For over 30 years, ladies (and gents) who lunch have favored this classic Bergdorf take on the New York chopped salad. Prices vary depending on the view. At Goodmans, located on the lower Beauty Level (no view or windows) , the salad is $20. At the Seventh Floor BG Restaurant (and bar) designed by Kelly Wearstler, the Gotham is $26 including Central Park views. And yes, you can try this at home:
Gotham Salad (4 servings)
8 cups – shredded iceberg lettuce
1 cup – diced cooked beets
1 cup – diced tomatoes
1 cup – hard-boiled eggs
1 cup – diced ham
1 cup – cooked chopped crisp bacon
1 cup – diced poached skinless chicken breast
1 cup – diced Gruyere cheese
TOSS with Gotham Salad Dressing
Gotham Salad Dressing (4 servings)
1 tbsp – diced red onion
2 tbsp – diced green bell pepper (seeds removed)
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp – chili sauce
2 tbsp – sweet pickled relish
1 tsp – tarragon vinegar
1/2 tsp – grated ginger
1/4 cup – mayonnaise
1/2 tsp – chopped garlic
Salt and pepper per own taste
Puree all ingredients together in blender
Carnival ride operators, Staten Island politicians, big wheel real estate developers, top-tier bankers and our equally well-heeled mayor are over the moon about this one. NYC gets the “New York Wheel”, (at 625 feet the largest Ferris Wheel on the planet ) , Harbor Commons ( a Staten Island version of the Woodbury Commons Outlet Mall ), yet another hotel, even more tourists and billions of bucks in revenue.
Artist’s rendering of Harbor Commons Outlet Mall Staten Island
What we lose is the Staten Island Ferry as we know it (imagine the crowds and congestion) as yet another piece of Old New York surrenders to the developers and that sometimes dubious achievment know as progress. No city funds are involved. but I wonder how long the Staten Island Ferry will stay free and fun. Call me madcap, but hasn’t NYC always been its own crazy kind of carnival? With his newest “Bloombergland” economic vision for Staten Island’s waterfront, our Mayor now makes it official (and officially garish).
Like Woody Allen in Manhattan (1979), I prefer the city in black and white with a Gershwin soundtrack. Opening (VIDEO):
One57 under construction between 6th and 7th Avenues, NYC
is attracting a steady flow of billionaire buyers to his Midtown tower, which upon completion next year will be New York’s tallest building with residences.
One57 will be NYC’s tallest residential building when it is completed in 2013
But Mr. Barnett, the president of the Extell Development Company, is more than a little worried about a possible gripe fest in the tower’s top 15 floors, where the billionaires’ club is forming.
Several of the future owners of the high-altitude, full-floor apartments are hiring their own designers to finish their spaces, which could become a big headache for their neighbors, Mr. Barnett said.
“This was a major, major issue for us,” he said. “We don’t want our people who are buying and accepting our finishes to be sitting there for three or four years while tons of construction goes on in the building and people build out their spaces. It ties up elevators and creates dust and noise. We are doing everything possible to avoid that…”
“They include the fashion moguls Silas K. F. Chou and Lawrence S. Stroll, the first billionaires to be identified as buyers a week ago, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Mr. Stroll, a 53-year-old Canadian, became a billionaire after he and Mr. Chou, 66, took the fashion label Michael Kors public last December as the company’s majority owners and former co-chairmen, cashing out hundreds of millions of dollars of their shares. Mr. Stroll is worth an estimated $1.8 billion, while Mr. Chou, the son of a billionaire from Hong Kong, has a fortune of $2 billion, according to Forbes.
Fashion titans Silas K. Chou and Lawrence Stroll (shown here with designer Michael Kors) both joined the billionaire buyer’s club at One57, according to the NY Times
The longtime friends and business partners, who also previously acquired and served as co-chairmen of the Tommy Hilfiger Corporation, were among the first buyers at One57. According to two people who declined to be identified because of confidentiality agreements, Mr. Stroll bought first; his 85th-floor unit, with four bedrooms and 6,240 square feet, cost just under $50 million. Mr. Chou bought the 82nd floor for just over $50 million, they said.”
Is Ann Romney’s Black Leather Biker-Babe Tonight Show Outfit worse than Mitt’s “47% comment”? A disgruntled observer of the fashion (and political ) scene posted this question on one of the many sites discussing Ann Romney and her leather Leno show get-up. Political affiliations will likely determine whether this pretty, 62 year old grandmother of 18 looks cool or is a country club chick gone wrong. My vote: She’s a strong candidate for What Not to Wear.
Ann Romney In Leather & Lace, Jay Leno Tonight Show
From NY Magazine’s The Cut:
Skirt: Part of a matching skirt-jacket combo, the skirt is made of more tiered leather, laser-cut to look like lace. It’s a confusing garment, resembling a three-way between a petticoat, a Black Swan–style tutu, and an S&M costume; it’s also quite a bit shorter than what we normally see her wearing, falling just above her knee when she’s standing and hitching up to miniskirt length when she sits down.
Shoes: Lacy and strappy, with high stiletto heels. She should’ve just gone all the way and busted out a pair of Louboutins. She surely has some kicking around somewhere on the second floor of one of her closets.
Nails: Mauve.
So, what was Ann trying to say with this outfit? Perhaps she’s hoping to appear a little younger, edgier, and more glamorous; she did tell Leno a story about “making a video” for Mitt (wink, wink) during his last presidential bid four years ago, in which she told him she’d “never do this again.” (Mitt’s answer: “You say that after every pregnancy!”) So she wears racy black leather and uses video equipment…”
Brooklyn Bridge, 1948 by Andreas Feininger for LIFE Magazine
Caveat: The report cited evaluated hipster/prepster Brooklyn only–home of the nouveau artisanal food scene
Via: The Village Voice, “The Fork in the Road” : Battle of The Artisanal Brooklyn Pickle–McClure’s Vs. Brooklyn Brine. Brooklyn Brine was clearly victorious, $10 a jar.
and pickle wars and the fabulous Brooklyn Flea
Brooklyn Flea, One Hanson
(to name just a few of this red-hot, born-again borough’s attractions). Having been landlocked and carless in Manhattan for decades, I know nothing about the many glories of “the new Manhattan” as its rents approach unaffordable territory as well.
“Brooklyn is the second most expensive place to live in the entire country — topped only by Manhattan — according to a just-released report. Just behind Brooklyn: Paradise (AKA Honolulu) , San Francisco, San Jose, Queens, and Stamford Connecticut.
It’s not the pricey grilled cheese sandwiches ($11 for one with truffle butter and duck fat) or artisinal mayonnaise — it’s all housing, according to the Washington-based Council for Community and Economic Research.
The group’s evaluation is based on the cost of people who enjoy “a professional-managerial standard of living.
The council ranks 300 American cities based on a variety of factors including prescription drug prices, utilities, transportation, grocery prices, as well as housing. Using the number 100 to represent the national average, Brooklyn ranked at 183.4 overall — 129.9 in grocery items, 126.4 in utilities, 104 in transportation costs and 111.1 in healthcare costs, and a whopping 344.7 in housing. Manhattan’s average was 233.5.
This means that housing costs in Brooklyn are more than three times that of the average American city, which, according to the survey, is someplace like Erie, Pa., or Charlottesville, Va.
Carlo Scissura, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, told the Brooklyn Eagle:
“As Brooklynites, we want to be Number 1 in everything, but I don’t think we want to be Number 1 or 2 in this survey”
Old Brooklyn (VIDEO): I love this Comment on YouTube: “Video is cool…music sucks it’s Brooklyn, not France!!”…inspired perhaps by the nostalgic combo of “Kishke King” style Brooklyn photos and a French theme song.
The following “Men At Lunch” (VIDEO) trailer is from a documentary about this quintessential 1932 photograph of construction workers taking a break high above Rockefeller Center. (They are building the RCA Building.)
Photo Attributed to Charles Ebbets
On the streets below, (in the second year of the Great Depression), unemployed men were lining up for breadlines, soup kitchens and selling apples. But these men were working–building the skyscrapers that would define the city of the future. It’s a snapshot of gritty optimism and strength at a time when we needed it most.
Terrific editing as two YouTube fans pay tribute to Rita Hayworth and a surprise 1950’s appearance from Miss Calypso, Maya Angelou. Yup, that Maya Angelou, here in the trailer from “Calypso Heat Wave” 1957 and a recording of her 1957 Calypso hit: “Stay Away Joe”:
I guess the race is on for the “can you top this” billionaire bragging rights sweepstakes, New York style. Today the Times announced that $95 million buys you (if you’re a newly minted Chinese billionaire with a yen to park your money in a safe haven), 7,000 square feet and a full floor at the Sherry Netherland Hotel. The co-op’s price includes all the “look at me I’m rich” flourishes and yet another spectacular southern Central Park view. Monthly maintenance is $54,000.
Did one of the world’s richest people (identity still unknown) just make a rookie, out of towner NYC real estate mistake? At $90 million dollars, the 89th/90th floor duplex penthouse condominium at One 57 is the city’s most expensive apartment ever. The perks of ownership include nearly 11, 000 square feet
Kitchen at One 57
and a Master of the Universe view of Central Park.
One 57, NYC’s 90 Million Dollar Penthouse
Also between Sixth and Seventh on 58th Street, is the back entrance to the Landmark Art Deco Essex House Hotel & Condominiums which were sold yesterday for $362 million to the Marriot Corporation. The perks of owning 160 Central Park South (the hotel’s official “right side of the tracks” address on the park ) include the 40 story building , its’ trademark 1932 red six-story neon sign , 509 newly renovated rooms and lobby, and the kind of magical, human scale, streetscape Central Park views (Olstead’s masterpiece begins across the street) that have inspired poets and lovers for over 81 years. Hmmm…90 million for just one apartment, $362 million
Essex House
for an entire legendary hotel on the same West Midtown block with more romantic views? (Think Central Park and the hansom cabs on a snowy New York night
Hansom Cab, Central Park South, New York
or the Plaza where Katie said goodbye to Hubbel . )I guess it’s old school, old New York pre-war elegance and detail vs. new century glass and glitz trophy palaces.
Speaking of stratospheric prices, Bergdorf’s ,(also on 58th Street facing the park) ,is selling high-rise BG 111th Birthday shoes at prices that roughly equal a month’s market rate rent for a Manhattan one bedroom or studio.
Art Deco Landmark, The Essex House, 160 CPS, Sold to Marriot for $362 Million
Jimmy Choo, $2500
Christian Louboutin Shoes, About $4,000
“Whenever I get some money, I buy Calvins. And if there’s any left over, I pay the rent.”–Brooke Shields, Age 15, 1980 Calvin Klein Commercial
designed by Kelly Wearstler, the Gotham is $26 including Central Park views. And yes, you can try this at home:
landlordrocknyc 