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Last year, the Barbie movie brought about a sort of Barbie-ssance across the world: Everywhere you looked, it seemed that people were talking about the iconic franchise and its accompanying movie, which carried a poignant message about womanhood.

If you’d like to relive even just a fraction of the 2023 Barbie craze, the Museum of Art and Design near Columbus Circle will give you the chance to bask in Barbie’s full plastic glory once again thanks to its upcoming exhibit, Barbie: A Cultural Icon. 

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The exhibit, which opens on Saturday, October 19 and will continue through March 16, 2025, celebrates the 65-year history of the Barbie franchise and examines its global impact since it was founded on March 9, 1959. To kick off the exhibit, it’ll be “Barbie Day” on October 19. The Museum’s home on Columbus Circle will be temporarily co-named Barbie Circle for the day.

The exhibit will include 250 vintage dolls as well as life-size fashion designs, ads, and vintage interviews with the doll’s designers, per the museum’s website, so you can really understand the dolls’ psyche. 

The exhibit starts, naturally, with Barbie’s origin story, as well as the original 22 ensemble outfits that were sold alongside her. Because Barbie was a huge staple of American culture for so long, you can tell a lot about what was happening in our collective consciousness just by looking at what Barbies were wearing and what they looked like at the time of their release.

The exhibit’s examination of history also considers the impact of the Space Age and even the Civil Rights Movement, which would eventually lead to the creation of the first Black and non-white Barbies in the 2000s. You’ll also be able to see how American fashion evolved through the years, from disco to beachwear and eventually, to the inclusion of different body types. 

In true Barbie fashion, there’s also going to be plenty of room for fun,including a life size Barbie pink convertible that visitors can hop on and other iconic life-size photo opportunities. 

The exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design was curated by Karan Feder and drawn from the private collections of David Porcello and Mattel. You can gain access to the Barbie exhibit by buying general admission tickets to the museum, which are free for kids and go up to $20, depending on the date. The museum is open everyday except Mondays from 10am until 6pm. You can plan your visit here. 

* This article was originally published here

For over 40 years, Michael Ayoub has been in the kitchen. And for much of that tenured duration, his hands have been kneading, rolling and serving up his favorite dish: pizza. When he started Fornino back in 2004, he took on the Neapolitan pie with an eye for New Yorkers, creating a pizza that has the noted chew of the Italian version but with a crust sturdy enough to withstand our love of takeout. And as our pizza scene has grown to welcome newcomers, Fornino has stood the test of time, marking its 20th year in business. We spoke with Ayoub about his stretch in the industry, the science of pizza and how he is celebrating this milestone with some of his favorite hits (and how you can, too).

At your first restaurant, Skaffles, you cooked grilled pizzas. At Cucina, you focused on Chicago-style pie. When approaching Fornino, what made you want to focus on Neapolitan pies?
I wanted to do something where I thought, at the time, hadn’t been done before in New York. I wanted it to be different from the Neapolitan [pizza]. Neapolitan pizzas have a much higher hydration, and it’s a much wetter dough. Many people go to Naples and say, ‘Wow, that pizza was so soft, it was so soupy, it wasn’t cooked.’ I wanted to do something in between, because in New York, we deliver pizza, we eat pizza at home, to go and stuff like that. Neapolitan pizza does not fit that bill, because if you put a true Neapolitan pizza in a box, it becomes a wet napkin.

The tagline of Fornino is “The Art and Science of Pizza.” What is the story behind the tag?
You think, pizza, it’s easy. It was the hardest thing I ever did to create a menu with just one product. You have one product, and it has to be damn good, otherwise, you’re never going to be not going to do anything. That base dough is your whole product. I realized how deep I was going into this black hole of science—what type of protein counts, how much hydration, how much fermentation. I was making pizza before, but not to this level, right? I realized how deep it was going, and that’s where it came up.

Your menu breaks down pizzas by generations: Naples, Italy and Fornino. Can you tell us why you chose to frame the menu in this way?
The Italian government won’t recognize certain things, they have a controlled denomination of origin. They only recognize margarita, marinara and a margarita extra, which is no tomato sauce, only tomatoes. They allow fior di latte, but before it had to be buffalo mozzarella. The second generation is the regions of Italy and all their specialties. Then the third generation is moi and what the crew and I have come up with in all kinds of different combinations.

You also incorporate herbs and vegetables grown fresh from your home garden for specialty pies. When did you start gardening for the restaurant?
I’ve been gardening since I was a kid. We actually had a greenhouse in the first Fornino. But the reality is, it was too small to produce enough of anything. I still grow for the restaurant, I bring in some specialty items. I grow anywhere from 50 varieties of tomatoes. I start off with about 400 plants that I give away. I supply a small farm in Long Island. Anybody that’s ever met me, I’ll give you a tomato plant.

I hope that you save some of these vegetables for yourself.
We can enough tomatoes for the whole year. I haven’t bought a canned tomato in years. The tomato that you get in the store is just, sorry to say, it’s garbage. They grow it so that it can withstand shipping. It’s never picked red. It’s just gassed at the last minute to give it some color. I could get very long-winded about how I feel about supermarket tomatoes.

This year marks 20 years in business. Does it feel like 20 years have passed by?
It went fast, 20 years is a good chunk of your life. But I love what I do. When you open up a restaurant, you’ve got this idea and you hope that everybody likes it. Unfortunately, nine out of 10 people don’t get that opportunity to see it the first year. And to have 20 years go by, it’s not something that I’ve ever sat on my laurels. I’ve always been involved. Being in any kind of business, you have to go with the flow. But I have an expression. You build a restaurant, it’s like seeing the phoenix rise. That’s the rewarding part of being in the restaurant business.

On October 22, you are throwing a 20 year anniversary party and serving up some of your greatest hits. What kind of pizzas can guests expect?
We are going to have 22 pizzas on the menu. We’re gonna run through them and throw in a couple of specials.

Coming up this month, the Fornino location in Time Out Market is hosting a pizza making class. What can participants expect to walk away with?
So when you take one of my pizza classes, we will talk to you about the dough, fermentation and putting it together. You’re going to walk away with some general knowledge and you leave with the pizza that you’ve made. Whether you’re four years old or 40, it’s a lot of fun.

* This article was originally published here

More than 10,000 books were removed from public schools, at least temporarily, during the 2023-24 school year, according to PEN America. In response, NYC libraries are holding events this Saturday, October 19, “to inspire action against book bans and for the freedom to read.”

NYC’s three library systems have come together to lead nearly 200 libraries and bookstores across the country in the Freedom to Read Community Day of Action, which will include events in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. It’s the first nationwide day of action to combat book bans and censorship. 

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“The democratic principles upon which both our nation and public libraries were founded include the right of every individual to seek information from all points of view,” Nick Higgins, the chief librarian at Brooklyn Public Library, told Time Out New York.

In order to encourage that curiosity, Brooklyn’s Central Library in Prospect Heights is giving away hundreds of banned books for free, highlighting local performers such as the Fogo Azul NYC drumline and the Resistance Revival Choir, and including speeches from ACLU’s policy director Lee Rowland and former NBA player Albert King. The event starts at 11am. 

Similar events are taking place across the city. In Manhattan, picture books and YA publications will be given away, DJs will spin music, and Anthony W. Marx, the president of The New York Public Library will speak amongst others on the steps of The New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at noon.

In Queens, readers of all ages will share passages from frequently banned books, along with a banned book giveaway, starting at 11am In front of the Queens Public Library’s Flushing branch.

“We are here to demonstrate the broad support that exists in our communities across the country for libraries and for an individual’s right to choose what they want to read—without restriction or interference from the government or others,” Higgins added.

* This article was originally published here

In the new concept album Warriors by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis, there’s an oft-repeated line, “Warriors, come out to play.” Last night, Miranda, Davis and their crew of family, friends and fans came out to play during an epic album release party hosted at Time Out Market with Atlantic Records. The newly unveiled Time Out magazine digital cover served as a backdrop for the festivities.

During the packed event, Miranda, Davis and producer Mike Elizondo spoke about their vision for the fierce, feminist, gritty album and offered thanks to the many people who made it possible. Party guests got a sneak peek at the record—played on vinyl—before it went public. As the album officially went live at midnight (listen here), guests clinked mini champagne bottles before departing to neighborhoods across the city, much like the cast of The Warriors themselves. The concept album, Warriors, is inspired by the 1979 cult classic film The Warriors.

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Music and entertainment royalty descended upon Brooklyn’s Time Out Market, which brings the best of the city together under one roof, for the evening event. Guests included Nas, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Frank Marshall, Christopher Jackson, Flaco Navaja, Kenita Miller, Amber Gray, Mykal Kilgore, Sasha Hutchings, Kim Dracula, Timothy Hughes, Bernie Wagenblast, Andrew Chappelle, Daniel Yearwood, David Korns, Luis Miranda, Alex Boniello and more.

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Many of those in the crowd performed on the album, along with additional artists including Ms. Lauryn Hill, Sasha Hutchings, Phillipa Soo, Gizel Jiménez, Billy Porter, Michaela Jaé, Luis Figueroa, Busta Rhymes, Ghostface Killah, RZA, Chris Rivers, Cam’ron and more.

“The dream team of Warriors and all the artists you hear on this album is actually unreal,” Miranda said at the event. “You are not going to believe the voices you hear when we play this album.”

The dream team of Warriors and all the artists you hear on this album is actually unreal.

Miranda first saw the film four decades ago, and it has stayed with him ever since. 

“I saw this movie when I was four years old on Jason Diaz’s VHS cassette. I do not recommend showing this to four year olds. It fucked me up so bad that here we are listening to an album of it 40 years later,” he said with a laugh.

In Miranda and Davis’s re-creation of the story, the Warriors are all women. They turned the movie’s seductive female gang the Lizzies into the all-male Bizzies.

“Women taking care of each other and our world, taking risks for peace, becoming more courageous in the struggle to survive, taking hard losses, discovering the possibility of love, keeping a dream of coming home alive, alive. That is the story of Warriors, and that is the sound being born tonight. And that’s what we get to dance to. That’s what we get to laugh to, to thrill to,” Davis said in remarks at the event to applause.

Time Out’s Theater Critic Adam Feldman dug into the concept album in a detailed cover story. As he welcomed the crowd at the event, he offered a peek behind the scenes at the creation of the digital cover, which brought Miranda and Davis to the New York Transit Museum for a photoshoot in a vintage 1970s subway car. 

“It was a treat to watch Lin and Eisa get styled and shot in ways that capture the crowded grit and humor and a dash of retro glamor that is the city,” Feldman said.

It takes a movie that is already a New York classic, and it pushes it into a new space. 

“Warriors is exactly the kind of work that we are thrilled to champion, not just because it is truly excellent, as you’re going to hear,” he continued. “But because it is excellent in fresh and exciting ways. It takes a movie that is already a New York classic, and it pushes it into a new space to a bold combination of two of the things that New York has given to the world through New York’s signal cultural innovations: hip-hop and the Broadway musical. … Warriors is not just about fear. This is about overcoming fear through solidarity and community.” 

* This article was originally published here

If there’s one thing we know about a “best restaurants” list, it’s that New York City is certainly going to find its way on to it, whether it’s the 50 best restaurants in the U.S. according to the NYT, the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, or  Tripadvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Awards. And the case isn’t any different for the annual World Culinary Awards 2024.

The sister event of World Travel Awards, the World Culinary Awards serves to “celebrate and reward excellence in the culinary industry through [their] annual awards [program].” Each year the World Culinary Awards encourages the culinary industry to enter one of the many available categories for nomination–categories are broken into World, Regional, and Subregional levels. Votes are then cast by the culinary community, industry experts, and consumers.

And in their 5th iteration, a Brooklyn restaurant was named the North America’s Best New Restaurant 2024! The title went to Greenpoint’s wood-fired kitchen and restaurant ILIS, which opened right around this time last year.

ILIS highlights seasonal plants, seafood, and game of North America, though bison and venison are the only four-legged animals you’ll find on the menu. You can’t view the menu online so you do have to be an adventurous eater, but some past dishes have included Shigoku Oysters with green almond and cucumber, a Surf Clam fashioned into a flask and filled with a chilled clam drink, and BBQ Eel “On The Cob,” wild caught and brought to chefs live, brined for 48 hours, then smoked.

They offer two menus in their dining room: the Market Menu, priced at $225 per guest, which allows you to select your main courses from baskets of fresh ingredients and includes snacks and desserts, or the Field Guide Menu, priced at $325 per guest, which most closely resembles an “omakase” tasting menu and includes twelve+ courses with snacks and desserts.

Beyond the main dinner menus a special a la carte food menu is also available at the bar, which seats 14 guests and is held for walk-ins, and a five course cocktail tasting paired with dishes inspired by each drink is available in the lounge.

As for the space itself, there’s no front or back of house; rather chefs cook and serve the entire meal from the central kitchen, crafting a service style they refer to as “One House.” This service style allows for a more unique dining experience, making guests feel like they’re at a dinner party rather than a restaurant.

Beyond ILIS, additional nominees for the title of North America’s Best New Restaurant 2024 (many of which are our friends!) included the following:

• AMAR at Raffles, Boston
• Kiln, San Francisco
• Yess Restaurant, Los Angeles
• Maty’s, Miami
• Pascual, Washington D.C.
• Mnimes Restaurant & Bar, Canada
• Oncle Lee, Canada

The full list of the 5th annual World Culinary Awards 2024 winners can be found here.

150 Green Street, Brooklyn

The post This Greenpoint Restaurant Serving Drinks Out Of Clam Shells Was Named North America’s Best New Restaurant For 2024 appeared first on Secret NYC.

* This article was originally published here