Best Free Things To Do in NYC This Week

Monday, August 9, 2021

Mon, Aug 9 – 6:00 pm / free; no reservation required
Author Reading | The Nazi Menace: Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Road to War
Benjamin Carter Hett discusses his new book. … more

Mon, Aug 9 – 6:30 pm / free; no reservation required
Concert | Salsa Collective
A cooperative ensemble featuring leaders of some of the most swinging salsa bands in New York. … more

Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Tue, Aug 10 – 12:00 pm / free; no reservation required
Concert | Accordionist/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist
This concert showcases an accordionist/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist based in New York City. She ca … more

Tue, Aug 10 – 6:30 pm / free; RSVP required
Dance Lesson | Batingua Arts Dance Class
Batingua Arts instructors and accompanying live musicians will make you leap from your seat and move … more

Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Wed, Aug 11 – 12:30 pm / free; no reservation required
Author Reading | Broadway, Writing, and Show Biz, with 4-Time Tony Nominee Tovah Feldshuh
Authors offer advice and discuss their latest books. WithTovah Feldshuh, … more

Wed, Aug 11 – 7:00 pm / free; no reservation required
Jazz | Bertha Hope 5tet
One of jazz’s living legends, pianist/composer Bertha Hope has toured globally with artists like Nat … more

Wed, Aug 11 = 8:00 pm / free; reservation required
Concert | The History of the Piano: Playing and Discussing
A renowned French pianist plays and discusses some of the intrument’s greatest composers. Discover m … more

Thursday, August 12, 2021

Thu, Aug 12 – 4:00 pm / free; registration required
City Walk | Battery Park City: ‘Green Guidelines’, Teardrop Park and More
The tour covers the north residential neighborhood of Battery Park City, built mostly after 2001 to … more

Thu, Aug 12 – 5:00 pm / free; no reservation required
Concert | Musical Selections from Bach, Bartok, Broadway and the Beatles
Performers:Victoria Paterson, violinHiroko Taguchi, violinPhilip … more

Thu, Aug 12 – 8:00 pm / free
Concert | Brian Stokes Mitchell, Tony Award-Winning Actor and Singer
Welcome back Broadway’s favorite leading man when he returns with an evening of song. Stokes, whose … more

Friday, August 13, 2021

Fri, Aug 13 – 4:30 pm / free; no reservation required
Performance | Famous Theater Company: Shakespeare-Inspired Performances
Breaking traditional theatrical molds, this acclaimed theater company invites people to gather in pu … more

Fri, Aug 13 – 7:00 pm / free; no reservation required
Jazz | Blending Jazz, Haitian Sacred Song and Electronic Pop
One of the world’s best known and most highly respected expert in the centuries old Haitian Vodou re … more

Fri, Aug 13 – 8:00 pm / free
Concert | Brian Stokes Mitchell, Tony Award-Winning Actor and Singer
Welcome back Broadway’s favorite leading man when he returns with an evening of song. Stokes, whose … more

Saturday, August 14, 2021

Sat, Aug 14 – 10:00 am / free
Tour | Garment District: Fashion, Immigrants, Child Labor, Triangle Factory Fire, Gangsters

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Best new restaurants in NYC

If you are looking for some of the best info on food and drink, restaurants and eating in New York City, then you want to head to New York magazine’s Grub Street.

Right now you want to check out: The Return of Restaurants

“Make up for lost meals. No takeout, no pasta kits, just 66 of the best new (or newly relevant) places to eat.”
Edited by Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld, Photographs by Dina Litovsky

Here are 3 more of my faves:

Try Simone Tong’s New Menu

Silver Apricot / 20 Cornelia St.

Last summer, as restaurateurs hastily built makeshift patios, Silver Apricot partners Emmeline Zhao and Simone Tong created a space that truly translated the dining experience to the street without sacrificing a bit of elegance or refinement. (Being situated on one of the West Village’s quieter blocks didn’t hurt.) Purse hooks on the plastic dividers, lavender planted along the perimeter, and quality glass and plateware made for a setting worthy of Tong’s inventive Chinese American dishes like chile-crab rangoon dip and burnished scallion puffs. Now they are renovating the dining room in preparation for indoor service and plan to reopen June 17 with a new seasonal menu.—A.K.

Binge on Bánh MÌ

Bánh Vietnamese Shop House / 942 Amsterdam Ave.

Veteran chefs John Nguyen and Nhu Ton began peddling their Vietnamese sandwiches and crispy pork-belly salad rolls from an empty pop-up space on the upper reaches of Amsterdam Avenue last summer, and the operation was such a hit that by January they’d put down permanent roots in the neighborhood. There are five varieties of toasty bánh mìs to choose from (when in doubt, order the charcoal-grilled pork), numerous sturdy classics from Ton’s native central Vietnam (try the Frisbee-size rice-noodle delicacy called bánh dap), and a deeply flavorful beef pho. —A.P.

See How Cervo’s Spruced Itself Up

Cervo’s / 43 Canal St.

Last summer, the outdoor-dining setup at downtown Portuguese-Spanish restaurant Cervo’s was a destination almost in spite of itself. Simple wooden folding tables and chairs sprawled across an unadorned and fluorescent-lit expanse of Canal Street. Counter-service orders were called out brusquely over a loudspeaker mounted on the building’s exterior. Serviceware was disposable. You found and bussed your own table. But the Dimes Square denizens flocked nonetheless, pushing together tables laden with dark-pink Spritzes, fried-fish sandwiches, and glistening head-on prawns. It was casual, cool, and as COVID-safe as one could hope for. Now, after a winter hiatus operating as a shop, the scene returns to Cervo’s, but this time the restaurant has full-service outdoor dining on a newly built yellow-tiled patio with proper glassware, plateware, and a menu of old favorites like piri-piri chicken, mussels escabeche, and crispy shrimp heads.—A.K.

Also see Eater New York’s interactive map that highlights
all 66 restaurants that deserve your attention.

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