May 31, 2024 Arts & Culture, Parks, Restaurant/Bar News
THE FUTURE OF DINING SHEDS
Gothamist checked out the modular dining sheds that city DOT set up as models. See more on the new rules here. The sheds are wheelchair-accessible and made up of components that can easily be disassembled. From Gothamist: “Transportation officials said the next generation of outdoor dining structures will be easier to clean, repair and remove from public space between November and April. The new designs will likely cost tens of thousands of dollars, according to official estimates.”
ART ON THE STREET
Artnet has a feature on collector Alex Abedine, whose Tribeca apartment is covered wall-to-wall with rising artists — and some classics as well. From Artnet: “He recalled recently mounting a painting by Farley Aguilar, a behemoth measuring eight by nine feet. ‘They had to disassemble the stretcher frame on the street outside my building in Tribeca and carry it, with the canvas, up the stairs and reassemble it on my dining room floor. Now it can never leave this apartment.’ And he recently gave a gift of several works by emerging artists to the Ogunquit Museum of American Art in Maine, where he’s on the collector’s council, a role he formerly served at the Guggenheim Museum.”
BEEFBAR TRIBECA, FIRST IN US
Wallpaper has a review of Beefbar, the new franchise of what is a mostly European brand. “For Beefbar’s first foray across the pond, the team chose a 1920s building constructed in the grand art deco style typical of the period. With a commanding facade, soaring ceilings, giant arched windows, and plenty of original details, the space has all the grandeur the team sought. French studio Humbert & Poyet, which has designed several Beefbar outposts – including Paris, Milan, Hong Kong, and the original in Monaco – were brought in once again to outfit the restaurant and bar to fit the brand’s decadent DNA, as well as the historic context.”
WHERE TO PEE AT THE BATTERY
This is an old story, but I only mention it because if you are using the Playscape at The Battery, NB that the public bathrooms ARE in the restaurant called The View. The woman got a ticket from officers for allowing her child to pee in the park, rather than take him to the bathrooms. The Post seemed to be confused about that: “One of the officers questioned her parenting choices and motioned at a building — where the upscale restaurant The View is located — as somewhere she should have gone for a bathroom.”
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Had one of the best steaks of my life at Beefbar the other day. But, even if you don’t like steak, you will find great options. My wife had seafood and fishand also fell in love with place.
The new “sheds” are still so ugly, and seem unnecessary. Instead, where feasible, the city should just widen sidewalks and compensate for the cost of that widening work via the permits for outdoor seating on those sidewalks. The seating would then be directly adjacent to restaurant, not across the sidewalk, and certainly not in the street. No need for a “shed”. The seating could be put away when the restaurant or cafe is closed. That is, European-style cafe seating. No more service crossing the pedestrian area. No more graffiti-decorated rat boxes. No more problems with street cleaning access. No more problems with re-paving and maintenance access to the street. Less chance of patrons being hit by a reckless driver. Potentially, such seating can also be year-around, if outdoor electric or gas space heaters are allowed. Where feasible, buildings can allow (retractable?) awnings for the seating area.
Agree. Also, how about all the randomly placed tables and chairs on the sidewalk? In some cases they take over 2/3s of the sidewalk with huge planters marking their ‘territory’ as well as tables.
Uglier than a parked car or a pickup truck? How ugly to see people enjoying themselves at a cafe instead of free parking for NJ residents.
Yes, I’d say the sheds are still preferable to a parked car or truck. Widening the sidewalks, as I suggest, would also typically require eliminating/reducing parking spaces, just like the sheds do. My point is that this could be done differently, and in my view, in a better way, per my notes above. Cleaner, simpler, safer, more aesthetic outdoor dining, without need of sheds.
Brookfield Place Ferry Terminal has clean bathrooms
So tired of entitled parents. Go pee in Washington Heights. FYI, I deal with kids with Sensory Processing disorders and it has nothing to do with peeing. It’s when there are too many stimuli’s and the brain can’t process it having a sensory overload. TBH, and don’t hate me for this parents should have a plan B when their child is not fully potty trained. Sorry… not sorry.
Not for nothing but a kid peeing in a park is probably one of the least egregious acts I have witnessed lately in the city.
Wallpaper is wrong- the Powell (formally Pierce) building was built well before Art Deco, starting in 1890 by the prominent architectural firm of Carrere Hastings, and enlarged and renamed the Powell Building in 1905. Art Deco began in France after 1910, and did not spread to America until 1920s to early 1930s. They would know this if anyone there had read the book Tribeca & Its Architecture ;)