vip in the city

To the Left Coast

When KD first called to tell me he was going to be leaving our city for a great new opportunity in San Francisco, I could hardly believe the news. It was difficult for me to imagine the born and bred Brooklyn boy abandoning New York for a place of chilly summers, blankets of fog and intermittent earthquakes. Not to mention restaurants that close at 10 and blueberry bagels? Oy gevalt!

None such atrocities to be found here on the Lower East Side, where KD was hosting his send-off soiree at Essex. During its heyday at the turn of the 19th century, this neighborhood was the heart of New York’s Jewish community, the great majority of whom were from Russia and Eastern Europe. In 1940, Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia created the 15,000 square foot Essex Street Market in an effort to clear the already congested LES streets of the pushcarts he found so unsightly.

It was part of LaGuardia’s larger effort to reduce the city’s street traffic overall, and during this time several indoor retail markets were erected throughout New York City, including La Marqueta in East Harlem and the Arthur Avenue market in the Bronx.

Over the years, the vendors expanded their businesses to form permanent neighborhood fixtures where locals flocked to find food and services with a personal touch, and at affordable prices. Demographics shifted in the 1960s and 70s, as did the shopping culture, as consumers began shopping at grocery stores and supermarkets for their produce. By the time the city’s Economic Development Corporation took over ownership of Essex Street Market in 1995, conditions in the market had deteriorated to the point that it was all but abandoned.

But in the past five years, though, as the neighborhood underwent another resurgence, so too did the Essex Street Market. In 2001, the market was only 60 percent occupied; these days, over two dozen food vendors now occupy every square foot of available space. The EDC receives applications for new tenants on a weekly basis, owing in large part to the influx of more prosperous neighbors and the low vendor rents; at $27 a square foot on average, these food retailers pay less than a third of the standard price in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn.

The restaurant had arranged for platters of lox and sushi, cuban sandwiches and empanadas – a veritable smorgasbord of tasty ethnic bites to send KD on his way to California.

Many nights I’ve sat with KD at this very bar: after our infamous holiday party, years before the engagements, his marriage, the birth of his twin girls. We’ve come a long way since then. Fare thee well, my friend.

Later that night, I glanced up at the Bryant Park transfer point, right into the glittering windows of the New York Public Library.

Emerging photography at the W

Ten emerging artists from New York exhibited their photography at The Living Room at the W Times Square as part of the “UnScene” mobile gallery tour by California-based art purveyor Wall Kandy.

The show is curated to showcase the “un-scene,” unpostcard-y images of life in the ten cities the tour hits: their architecture, cityscapes and denizens. The artists are similarly unseen; most of the photographers whose works were chosen for the exhibitions have never appeared in a gallery, so it was a fine opportunity to discover new talent.

As we circulated among the low, white banquettes — not so easy with drink and camera in hand! — I spied a few great images. I especially liked the ones that showed a glowing, mythical-looking Astroland at dusk.

Yes, that actually does say “Wuv”. It’s been observed that I have a higher tolerance for puns than most, and even I had to cringe.

Check me out

Took a break from what was to be a late night at the office to pop in on the Gothamist mingling event at Whole Foods Market Bowery. It was my first time at the immense Lower East Side location, which opened to great excitement back in March.

When not playing host to various dot-com fetes, New York’s Whole Foods are known for their thriving pick-up scenes; the Bowery’s hip location makes it more popular than most. (“The gelato bar, the upstairs café, the chilled, private cheese room, and long checkout lines are where flirting is most rampant.”) Not this night, though, at least not for the ladies: strikingly, almost hilariously, the females handily outnumbered males by a factor of 9 to 1.

“Hey, no photographs inside Whole Foods!” (Sorry.)

Upstairs at the cafe, vendors set up fold-out tables along the windowed perimeter from which we could sample their wares. Their company’s wares, I mean. Mixed drinks from Stirrings, candy bars from Chocolove, Jackson Heights-inspired Mangodesh (mango ice cream spiced with cardamom) from 5 Boroughs Ice Cream, and a nice, refreshing Champagne sorbet, courtesy of Wine Cellar Sorbets, a venture launched by a pair of childhood friends from Queens. The sorbets are made from finished wines, and are 5% alcohol by volume (Yes: ID required to purchase in stores.)

A sip here, a bite there… then back to the salt mines.