"Was I the only person in the audience, I wondered, who wasn't buying the candid carrottop's buoyant ballyhoo?" John Lahr reviews "Annie," dir. James Lapine, 11/19/2012: Read more.
Silvia Killingsworth's review from the 4/1/13 issue: "It’s Le Pain Quotidien with a Scandinavian makeover." Read more.
"In preparation for attending a World Cup qualifier between MX and the US, I was ordered to be discreet..." Reeves Wiedeman on how to survive a soccer game at Estadio Azteca: Read more.
See Central Park on the cover of the April 1, 2013 issue of The New Yorker, plus a slideshow of Art Deco covers from the 1920s: Read more.
4/1/13 - Michael Schulman profiles the funniest singer-comedian you may have never heard of, Tim Minchin, songwriter for Matilda: The Musical: Read more.
4/1/2013 - Vince Aletti on Bill Brandt, who is the subject of "a brilliant retrospective" at MOMA: Read more.
(3/20/13) SAVE 92Y TRIBECA -- A call for the 92Y to reconsider its decision and maintain 92Y Tribeca, from Richard Brody: Read more.
(3/25/13) Alex Ross writes on George Benjamin's long-awaited masterpiece, "Written on Skin," playing now at the Royal Opera House: Read more.
(3/25/13) Patricia Marx: The store "feels like a huge ski chalet-- that is, one in which O.C.D.-afflicted skiers have color-sorted their parkas before hanging them... from custom-made meat hooks." Read more.
Calvin Tomkins talks to curator Andrew Bolton, and gets a behind-the-scenes look at the Costume Institute's upcoming exhibition, “Punk: Chaos to Couture.” (sub req): Read more.
3/4/13: The Museum's Islamic wing is open again, after 8 years of expansion and renovation. (Trying to see all [fifteen galleries] in one day will wreck you; come back repeatedly.) Read more.
"Follow the spandex!" Kayleen Schaefer went to Lululemon's annual sale, held at the Nassau Coliseum, and lived to tell the tale: Read more.
In our 2/11/13 issue, Kelefa Sanneh explains how Mark Reynier, a wine dealer from London, decided to buy Bruichladdich, a then-almost defunct distillery, and ended up changing the Scotch industry: Read more.
Rosa Parks was born a hundred years ago, on Feb. 4, 1913. In 2008, David Remnick wrote about her funeral, held in Detroit, at Greater Grace Temple Church. Here's a look: Read more.
In 1957, Mollie Panter-Downes visited Prado de San Sebastían for Feria, & wrote about it in our magazine. "To the newcomer it is still one of the most breath-taking spectacles left on Earth..." Read more.
Sarah Larson attends "Manilow on Broadway" (1/30/13): "Manilow is music, of course, and he writes the songs. Another sing-along, an explosion of confetti over our heads, and then home..." Read more.
Be sure to catch the concert of remounted 'New Dance Group'-- founded in NY in 1932-- dances, incl. works by Anna Sokolow, Sophie Maslow, and others. Performance on 2/1/2013. Joan Acocella has more: Read more.
"The food, creative yet controlled, is unusually delicious. Seafood fares particularly well..." -Hannah Goldfield, in the 2/4/2013 issue. Read more.
"David Chang [tried] to create a new breed of Asian-American comfort food, but... the formula doesn't work." - Lizzie Widdicombe reviews Pig and Khao Read more.
"Cohen's recitations feel like religious ceremonies. That may not be an accident." Sasha Frere-Jones on Leonard Cohen, who plays MSG on 12/18/12. Read more.
"Indeed, it felt like good luck to eat there." Hannah Goldfield reviews Bistro Petit in the Nov. 12, 2012 issue: Read more.
Vince Aletti on "Rise and Fall of Apartheid": "...it's the photographers who were on the front lines who give this show its great strength. Their work has lost none of its power or fury." Nov 12, 2012 Read more.
Hilton Als on "The Heiress," dir. Moisés Kaufman: "...the competitive edge that takes over the stage... is part of the show's undoing." (Nov. 12, 2012) Read more.
Tomorrow night (10/24/12) at 7 P.M., Don DeLillo will discuss his new short-story collection "The Angel Esmerelda" with writer Jonathan Franzen. Don't miss it! Read more.
"[F]or a hundred minutes, his ruthless, ravaged caricatures of catastrophe manage to hold our attention with their sense of cultural doom." John Lahr reviews Adam Rapp's "Through the Yellow Hour": Read more.
"The show, as installed by the artist [and] Scott Rothkopf, is an over-all art work in itself." Peter Schjeldahl reviews the Wade Guyton retrospective: http://nyr.kr/SyDICg
"[T]errines, tarts, tripe, and rabbit... grownup food, which arrives as a whisper, not a shout." - Amelia Lester reviews Calliope in the 10/8/12 issue: Read more.
The museum has transposed Lucy R. Lippard's cult classic book "Six Years"-- "art history written from the front lines, porous and unresolved"-- into an exhibit. Andrea K. Scott's review: Read more.
At Reynards, "you don't feel like part of a parody, you just feel lucky to be there." Ariel Levy reviews Reynards: http://nyr.kr/NZLFAZ (9/24/12)
Don't miss the diminutive sculptures tucked into unexpected locations throughout the park, all part of "Lilliput," an exhibit curated by Cecilia Alemani and on display through April 14, 2013: Read more.
"He was thinking of Tchaikovsky, he said." Joan Acocella on "Divertimento from 'Le Baiser de la Fée,'" part of the NYCB's Stravinsky/Balanchine festival 9/18-9/30 Read more.
“This is a fancy food court, and it fulfills its function with gusto.” Indeed, it’s hard to go wrong with most of the selection, including their “startlingly delicious take on the ubiquitous cupcake.” Read more.
“In their first departure from Italian food, the Frankies have reincarnated the Clinton Street location as a Basque-inflicted Spanish cognate.” Read more.
“Like the service, the food is uneven but friendly.” The appetizers are a strong suit, and they are “justifiably proud” of their rotisserie. For dessert, head straight for the fragrant franzipan cake. Read more.
The Italian restaurant’s twist on potato chips and P.B. & J. may seem out of place, but “skip the scoffing and order.” Next, try one of their fresh pastas, and be sure to save room for secondi! Read more.
This sleek bistro offers “haute-cuisine versions of home-cooking favorites.” Their theatrical and legendary DB Burger is “rich, well travelled, charred in the right places, and a little bit jaded.” Read more.
“Though it doesn’t always succeed at either, Bowery Diner’s menu aspires to satisfy adult cravings as well as childhood ones.” When in doubt, order one of their creamy milkshakes. Read more.
“The space is fetching,” but it’s worth noting that, “food is not really the point here.” Instead, come enjoy a few “tasty drinks with funny names.” Read more.
Don’t be deterred by the kitchen’s unusual pairings: “This is food that’s meant to challenge you, which is presumably why the kitchen presents it as art.” Indeed, art that you're guaranteed to devour. Read more.
Is the Empire State Building the center of a second Bermuda Triangle? Lizzie Widdicombe investigated with an Internet-purchased radio-wave meter and a veteran cab driver… Read more.
The delivery of seventeen brand-new grand pianos was “no ordinary U-Haul job”. As students and staff assisted with the movers, two trumpeters “played a fanfare, as if to greet an arriving monarch.” Read more.
Test this out at a game: NYU psychologists found that loyal Yankees fans are more likely than non-fans to underestimate the distance between New York and the home cities of the Yankees’ top rivals. Read more.
Unfamiliar with the city and hiding out from fans, Charlie Chaplin once stayed here in 1916 because he didn’t know of any other hotel where you could dine. Read more.
A peacock once escaped from the zoo and settled into the fifth-floor ledge of an Upper East Side building, capturing the attention of kids, cops, tourists, and Rupert Murdoch. Read more.
Frida Kahlo once told the New Yorker that her husband, Diego Rivera, lost a whopping hundred and twenty-five pounds while painting the controversial Rockefeller Center frescoes. Read more.
In 2010, Tad Friend sought to achieve what had once been done by John Updike in 1956: to walk from the Empire State Building to Rockefeller Center without ever setting foot on Fifth or Sixth Avenue Read more.
In 1996, Ian Frazier started a writing workshop here at the largest soup kitchen in New York City Read more.
Imagine a playground that parents actually like: “If you create a park-like environment and people feel really free, adults hang out and participate like children do.” -Adriaan Geuze, West8 architect Read more.
The chef’s fondness for wild food is reflected in both the menu and the restaurant’s décor. When asked about the vertical herb garden growing in the dining room, a server once replied, “It’s alive.” Read more.
While dining at this Southeast Asian restaurant may not be a relaxed experience, one can “take comfort in the fact that the food lives up to the hype.” Read more.
When Radio City first opened in 1932, it was the world’s largest enclosed theatre. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. once remarked to a New Yorker reporter, “Don’t you think that it’s a lovely room?” Read more.
Once infamous, the park is now “a handsome place, with flower beds, pétanque games, a lending library, a carousel, thousands of portable chairs, theatrical performances, and many other inducements." Read more.
Architect Daniel Libeskind’s plan strikes “a careful balance between commemorating the lives lost and reëstablishing the life of the site itself.” Read more.
The acclaimed organization frequently hosts performances where “a successful story is received with a kind of love that is almost hard to imagine.” Read more.
Located in part of the historic Hittleman Brewery, the bar is stocked with twenty kinds of champagne and three hundred varieties of beer. The massive space also includes an outdoor music venue. Read more.
"...beautiful things happen when George Weld stays open for dinner." Silvia Killingsworth reviews Parish Hall 10/29/12: http://nyr.kr/Tvf6aj
A two-wall mural offers descriptions and illustrations of various cuts of meat and horumon (literally, “discarded goods,” or offal), with notes on their vitamin content and supposed health benefits. Read more.
(3/25/13) Hannah Goldfield: "To have a good time at the Arlington Club, a new steak house from Laurent Tourondel, the BLT restaurateur, you must succumb entirely to the experience..." Read more.
The team behind the Spotted Pig brings this new gastropub that projects a certain swagger. Chef April Bloomfield’s knack for unusual meats is evident, and the menu reads a bit like Dickens. Read more.
The women look like they may be jewelry designers and are overheard pronouncing Kenya “Keen-ya”; the men are almost universally floppy-haired and insist on wearing their plaid scarves through dinner. Read more.
A coquettish and vintagey take on bohemia selling cardigans embellished with jewels, clear beading, rope trim, hot-pink stitching, and pompoms. Read more.
Hannah Goldfield: The dishes were tasty enough, "and felt appropriate in the restaurant’s shire-inn-style setting". More: http://nyr.kr/SAYFeV
In 1929, Mexican revolutionaries holed up here. In case of spies, they blasted “serenades and nocturnes played by a stringed trio” over a “battery of radios.” Read more.
It’s not easy to be a hotel restaurant. Too adventurous and you drive away the hotel guests; too predictable and you become a mere canteen for people who can’t be bothered to go out. Read more.
This stretch might just as well refer to the distance spanned if you lined up, ends to end, all the paperweights, mouse pads, and refrigerator magnets with reproductions of famous paintings on them. Read more.
Robert Sullivan witnessed “the end of the era of the twenty-nine-cent stamp” at a midnight party here in 1991. Read more.
He “assumed the burden of seeing LaGuardia Airport & NYC & his life & clothes & body through the disappointed eyes of his parents.” —Jonathan Franzen, “The Failure” Read more.
After opening in 1950, the gallery amounted to a salon for the New York School of poets, publishing the first or second books of John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, James Schuyler and Barbara Guest. Read more.
Near the landing dock, check out new "smart" parking spaces, featuring square sensors embedded in the pavement that monitor overstays. Read more.
There’s a certain comedy in trying to parse out one’s order: Frühlingssalat (arugula salad), Jakobsmuscheln (sea scallops), Zwiebelroastbraten (strip loin). Read more.
Books-by-the-Foot service provides ready-made libraries. “Bargain books,” a random selection of hardbacks, is the cheapest, at ten dollars a foot. For thirty dollars, clients can customize the color. Read more.
Its Web site advises, “Please be referred by someone who has already visited us,” and the lore is that its phone number is not listed. In reality, the number surfaces with determined Googling. Read more.
A waiter: “Rubirosa? I heard he was this man who used to be a playboy and he had sex with everyone, and then he became a librarian.” Read more.
The front of the vest-pocket space—a hybrid bodega, lunch counter, and raw bar—is stocked with groceries. In the back, a mere two dozen seats at the bar and around one communal table. Read more.
Are people paying to see calamity? Theatregoers suffer a case of Spider-Man Schadenfreude, as injured actors spur ticket sales for the new Broadway musical. Read more.
The plaque reads “In Memory of My Wife, Margarita Delacorte, Who Loved All Children.” Not only must all children love Alice but when they go to the Park they must love Mrs. Delacorte, too. Read more.
“This is loaded with subtle shit,” Apple store architect Peter Q. Bohlin explained of his new building in a May, 2010 Talk of the Town piece. Read more.
The longest smoke break of Nicholas White’s life began at around 11:00 on a Friday night in October, 1999. He spent forty-one hours trapped in elevator car No. 30. Watch the video. Read more.
The place began life as an evening tenant at the Dumbo General Store, but the atmosphere in its new location on the Bowery is meant to evoke the sophistication of contemporary Mexico. Read more.
This Village relic was revamped by the restaurateur Keith McNally, of the Odeon, Balthazar, and Pastis. The vibe is now less seedy watering hole, more claustrophobe-celeb. Read more.
“And if you’re trying to describe a institution like Poets House,/…With a library, an auditorium, exhibition space, and reading rooms,/…Ordinary prose will not do.” –Ian Frazier Read more.
This 1832 red-brick row house was home to the Treadwell family for nearly a century. Touring it in 1989, Richard Brookhiser was “struck by the incongruities—austerity side-by-side with lavishness.” Read more.
Robert De Niro’s place seems at first glance rather high-end faux. But the chef Andrew Carmellini’s blissfully homey Italian food serves as a reminder that cooking what you grow is a very good idea. Read more.
Didier Pawlicki, the chef and owner of one of the tiniest, least pretentious, more pleasurable French bistros in the city, is a sensitive and adaptable—not to mention Internet-savvy—soul. Read more.
After a night on the streets of midtown, “as the light strengthened, the dreariness and the harshness of the Square became a palpable thing,” Morris Markey wrote in 1934. Read more.
“My history is a Hudson River history,” said Albert Butzel in a 1997 Talk piece about his battle against highway expansion and for the park’s creation. It only took him twenty years. Read more.
J. P. Morgan demanded strict safeguards for the rare objects kept here, stating in 1924 that “one soiled thumb could undo the work of nine hundred years, and a misplaced cough could be a disaster.” Read more.
“At the moment of marching across Penn Station, there seemed to be mighty few travellers who would take sides for or against her.” —John O’Hara, “Drawing Room B” Read more.
“The name, though reminiscent of a Tarzan boast, is apt: Flex Mussels forgoes European and American tradition and puts the mussel on steroids.” Read more.
“The thin galoot outside Gristede’s had taken a powder when I got there; that meant we were no longer playing girls’ rules.” —S. J. Perelman, “Farewell, My Lovely Appetizer” Read more.
“[Tomasina] had pretty much everything she wanted in life. She had a great job as an assistant producer of the ‘CBS Evening News with Dan Rather.’ ” —Jeffrey Eugenides, “Baster” Read more.
“While riding in Fifth Avenue buses, girls who knew Holden often thought they saw him walking past Saks’ … but it was usually somebody else.” —J. D. Salinger, “Slight Rebellion Off Madison” Read more.
“The space is either the principal attraction (if its airporty weirdness appeals) or the primary problem (if the weirdness does not, and if the premium therefore grates).” Read more.
Harold Ross, the magazine’s founder, roamed here to ask his friends to write. Once, when he asked Dorothy Parker why she wasn’t in the office writing, she replied, “Someone was using the pencil.” Read more.
George Clinton, the Methuselah of funk, toured a robot exhibit here, and, even with a spiky mop of red, yellow, green, pink, and black braids, he managed to remain invisible to a school of preteens. Read more.
Investment banks recently banned employees from entertaining clients in front of bikini-clad waitresses. Owner Dennis Riese defends himself. Read more.
Before this became a discount clothing spot with communal dressing rooms, in 2007, it was a gay bathhouse, then the swingers’ club Plato’s Retreat. Read more.
The owner, Evan Blum, sells all types of “vintage doors.” In a 2007 Talk of the Town piece, Blum says, “They don’t look special, but more people have a need for ordinary doors than you could imagine.” Read more.
Don’t miss the basement around Christmastime “by thoughtlessly choosing to go to Europe instead.” It’s “a high adventure in smells”: bacon, leather, “rayon undies.” Read more.
There’s menorah mania in the gift shop of this spot, which, considering the many exhibits that feature artists such as Pissarro or Soutine, could easily be called the "I Didn’t Know They Were Jewish!" Read more.
The gongs, samurai swords, and bottles of wine lining empty maze-like corridors have a bad-dreamy effect, but chef Shaun Hergatt has a way with seafood. Read more.
At 5:30 P.M. on Wednesdays, people gather in Suite 1107 for Laughter Yoga. Read more.
Designed by the Japanese architects SANAA: “The visual signals this building sends—it is at once crisp and pliable, solid and permeable—seem deliberately ambiguous.” Read more.
This Plaza Hotel bar is a bit of classic New York (Cary Grant went there in “North by Northwest”) and features fetching murals of Central Park in winter by Everett Shinn. Read more.
Having already appropriated northern Italy (via Alto) and southern Italy (via Convivio), chef Michael White takes on the coast with this shrine to seafood. Read more.
In 1938, workmen laid down a new 2,295-square-foot rug in the lobby, “stopping only to extricate a workman who had fallen into its folds.” Read more.
Hendrik Hertzberg watched a 1972 discussion of “the woman question”—namely, whether they should be allowed to join. The verdict: No. Read more.
Charlie Chaplin said in 1978 that “it was Willie Hammerstein, Oscar’s son, who invented pie-throwing” as a gag for one of Chaplin’s acts. Read more.
March, 2010, marked the demolition of the old Yankee Stadium, home to the Yankees and, in the seventies, psychedelic concession-stand uniforms. Lifelong fans are in mourning. Read more.
These police officers deal with bomb threats and mysterious packages, and win Tony Awards in their spare time. Read more.
“So broadly Spanish (‘modern’) as to include accents of old colonies and rival powers,” with “a casual, airy bar area for tapas and a formal dining room, with Iberian maroons.” Read more.
