Two of our absolute favorite things—fresh-from-the-oven pizza and Summer Fridays—are coming together over at Dante on MacDougal Street, as the Italian café-turned-cocktail bar welcomes one of the city’s buzziest slice joints to sling ‘za every Friday afternoon this season.
Fini Pizza—the Brooklyn-bred pizza spot that has locations in Williamsburg (305 Bedford Avenue), at Barclay’s Center and in Amagansett (237 Main Street) out on Long Island—will be collaborating with the folks behind the Greenwich Village bar-restaurant for a pizza aperitivo of sorts. Kicking off on Friday, June 7, the Summer Fridays series will feature $9 slices from the pizzeria from noon to 6pm (or while supplies last) every week this summer.
On the menu, you’ll find tasty options like a classic cheese, peppy pepperoni, a square Sicilian (sprinkled with parmigiano and garlic breadcrumbs) and a white slice (fontina, parmigiano, mozzarella and brightening lemon). And you can pair Fini’s excellent New York pizza with some Italian aperitivo cocktails from Dante, like a refreshing on-tap spritz or Negroni Bianca (Brooklyn Gin, Quinquina, Alessio Bianco, Carpano dry, lemon bitters and verjus).
But if you’re not located in NYC, don’t fret: Dante will return the favor over Fourth of July weekend by popping up at Fini Pizza’s Amagansett location in the Hamptons and bringing their aperitivo sips with them.
Both brands aren’t new to cool collaborations: Dante frequently partners with local bars and restaurants, most recently taking over the iconic Bemelmans Bar for a weeklong cocktail residency at The Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side, and Fini Pizza opened its Williamsburg kitchen to Shukette chef Ayesha Nurdjaja in January of this year for a shakshuka-inspired bagel pop-up. Check out the event poster for the Dante x Fini Pizza Summer Fridays series below:
You can learn how to do almost anything in New York City: acrobatics, robotics, singing and dancing, coding, sewing, knitting and crochet … and now you can learn how to make your own throw pillow worthy of a home goods store shelf.
In May, I took a pillow-making class with Ruti Wajnberg, the founder of Find the Thread, an upholstery company based in Brooklyn that specializes in bringing new life to the cushions of well-loved furniture. It doesn’t take long when talking with Wajnberg to see how much she loves upholstery and sharing her passion with others.
“I love color and pattern, and I love keeping old things in the world but making them feel more modern and new,” she tells me before the class begins. “I think a lot of people are kind of craving that kind of tactile accomplishment, and so it’s fun for me at the end people are like ‘I made that!’”
Photograph: Shaye Weaver for Time Out New York
The workshop, which takes about three hours at $115 per person, is a challenging but low-stakes, fun night out for friends looking to expand their skills (and pillow collection). Wajnberg provides wine and cheese as well as all the materials needed to craft the perfect project: fabric, zippers, synthetic down inserts and industrial-grade machines.
At the start of the four-person class, we each picked out two fabrics for our pillows from Find The Thread’s multicolored stash. We could choose whatever fabric we wanted based on the size of the pillow we wanted to make—either a big square pillow or a bolster-type pillow. I chose a thick woven yellow material for the back of my square pillow and a deep green, thinner material with a beautiful botanical print for the front.
Wajnberg then walked us through making the simple pattern for each throw pillow using a ruler and pencil, how to use the serger machine to keep our fabric ends from fraying and the sewing machine to fuse them together and how to add an “invisible zipper.”
Photograph: Shaye Weaver for Time Out New York
I was the only one who had any sort of experience with a sewing machine in the class, but it wasn’t even necessary. Wajnberg patiently guided us through every step of using the machines, from lifting the foot to sewing around corners.
“I feel like anybody can do it,” she says. “You don’t need to know how to sew. It’s just a reminder that we can make beautiful things with our hands. I think a lot of us feel distance from that type of satisfaction. And I’ve seen firsthand how fun it is for people to hold something in their hands that they made and be like ‘I made this.’ So I want people to come here and like, get that feeling.”
I certainly did. When I look at my pillow, now perfectly adding a pop of color to my couch, I still feel a sense of pride. I can’t believe I made a pillow that looks like something I could’ve picked out at West Elm, except it’s custom-made and didn’t take any new materials to make.
Photograph: Shaye Weaver for Time Out New YorkPhotograph: Shaye Weaver for Time Out New York | Ruti with our pillows at Find The Thread
That’s kind of what drew Wajnberg to upholstery. In her old life, she was a software developer who needed a creative outlet. After taking an upholstery class in the East Village, something clicked—and it quickly became an “intense hobby.” It wasn’t until after the pandemic and she had a child that Wajnberg realized she needed to leave tech and take on upholstery full-time. After working at an upholstery shop for custom furniture in Brooklyn for three years, she was ready to open her own with a focus on recovering heirlooms.
“There’s just something about making something I can hold that feels so much more fun than making something on a computer,” she says. “There’s just so much cheap furniture out there and we have so much old, nice furniture that could last forever that’s getting thrown away because it’s torn or stained. And that’s so unnecessary. So what I’m really trying to do is find things that are beloved, that have a history and a story that means something to you and help you save them and make them maybe fit more to your lifestyle and your style…and not your grandmother’s.”
You can sign up for Find The Thread’s monthly pillow-making class at findthethread.com. Watch our TikTok about the class below!
Concrete jungle? More like tropical island—Kokos at Pearl Alley is bringing lush, rum-soaked vacation vibes to Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport this summer. The recently opened waterfront bar-restaurant at 89 South Street offers Brooklyn Bridge views, breezy cabanas and boozy tiki bar staples served directly inside coconuts.
The East River will be feeling like the Caribbean Sea in no time with those $19 cocktails-in-coconuts, like the rummy Koko’s Painkiller (Bacardi Superior Rum, Bacardi Reserve 8, pineapple, coconut, orange and lime), the tequila-splashed Koko Loco (Cazadores Reposado Tequila, Ancho Reyes Verde, coconut, kiwi and lime) and the bourbon-based Cowboy Kolada (Maker’s Mark Bourbon, banana, coconut and lime). And if you just want the electrolytes, you can enjoy a fresh coconut sans alcohol for nine bucks.
There’s also, of course, a Caribbean-style rum punch, festively served in a fishbowl, but if you want something a little more laid back, you can keep things simple with a variety of beer and wine options. And you can unwind even more with the bar’s weekday “Sundown Hour,” during which all cocktails are $12 on Mondays through Fridays from 4pm to 6pm.
To accompany that fun-loving bar menu, the greenery-filled venue rolls out a roaming ceviche cart that serves stuff like Long Island fluke, Florida red snapper, and Gulf shrimp. There are also shareable, island-inspired plates like sliders (a mini Cuban sandwich, Bermuda fish cakes), skewers (griddled pork sausage, grilled shrimp), snacky sides (crispy jerk-seasoned fries, blistered shishito peppers) and a booze-drenched Caribbean rum cake to further transport your taste buds.
And you can’t have an island getaway without live music: think steel band performances and DJs spinning tropical house, reggae and Afro beats to soundtrack all of your colada sipping.
The year’s legislative session may soon be over, but Governor Kathy Hochul hopes to still secure a package of bills meant to curb social media use among teens.
“Every generation faces defining challenges, and young Americans today are facing an epidemic of despair,” the politician wrote in a New York Post op-ed last week. “We see it in the crippling sadness and anxiety of our children, families and loved ones; we feel the weight of their pain. And with each passing day, we learn more about how this pain can be driven by the harmful effects of social media. Social media was meant to connect us to friends, in a way that brought us closer to one another. Instead, platforms have become media machines—collecting data on users and curating addictive algorithmic feeds designed to keep people scrolling as long as possible.”
Hochul’s effort is a two-pronged one: she wants social media users to submit their age and allow their parents to control their feeds when younger than 18. Simultaneously, she is looking to protect kids’ personal data.
More specifically, the Governor hopes to prohibit platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok from showing “addictive feeds” to underage users, effectively attacking the algorithm technology that has arguably come to define the various apps. Parents would have the option to allow their kids to watch said content when consenting on the platforms.
“The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act will require social-media companies to restrict the addictive features on their platforms that most harm young users,” Hochul explained in her op-ed.
A second bill, this one dubbed the New York Child Protection Act, would ban companies from collecting and/or selling data about minors, another aspect of social media platforms’ business model that has contributed to their vast popularity.
“Hearing countless stories from young people, mental-health professionals and educators across the state have reinforced my commitment to getting this done,” Hochul wrote.
The two pieces of legislation were first presented to the public last fall, but they have yet to be turned into laws. Hochul has a few days to get the task done: the legislative session will wrap up on June 6.
The best lattes in New York City come crowned with gold leaf, dusted with activated charcoal powder, flavored with fresh lavender and the fancy like. And now you can get one festooned with your own face: yes, the new location of Moka Matcha Cafe at the Urbanspace at 570 Lexington Avenue is pouring coffee drinks decorated with real-deal selfies right there in the foam.
The specialty coffee shop, which opened its first NYC location atUrbanspace Vanderbilt this past October, is frothing up a bit of java magic: After customers place their coffee order, they can scan a QR code, upload an image of their choosing (keep it clean, New York!), and have it printed directly on their beverage courtesy of a special machine. That means you can have a simple selfie, a sweet pet photo or a group shot printed directly atop your caffeinated cup.
Whether you’re jonesing for a traditional latte ($4.50) or cappuccino ($4.50), an iced macchiato ($6.50) or a shaken espresso ($6.50), you can experience the selfie coffees with either a hot or cold beverage, so long as there’s a little foam on top for “printing” purposes. And it’ll only cost an extra buck to add your lovely visage to the top of any of those java drinks.
Along with those viral selfie lattes, the bakery-coffeeshop offers plenty of that titular matcha, in both beverage and pastry form: for example, you can wash down some creamy matcha tiramisu with an Iced Matcha Strawberry Cream Lemonade. But if you’re not into that green tea earthiness, there’s plenty of other treats to satisfy your sweet tooth, like pistachio muffins, cinnamon roll, raspberry cupcakes and a range of cookies.
We’ve seen through NYC’s collectible MetroCards that celebrate various New York icons that New Yorkers take pride in their city, but soon you’ll be able to own a genuine part of NYC!
NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez announced that the city has officially launched the first of what will be monthly “sign drops” where they’ll sell limited batches of authentic, commemorative NYC street signs. The sign drops will be similar to limited batch “sneaker drops.”
And to kick things off this June for Pride Month, their first sign drop is a Christopher Street/Stonewall Place sign.
Source / NYC DOT
A limited batch of 50 signs will be sold online for $75 each via the CityStore, the Official Store of the City of New York. Proceeds will benefit the city’s general fund.
NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez stated:
Now you can own an official piece of New York City: authentic commemorative street signs hand made by DOT. Our monthly sign drops will allow all who love New York City to celebrate the people, places, and special occasions that make this the greatest city in the world. Nothing beats Pride Month and the Pride Parade in New York City, and we are thrilled to commemorate the occasion by offering authentic, limited edition Stonewall Place/Christopher Street signs.
Sign drops will feature signs for iconic NYC streets, commemorations of famous New Yorkers, celebrations of special occasions, and other custom releases. They’ll be released on a monthly basis.
As NYC prepares for a summer of suffocating heat and poor air quality, another thing thats on official’s minds is hurricane season. And according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service forecasters at the Climate Prediction Center, we should expect an above-normal Atlantic hurricane season this year.
NOAA’s outlook for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which spans from June 1 to November 30, predicts an 85% chance of an above-normal season. There’s only a 10% chance the season will be near-normal, and a mere 5% chance the season will be below-normal.
A total of 7 to 25 named storms, or storms with winds of 39 mph or higher, are predicted for this season. Of those, 8 to 13 are forecast to become hurricanes–having winds of 74 mph or higher–and 4 to 7 of those are forecast to become major hurricanes–category 3, 4, or 5 with winds of 111 mph or higher.
Source / NOAA
The reason this hurricane season is expected to be above-normal is due to a number of factors, including “near-record warm ocean temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean, development of La Nina conditions in the Pacific, reduced Atlantic trade winds, and less wind shear, all of which tend to favor tropical storm formation.”
Moreover, human-caused climate change is not only warming our ocean globally and in the Atlantic basin but its also melting ice on land. This leads to sea level rise which then increases the risk of storm surge (and this is what NYC could look like if sea levels rose drastically).
And unfortunately forecasters are pretty set on these numbers–they have a 70% confidence in these ranges.
Source / NOAA
FEMA Deputy Administrator Erik A. Hooks stated:
Severe weather and emergencies can happen at any moment, which is why individuals and communities need to be prepared today. Already, we are seeing storms move across the country that can bring additional hazards like tornadoes, flooding and hail.
Part of those preparations by the NOAA involve implementing improvements to its forecast communications, decision support, and storm recovery efforts. This includes:
Expanding the National Hurricane Center’s offering of Spanish language text products
Issuing an experimental version of the forecast cone graphic that includes a depiction of inland tropical storm and hurricane watches and warnings in effect for the continental U.S.
Issuing U.S. tropical cyclone watches and warnings with regular or intermediate public advisories
Shutterstock / Artsiom P
As for NYC specifically, an above-normal 2024 Atlantic hurricane season means flash flooding concerns. As a response to this the city is preparing to ensure notifications and alerts are sent out in a timely fashion.
Moreover, NYC’s “Know Your Zone” campaign encourages New Yorkers to know their zone and be prepared to evacuate during a hurricane if needed. You can learn more about this by visiting this website or calling 311.
You’ve heard about the $12 tiramisu latte, but did you know you can now get a latte with your face on it in NYC?
Moka Matcha, with its newest location in Urbanspace 570 Lex’s Food Hall, gives customers the chance to print their own pictures atop their latte’s milk foam for the most Instagrammable coffee to date.
So how does it work? Coffee drinkers can scan a QR code upon ordering where they can upload their picture of choice to have printed right on top of their drink! Plus, it only costs a dollar extra to add your printed image.
Of course, it doesn’t solely have to be a selfie of you, but it could be a picture of your furry friend, or a happy birthday message for your bestie!
Moka Matcha opened their first location last October at the Urbanspace Vanderbilt. Beyond printed lattes, they serve an assortment of matcha beverages, like their specialty moka matcha and iced matcha cream strawberry lemonade. For bites, customers can pair their selfie beverages with an assortment of delicious pastry items.
