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A gigantic new event center is opening by the Brooklyn Navy Yard
Given the plethora of cultural pursuits being mounted in New York at any given moment, the addition of a new space meant to host productions is a pretty important local development. The newest such destination to join the city’s roster is Brooklyn Storehouse, a 104,000-square-foot venue officially opening at the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Building 293 on June 7.
A collaboration between TCE Presents and Broadwick Live, companies dedicated to the curation of live events and experiences, Brooklyn Storehouse will host a vast variety of happenings, from music productions to immersive art exhibitions, fashion shows, summits, brand activations, straight-up concerts and more. The space is a fully customizable one, with hosts able to reconfigure it any which way they like.
According to an official press release, the new cultural destination was built with the history of the neighborhood in mind.
“Once the bustling hub of shipbuilding during World Wars I and II, Building 293’s immense iron struts offer a glimpse into the Navy Yard’s deep history, while its stunning waterfront location and iconic New York City skyline views ground the space firmly into the cultural fabric of Brooklyn,” reads the release. Expect raw concrete floors, for example, alongside hulking metalwork and exposed brick all around.
“We are committed to repurposing industrial spaces in an unexpected way that honors their past and creates lasting value for local areas and communities,” said Luke Huxham, Director of Development and Place at Broadwick Group, in an official statement. “The Brooklyn Navy Yard has a history that dates back to 1801, and we couldn’t be prouder to contribute to its legacy. […] Brooklyn Storehouse is an impressive hybrid home for culture. The top goal of our development is that it becomes a global institution and urban landmark. We strive to provide visitors with a broad range of experiences and content that will stick with them on an emotional level.”
While the official debut of the 5,000-capacity venue is scheduled for next month, New Yorkers have already had the opportunity to experience it firsthand through a series of events that have taken place here, including a notable Ralph Lauren fashion show last fall.
A full list of of upcoming acts has yet to be released, but officials mention that Justice, Charlotte de Witte and Eric Prdyz are already slated to appear on stage.
Suddenly, we have the feeling that we’ll spend a lot of our time by the Brooklyn Navy Yard this summer.
Out Late: A night out with NYC nightlife legend Maxwell Vice
“Out Late” is Time Out’s nightlife and party column by DJ, Whorechata founder, and Staff Writer Ian Kumamoto. The previous edition highlighted Cuff’s Cabaret, a kinky cabaret hosted by Venus Cuffs.
One thing Maxwell Vice is sure about is that Bushwick nightlife saved their life. It’s not something you hear often about a neighborhood that’s frequently memeified for its green-haired and gender-expansive transplants. But beyond all the caricatures of what Bushwick is lies a truth that few can dispute: For all its ills, it’s one of the few places in America where weirdos can truly be free.
Don’t get it twisted, though: Vice, who is an artist, photographer and DJ, is a Bushwick native and grew up along Myrtle-Wyckoff, a micro-neighborhood that has effectively become the clubbing epicenter of the city. That wasn’t the case when Vice was growing up, though: Back then, Bushwick was a predominantly immigrant neighborhood with a strong religious presence—the type of place where people like Vice couldn’t fully be themselves. “Growing up, I was very afraid to express my queerness,” Vice tells me. “It wasn’t until the brave people of the nightlife scene came and brought queerness to the forefront that I as a native New Yorker felt like my life was worth living.”
It’s refreshing to meet someone, especially a Bushwick native, who is optimistic about the state of nightlife when so many old heads have proclaimed to me that the city’s party scene expired sometime in the early 2010s. When I ask Vice what they think of the idea that New York nightlife is dead—it’s not uncommon to see Kips Bay frat bros waiting in line to go into some of the most exclusive “underground parties”—Vice tells me it’s not fair to judge the state of the party scene based on the quality of a few attendees. Instead, Vice says, you have to look at who’s running shit. By that measure, nightlife has never been better.
Vice’s nightlife journey began when they were a teenager and were going to Superchief Gallery, a DIY art space that threw afterparties that would go on till 8am. At the time, Vice was working as a model and actor: In 2016 they got a role in Hamilton on Broadway, and subsequently booked roles on TV shows like Pose and Gossip Girls. The issue was that years would pass between gigs because there weren’t a lot of roles available for people like Vice.
That’s when they began to realize that they weren’t able to bring their full and complex self into their work. “In fashion and in TV and in acting, you have to sell a part of yourself, that’s part of the gig,” Vice tells me. “As a Latino actor, I only booked roles that were immigrants, drug dealers or homeless queer youth.” Nightlife, on the other hand, presented infinite possibilities for them to be whatever they wanted. “I could come up in drag and I’m a woman. I pull up in a Yankees hat and khakis and I’m trade, no question,” they say.
In between acting gigs, Vice began working at different clubs and ended up falling in love with the people of the scene. Since then, they’ve worked at or managed many of the most iconic businesses in the area, including Market Hotel, Trans Pecos, Happy Fun Hideaway, Rash, and now, at 25, they manage Nowadays.
Vice’s optimistic vision for Bushwick nightlife comes from a radical place. During the pandemic, they were taking Polaroid pictures of many of the trans activists leading Black Lives Matter protests. While documenting that moment in history, Vice realized that the same activists who were leading major protests during the day were also throwing raves to raise money for housing and healthcare at night. During this time, the activist-to-nightlife worker path wasn’t a pipeline: It was a circle. Vice wanted to document this phenomenon, which is how Ice Vice magazine was born. “Every party that was happening during the pandemic was queer-, Black- or trans-run,” Vice says. “It created so many legendary DJs that we all go to today.”
Post-pandemic nightlife is more Black, brown, queer and trans than it’s ever been. And sure, the frat bros found a lot of the underground venues, but that’s just a testament to how much our culture has pushed through to the surface. “The real issue isn’t that NYC is dead,” Vice says, “It’s that it’s overpopulated.”
They go on to explain that the sheer amount of people moving to New York means that hardcore club kids now have to share spaces with people who work in finance and might not have the consciousness that you earn after being in the scene for a while: Namely, the knowledge that Black people invented techno, or that the most in-demand DJs in the city right now are trans. You can’t go to a club assuming people’s genders, or asking non-white people where they’re from, or cutting the line just because you’re blonde and pretty. But Vice has hope that once they get acquainted with the scene, even the most basic of bros can learn.
And that is exactly what has always made New York nightlife so radical: It’s a place where the power dynamics of the real world are inverted, where the city’s most powerful look to the most marginalized for direction. “As a native New Yorker, I hope that we realize that we don’t need to aspire to be European, we don’t need to aspire to be Berlin,” Vice says. “We have our own culture over here. New York has always been free.”
I went out with Vice on a Saturday in May and we managed to hit four different clubs. We started out at Market Hotel on Myrtle-Broadway before heading to Paragon down the block and then Bossa Nova Civic Club. We ended the night at Trans Pecos where Vice was booked to DJ a rave called Helltekk, which is run by young New York City club kids. Vice brought their camera to document the night and snapped pictures of the people who define the scene. They wanted me to take particular note of the door people, who Vice tells me are the backbone of nightlife.
This was my night out with Maxwell Vice.
Midnight
I meet up with Vice at Market Hotel, an underground venue above Mr. Kiwi’s on Myrtle-Broadway, and we see Joni out front, who curates the events there. We talk for a bit when Vice gets distracted by an ad posted right next to the venue. “I took those pictures!” they say, gawking. “I had no idea they printed them!”
12:15am
We go up the stairs and enter the venue. It seems like a slow night, with a sprinkling of younger people dancing—DJ Assault, the headliner, hasn’t arrived. We go backstage, where David, known in nightlife by his DJ name THELIMITDOESNOTEXIST, is chilling. He hands me a super cool chrome sticker of his hyperpop party, SKSKSKS.
Vice is on a mission and goes around the venue, making sure they snap a picture of everyone they want to capture. They move with efficiency and purpose, and it’s obvious they’re in their element. As we’re getting ready to leave Market Hotel, we run into Miss Madeline, a performance artist. Vice, of course, has to snap some shots.
“OK,” Vice tells me after they take a couple of pictures. “Let’s go.”
1:25am
We cross Broadway to get to Paragon, where we’re greeted by Jupiter, who’s doing doors. Vice gives them a hug. “Can I take your picture?” they ask.
1:35am
We leave Paragon and on our way out, Vice asks me to take a picture of them and Husky, a security guard who works at Paragon and Bossa.
1:47am
Everybody in Bushwick who is out at this hour seems to know Vice. As we’re walking along Myrtle Avenue towards Bossa Nova Civic Club, they run into a friend who just left Bossa. She tells us she was not feeling the crowd. Vice talks her into going back with us.
At the entrance, Max says “hi” to the security guard, Karen, and she talks to us about her recent vacation to Jamaica. Vice tells me that Karen was one of the people who would let Vice into the club when they couldn’t afford to pay cover fees and allowed them to party when they were younger and more broke. “She’s an icon,” Vice tells me. “Without her, I wouldn’t have any of the friends I have now.”
2:16am
We take an Uber to Trans Pecos to make it in time for Vice’s DJ set at HellTekk. As soon as we get out of the car, we see a bunch of kids leaving the party. “Can I take a picture of you for Time’s Out?” Vice asks them. They’ve been saying “Time’s Out” all night and I don’t want to correct Vice because, actually, I kind of like it better. Time’s Out has a foreboding, sexy aura to it.
2:30am
I’m in awe of how Max moves with a self-assuredness—this is their element. They tell me how this party, HellTekk, is the closest thing to the parties they used to go to as a kid. It’s a Black and brown-run party and they keep tickets affordable. It’s mostly all city kids here, and they’re all pulling crazy looks.
3am
When Vice goes on, there’s a real sense of anticipation. They’re emceeing while they DJ and there’s an electrifying energy about them I can’t quite describe. Most of all, Vice is having fun. This is what pure, unbridled joy looks like.
3:30am
I say goodbye to Vice, but their night is just starting. After their DJ gig, they go on to work the door at Nowadays until 1pm the next day.
Queens’ beloved Utopia Bagels is finally opening in Manhattan
In our humble, bagel-obsessed opinion, there can never be enough excellent bagels in New York City. So it’s extra good news that Utopia Bagels is finally coming to Manhattan, after more than 40 years in Whitestone, New York. (Don’t worry, Queens bagel fans: the O.G. storefront isn’t going anywhere.)
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Utopia Bagels is known for its unwavering dedication to the old-world process of making bagels—that is, individually hand-rolling them before kettle boiling the rounds and baking them in a 1947 carousel oven, a process that the team believes gives the bagels “their distinctive taste generation after generation.” Now they’ll bring those time-honored traditions to Manhattan proper with a second bagel shop location opening on Sunday, June 2, at 120 East 34th Street on the corner of Lexington Avenue in Murray Hill.
And to celebrate the grand opening, Utopia Bagels will welcome the public to its new NYC location from 9am to 4pm on Sunday. The first 100 customers in line will get a free hot bagel while they wait, so don’t be late!
Along with being centrally located and not inundated with a lot of bagel competition in the area, “it was important to us to pick somewhere that still keeps the family feel, and here we’re also located near hospitals and schools,” co-owner Scott Spellman told Eater earlier this year. Though the Manhattan location will be smaller than the original Queens shop, patrons will still be able to see those boiled-then-baked beauties being prepared from behind a glass window, just like at its predecessor.
Menu details are still to come, but it’s safe to assume that the Manhattan offshoot will have similar breakfast and lunch offerings as the original location, which offers a wide selection of mini bagels and regular-sized rounds, specialty sandwiches and giant bagel wheels, which you can load up with regular cream cheese, sliced lox, deli meats or flavored spreads, from the savory (scallion, jalapeño) to the sweet (cinnamon apple, walnut raisin).
Blue Smoke launches ‘Cue Counter collabs for summer
Sure, grilling season is officially here, but we’d selfishly much rather the professional pitmasters at NYC’s best barbecue restaurants man the coals instead of us. Thankfully, the team over at Blue Smoke is bringing back ‘Cue Counter, its oh-so-convenient seasonal to-go window, this summer every Tuesday through Thursday from 11:30am to 2:30pm.
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And even better, the restaurant is teaming up with some top-notch eateries and chefs around NYC to offer special, limited-time collaborative dishes throughout the summer. The inaugural partnership will run through Thursday, May 30, with East Village bakery Primo Focaccia; together, the concepts will dole out a special Smoked Porchetta Sandwich topped with salsa verde and peppery arugula on fresh-based focaccia for $10 a pop.
The series will continue throughout the warm-weather months with chopped-cheese purveyor Schmackwich (which will take over the ‘Cue Counter from Tuesday, June 4 through Thursday, June 13), wood-fired bagelry The Mud Club (popping up between Tuesday, June 18 and Thursday, June 27) and comfort-food brand Edith’s Brooklyn, rounding things out from Tuesday, July 9 until Thursday, July 18.
Along with the limited-time menu items, the ‘Cue Counter will serve a regular lineup of BBQ favorites, including brisket sliders, mini pulled pork sandwiches, hot dogs (which you can top with cheese sauce or get fully loaded with brisket chili, cheddar and jalapeño), and classic sides like macaroni and cheese, potato salad and coleslaw. There will also be brownies, chocolate-chip cookies and potato chips sold at the takeout window to pad out your meaty lunch.
Check out the collaborative Smoked Porchetta Sandwich from Blue Smoke and Primo Focaccia below and make sure to grab one before they’re gone this Thursday:
A Hangzhou favorite with 200 global locations is now open in NYC
After 200 locations throughout its native China, Grandma’s Home is finally bringing its homestyle Hangzhou cooking to Manhattan with a new Flatiron location. Run by Julia Zhu, the daughter of one of the restaurant’s founders, the inaugural New York outpost will follow brand tradition and spotlight regional “flavors from the land of fish and rice,” all in a modern setting.
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The menu combines culinary influences from throughout northern and southern China: think green tea claypot chicken, hong shao rou (Shanghai-style braised pork belly), soy-glazed crispy fish, scallion oil noodles and more. New for New York is a whole crab dish, served with two shell-on crabs and homemade rice cakes, and just in time for summer, the team is adding shaved ice to their dessert menu.
The restaurant has just launched a full-time lunch service (available weekdays from 11:30am to 3pm), with specials like a lunch set with a choice of an appetizer (tofu skin rolls or lotus root with sticky rice) and choice of a protein (chili pepper chicken, sweet-and-sour pork, mapo tofu or kung pao shrimp), all served with choy sum, white rice and pickled cucumbers with apple.
To complement the food, the beverage program focuses on low-ABV cocktails inspired by Chinese folktales, such as Uncle Song’s Sippy Cup, made with Oka Kura Japanese Bermutto Sake Vermouth, Voume Primo Vermouth, ginger, honey and lime. There’s also a long list of non-alcoholic drinks, like the Red Foil Cap (made with yogurt, Young Hyson tea, lemon, lime, and soda) and the Oolong Tonic (oolong cold brew, grapefruit, vanilla, lemon and tonic).
Check out some of the yummy-looking food-and-drink offerings from Grandma’s Home below, as well as snaps of the restaurant’s contemporary dining room, filled with art by young Chinese artists from around the world, including Peter Chan and Zhang Guang-yu.
JetBlue introduces summertime flights from NYC to Edinburgh, Scotland
Start daydreaming about exploring Edinburgh Castle, drinking a pint and walking Scotland’s cobblestone streets because getting there just got easier!
JetBlue just introduced new, nonstop flights to Edinburgh taking off from New York City’s JFK airport.
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The flights from JFK take off at 9:12pm EST with an arrival in Edinburgh at 9:30am BST. From Edinburgh, flights to JFK take off at 12:30pm BST and arrive at 3:06pm EST.
This daily seasonal service (it’s only running this summer through September 30), will use JetBlue’s Airbus A321neo with Mint which has 16 redesigned Mint Suite seats, 144 core seats and Airbus’ Enhanced Cabin with XL Bins. According to JetBlue, the A321neo with Mint features an average 20% increase in fuel efficiency and up to 500 nautical miles in additional range.
“This new direct JetBlue route from Edinburgh to New York City will really help strengthen links between our two great countries,” said John Lamont, UK Government Minister for Scotland. “Just last month, I walked down Sixth Avenue with other representatives from the U.K. Government as part of the annual Tartan Day celebrations in Manhattan, promoting our most important exports—whisky, energy and financial services, and our rich culture. This flight route will make it easier for visitors from the U.S. to come and see for themselves what a uniquely attractive destination we have here, while also easing travel for Scottish visitors wanting to explore the Big Apple and beyond.”