By Isa Benveniste My kitchen is small. After all, I live in a Greenwich Village apartment—but not very small, as I can comfortably fit in a table where I have breakfast and other meals and where I can do prep and roll out pastry dough. I always do these things standing up, for no other
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Caffe Reggio: 92-year-old Café in the Heart of the West Village
By Anthony Paradiso Caffe Reggio is a 92-year-old coffee shop nestled right in the heart of the West Village at 119 MacDougal Street between Thompson and Minetta Lane. I walked down from Sixth Avenue and walked over to MacDougal Street, where I came across a coffee shop that looked different from the rest. You can’t
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IN AND OUT
The title of this month’s In & Out could be “Delayed Gratification.” There were just two openings, a number of closings, but lots of projects in the works. There continues to be increased activity in the Bedford/Downing/Carmine area, and a couple of Korean restaurants are coming, replacing Do Hwa which closed last month. Open Chama
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My Favorite Restaurant
We asked and you answered! We received many responses to our query for your favorite neighborhood restaurants. Our first winner is Dee Vitale Henle, who enjoys EN Japanese Brasserie. The winner receives a FREE one year subscription to WestView News. Please submit your local favorite to: westviewarticles@gmail.com GRAND PRIZE WINNER Dee Vitale Henle Recommends EN
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Rage, Rage Against Croman
By Cynthia Chaffee and Mary Ann Miller Whenever a New York restaurant closes, look under the nearest rock and you’ll usually find Steve Croman, the notorious landlord who just spent several months in jail—not at Rikers where he was supposed to go, but at the Manhattan correctional center, a.k.a. “The Tombs.” Add to the mix Eytan
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Osteria 57 Flavors West Village with Mouth-Popping Italian Pescatarian Fusion
By Karen Rempel Osteria 57 has been lighting up West 10th Street with tiny fairy lights for a year and a half, and delighting our mouthbuds with intricate flavors constructed from the earth and sea. I’ve enjoyed many meals and special occasions at owner and host Emanuele’s Sardinian masterpiece of hospitality and epicurean adventures. Last
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IN AND OUT
This month we saw mostly closings, something that often happens in the winter, with five on Bleecker Street alone. Hopefully next month we will have happier news to report. Open North Fork (122 Christopher Street and Bedford Street). This farm-to-table restaurant opened in the old Croman-owned Lima’s Taste space. I spoke with the Chef, Chris,
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My Favorite Restaurant
“Can you recommend a good Village restaurant?” When you get asked this question by a tourist or a new friend what pops into your head? Probably it’s a restaurant you have been going to for years, or maybe it is a brand new one that you just found and the food is absolutely sensational. As
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IN AND OUT
Open Top Openings: Encore 1 Little West 12th Street (between Gansevoort Street and Ninth Avenue) When I spoke to Harold Moore a few months ago about his just-opened French spot Bistro Pierre Lapin, he explained that French food had fallen from favor in New York but that recently it was making a comeback, following the
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Integral Yoga Natural Foods Closes Doors After 45 Years
By Sarah Dowson Recently hundreds of loyal natural-foods patrons were shocked and heartbroken to learn that Integral Yoga Natural Foods (“IYNF”), at 229 West 13th Street, had closed because of overwhelming competition in the changing retail landscape. IYNF sold organic fruits and vegetables, prepared foods, freshly juiced vegetables, as well as flour, grains, and spices
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Integral Yoga Natural Foods: Some Memories
Having finished my organic red kale the other day, I ambled over to Integral Yoga Natural Foods (“IYNF”) at 227 West 13th St. with the intention of buying another bunch to munch and maybe a few spices too. I felt devastated to see a sign on their door announced they were closing due to “overwhelming
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IN AND OUT
Correction: in the October In & Out, we reported that Toosh, a shoe store at Bleecker Street (east of 7th Avenue South) was closing. We hear from the owner that it is not, and a further check reveals that it is very much open. We apologize for the error. High rents and real estate taxes
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IN AND OUT
Correction: in the September In & Out, we reported that Ghandi Café (283 Bleecker Street east of 7th Avenue South) appeared to have closed. Not so! We apologize for the misinformation. The big news this month was that the Small Business Jobs Survival Act (SBJSA) had a hearing at City Hall on October 22. The
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Ready to Eat
By Caroline Benveniste The retail activity on Hudson Street waxes and wanes with the seasons. Sometimes many of the restaurants and shops on one block close en masse (like Bespoke Kitchen, Tavo and La Maison Supreme), and other times improbably fancy stores open on a formerly bleak block (Günter Seeger, Sherri B and Martial
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Dine in Lefkada Tonight
Mediterranean Cuisine—Made with Love: From the Greek Island of Lefkada to Manhattan’s Westside Market, by Maria Zoitas By Caroline Benveniste With the dwindling number of supermarkets in the Village, it’s lucky that Villagers have access to a Westside Market on West 14th Street and 7th Avenue. But to call it a supermarket is unfair: when
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IN AND OUT
Retail may be struggling, but some brands have decided that the way forward is to improve customer experience, and one approach is to add food and drinks to the mix. Another trendlet we continue to observe is the proliferation of Asian restaurant openings in the Village. The item that received the most press this month
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From the Blue Zone to the Big Apple: Ikaria Comes to New York
By Lisa Bernhard On November 3rd and 4th, Ikarian chef Eleni Karimalis and her winemaker husband George will talk about their philosophy of healthy living and lead hands-on cooking classes of their favorite plant-based dishes at Miette Culinary Studio in Little Italy. Eleni and George, who were featured on Diane Kochilas’ My Greek Table (“Flavors
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Michael’s Recipe for When You Talked Too Long
By Jane Heil Usyk Here is a quick, delicious, lifesaving recipe for nights when you come home late and only have five minutes to make dinner; it’s also very cheap. The other night, for example, we were at our usual Monday night powwow with Simon, our wonderful opera teacher, who teaches opera appreciation and goes
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If You Can’t Fix It, Lie – NYCHA gives a course in lying and even has a textbook
By George Capsis I clicked on the TV to find Mayor de Blasio, in front of a gaggle of terribly young City Council members, competently running down the council’s achievements as the session apparently came to an end. With only the slightest change in tone he slid into what was happening to the New York
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Farewell to the Queen of Pasta
By Jane Heil Usyk Just got out of Perazzo’s, where Mrs. Raffetto was lying in state. It was the center of Village life today; half the Village came in while we were there on Monday. We all said she was lucky to have died the way she did; as her son Andrew said, she was
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La Nacional, Celebrating Little Spain
By Eleanor Cole On June 15th, in anticipation of its 150th anniversary, La Nacional-Spanish Benevolent Society will inaugurate its community restaurant. The last surviving remnant of the once vibrant community known as Little Spain, La Nacional was the cultural, charitable and spiritual center for the Spanish and Hispanic community. The renovation, funded almost entirely by
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Caffè Vivaldi Closes
By Caroline Benveniste When Ishrat Ansari posted the news on Caffè Vivaldi’s website that the café/restaurant/performance and community space would be closing on June 23rd, after 35 years, we received many emails from distraught readers alerting us to the fact. The closing was big news—articles appeared in The Villager and Gothamist, and Jeremiah’s Vanishing New
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Junzi Kitchen
By Caroline Benveniste On July 16th or thereabouts, Junzi Kitchen, a Chinese fast-casual restaurant will open at 170 Bleecker Street. This will be the restaurant’s third location, and to the casual diner, it will be a delicious and convenient lunch or dinner option. But if you eat there without knowing its history, you’ll be missing
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Euphoria in an Ear of Corn
By Jane Heil Usyk You can hardly imagine a happier person these days than my husband, surrounded as he is by a variety of food stores. He is beside himself with joy about the opening of Trader Joe’s in SoHo, which has lovely, fresh food and very low prices and has, in his words, “liberated
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In and Out
This month closings continued unabated. A specialist on high-rent blight, of the kind we are seeing on Christopher and Bleecker Streets, had a possible explanation for why landlords might keep stores empty rather than accepting a lower rent: if a landlord has a number of properties, and is looking for a loan from the bank
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Peruvian Food by Way of a 7th Avenue Model
By David Porat Francoe Noriega is a celebrity chef based on somewhat humble beginnings as an underwear model. A Peruvian who has done a good bit of television, Franco, with the help of some PR, has become a celebrity Chef. Often wearing not much more than an apron, he is the owner of Baby Brasa, located
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Elegant Dining at Home: It Might be Cheaper Than You Think
By Deirdre Anderson, Private Chef Many years ago, having a private chef such as myself, was something reserved for the truly wealthy. Today, as the demand for private chefs has risen dramatically, so has the competition. Although most people have a general valuation of a plumber’s hourly rate, many don’t realize that private chefs charge
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Requiem for a Neighborhood Burger Joint
By Jane Heil Usyk Here’s what a neighborhood is to me: it’s a few square blocks with homes or apartments, a grocery store or two or three, a shoe repair, a laundry, a cleaners, a hairdresser, a park, a library, maybe a stationery store and–most important of all–a bar or restaurant with good cheap food and drink,
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In and Out
The sale of Chelsea Market by Jamestown Properties to Google has been finalized, and the good news is that Google has assured the community that “Jamestown will continue to manage the retail and food hall.” This month we sensed that Village landlords were beginning to accept the new rent realities: a “for rent” sign in
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No More Faux-Feta
Just try telling Citarella, Zabar’s, or Murray’s Cheese to take those ‘French feta’ and ‘Danish feta’ labels off their faux-feta products. Either they won’t know what you’re talking about when you say that feta is an “EU protected designation of origin product of Greece since 2002,” or they’ll just shrug and say they can call
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Chelsea Market Changes Upstairs and Downstairs
By David Porat Chelsea Market, which has been rather constant over the last 20-plus years, is changing. About two weeks ago, it was announced that Google, a significant tenant in the building and landlord of 88 8th Avenue, known as the Port Authority Building, along with Pier 57 at the end of 15th Street (which
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Modern Middle Eastern Dining in the West Village
By Caroline Benveniste As I planned our January visit to Tel Aviv, I confess that I mostly focused on food. I had a long list of places to try, gleaned from articles and friends’ and relatives’ recommendations. There were also a few places that I’d heard about because the chefs had either opened or were
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In and Out
This month, the big real estate news was that Google, in its quest to obtain more office space, was not only buying the Chelsea Market building but also increasing its footprint at Pier 57 at 15th Street. Originally, Anthony Bourdain had been planning a huge international “street food” market at the pier, but those plans
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Abingdon Square Food Paradise: A Sequel
By Barry Benepe In the January 2018 issue of WestView, I described some of the farmers that came into the city from the surrounding region to set up their products at thte Abingdon Square Greenmarket on Saturdays. An additional farmer, with an outstanding array of farm-made cow cheeses, is Consider Bardwell, founded in 1864 in
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It All Started with Pop-Pop
By Dierdre Anderson Pop-Pop, aka Vincent Scailo, my Italian grandfather, sparked my initial love for food. Namely, the preparation part. Growing up, family get-togethers were all about the food. Of course we loved to eat, but with equal passion we loved to create. Together. While Grandma Helen simmered and stirred, my mom seemed to constantly
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More Insight on Coffee Joints
Dear Mr. Capsis: First, I am sorry to learn of the loss of John Capsis. My condolences to you and your family. My reason for writing is this: Gordon T. Hughes, Jr., in his January 2018 WestView article “West Village Coffee Joints,” missed an exquisite newcomer to the neighborhood. Ad Hoc Collective Coffee + Shoppe—part
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In & Out
As usually happens in January, there were few openings and numerous closings, some of them due to lease issues. Corey Johnson, the new City Council Speaker, said that he was in favor of a hearing on the Small Business Jobs Survival Act (SBJSA), which, as described on the City Council website is, “A Local Law
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Correction
Within the January 2018 issue of WestView, the dollar amounts referenced in the article entitled “West Village: A Food Desert?” were incorrect (page 10). The corresponding sentence should read: “The farmers bring home some 20 to 25 million hard-earned dollars…”
