Author: Site Adminstrator
Black Restaurant Week returns to New York City for its fifth year
Restaurants and bars owned and operated by Black New Yorkers are a big part of what makes this city’s culinary scene so damn delicious, and next month you’ll have extra reason to frequent such establishments as Black Restaurant Week returns to New York City and the Tri-State area for its fifth year.
Kicking off on Juneteenth, a.k.a. Wednesday, June 19, the annual campaign celebrates “the diverse tastes of African American, African, and Caribbean cuisine throughout the country,” with budget-friendly menu selections at restaurants, bakeries, cafés, food trucks and more throughout the five boroughs, as well as New Jersey townships.
From June 19 through Sunday, June 30, you can frequent up to 80 participating venues, including Red Rooster Harlem, Cascade Jerk, Twins BBQ Co., Collective Fare, Tamarind Island, Voila Afrique, Misfits Nutrition, Brooklyn Blend, Negril Village, Lee Lee’s Baked Goods, The Real Mothershuckers and many more. There will be classic soul food, Caribbean favorites, African staples and more.
Born in Houston in 2016 and expanded to 15 markets internationally, Black Restaurant Week is “focused on restimulating local economies within the Black community by promoting Black-owned culinary businesses and professionals who cannot afford costly marketing campaigns,” organizers stated in a press release. “In nine years, the organization has supported more than 3000 restauranteurs, bartenders, chefs, caterers, and food trucks.”
According to the James Beard Foundation’s 2023 Industry Report, 53% of culinary business owners experienced lowered profits this year and challenges around rising food and labor costs have severely impacted profit margins since 2022. “COVID-19 changed the landscape since 2020. Now, the price of food is soaring. From being overlooked for revitalization funds to inflation, most Black-owned culinary businesses cannot afford advertisements/PR/marketing to build awareness and attract consumers,” shared Warren Luckett, founder of Black Restaurant Week. “That’s why we proudly do this for free—it’s peer-to-peer support for 10 or 14 days (depending on the market) within each market and for the past nine years.”
Check out the Black Restaurant Week website for the full line-up of participating New York and New Jersey restaurants, and get ready to eat very well next month!
A glitzy ‘Moulin Rouge’ exhibit is coming to NYC’s Museum of Broadway
The glitz and glamour and hedonism and heartbreak of Moulin Rouge are coming to the Museum of Broadway for a special exhibit celebrating the 10-time Tony Award-winning Best Musical.
The new exhibit, created exclusively for The Museum of Broadway, invites fans to step into the glamorous underworld of Belle Époque Paris. “Moulin Rouge! The Musical: Spectacular, Spectacular” opens May 17 and runs through September 8, 2024; it’s included with museum admission.
RECOMMENDED: Five cool things to do at the new Museum of Broadway
Expect to see dazzling costumes while learning how costumers transformed sketches and swatches into eye-catching gowns and bodices fit for the Sparkling Diamond herself. You’ll also see set installations—and even get a chance to sit on Satine’s luxe chaise lounge. Before you go, leave your personal mark on a heart-themed wall.
This is the fourth installation created exclusively for The Museum of Broadway, following up on “SIX: The Royal Gallery,” “ALL THAT JAZZ: The Legacy of Chicago The Musical,” and “The American Theatre As Seen by Hirschfeld.”
“We are thrilled to bring the beauty of the international smash-hit Moulin Rouge! The Musical to life at The Museum of Broadway,” Julie Boardman, co-founder of The Museum of Broadway, said in a press release. “We are excited to spotlight the glamour and grandeur of this iconic show just in time to celebrate its 5th anniversary on Broadway, and transport museum-goers into the Spectacular, Spectacular world of Moulin Rouge! The Musical.”
If you haven’t been to the Museum of Broadway yet, it’s definitely worth your time. This female-founded museum is the world’s first-ever permanent museum dedicated to the storied history and legendary artists, creators and stars of Broadway musicals and plays, past and present. Inside, you’ll get to go behind the scenes, learning how shows go from idea to the stage. It highlights more than 500 productions across three floors of exhibits. Opening in late 2022, it’s also one of NYC’s newest museums.
The museum’s new Moulin Rouge exhibit builds upon the history of powerhouse exhibitions the museum has already created in its time in Midtown so far. “Moulin Rouge! The Musical: Spectacular, Spectacular” is presented in partnership with Chase Freedom.
See it the Museum of Broadway located at 145 W 45th St, between Sixth and Seventh Aves, open from 10am to 10pm daily. Tickets cost $39–$49.
One of NYC’s foremost dim sum pros is launching Cha Cha Tang pop-up
Wilson Tang knows New York dim sum: after taking over the city’s oldest operating dim sum den, Chinatown’s Nom Wah Tea Parlor, in 2010, he transformed the usually a.m.-only food experience into a proper dinnertime destination. Though he has since left that restaurant (he still owns other Nom Wah outposts, including Nom Wah Nolita), Tang’s latest venture explores another beloved culinary tradition: the Hong Kong-style diner, known as a cha chaan teng, which translated to “tea restaurant.” Think of it like a good old greasy spoon, a casual, affordable restaurant serving both Hong Kong cuisine and Western food.
RECOMMENDED: The 18 best dumplings in NYC, from soup dumplings in Flushing to mandu in Midtown
Operating every Sunday and Monday through June 16, Tang’s pop-up Cha Cha Tang will take over John McDonald’s Hancock St. space at 257 Avenue of the Americas and Downing Street. There, the restaurateur will bring his playful takes on the Canto-Western comfort food he grew up eating in Hong Kong’s cha chaan tengs to New York.
The six-week pop-up will see chefs Doron Wong and Akiko Thurnauer in the kitchen, who will be cooking up dishes like a Cantonese roast duck sandwich on a sesame hero ($26), a Cobb salad with char siu pork ($21), milk bread French toast stuffed with taro cream ($19), General Tso’s fried chicken with charred broccoli ($33), and macaroni soup with Spam wontons and bone broth ($18).
There will, of course, be dumplings and other dim sum-y items, like scallion pancakes crowned with caviar and crème fraîche ($22), pork and shrimp siu mai skewers ($16), crispy turnip cakes with hoisin mayonnaise, and chicken dumpling gratin with sawtooth pesto and tomato sauce ($15). And large groups can partake in a convenient family-style menu for $88 per person.
Reservations are now open for the Cha Cha Tang pop-up over on Hancock St.’s Resy page, but seatings for the limited-time concept are already going fast so move quick! Check out the full menu and photos of some of the dishes below:
View this post on Instagram
Here are all the shows playing at Little Island this summer
Little Island, the beautiful 2.4-acre elevated park that sits above the Hudson River on Manhattan’s west side, just announced the lineup of star-studded performances happening throughout the summer season—and the curation does not disappoint.
This year, the programming will include nine commissioned world premieres of live performances that will kick of on June 1 and close out on September 22, spanning the realms of music, dance, theater, opera, comedy, jazz, pop and funk.
Just as exciting is the debut of The Glade, a brand new cocktail lounge opening on the island that will be offering a selection of beers, wines, cocktails and mocktails to be enjoyed anywhere throughout the park. The bar will also be the site of a few shows, including a cabaret act by Justin Vivian Bond and a live oyster shucking demonstration by Robert LaValva.
RECOMMENDED: NYC’s best summer music festivals of 2024
The season kicks off with a show produced by the legendary choreographer Twyla Tharp, featuring original music by T Bone Burnett and David Mansfield. The new full-length piece, “How Long Blues,” previews on June 1, 2 and 5 and will then run from June 6 to 23.
“Robeson,” a work created and performed by bass baritone Davóne Tines and co-created and directed by Zack Winokur, will center on the life story of musician Paul Robeson and will run from June 27 through the 29.
The summer program will conclude on September 22 with “The Marriage of Figaro,” an original play in which outré opera icon Anthony Roth Costanzo will sing every leading role.
All of the scheduled performances will take place at The Amph, the park’s 200-seat venue.
Price-wise, all tickets run $25, but there will be plenty of smaller performances throughout the season that will be free to the public.
“We are planning, season by season, to offer the people of New York City a nightly party with great art, great food and drinks, great sunsets, and great views,” said Zack Winokur, Little Island’s Producing Artistic Director, in a statement. “By opening with a new dance, closing with a reimagined opera, and filling the intervening weeks with works of all different disciplines and scales, we are offering audiences an astonishingly broad array of work in a relatively condensed amount of time.”
You can learn more about Little Island’s full summer programming and get advance tickets to the bigger performances on their website.
QC NY spa on Governors Island is getting a major upgrade
Let’s be honest: QC NY, the luxury Italian spa that opened on Governors Island a couple of years ago and entirely revamped the previously underused neighborhood, is pretty awesome as it is—but things are about to get even better.
QC NY just announced that it is working on a major expansion set to debut this July. The 15,000-square-foot, multimillion dollar addition will bring along with it new sensory saunas, waterfalls, a salt room, a lavender room, an ice room and a relaxation room with waterbeds, according to an official press release.
There’s more: Casa QC is a new 5,000-square-foot building that will house a 142-seat bistro serving both soft and alcoholic drinks plus Italian fare “from artisanal gelato to aperitivo trays with delicacies liked aged pecorino and taralli crackers,” according to the release.
If you’re a fan of the spa’s currently operating eatery, Flora Café, worry not: the restaurant will stay in place as well.
The remarkable destination will expand once more in the spring of 2025, when a third building will be completed, bringing QC NY’s footprint to a staggering 100,000 square feet.
Since first opening back in 2022, QC NY has already undergone a revamp of sorts: last summer, two outdoor infinity pools debuted on site, each one featuring proprietary underwater hydro seats and loungers that massage, relax and increase lymphatic circulation.
In addition to the slew of new offerings, spa guests will continue to be able to access a vast variety of indoor amenities, including steam baths, relaxation rooms, themed saunas, foot baths, Vichy showers and much more—all the while taking in views of the New York Harbor.
A ferry ride away from Manhattan, QC NY has truly transformed the stretch of land that it calls home—expanding the scope of interest of both New Yorkers and tourists while in New York. We’re happy to hear that the people responsible for said changes continue to work towards additional offerings.