Seen & Heard: The Smile Newsstand Is Temporarily Closed

••• Not much to smile about at the Smile Newsstand inside Shinola this week…. The Department of Health inspectors are out of control. Even if there really is an issue, it’s not endangering anyone’s health, so why require a shutdown? UPDATE 5/21: “Heard from a reliable source and friend that Smile was cited by the Dept of Health for allowing dogs to come in,” commented TriBeCa Mom. “Although most people think it is a store, it is treated the same as any restaurant by the health inspectors.” That seems far more logical.

••• First look at how the curtain wall will look at the top of 3 World Trade Center. Whether the top is open to the air or not is still unclear; it looks that way, at least on the north side, in the rendering.

••• The Thom Browne men’s store has moved into the southern retail space at 100 Hudson while work gets done on its space, and the women’s collection is available there, too. In a couple of weeks, both spaces will be open—with men’s on the north and women’s on the south—and connected.

••• Press release: “To thank the Battery Park City community, and in conjunction with its upcoming 20th anniversary, the Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is partnering with the Battery Park City Authority to offer free Museum memberships to Battery Park City residents through June 30, 2018. The Community Membership program provides all the benefits of an Individual level membership, including free Museum admission, discounted or free program tickets, and more. […] Community Membership cards may be claimed in person at the Museum’s admission desk with proof of residency in one of Battery Park City’s three zip codes (10280, 10281, and 10282). Once the request is received, the Community Membership card and a welcome packet will be mailed to the resident.”

••• Opening tomorrow at Lubov: “Luba Drozd illuminates the materiality of projected light. Shimmering ultra-thin planes of transparent acetate, vellum and white paper measure the imperceptible thickness of a room as well as framing the inaudible spatial acoustics within it. A piano string reverberates in a corner while pictorial planes are bounced, refracted and interrupted by our own bodies. Trapezoidal shards of light shift as both figure and ground, inside and outside, articulating flatness and perspectival depth. This slippery perceptual condition is one that reveals itself slowly over time, yet one that resists gestalt cohesion.”

 

7 Comments

  1. Heard from a reliable source and friend that Smile was cited by the Dept of Health for allowing dogs to come in. Although most people think it is a store, it is treated the same as any restaurant by the health inspectors. They are now enforcing the no dog in restaurant policy stringently across the city. In the past 3 days, I have had 5 separate restaurants and bars tell me that I cannot bring my Elvis (poodle) into their shops. Boo!

  2. They don’t shut you down over dogs unless you literally have them lying all over the place, it’s just a separate violation and fine. And really you shouldn’t be trying to bring your dogs to these places. Once in a while for a quick run in is fine but the fact is that’s it’s against code and you’re just stressing the restaurant/shop owners out for little reason other than your extreme sense of entitlement.

    • If the DOH is actually enforcing this law, GOOD. In my personal experience, there has been an explosion recently in the number of dogs in food establishments. It looks like everybody is claiming their dog is a service dog now. Recently I saw a dog actually sharing a banquette seat at Rosa Mexicano (uptown) and eating off the table. This really needs to stop. It’s not just unsanitary, it’s extremely unappetizing.

  3. Reliable sources all know that TriBeCa Mom’s post is complete and total BS and intended to call out Smile publicly for a practice she disagrees with – allowing dogs inside.

    First of all – as noted by the poster above, that’s not how DOH fines work.
    Secondly, when this happens, businesses place a sign up reminding customers of the law.
    Most importantly, there is no way TriBeCa Mom was bringing “Elvis” into 5 local restaurants and bars until recently, unless she is truly disabled and he is a service dog as defined by the ADA,
    no matter how beloved he is.
    (http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/rii/service-dogs-in-fse.pdf).
    And why call out the few coffee shops that do allow owners to run in with their dogs for a minute in the bad weather?

    Eric – as a true dog lover, I really hope you will remove TriBeCa Mom’s post (which is inflammatory and ill-intentioned).

  4. Turns out the shutdown was due to them having to install a gate around the cafe for security reasons. Not because of dogs!!!!!

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