sirithainyc.com

Staghorn Steakhouse 315 W36 st - 8th/9th

462 9th ave - W35th/W36th (212) 971-8530

Retailers

Adam 99 Cents Plus

760 10th ave - W51st/W52nd

American Home Hardware & More

590 9th ave - W42nd/W43rd (212) 765-7356

Columbus Hardware Inc. 852 9th ave - W55th/W56th (212) 265-2425

www.columbushardwareinc.com

Crystal Art & Craft Design 493 9th ave - W37/W38

www.crystalartandcraftdesign.com

F & D Pawnbrokers 359 W54 st - 8th/9th (212) 586-3707

Morning Star News 412 W43 st - 9th/10th

Popular Carpet Distributors 432 W38 st - 9th/10th

www.popularcarpet.com

Thrift & New Shop

602 9th ave - W43rd/W44th (212) 265-3087

Columbus Hardware

Locksmith Hardware Paints Plumbing Hardware

Mon-Fri: 8.00 a.m. - 6.00 p.m.

Sat: 9.00 a.m. - 3.00 p.m.

We offer Merchant and Contractor Discounts

852 9th ave - W55/W56 Call 212-265-2425 Fax 212-265-7588 www.columbushardwareinc.com

Join at www.climbingfish.com

LAST WORD

IMAGE: JACOB A RIIS/MCNY, WORDS: CAROLINA PAULINO

PHOTO FINISH

B

ack in the early 1900s, Hell’s Kitchen was not the most inviting of neighborhoods.

In fact, the grim, unsanitary conditions are thought to be how it earned its name. Even so, Frances (Fannie) Griscom Parsons had a different vision for the area.

The reform-minded New York native created the Children’s Farm School on 11th ave - 52/54 in the De Witt Clinton Park. Fannie’s teachings went way beyond gardening. Her children were taught civic values such as cooperation and discipline to steer them away from the life of crime so many of them seemed born into. Residents watched in amazement as 25 girls and boys

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“Children were taught civic values such as cooperation and discipline to steer them away from the life of crime so many of them seemed born into.” (aged nine to 12) from the slums transformed an empty plot of land into a beautiful vegetable garden. After just

a year, the children’s behaviour had dramatically improved and, over the first three years of the project, almost 3,000 youngsters benefitted from the transformative program. Perhaps as a result, gardening became increasingly popular, and by 1908, New York had approximately 80 city gardens. The trend reached its peak between 1900 and 1920.

This photograph was taken by Jacob A Riis, an influential photojournalist and social reformer of the time. His most prominent book, How the Other Half Lives, caught the attention of the public and prompted change by exposing the reality of New York’s decaying living conditions.