Jaunted

As always there is a constant slew of new restaurants and bars opening up, vying for attention and your dinero. On the very posh end, Le Cirque has finally opened in its new location. It's in the new Bloomberg building, but is said to have the same pecking order as the old place. And snobby as it may sound, I loved the old place. Outstanding food, and never once did we detect the snob factor among the staff (even on the night my husband's shoe literally fell to pieces as he exited the cab, and walked into the restaurant trying to hide the fact that the sole of his new clown shoe was hanging on by a mere inch of treading.)

And on the fancy drinks front, the beautiful people in love with themselves amid a beautiful view will want to head up to the new rooftop bar at 230 Fifth.  The 360-degree, 21st-floor Midtown views are stunning--as long as it's not pouring rain (like it has most of this past week,) or painfully humid (like it was the week before.)

Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood has gotten more than its fair share of attention lately, (from a cover story in Time Out to a full feature from the Washington Post,) because it's changing so rapidly from industrial gangland into an I-had-no-idea daytrip for other New Yorkers. Just before the Brooklyn cruise ship terminal opened in April, I wrote a little guide to Red Hook, but it's almost ready for an overhaul. The overwhelming Fairway market has opened its doors, chock full of all the basic supermarket stuff along with gourmet cheeses, meats, olives, and ready-to-eat meals priced on to he lower end of what you'd expect to pay. The Waterfront Museum has reopened, a new wine bar, Tini, is set to open next month and the NY Water Taxi has begun weekend service, (and reopened Water Taxi Beach,) which will get you an up-close eyeful of the Queen Mary 2 if you time your trip right.

Also planned for this summer is the opening of the Tribute Center across the street from Ground Zero. Since the main memorial museum is still years away from completion, this center is intended to serve as a place for tourists to get some of their questions answered while visiting the site. Although they're now aiming for August, when I went by two weeks ago, a quick look inside showed the construction has a very long way to go.

Here are some of the headlines from NewYorkology this past week:
Bedrock blasting at Ground Zero to start Monday
Dubai royal family to bring back Knickerbocker Hotel
Manitoga placed on endangered properties list
Central Park, Prospect Park reduce auto routes