Pre Covid-19 we searched the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you didn’t have to.” We made it as easy as 1-2-3.
Covid-19 has required some changes. First of all, some very important information:
“There are multiple websites, disappearing slots and even attempts to game the system. Here’s our guide to what you have to do to get a dose in your arm.”
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For January we are going to try a different format – “Top 10 Corona Culture” – updated info and video especially suited to these difficult times OR NYC related visual info (Instagram and YouTube) OR all the NYC news you need to start your day.
We hope you will come back often to see what’s cooking here.
Today it’s NYC Weekend Corona Culture (Sun). NEW STUFF!
Thrillist, a site with tons of food, drink, travel & entertainment info, introduces folks to the coolest things to do in NYC (and other places when you are traveling). I like to check them out regularly. You should, too.
The longest Presidential election in the history of the universe has finally come to an end. You can exhale. And, it’s the weekend! You shouldn’t need any more reasons to celebrate, but we’ll give you some anyway: delivery ramen, private rooftop chalets with fondue, and candle making. You heard that last one right.
Read on for eight actually fun things to eat, do, and see this weekend. And be sure to check out our new Weekend Guide podcast streaming below as well. As always, be safe: wear your mask, keep your distance, and sanitize your hands like your life depends on it. Because, well, it does.
Weekend-longCitywideHuge news for pizza fans throughout the city (and beyond!): DUMBO’s famed
Juliana’s has launched take-and-bake pies. Four varieties of hand-stretched pizzas are available, from the classic margherita to the famed Pizza Special No. 1 with mozzarella, scamorza affumicata, pancetta, and scallions. While diehards are used to waiting hours in line at the shop, these babies need just five minutes at 500 degrees before they’re ready to be inhaled. And for your out-of-town friends, Juliana’s is also
partnering with FreshDirect to make the pies available to those outside the New York area for the first time ever.
Cost: From $17.99 a pie
Weekend-longFlatironJean-Georges Vongerichten’s trio of abc restaurants—Kitchen, Cucina, and V—are some of the city’s most beloved destinations for good reason: the food is fantastic and the ambience even better. The group’s latest venture,
bakery by abc restaurants, focuses on the sweet side of things. Standouts include a lavish cookie box with two dozen treats, four types of cake (including the intriguing carrot beet), and a unique babka with a pistachio crumb and bergamot glaze. Pick up at abcV or
schedule delivery via Tock.
Cost: From $22
Weekend-longMeatpacking DistrictIt may be impossible right now to dine at chef Mashama Bailey’s celebrated neo-Southern restaurant
The Grey in Savannah, GA, but luckily you can snag her food up north for a limited time. Starting this week, The Grey will be the restaurant-in-residence at
INTERSECT BY LEXUS-NYC, and the first to offer dine-away and delivery. Each week will feature a different port city Southern-style menu, with dishes like crab Louie, grilled red snapper, and The Grey’s signature collard greens. For an even more elevated experience, guests can add on a la carte cocktails, or a wine pairing package.
Cost: $65 per person
Weekend-longDowntown ManhattanThere is not a lot of good restaurant news in the last year, so let us take a moment to enjoy this:
Ganso Ramen, a popular Boerum Hill spot that earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand distinction and closed in 2018, is once again in action. Operating out of a ghost kitchen owned by the RBM Restaurant Group (Sarabeth’s, Jane), the beloved noodles are now available for delivery to FiDi, Tribeca, Soho, and Greenwich Village (Upper West Side and Brooklyn will be added soon). Don’t miss their famed shoyu ramen, made with soy sauce-chicken broth, roasted pork belly, and soy-marinated egg.
Cost: Ramen from $17
Weekend-longWilliamsburgFact: the only thing New Yorkers love more than fondue is eating it in a private room. So, it shouldn’t be surprising that this winter’s newest hot spot (or should we say … toasty?) is Winter Village at Westlight. Located on the 23rd floor of The William Vale hotel, the pop-up boasts private, heated chalets that surround the charming rooftop skating rink. The cozy spaces are available to book in 90-minute blocks, which is just long enough to enjoy the Alpine-style fondue served with traditional accompaniments like fingerling potatoes, sourdough bread, and apples.
Cost: $45 starting price to book a chalet, $30 per person for fondue
Friday, January 22, 6:30 pmVirtualArtists Juan Jose Barboza-Gubo and Andrew Mroczek’s “Fatherland” is an arresting body of work that documents the places where violent hate crimes have occurred all over Peru. This Friday, in conjunction with
The Center, the duo will discuss the creation of their work, as well as how they strive to make the stories of the gay and trans communities in Peru heard. While the content of the event may be difficult to hear or triggering for some, there will be live support available during the event.
Cost: $10 suggested donation
Saturday, January 23, 11 am – 3 pmRichmond TownDid you miss the sourdough craze? Puzzles not your thing? Never fear, there is a new, cool-kid in-the-pandemic hobby world and her name is candle making. Head to Historic Richmond Town in Staten Island this Saturday to learn about light and candle making in the 18th and 19th centuries, and then dip your own candles to bring home. Note that the workshop will be held indoors at the 3rd County Courthouse, but there will be limited capacity to ensure safety.
Cost: $50 for a group of up to six people
Weekend-longChelsea and the Upper East SideArtist Joyce Pensato’s subjects include Batman, Spiderman, and Mickey Mouse, but you’ve never seen these famed cartoons the way she captures them. In dual exhibitions at Petzel’s galleries in Chelsea and the Upper East Side, Pensato showcases large scale charcoal on paper works of superheroes, giant images of Lisa Simpson’s face, and a showstopper installation of her former East Williamsburg gallery, complete with paint-splattered tarps and dozens of brushes.
Cost: Free, with reservation
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“Nicolas Cage hosts the history of swearing. Lorde writes a book and Julie Mehretu takes over the Whitney. This new year has to be better, right?”
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“For some visitors, the stop was merely intended to gaze at the enormous hall complete with an enormous skylight roof and Art Deco clock. Many were spotted craning their necks to take in the open skylight, pivoting their hips taking scenic, panoramic photos. Others searched for fresco portraits created by Kehinde Wiley, which are prominently displayed at the 33rd Street entrance, or the spacious and modern Amtrak lounge on the upper floor.”
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“Check out our suggestions for the best art exhibitions you don’t want to miss, including recently opened shows and more
With New York’s art scene being so prominent yet ever-changing, you’ll want to be sure to catch significant exhibitions. Time Out New York rounds up the best art shows and exhibits in NYC, from offerings at the best photography and art galleries in NYC to shows at renowned institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim.”
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WFUV-FM 90.7is my fave local radio station. Noncommercial, member-supported with a format of adult album alternative music, WFUV is doing it’s best to keep us connected to our music with a comprehensive, updated list of live music online.
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1/21 Arlo Parks, from Rough Trade
1/21 Phoebe Bridgers, Bandsintown livestream
1/21 Erin McKeown, Signature Sounds home session
1/21 John Doe, live from Austin’s Cactus Cafe
1/22 Adrianne Lenker, Bandsintown livestream
1/23 Julianna Hatfield, solo acoustic
1/23-4 Crooked Fingers’ Eric Bachmann
1/24 Steve Wynn with Linda Pitman,The Impossible Tour
1/27 Goat Girl, from Rough Trade
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Online concert calendar and links at wfuv.org/livestreams
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Permanent outdoor dining, cocktails to go, and more
“Welcome to Year in Eater 2020, Eater’s annual ritual of eulogizing the past 12 months. In 2020’s final days, Eater NY will be posting questions about New York City’s restaurant scene in the past year, with answers from food writers, photographers, chefs, restaurateurs, entrepreneurs, and even a few local legislators who helped to support the industry through this enormously difficult year. Now, we ask: What new pivots or innovative ideas have you seen emerge from the events of 2020 that you hope continue into 2021?” (ny.eater.com)
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“A Verdi opera from the Met and composers on the border of classical and pop are among the highlights.” NYT
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“Eat for $10 or less at the best restaurants with cheap eats in NYC
UPDATE, October 29 2020: Dining out in New York City has never been so different than this year and it’s not only because restaurants had to shut down their dining rooms for more than six months. The current crisis has put a renewed focus on more affordable food options, whether you’re scarfing down tacos from a food truck or ordering dumplings from a mom-and-pop business in Chinatown. At Time Out New York, we’ve done the homework for you in discovering dishes, old and new, that are all $10 or under.
The hefty prices at many New York restaurants can at times make the dining scene feel like it’s only for the elite. But some of the best restaurants in NYC still serve affordable bites for $10 or less. Dining on a budget in New York doesn’t have to feel like a constraint with our picks for jerk chicken, Sicilian-style pizza, creative veggie burgers, underground buffets, Cuban bakeries and more.”
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New York magazine is biweekly these days and every issue has a wonderful section, “The Culture Pages,” which includes a “To Do” list – 25 things to see, hear, watch, and read. Here are my favorites from the current issue (Jan.20-Feb.3).
Reggie Burrows Hodges
He starts with a black canvas.
Streams of glowing light wash over the accumulated tapestry of Black figures in the new canvases of Reggie Burrows Hodges. Here are post-Impressionist fields with soft edges and colors changing as if by iridescence, infusing these works with dignity and sparks of optical urgency. These almost visionary works give us an artist, in his mid-50s, at the height of his powers. —Jerry Saltz
Karma, 188 and 172 East 2nd Street, through February 28.
Gordon Hookey: Sacred Nation, Scared Nation
A Gary Simmons curation.
Waanyi Aboriginal artist Gordon Hookey is a diamond in the visual rough, a political firebrand and the bringer of a cartoonish pictorial wisdom that makes his works ring with urgency and insight. His paintings connect “Black Aboriginal experience to that of African Americans.” His mural-scale paintings and colorful images light up space as much as the mind and show us that art is where we find it if we only keep looking and stay open to it. —J.S.
fortgansevoort.com/online-exhibitions/gordon-hookey, through February 20.
Viewfinder
Public-art watch.
Even with gentrification, Old New York echoes in South Street Seaport. To smell the metaphysical sea air of the mind, catch this showcase of amazing images by 21 photographers who picture their worlds in ways that will set you a-tingle with optical excitement. It’s best viewed at night in the windows of the gallery, where, once again, the ghosts of New York will join you. —J.S.
19 Fulton Street, through January 31.
Fran & Kate’s Drama Club
Up with the Woosters.
Anyone who has seen Frances McDormand perform with the Wooster Group knows her grave unpredictability resonates with that ensemble’s poker-faced zaniness — whenever she escapes Hollywood for a turn at their scrappy Performing Garage, it’s as if a wolf has found its pack after being trapped with poodles. Now, McDormand and the experimental collective’s powerhouse performer Kate Valk host a live talk show, complete with special guests, films from the legendary Group’s archive, and their own banter about the future of the form. Imagine the Tonight Show, but hosted by two Shaker eldresses, either of whom could tear your throat out. —Helen Shaw
thewoostergroup.org via Zoom, January 28 at 8 p.m. ET.
Silver Lining Streaming Series
Still mint condition.
The much-loved New York stalwart the Mint Theater is in the business of reviving forgotten classics, so it’s unsurprising that it took a serious look at its own archive, offering a full (and free) slate of digital releases, films of productions from past seasons — including Lillian Hellman’s superb labor drama Days to Come (through February 22) and Teresa Deevy’s earthy but eerie Katie Roche (February 1 to March 28). —H.S.
minttheater.org, through June 13.
*This article appears in the January 18, 2021, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!
AND CONTINUING EVENTS
JR: The Chronicles of New York City
The self-described “photograffeur.”
For a blast of fresh air and abstract love, enter the atrium at the Brooklyn Museum. There, you will be engulfed by and surrounded in about the largest wraparound mural you likely have ever seen. From the legendary anonymous French photographer, this wildly collaged panorama presents 1,128 individual New Yorkers. Each subject posed for JR inside a 53-foot trailer-truck the artist parked in numerous local spots. He offered to take pictures of anyone who came by. All of these were then put together into this masterpiece of ambition, love, life, celebration, and audacity. —Jerry Saltz
Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, through February 14.
Countryside, The Future
An urgent look.
Organized by Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal — director of the think tank at Koolhaas’s firm, OMA — this extravaganza of art, design, models, photographs, installations, charts, and diagrams wraps its way up the famous Guggenheim ramps. The visual multiplex lets us consider the countryside that makes up 98 percent of the Earth’s land surface. Possibilities abound, proposals runneth over, and solutions are thrown into the air. Come away amazed and inspired. —J.S.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, through February 15.
“In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at the Met”
Ongoing.
The ultimate balm to the soul in all of Western painting may be the Dutch works that include Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Hals. Thanks to the very deep pockets of the collectors and robber barons of New York, the Met has them and is now displaying 67 of these masterpieces. Get lost in some of the finest brushwork and deepest color in all of painting; glimpse infinity. —J.S.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue.
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Stay home a bit longer. Mask up, stay safe and stay smart
