is New York City dead?

A (badass) Latina construction worker was in front of me, and an adorable skateboarding teen behind me recommended the green sauce if I wanted just a little spice (not the red sauce, on my life, I know better). NYC: We will feed you.

this is important reporting, thank you

i went to the former eisenberg's for lunch the other day, now known as S&P and run by the court street grocers people. in general i disdain fancy sandwiches but court street is very good and so is S&P! had a reasonably-sized (ie consumable by one person for lunch) pastrami sandwich and an egg cream. the interior is almost entirely preserved from the eisenberg's days and the menu is largely unreconstructed midcentury lunch counter fare--health salad, cream cheese and olive sandwiches (also very good).

anyway it feels like a recognition of changing tastes (vis a vis sourcing and thoughtful preparation) and neighborhood realities but also like a work of historical preservation, both aesthetic and culinary. it was packed so i hope its success sparks a trend.

I need try S+P, reviews have been glowing

Fly @Eagles Fly! We’re going Green and White in honor of the Eagles NFC Championship Victory. pic.twitter.com/RNiwbCIkt7

— Empire State Building (@EmpireStateBldg) January 29, 2023

i went to the former eisenberg's for lunch the other day, now known as S&P and run by the court street grocers people. in general i disdain fancy sandwiches but court street is very good and so is S&P! had a reasonably-sized (ie consumable by one person for lunch) pastrami sandwich

I had that sandwich, and the tuna melt too, both were fine, but neither good enough for me to make a point of going back.

yeah I tried reading that curbed article but gave up after about 1000 words into the USPS digression, just bad editing

dropped the kid off to go to "meet the breeds" at javits center with aunt, leaving wife and myself time to kill/enjoy by ourselves and after much debate about where to eat and trying to find somewhere open early enough that had outdoor seating I realized I didn't have to go far. We went to Kossars right below hudson yards and got bialys and bagels, then we went to Daily Provisions and got the crullers, which, if you haven't had a daily provision cruller, you have no idea just how good something can taste. Then we got lunch at Mercardo Little Spain, feeling glad to give my money to Jose Andres for all his good, rather than Eataly and Batalli.

Point is? Kossar bialy breakfast sandwich, daily provision crullers, new york is most certainly not dead. If you can afford it.

What is dead is the giant suicide machine in the center of hudson yards.

Assuming you’re asking for real, that is a much discussed and much hated art piece that did in fact become something of a suicide machine.

It is also a good visual symbol of the vortex of awfulness that is Hudson Yards. I have a relative who lives in one of those new buildings - they won a rent lottery. The building is massive and had a basketball court and an arcade and a gym and various other amenities and feels sort of like a luxury dorm/student center. The whole neighborhood feels like a mall and then there’s an actual mall within the mall.

Oh sorry I misread that as “what is the deal with” not “what is dead”

Dan that sounds like a great day. I’m saving Kossars on my map, I love me a bialy

Yeah, I know all about the suicide schwarma. What a sign of late-capitalism or whatever. My wife works in museum education and we talk about access issues a lot as well and she was like, any consultant could've said "this is a bad idea!"

The fact that it stands there like that now, is just embarrassing. At a certain point the bottom was open so you can walk inside it, but you can't walk up it now. My suggestion? Make it a home for art installations. Let artists put sculptures all over it or something.

We checked out all the restaurants in the mall there and the area and they all look really nice and somewhat hip, but on closer inspection, the menus were really boring. Kinda figure the types of wealthy people flocking to live in hudson yards, which is now definitely a community with things like drug stars, I imagine they're kind of on the basic side. Rich and basic. Last time I was in hudson yards there wasn't much residential action going on.

Little Spain was great though. They have these empenadas which are like big flat spanish pies, that are delicious.

One good thing about hudson yards and it's mall? Plentiful and easily accessible clean bathrooms.

Have to remember this last the next time I take a bike up to get the 7 train.

drug stars
So NYC is not dead!

ha oops. drug stores obv.

Make it a home for art installations. Let artists put sculptures all over it or something.

Or maybe they could plant with all kinds of exotic trees and plants - kind of a hanging garden.

That'd be cool. It's pretty sterile around there.

"what was this place daddy"

daddy 3000 years into the future: "it was a place of worship, little jimmy"

"what did they worship?"

"shopping, little jimmy"

I know I’m in the minority but I love the mall there, getting lost and going up and down escalators and down the long shiny hallways. I guess I could take or leave the Schwarma. to me it looks like a transformer ready to unfurl into a giant robot and wreak havoc on the buildings

i started going to kossar's on delancey back when it was staffed by a bunch of surly dudes, then they got expansion brained and are following the russ and daughters playbook. every time i've walked by the delancey location post-reno it's been mobbed. there is a lot of money pouring into the les too, every building it seems has massive scaffolding on it right now. i usually just go to manousheh's instead, across from the tj's.

I hate paying a premium for the "story" behind an eatery. No more meta-eateries.

i dunno, those places are still tasty!

sure, Russ and Daughters is v good, it's just expensive for what it is imo.

Fortunately Barney Greengrass still looks like it hasn't been remodeled since the 1980s.

https://gothamist.com/news/mysterious-pink-pigeon-rescued-from-madison-square-park

https://i.imgur.com/lAxzv3N.jpg

These small metal canisters in grey were common on the sidewalks in the early 80s but I still don’t know what they are

Guessing drogas

Whippits my b

May also reflect a surge of popular interest in CO2 dragsters, which would surely please my high school shop teacher.

How do I shot whippets

https://a-z-animals.com/media/Whippet-Canis-familiaris-standing-side-by-side-in-woods.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilqtuLj_DRM

Rupert Jee’s Hello Deli on W. 53rd St. is closing after 31 years. I never went there, and I’m not 100% convinced it’s a real place, but rip and thanks for the memories.

lol whippit canisters seem so benign when I see them on sidewalks as opposed to the orange syringe caps that I see much more often these days. (not in NYC, but that's probably true there too.)

I remember empty crack vials all over my school playground (a small city park) uptown

I still smh at people wearing sandals

Anybody going to see the art ensemble of Chicago tonight in red hook?

oh shit, who's in the Art Ensemble now? assuming Roscoe Mitchell is involved i really want to go.

xp i wear sandals at least 9 months a year! this winter was so mild that i never had to switch to shoes.

Roscoe, Don Moye, junius Paul, uhhh I forget who else. It’s like $65 :(

yeah, that's a lot but not totally shocking. my sleep schedule might not allow it either. i usually need to sleep 14 hours on saturday since i work weird hours, and i went to see a friend's band last night. i'd love to see them, though. very tempted.

The Art Ensemble these days can often be more of a big band than an avant-garde theater troupe with horns. I saw them in 2017 and there were about nine people, including Joseph Jarman in his final public appearance. Lately they've been working with Moor Mother a lot, and this is part of the Bang On A Can no-longer-a-marathon festival so expect something special. Definitely worth checking out IMO.

this isn't happening for me :(
i feel like a zombie already

Roscoe is out he has Covid. Shabaka Hutchings is subbing.

This show ruled hard

:(((((( classic regrets

Regrets but I wasn’t really going to get out anyway.

This show ruled hard

― Every post of mine is an expression of eternity (Boring, Maryland)

That's great to hear, but for some reason i thought you live in Maryland.

just came home from the doctor, someone singing 'what a wonderful world' over the distorted intercom at 79th st subway station. kinda like the cnn end of the world video, very creepy.

guy on the train asking for change, at first apologetically, became increasingly agitated and started yelling at everyone, calling them "soulless" if they wouldn't give a fucking dollar. right on.

felt like being in requiem for a dream.

Prince Harry multi hour adventure trying to get from the Zeigfeld to the UES Tuesday night was something...loved the part when his car got stuck behind a garbage truck on some side street

This show ruled hard

― Every post of mine is an expression of eternity (Boring, Maryland)

That's great to hear, but for some reason i thought you live in Maryland.

https://i.imgur.com/XkX2mAo.jpg
Local flora

It is a damned shame that @NYCMayor continues to fail to pay our early childhood educators. It should be absolutely disqualifying for public office. It should be a tremendous scandal. pic.twitter.com/WFf6KskKes

— Shay O'Reilly (@shaygabriel) May 29, 2023