MONDAY: Meat & Greet At The Meatpacking Fundraiser
Diane von Furstenberg and Theory’s Andrew Rosen are among the boldface names coming out tonight for the Meatpacking District Improvement Association’s inaugural fundraiser. Highline Stages will host, with the whole neighborhood on hand for sampling. The Misshapes and Nancy of LCD Soundsystem are on DJ duty. Food and booze will be provided by the likes of Catch, Bagatelle, and Serafina. Joie, Jay Godfrey and, of course, VF highlight the sample sales.
With the premium Manhattan puts on space, it’s amazing more restaurants don’t milk their real estate for all-day accessibility. Two exceptions have recently come online, with Feast and Clarkson opening their doors for a morning crowd, with lunches and brunches launching soon.
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TODAY (Monday): Taste Of Greenwich House
For over a century, Greenwich House has been uplifting New Yorkers with social programs, from music schools to senior centers. Pitch in by ponying up for the annual Taste of Greenwich House tonight, Monday the 11th, and you’ll graze from a greatest hits package of neighbor restaurants. Anita Lo and Annisa will be featured, joined by fresh blood like Barraca, Marble Lane, and Swine. Live music and an open bar will keep the Metropolitan Pavilion swinging.
As long as you’re blowing a few hundred million on a renovation, you might as well class up your commissary. That’s the thinking at Macy’s, which is lifting the quality of life for shoppers with some serious Italian on the sixth floor. The Patina Restaurant Group (Summer Garden, La Fonda del Sol, et al) will lay out Neapolitan favorites at Stella 34 Trattoria, while Florentine gelato masters Vivoli will cover dessert.
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FRIDAY: Bowery Poetry Relaunches With Duane Park Burlesque
If poetry is to survive in the big town, it may need to flash a little leg. Bowery Poetry at 308 Bowery relaunches this week with a new partner: Duane Park, the former Tara of Tribeca. Duane brings its Southern comfort and renowned burlesque shows over to the East Village club, and. it all starts this Friday night; The Plume Revue reclaims their Friday night slot with Peekaboo Pointe and Medianoche among the dancers, and a tight jazz band on the tunes.
In contemporary New York, you have to look backward to be forward. The city’s first new lodging of 2013, The Jade Hotel, takes its cues from almost a century ago. The name sounds like the setting for a noir murder mystery, which is fitting given the Art Deco styling inside. Twenties Paris blends with classic-era Greenwich Village for an elegant new boutique.
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THURSDAY: NYC Beer Week Chugs Along
NYC Beer Week is underway, with 300 hopped-up events spread across the city. Catch choice pints at the Williamsburg Cask Beer Festival at d.b.a., Funky Jewbelation Thursday night at Barcade, and the Sunday afternoon closing bash at La Birreria. On Thursday night let one-buck oysters, DJ Teeth, and rare drafts from Smuttynose lure you to neighborhood fave Sea Witch in the South Slope.
A couple of years back my Filipino buddy got married. There was an elaborate buffet and everybody stuffed themselves. After dinner we were settling back with some San Miguels when I noticed a stampede toward the kitchen. The Filipino guests, alerted by a secret signal, were making a run on dessert. Bowl after bowl of halo-halo came floating out in the hands of beaming guests. By the time I got there it was too late. When Josh Valentine remixed the dessert on Top Chef Seattle, I renewed my effort to figure out what the halo-halo fuss was about. Thursday night, at Talde in Park Slope, I finally completed my quest.
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WEDNESDAY (tonight): Richie Notar's Latest Parlor Harlow Opens
Studio 54 and Nobu legend Richie Notar flies solo with Harlow, his glamorous new restaurant and parlor bar. Part of a 1926 gift from William Randolph Hearst to mistress Marion Davies, the space still has its original chandeliers and stained glass. Modern art (there’s a Warhol) updates the look, providing an elegant backdrop for a globe-trotting seafood menu. The raw bar nods back to Nobu with Japanese accents. For dinner, it’s creative combos like salmon with chorizo-Asian pear salsa, or Australian wagyu with fresh chimichurri.
Greenmarket Cocktailing at the Just-Opened THE LCL: Bar & Kitchen
The Gerber Group of Stone Rose and Whiskey Blue fame opens its first NYC restaurant: THE LCL: Bar & Kitchen, which holds down the lobby of the Westin Grand Central with a versatile bar, lounge, and dining room space. You will drink well, whether its Stumptown at breakfast, Organic Avenue at lunch, or a biodynamic wine for dinner. Enjoy multiple trends at once with farm-to-bar cocktails, rocking cold-pressed juice, organic booze, and greenmarket add-ons. On the dining side, look for elevated comfort food like Pat LaFrieda burgers and New York cheddar mac 'n' cheese.
THE LCL: Bar & Kitchen (212 E. 42nd St., Midtown East) opens today. To learn more about the restaurant, check out the listing at BlackBook Guides.

