Manhattan Digest

All you need to know about Manhattan culture and so much more...

Jessica Klein

Randall’s Barbecue Gets Comfortable with its Neighbors in the Lower East Side

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Entering Randall’s Barbecue for its press preview last week felt like walking into a cool, older family friend’s refinished basement from the ‘70s—if that friend also happened to be extremely skilled at smoking meat. New arrivals were greeted with wine and mixed drinks (I grabbed The Randall, a mescal, lime, and birch beer mix with Randall’s rib rub covering the rim) to carry through the congenial bustle of strangers grabbing ribs off each other’s plates and pointing out especially tasty dishes to try (as it turns out, all of them). [Read more…] about Randall’s Barbecue Gets Comfortable with its Neighbors in the Lower East Side

Head Out to Eastern Long Island in Style with North Fork Link

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On a sunny, 73-degree day in June, I took the Hampton Jitney from Manhattan to a stop in the North Fork of Long Island called Peconic. Across the street from the bus stop, a large black van waited with a suit- and sunglasses-wearing driver. The van would take me, and a small group of other food and beverage enthusiasts, to pick fresh strawberries, drink locally made rosé, and taste Cabernet-infused chocolates. [Read more…] about Head Out to Eastern Long Island in Style with North Fork Link

Zaika’s Scrumptious Indian Cuisine Sparks in Midtown East

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Stepping down into Zaika (you have to walk below street level to enter) feels like entering a swimming pool. The walls are bathed in a deep, purple-y blue light that washes onto each white tablecloth. Besides some kitschy India-themed wallpaper (not of patterns, but featuring gilded doors and a giant Buddha)—a side effect of the restaurant’s not-so-hip location in Midtown—the décor proved relaxing as I sank my teeth into a delicious meal flavored with cumin and, at one point, blueberries. [Read more…] about Zaika’s Scrumptious Indian Cuisine Sparks in Midtown East

Todd Goldman “Never Grows Up”: Boys r Still Stupid, Still Throw Rocks at Them

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When I was ten years old, I had a t-shirt with a stick figure drawing of a boy on it—the boy was running from circles with squiggly lines behind them, and the caption read, “Boys r stupid, throw rocks at them.” Seventeen years later, I faced a painting featuring the same stick figure, same caption at the Ross Art Group, a Midtown Manhattan gallery. [Read more…] about Todd Goldman “Never Grows Up”: Boys r Still Stupid, Still Throw Rocks at Them

The Met Opera’s Apolitical “Whipped Cream” Exposes the Anxiety of Joy

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A marriage on the stage between contemporary “lowbrow” pop surrealist Mark Ryden and 19th to 20th Century German opera composer Richard Strauss is unexpected. Yet the Ryden-designed “Whipped Cream,” an adaptation of Strauss’s 1924 ballet by the same name in Austrian, “Schlagobers,” played at the Met Opera from May 23 to July 1, and the marriage made sense. It even carried a warning, in spite of both artists’ intent to eschew morals. [Read more…] about The Met Opera’s Apolitical “Whipped Cream” Exposes the Anxiety of Joy

Affordable Art Fair: Spring 2017: “All the Bedazzlers of New York…”

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Though emojis are becoming an increasingly integral part of our text vocabulary, I feel cheated whenever they take up a correspondingly significant portion of an art show. At the Affordable Art Fair in Chelsea, where prices ranged from $100 to $10,000 a piece, emojis winked at attendees from around every corner, dangling in the form of beads on clear strings (by Natasja Van Der Meer) and hanging as shiny, metallic fixtures from the walls. [Read more…] about Affordable Art Fair: Spring 2017: “All the Bedazzlers of New York…”

#WeAreHer: Assuring Professional New York Women of Their Voices

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In the wake of the recent and, to many, traumatizing presidential election, people who have been threatened by the president-elect’s racist, xenophobic, and misogynistic comments have been trying to come to terms with the results. They’ve been turning to cathartic media, planning marches, and in some cases, gathering with like-minded individuals to simply try to heal and de-stress. [Read more…] about #WeAreHer: Assuring Professional New York Women of Their Voices