Visiting Madison, Wisconsin is easy. There are 20-30 really good restaurants and if you know someone there, you’re guaranteed a good meal. In New York, that doesn’t work. You need at least some parameters. There are, approximately, 300 million restaurants in the city and 75% of them are good.
If you want to make it easy on your host/friend/butler, give him something to go on. Here are some suggestions:
Location: “I’m going to the Mets game on Saturday. What should I eat before the game?”
Atmosphere: “My brother is hard of hearing, any quiet restaurants near Penn Station?”
Cuisine: “I’m trying to eat a burger in every state. What’s your favorite spot?”
Anti-cuisine: “I’d love to go out, so long as it’s anything but Indian; I had that last night.”
Trendiness: “I cannot stand waiting in line or fighting for reservations. I just want a simple Italian restaurant.”
Cost: “I just got my tax return. Take me to the best sushi in the city.”
Time: “Let’s meet for brunch, but it’s got to be quick. I’ve got a shift at the Park Slope Co-op at noon.”
Situation: “This is my first trip to NYC and I want to try your favorite spots.”
The more of these you have, the better. That being said, a good friend sent me an email asking for recommendations for tasty restaurants that don’t need reservations and aren’t too trendy. This was for a couple that never been to NYC. Because I love being a gastronomic ambassador, I occasionally ignored the instructions and provided the following list.
Robin Nagle is the NY Dept. of Sanitation’s anthropologist-in-residence and in this interview reminds us that New York used to be truly disgusting.
Going back 100, 150 years, American cities were disgusting — and New York City was notorious as the filthiest and stinkiest. We were a laughingstock. The rumor goes that sailors could smell the city six miles out to sea.
Yet another thing I was slow to post, but I couldn’t let this one slide. These are images of places that are all the same distance from Ground Zero as the proposed “mosque”. The author has also posted some reactions to the photos.
Eddie Jabbour, the author of the KickMap, explains (in great detail) the story of its creation. There is a lot of content here, but I especially like when he dives into the details of execution (e.g., straightening out roads, clarifying subway line crossings). [via Gil]
It’s official. Many have rumored it, but now Capn Design brings you this exclusive. Trader Joe’s is definitely opening at 21st and 6th in the old Barnes and Noble space. The powerhouse of Grimaldi’s and TJ’s cannot be stopped.
More information will be provided as we get it. DEVELOPING…
This an interactive heat-map visualization of cab pickups throughout NYC over the course of a week. Be sure not to miss the accompanying article, as its chock full of goodness.
Last May, in the entire month, about 554,000 yellow taxis picked up passengers in the East Village; in Inwood at the northern end of Manhattan, pickups numbered only 860, according to the data compiled by Sense Networks.
Sense Networks produces CabSense, an iPhone app that “analyzes tens of millions of GPS data points from NYC taxis to help you find the best corner to catch a cab”.
I want to know if there is an app geared towards cabbies that would tell them where the most lucrative cab rides begin. They could probably charge a lot for that data.
We had another snow day here in New York, so I made this video during lunch.
Putting this together took 10 minutes, including uploading it to Flickr. For all the hemming and hawing about simplifying iMovie, Apple definitely made the right call.
“Take a class every night with a range of specialized teachers in exchange for basic items and services. Secure a spot in a Trade School class by meeting one of the teacher’s barter needs.” My only complaint is that most of the classes are full! [via @lauratitian]
The MTA has been building a tunnel to bring the LIRR into Grand Central. They're expecting it to be complete by 2016. The photo above is from a slideshow on WNYC.org showing some of the images of the dig. Ron Cohen, who is pictured, has been a foreman on this project for a year. If sees it to fruition, he will have worked underground for 9 years. That's insane.
Also worth noting, the workers have a choice of Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks coffee. According to the caption (Image #4), the workers prefer Dunkin Donuts.
Slideshow via Sean and you can read more about this on Gothamist
"'I mix coffee and Coke to stay awake.' It's a little scary to think about how much caffeine is surging through Levent's veins, but that's the life of a 24-hour fruit vendor."
A robot is released with a location written on it. It can only go straight and at a constant speed. Without the intervention of those around it, there's no way it would make it to its destnation. The site has some documentation — videos, photos, maps — of the Tweenbot's inaugural run. I do wonder if the results would have changed with a menacing looking robot.
The Library Initiative "a range of talented architects would design the libraries; private companies would donate books and funds; and we would provide the graphic design, including signage, wayfinding, and a masterbrand that would tie all the sites together." It's a part of the Robin Hood Foundation, which is building new school libraries throughout NYC.
Surprisingly, the city believes this will improve traffic flow around Times Square. And while it helps that I'm in favor of giving pedestrians and cyclists more power, I'm loving how the defeat of the congestion pricing bill has resulted in our mayor taking things into his own hands.
More information will be provided as we get it. DEVELOPING… 
