Ok, this week's pick isn't a full-on restaurant per se, unless of course you happen to eat solely fresh baked cookies as your main food group. We'll admit, we've had some tough times that called for just that, so our interest is piqued by Insomnia Cookies, opening this week on West 8th near Macdougal.
Started in 2003 by two enterprising UPenn grads, Insomnia Cookies curbs the late night cravings most college students have and offers cookies & milk delivery at a dozen campuses nationwide (including NYU) between the hours of 8pm-2:30am.
This week their first daytime hours run shop is set to open for New Yorkers who sleep at night, offering delicious, reliable standbys like freshly baked double chocolate chunk cookies (90 cents), white chocolate macadamia cookies (90 cents) and others like peanut butter cup ($2), oatmeal, and more. Not to worry, they'll still deliver too. You can also order mixed gift boxes for your favorite co-ed.
How refreshing that the skeleton of CBGB's old 313 Gallery performance-and-art space on the Bowery will sprout something other than a Starbucks. The space will hang on to the rock 'n' roll spirit when it is reborn as a second New York outpost of the Morrison Hotel Gallery.
The new space will lend itself well to visiting browsers, as it's over twice the size of Morrison Hotel's smaller SoHo gallery. The opening show, featuring works by Steve Joester, will debut this Thursday, March 27. After that, on April 24, will be Bob Gruen's "Rockers" exhibit.
The West Chelsea neighborhood once known for its nightlife is no longer safe! Watch out for Lance Bass, the former boy bander and current cast member of "Hairspray" on Broadway, who may be in the vicinity and angry. After a pal got drunk at the gay bar Barracuda, he and Bass took the fight outside till he had had enough and escaped in a cab. Leaving your friend curbside? How rude!
Maybe it's time for Bass to leave New York City; he already told New York magazine he doesn't like it:
Apparently I’m ruder. I read that someone met me at a club and told me I looked great and I was like, ‘Don’t even think about taking a picture.’ Which really sounds like me.
A-ha! Maybe that explains the fight: Lance was just looking too good.
With Memorial Day around the way, folks in New York City are thinking more about getting out on the water than into some stuffy museum. But where to go to find a tropical island breeze and all of nature wild and free? We'd like to think Madonna would skip over to Governors Island National Monument in New York Harbor, which opens June 2.
Long a US Army post, the island--just a few minutes from Manhattan--just recently came under control of the state and the Feds. There's a sort-of back-room secrecy about the place, since developers and other wonky types are fighting over what to "do" with the island these days. (A Santiago Calatrava bridge is one idea floating around.)
But until that gets all sorted, it's easy enough to tour the island and take in some awesome views of NYC's Financial District. A ferry leaves from the Battery Maritime Building, which is just east of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. All the schedules will soon go live on the Park Service's website.
As it turns out, we were at Yankee Stadium when Roger Clemens announced that the Bombers "Came and got me out of Texas." And though not everyone--like the entire city of Houston and this guy--will be clamoring to get tickets to the Rocket's debut, undoubtedly there are plenty of baseball fans eager to watch the overcompensated has-been superstar don the pinstripes one last time. And so, after the jump, our down-and-dirty guide to catching a game at the House that Ruth Built.
If you find yourself in Park Slope, Brooklyn and are looking for a good beer and a game of indoor bocce, head to Union Hall. With over 5,000 square feet of bar, restaurant, and live music space, this place somehow still manages to feel intimate. It must be the book-laden shelves, cozy library-like furniture, and creepy oil portraits on the walls. Head to the rear to sign up for a friendly indoor bocce game, or step outside to the garden for drinks al fresco.
There's a different band every night of the week, and the downstairs bar area muffles the noise nicely. We liked the spacious, slate unisex bathrooms (barely a line!) and unlimited beers on tap. And the menu didn't hurt either - pot stickers, housemade flatbread with bourbon carmelized onions. We also hear brunch is equally as delicious. A bonus: after the live bands go, there's a tempting 80s DJ downstairs and just enough room to let loose. The only thing that bugged us was trying to get a cab home.
New York City hosts, oh, a million or so activities to keep anyone occupied on a rainy weeknight. One event offers all the quirk of online hipster meet-up groups without the pretension.
Don't laugh -- it's diorama making. Manhattanites can take the 4,5,6 or N,Q,R,W lines to Atlantic Ave. and head southeast to Dean St. and 6th Ave. About 30 or so wannabe first-graders meet at Freddy's (a dive bar with a great microbrew called Blue Point Toasted Lager) in Brooklyn at 8 p.m. every first Tuesday of the month. Hidden in the back room behind the bar is an arts and crafts haven for adults. You can clear out your boxes of junk, wield a hot glue gun, and prove to that crotchety Mrs. Johnson that extra glitter can, in fact, mask a lack of artistic talent.
Think your teenage daughter's going a little wild? Scare her BUT GOOD with a trip to an art gallery -- specifically, the Capla Kesting gallery. The gallery is currently showing a life-size statue of Paris Hilton on an autopsy table to demonstrate the dangers of underage drinking and driving under the influence, according to TMZ. Your kid can even win a prize for writing Ms. Hilton's obituary!
Creator Daniel Edwards (previously responsible for works depicting a topless Hillary Rodham Clinton and Britney Spears giving birth) even included Tinkerbell and -- spoiler alert! -- dead twin fetuses. That's right, in Edwards' future the world will apparently be saved from the horrors of Paris' twin daughters, Heiress and Upskirt.
