Kevin White

This week at Your Wild City: some pretty sweet tweets.

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New York City boasts a hearty contingent of Michelin-starred restaurants: all delicious, but many prohibitively expensive for a routine visit. At some point this fall, however, the world's least expensive eatery to earn a Michelin nod will open an outpost in New York City, bringing its lauded bargain eats to Greenwich Village. [ more › ]

Google Translate is celebrating its tenth birthday with a Lower East Side pop-up. The company nabbed the Old Bowery Station space at 168 Bowery for a four-day stint this weekend, celebrating with dinners cooked by local restaurateurs. Each night, a different chef “headliner” will cook a three-course menu. Service is further supported by other “friends” […]

 

Chick-Fil-A has some pretty unconventional views when it comes to nutrition. Let’s not forget the time the franchise tried to convince us all that chicken nuggets were part of a well-balanced, healthy diet. We all know how well that went down. Now,…

The post Chick-Fil-A Bans Iceberg Lettuce from Menu, Calls It “Bottom of the Salad Food Chain” appeared first on First We Feast.

First politicians couldn't define where upstate NY is. Then academics and historians were in disagreement on the matter. And now, thanks to a new poll, we've learned that even the people who (probably) live there aren't sure where upstate NY is—nor whether they are upstaters. [ more › ]

The Temple of Valadier welcomes visitors to a cave in the Frasassi Gorge in Italy’s Marches region. The eponymous structure, designed by Italian architect Giuseppe Valadier in the early 1800s, was to be used as a retreat for Christians seeking forgiveness, earning it the nickname “refuge for sinners.”

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now >>

The Queens Pepsi-Cola sign in Long Island City earned landmark status on Tuesday, joining the ranks of the Prospect Park Boathouse, the Whitehall Ferry Terminal, and the New York Savings Bank in all of its corporate, neon glory. The 147-foot-long sign made it through a Landmarks Preservation Commission gauntlet in February, when officials assessed the landmark-ability of 95 NYC buildings and historical sites—some of which had been backlogged in the agency's system for five decades. Those still under consideration will receive a final vote by December. [ more › ]

Homophobic chicken chain Chick-Fil-A has been speedily making good on threats to inundate New York City with fried chicken sandwiches and waffle fries. On Saturday, the chain will open its second location at West 46th Street and 6th Avenue and there are now rumors that a third location may be in the works for the ground floor of One Madison, a luxury building on 23rd Street across from Madison Square Park. Shots fired, Shake Shack! [ more › ]

Reginald Marsh painted the city’s extremes: gaudy, seedy Coney Island, sex at burlesque shows, Bowery revelry, and the might and strength symbolized by ships and industry.

But his solemn forgotten man (and a second man, lying down on the left) perched at the edge of a dock in 1938’s “Docks, Brooklyn” reveals a loneliness and despair unlike anything depicted in his other paintings and illustrations.

And it just sold for more than $6,000.

In October 1972, the cover of New York magazine featured a photo of a working-class man posing with several paintings.

[“Worker’s Holiday—Coney Island,” 1965]

“This man pumps gas in the Bronx for a living,” the New York headline announced. “He may also be the best primitive painter since Grandma Moses.”

[“New York City,” 1957]

The smiling man on the cover was Ralph Fasanella. Born in the Bronx and raised in Greenwich Village’s Little Italy, Fasanella had already scored some success as a self-taught painter.

[“San Genarro—Festa,” 1950]

But the New York cover turned this middle-aged union organizer and gas station owner into something of an artistic late bloomer.

His enormous, carnival-colored paintings and panoramas, finely detailed and conveying the complexity of urban life, became sought-after examples of primitive art.

[“Stickball”]

“Primitive” was a term he disliked. Social realism might be a more appropriate label for Fasanella’s work, as he captured images of family life, labor unrest, and working-class neighborhoods.

[“New York Going to Work”]

“[His paintings’] bittersweet mood and crowded space also conveyed something of what the critic John Berger called ‘the violence of the daily necessity of the streets,’ noting ‘the way that the density of the working population makes itself felt,'” wrote the New York Times.

His depictions of Italian festivals, the Brooklyn Bridge, Coney Island, and other New York icons burst with color, energy, and authenticity.

“Painting until the wee hours of the morning to the tunes of John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and Dexter Gordon, Fasanella described himself as a jazz artist,” states aflcio.org.

“He said he painted from his belly and would urge young aspiring artists to reject pretention, to be authentic, to paint what they know and where they came from.”

Over 93 days in 2014, National Geographic photographer Jim Brandenburg shot springtime images in his home state of Minnesota. This image of a swallowtail butterfly on a birch tree was captured on day 84 of his project.

See more pictures from the April 2016 magazine story "Watch Spring Turn Into Summer, One Picture at a Time."

The ad blocking panel at Ad Age's Digital Conference agreed on one thing: It's an issue in the short-term, and better content might be one way to combat it. But give it five years and there may not even be an issue at all.

"Ad blocking will still exist, but I think it's a fad," said Shenan Reed, president of digital for WPP's MEC in North America. "It's going to start to wane a bit and we'll get over the newness syndrome."

Ms. Reed also took some of the blame on behalf of advertisers. "Pages have way too many ad units," she said. "We were killing this industry when we decided pop-ups are a good idea. We made [ads] bigger and more viewable. We created an interruption experience as opposed to an engagement experience. We need to resell advertising back to the customer to make them feel like we're doing them a service."

Continue reading at AdAge.com

An NYPD officer who was accused in 2014 of breaking into a woman's home in his boxers and assaulting her, just hours after being honored with the NYPD's second-highest achievement medal, made the case in court this week that he was sleepwalking—not intoxicated—when he broke down the woman's door, allegedly struck her 20 times, and quaffed milk from her refrigerator. [ more › ]

Nine months after its Broadway debut, blockbuster musical Hamilton is driving desperate theater lovers to empty their wallets for fake tickets. The show, which marries inspiration from Ron Chernow's biography of a Founding Father with hip-hop, is re-writing the books on how musicals can relate to audiences. It's an unlikely smash hit, but is its diverse casting doing enough to create work for disadvantaged white actors? Wait, what? [ more › ]

Ben & Jerry's founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield love fellow native Brooklynite and Vermont transplant Bernie Sanders so much, they made him his own ice cream, a mint chocolate chip flavor where "all the chips have somehow floated to the top." And lucky fans of ice cream and single-payer healthcare alike can get a taste of "Bernie's Yearning" today—both Ben and Jerry'll be in Union Square handing out free sundaes starting at 5 p.m. today! [ more › ]

I thought we could do a dive into compound butters today. Compound butters are a lazy cook's secret weapon. They're a way to add intense flavor to preparations without a whole lot of extra effort. They also freeze really well, earning them bonus points as far as I'm concerned. Thaw, stir, and you've got a powerful flavor accent at your disposal. To make a compound butter you incorporate ingredients into a butter base. As much as I love good butter, I also can't help but constantly ask myself - what can I add to this butter to make it extra awesome? I've included a few recent favorites here, and I'll also mention a few things to think about for when you set out to try out your own ideas.

Saffron Date Butter (recipe below):

Scallion Dill Butter (recipe below):

Garlic Green Olive Butter (recipe below):

Lemon Miso Butter (recipe below):

Keep in mind, compound butters are a great way to use up smaller quantities of herbs, spices, the odd clove of garlic, the bottom of the jar of sun-dried tomatoes, or capers. They also freeze really well. I recommend freezing in small quantities, so you can easily pull just enough for a couple of days use. One other tip - concentrated ingredients with little moisture work best. For example roasted strawberries versus fresh strawberries. Orange zest versus orange segments. Have fun! -h

Continue reading Compound Butters - Adding Things to Butter to Make it Extra Awesome...

I owe you an apology.  It took me until now to find out about savory cheesecake and share it with you.  It seems only natural that creamy, salty cheese be turned into a baked savory cake with balancing sweet roasted vegetables, but the concept eluded me.  I was probably, and rightly, blinded by salted caramel.  See:  Salted Caramel Cheesecake Pie (if you promise to come back for this savory treat.

Continue reading Savory Cheesecake with Roasted Vegetables at Joy the Baker.

According to the NYPD, the incident occurred at 3:30 a.m. on Thursday, March 24th, while inside a southbound J train at the Myrtle-Broadway subway station: The man allegedly "blew kisses to the 27-year-old female victim then placed his hand down his pants and touched his genitalia while staring at her." [ more › ]

For everyone else, she's the one that got away, but for two Westchester County restaurant owners, a decommissioned FDNY fireboat is the newest addition to their business empire. Michael Kaphan and Edward Taylor, owners of Purdy's Farmer and the Fish in northern Westchester, bought the 129-foot John D. McKean for $57,400 in an online auction earlier this month, beating out a crowded field of bidders. Last week, the team piloted the boat from its Brooklyn Navy Yard resting place, up the Hudson River to a berth along the Riverwalk in Tarrytown, offshore of where they plan to open a second location of their restaurant. [ more › ]

The America's Cup, the oldest international sporting trophy, has announced its New York City program for this year, with a "warm-up" race taking place in lower Manhattan and New York Harbor. This is the first time in nearly a century that the America's Cup will be here—the last time was in 1920! [ more › ]

A dyeing poison frog (Dendrobates tinctorius) is perched atop a coconut shell in this photo submitted by Your Shot community member Yasar Ugurlu. Its flashy coloring serves as a warning to potential predators that making a meal of this tiny toxic creature would be a mistake.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now >>

We have less than a month until Game Of Thrones returns, and all of our burning questions about who is dead, who might not be dead, and who is definitely going to be nursed back to life will be answered. To tide you over until then, HBO released a second trailer for season six this weekend (it aired during March Madness in a slightly different cut). [ more › ]

The Department of Transportation today released the digital version of its 2016 cycling map, which you can view online and download before the version that absorbs coffee stains goes into circulation next month. While recent courtroom and community board drama has proven that New York in 2016 still hasn't quite decided if bike lanes are unequivocally a good idea, this year's map proudly boasts 70 new or "upgraded" bike-specific lane miles, twelve of which are protected. The map also includes seven miles of new off-street bike lanes, including a stretch of the Springville Greenway on the eastern edge of Freshkills Park in Staten Island. [ more › ]

Les Halles brasserie, the Park Avenue mainstay that was once run by Anthony Bourdain, has closed. [ more › ]

The Port Authority's board of directors voted unanimously this afternoon to approve its multi-billion contribution to one of Governor Cuomo's massive infrastructural pet projects—the complete overhaul of LaGuardia Airport, including a brand-new Terminal B shifted 600 feet closer to Grand Central Parkway, and a central hall that will eventually connect the other three terminals into one continuous structure. [ more › ]

The Easter spirit was in full bloom yesterday outside of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, where thousands of people promenaded in their Sunday best along Fifth Avenue. The NYC Easter Parade is a joyous annual tradition dating back to the 1870s, when it started spontaneously as churchgoers left mass. It's not a traditional parade with organized marchers, but what it lacks in floats it more than makes up for in participatory creativity and dazzling colors. [ more › ]

In the northern reaches of China’s Yunnan Province, in the front range of the Himalaya, many of the people living in the small towns and villages are ethnic Tibetan. Here, Your Shot member Christopher Martin gets a glimpse into one of these traditional Tibetan homes, catching a moment of prayer. “It was an honor to see some of their culture during a visit to this village,” Martin writes.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now >>

“Early spring is in the air,” writes Hiroke Inoue, a Your Shot community member who snapped this photo of red foxes racing on a snowy hill in Biei, a town in Hokkaido, Japan. Considered resourceful animals, red foxes can be found around the world and in various habitats. They mate in winter.

Inoue's shot was recently featured in the Daily Dozen.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now >>