Month: January 2013

Shimmie Horn

Pasta for Expensive Tastes

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Pasta is usually a relatively cheap way to eat.  But it can also be surprisingly expensive.  Especially if one chooses the special pasta dish on offer at Midtown Manhattan’s BiCE restaurant, close to Shimmie Horn’s Iroquois Hotel.  Indeed, ordering one of their pasta dishes can set one back $2,013!  Apparently it is made from mixed wild mushrooms, 2 pound lobster, shaved seasonal black truffles.  It arrives on a Limited Edition Gianni Versace Bice plate, which was made specifically for Bice 7 months before the death of Gianni Versace and is signed and numbered.  The guest even gets to take it home.

Given that the place is worth a mere$350, this means the guest is still paying a staggering $1,663 for the food.  Quite pricey for a bit of pasta.

Shimmie Horn

The Frick Collection

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Shimmie HornFor those who want to partake in a bit of culture on their next trip to New York, they should pay a visit to the Portico Gallery.  Situated at 1 East 70th Street, close to some of the city’s most luxurious hotels including The Iroquois, The Pierre, or the Surrey Hotel, the museum and library have a lot to offer to both the tourist and veteran New Yorker. Currently on display until January 27th, is the “Frick Collection: Mantegna to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Courtauld Gallery.”  This is a display of 58 pieces from a London museum and art history institute, covering the Renaissance, Baroque as well as modern periods.  Also enjoy Pontormo, Michaelangelo, Rubens, Rembrandt and more.

Cosmopolitan Hotel – Tribeca

New York City Architecture

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New York City Midtown Skyline (?????)A new book published by the University of Illinois Press sheds light on riveting NYC architecture and more. Authored by Professor Wallace, “Media Capital: Architecture and Communications in New York City,” examines the few remaining landmarks in the area constructed by media moguls for the express purpose of validating their dominance.  This book might be of interest to those with a fascination for New York City, its buildings, architecture and how things have changed.  Indeed, for those who frequent modern, luxurious places such as Shimmie Horn’s Cosmopolitan Hotel – Tribeca, the book provides an interesting comparison to what was then versus what is now.  Wallace points out in the book how architecture “has served in no small capacity to shore up legitimacy in moments of doubt.”  She also believes that the pattern is coming full circle – near the old Newspaper Row, in downtown New York, there is now a resurgence with moves by The Daily News and Condé Nast along with new media in old media space.

Chandler Hotel

New York Gets Donation

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NYC-libraryThe city of New York has just received a substantial donation to be used for the enhancement of its libraries and main park.  Mary McConnell Bailey who recently passed away at the age of 88, made a will that requested the city receive a staggering $20m.  The generous lady lived a very modest life – her extraordinary wealth was not known.  She was just known as a hospital and school volunteer. Even her neighbor was shocked at this, having no idea she had anywhere near this sort of money.

Clearly with such a large donation, the city’s libraries and park will undergo quite a change.  For one returning to visit the area – perhaps staying at Shimmie Horn’s Hotel Chandler – in a few years’ time these New York staples might look quite different.  Because Bailey spent so little of her money on herself (living out her days in a very basic Manhattan apartment), the city of New York is set to benefit greatly.

Shimmie Horn

Recent Manhattan Excitement

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Holland_tunnelManhattan encountered a wonderful slice of excitement last week as baby Nassim decided to enter the world – 6 weeks prematurely – at the Holland Tunnel.  The event has since been dubbed “the light at the end of the Holland Tunnel.”

Parents-to-be Abdel Elkarhat and Soukaina Nekhlaoui of Lodi, New Jersey, were en route to a Brooklyn hospital for the premature birth when contractions intensified, leading Elkarhat to pull over by the side of the tunnel for the baby’s unexpected fast delivery. Understandably, first time father was reported to have been “really frantic.”

Even though the news is often filled with the craziness of goings-on in the Big Apple, this heart-warming story really shows that there is also potential to encounter a beaming “light at the end of the tunnel” as well.