vip in the city

CultureFest 2007

In Battery Park this brisk Autumn afternoon for the seventh annual CultureFest — a “celebration of the City’s magnificent and diverse cultural offerings.” More than 125 cultural organizations were on site to showcase their new exhibitions and offer performance highlights at this weekend-long festival, complete with two stages, a park full of exhibits, scientific demonstrations and interactive activities — sort of one-stop-shopping for upcoming cultural events.

Giant bubbles:

The human graffiti wall:

Among the usual scads of glossy brochures, postcards and magnets, several of the tables were sprinkled with colorful metal enamel pins. I picked up my first from the French Institute Alliance Française (a hot pink “Bisous!”), which I attached to my new knitted scarf, eventually adding a “Gaga” from the Goethe-Institut New York, one from the New Museum of Contemporary Art (reopening at 235 Bowery on December 1, 2007), an “I *heart* Orpheus” from the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and a square green one from StoryCorp, the national oral history archive project (“tell your story, pass it on”). The motherlode, though, was to be found at the NYC Visit booth which had bins and bins of brightly-colored pins emblazoned with the names of neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs, as part of the new “Just Ask The Locals” tourism campaign. Almost every area I could think of… except for mine. (Spuyten Duyvil is represented but not the Upper West Side? What’s up with that?)

By afternoon, I had built up quite a collection of flair.

Of course, no family-friendly festival is complete without clowns:

Performers like Empire Opera soprano Jamila Amala Sockwell entertained us all through the park, while on the dual stages, a roster of live acts cycled through. Here, on the “Kids Stage,” spritely Irish step dancers from The Niall O’Leary School of Dance moved at least one member of the audience to her feet.

Despite having lived in New York City all my life, I continue to be amazed at the diversity of offerings around the city: the sheer number of museums, music, theater and dance companies, educational and historical organizations, is staggering. I only very recently came across the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden on the Upper East Side; the historic carriage house is just a mile and half from my apartment, and according to the website, one of the seven oldest buildings in Manhattan. And I never knew The Museum of American Finance existed until this afternoon; the collection will be moving to 48 Wall Street in January 2008, just a block’s walk from my office.

New discoveries: that’s what keeps us coming to these events.

Check out the rest of the CultureFest set on flickr.

Brunch in Wonderland

MB and LW were newly returned from their trip to Nuit Blanche à Paris, so we arranged to meet for crêpes at the original (”Chapter I”) location of Alice’s Tea Cup on West 73rd Street.  (There are two newer spin-offs on the Upper East Side.)  I’d been to Alice’s several times for afternoon/evening tea, but have never before ventured for brunch. We found this ultra-feminine Wonderland to be the perfect place to take a four-year old girl (and her somewhat older dining companions.)

The poached eggs in Alice’s version of Eggs Benedict are served up on a split scone (choice of buttermilk or ham and cheese) instead of the more traditional English muffin, and come with a generous side of potato-chicken hash.

HM had “Alice’s Curious French Toast,” baked bread pudding style, infused with apricot brandy tea and topped with fruit coulis and crème anglaise. I have to admit that it looked pretty tasty, and I’m usually not one for sweet breakfasts. And of course, we each ordered our own personal pot of tea from the extensive tea menu. After such a meal, is it any wonder there was no room left for crêpes?

The Queen’s Hideaway

In Greenpoint tonight for dinner at The Queen’s Hideaway. I’ve been wanting to revisit this sweetly idiosyncratic eatery for the past year, particularly after being thwarted over the summer due to the restaurant’s vacation schedule.

B and I made our way to the burgeoning “hot spot” of Franklin Street where chef/owner Liza Queen (the “Queen” of “The Queen’s Hideaway”) transformed what was an unassuming storefront on a quiet residential street into a tiny restaurant with a garden that on warmer days is a destination unto itself. (New Yorkers put such a high premium on outdoor space that it matters not at all that the garden is less Olmsted and Vaux and more Overgrown Yard.) Tonight, though, was not one of those warmer days, so we took up one of the tabletops in the narrow, cozy dining room.

Despite its distinctly off-the-beaten path locale, Queen’s interpretation of Southern home cooking had earned her a lot of buzz when the restaurant first opened back in 2005. Critical raves from The Times and New York, in addition to a three-star rating in the magazine’s “Cheap Eats” list for 2006 made her restaurant a Greenpoint destination. For some, the homespun charms might be almost too aggressively quirky: semi-open kitchen, no-frills furniture, speakers blaring classic rock, a wall shelf lined with dog-eared cookbooks, mismatched plates, no stemware (though the restaurant acquired a liquor license since the last time we were here)… but one taste of the food, and you realize that there is no pretense here.

The Queen’s Hideaway starts things off with a bowl of warm, boiled peanuts (instead of the usual bread basket) which is both tastier and spicier than one might expect. The menu, handwritten on brown paper, is mostly a creative spin on comfort food, emphasizing local produce and seasonal ingredients. I know, cliché alert, but bear with me here, it’s all actually really good: full of hit-the-spot sides and entrees like these okra fritters with zingy Hideaway hot sauce — hot, fluffy, perfect — and a generous wedge of skillet cornbread with homemade pickles. The daily-shifting menu is based equally on Queen’s whims as on her trips to the Union Square Greenmarket.

This night, it seems that Queen had procured a supply of fresh venison; I don’t often get the opportunity to eat game, so it was an easy decision to go for the stew topped with fresh ricotta, Mission figs and hazelnuts. (Blurry photo, I know, but I just couldn’t wait to dig in.  It was delicious!)

A couple years into its tenure, the restaurant continues to impress, recently making Gawker’s TODO list. Gourmet magazine’s October 2007 issue features The Queen’s Hideaway in its guide to “America’s Best Farm-to-Table Restaurants.” One small quibble, though: while the food is as satisfying as ever, a meal is far less of a deal than it used to be. For starters, the restaurant is no longer BYOB, and entrees which once ran in the $10 to $12 range, are now $16 to $20 — a rather significant jump over just two years. Gridskipper keyed into this last year and I’m surprised that the upward price drift is not mentioned more in the recent reviews. Still, I want to throw some support behind this gem of a place; Queen is, after all, one of the small handful of women chefs to head up her own New York City restaurant. It’s 2007: why is that?