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In the early-to-mid-2000s, what was then the equivalent of today’s influencer crowd would gather at one restaurant above all others: chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Spice Market in the Meatpacking District. 

Serving lychee martinis and the sort of Asian-inspired food that had yet to drench the city’s entire culinary purview, Spice Market eventually closed in 2016, to the consternation of the high-end crowd that enjoyed weekly standing reservations on site.

Nearly a decade later, Vongerichten is ready to use the space at 403 West 13th Street by Greenwich Street again, this time launching a private club dubbed Chez Margaux that, according to Eater, includes “a restaurant that serves modern French cuisine, private dining areas, a library, a lounge with a Japanese-inspired menu and space for caviar service and late-night bites that transitions to Gaux Gaux, an after 10pm club.”

No word yet on when the club will open but New Yorkers with a flair for the fancy can already apply for membership right here.

Unlike other area clubs like Zero Bond, the pricing model at Chez Margaux actually takes into account lifestyle differences. According to a brochure that’s posted online, the UN membership applies to folks 21 to 31 years old and includes a $1,000 fee in addition to $1,800 in annual dues.

Membership DEUX, on the other hand, applies to people who are 32 or older. The option consists of a $2,000 initiation fee followed by $2,6000 in annual dues.

The above-mentioned brochure also includes a slew of sketched renderings that convey a vibe reminiscent of all things Vongerichten: think rouge curtains, carpets and couches, a golden bar and a private dining room with a lush banquette.

According to Eater, members will have to abide by a number of rules: no iPad or laptops are allowed on premise, photos can’t be taken and guests will have to follow a dress code that prohibits them from wearing sandals, flip flops, ripped jeans or baseball hats.

Taking all into account, we have one question in mind: is the Meatpacking District about to become cool again?

* This article was originally published here

New York City first got a taste of Maison Ladurée‘s pretty, pastel-hued confections back in 2011 with Upper East Side storefront, followed by a Soho spin-off with a full-service restaurant in 2014. And now the acclaimed Parisian pâtisserie is bringing even more of its world-famous macarons to NYC, with a brand-new outpost opening inside The Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards on Saturday, May 4. 

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Set on the first level of 20 Hudson Yards, the new Ladurée location “meets the modern needs of gourmets pressed for time,” said Mélanie Carron, the Managing Director of Maison Ladurée. “It offers a delicious and elegant interlude with all Maison Ladurée’s well-established authenticity.” 

There will, of course, be those famous macarons, Eugénie and viennoiseries, as well as a range of new gourmet drinks, sweets and snacks available for takeaway. There will be signature lattes like the “Ispahan Latte” (flavored with rose, raspberry and lychee) and the “Plaisir Sucré Latte” (sweetened with chocolate, hazelnut and praline.) “With the creation of these first gourmet drinks, our aim is to evoke our iconic patisseries and surprise our customers with flavours that they have never tasted in this way,” said Ladurée’s executive pastry chef Julien Alvarez. 

The team is also adding three new cookies to the menu, each for $5.50: a Peanut Cookie (peanut cookie dough, peanuts and caramel salted butter), a Pistachio Cookie (pistachio cookie dough, dried fruit mix and almonds) and a Chocolate Buckwheat Cookie (chocolate cookie dough, hazelnuts, macae and caramel). There will also be a selection of Finger Pâtisserie ($9.50 each), pretty layered treats that are enveloped in a chocolate shell and available in iconic Ladurée flavors like Vanilla Pecan, Mango Yuzu, Chocolate Hazelnut Caramel and more. 

Check out some of the new menu offerings below, alongside renderings of the new space, which is dressed up in vichy checkered details and Ladurée’s signature green:

* This article was originally published here

It seems like everything is expensive in New York City these days, from rent to restaurants to even the subway fare. And while it may at first seem like you’d have to figure out time travel to get a decent drink in this city for less than twenty dollars, you actually don’t have to Hot Tub Time Machine yourself to enjoy a cheaply priced but still thoughtfully made quaff. In fact, you can still find that illusive $10-and-under cocktail at some of the best bars in NYC. See proof (literally) below!

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1. Emerald Martini at Dante 

We’ll admit, we’ve become a bit numbed by the thought of the $30 martini. But there are still some A-plus cocktail bars in the city offering the timeless quaff for well under $20—in fact, Dante’s serving them up for only an Alexander Hamilton during its daily Martini Hour. Between 3pm and 5pm, you can get a ten-buck ‘tini like the Emerald Martini, which gives the classic a fresh, vegetal update with Rutte celery gin, Dolin Dry, Manzana Verde, celery bitters and black pepper. 

2. Pineapple Daiquiri at Holiday Cocktail Lounge

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Call it a cheat—we call it strategy. The large-format “Bulk Order” cocktails at that East Village favorite Holiday Cocktail Lounge serve four to six folks and are priced at $60. Do the math: gather five of your favorite drinking buddies to share a summery Pineapple Daiquiri (Ten to One Dark Rum, piña cordial and lime) and you’ll each get to enjoy a ten-dollar tipple. 

3. Mai Tai at Zombie Hut

One of the city’s best tiki bars is also home to some of the most budget-friendly bevs in New York City: Smith Street standby Zombie Hut pours tropical creations like Singapore Slings, Planter’s Punch and a simple but mighty Mai Tai (made with pineapple, rum and amaretto) for less than a tenner each. 

4. Café Martini at Holiday Bar

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Not to be confused with Holiday Cocktail Lounge, Holiday Bar usually pours out cocktails in the $20 to $25 range—except on Tuesdays, where night day long you can get the martini of your choice for $10 a pop, including this Casamigos-splashed take on an espresso martini. 

5. Frozen Margarita at Botanica Bar

From peach Frosé to piña coladas, the frozens over at lovably shabby downtown dive Botanica Bar are already very cheap by New York standards at $11 each. But they’re mind-bogglingly marked down even more during happy hour (held every day until 7pm), when you can get a frozen marg for a cool eight bucks. 

* This article was originally published here

Break out some faux fur, feathers, fangs, flippers, tentacles, scales, and sequins to transform into a creature of the Gowanus Canal at this new parade—the weirder, the better. Think: Freaky fish, jaunty jellyfish, harried heron, radioactive rats, rabid raccoons, poised porpoises, the legendary Sludgie the Whale, or any other fantastical canal creature that strikes your fancy. 

All are welcome to dress in their most inventive, most Gowanus-y outfit for the first-ever Gowanus Art Parade on Saturday, June 1. It’s hosted by Arts Gowanus as a way to bring joy to the neighborhood and uplift what makes the community so special.

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“All of the physical changes currently happening in Gowanus have many locals worried about losing the neighborhood they know and love. We hope that this will be an uplifting event that reinforces community spirit, and reminds everyone that people—our friends and neighbors—are what make Gowanus special,” the organization’s special projects director Pam Wong tells Time Out New York. 

More than 500 artists live or work in the area, and she hopes they’ll concoct spectacular artwork and outrageous costumes, too.

Plus, she added, the event offers a chance to celebrate the Gowanus Canal, which is “teeming with wondrous creatures both real and imaginary.” The 1.8-mile-long canal was built in the mid-1800s, then gas plants, paper mills, tanneries, and chemical plants dumped waste into it. The waterway also endured pollution from sewer overflows. All of that combined to make the “one of the nation’s most seriously contaminated water bodies,” per the EPA.

Now a superfund site, a significant cleanup effort is underway. Work so far has included sampling groundwater, water, and even fish tissue. 

We want to pay tribute to the resilient and tenacious wildlife that lives in and along the canal. 

“We want to pay tribute to the resilient and tenacious wildlife that lives in and along the canal,” Wong says. 

In addition to dressing like a real or imaginary canal creature, parade-goers are welcome to to bring along their artwork—posters, sculptures, puppets, banners, flags, and even effigies—to carry in the procession.

To get in on the fun, meet in the alleyway between 543 Union and 280 Nevins at 2:30pm on Saturday, June 1 before the march kicks off at 3pm. The route will traverse an iconic Gowanus bridge, traipse along the waterfront, and end at a community street festival at 2nd Street outside the Gowanus Dredgers Boathouse. The festival features Mookntaka’s interactive sculpture Hedgehog, crocheted critters courtesy of the 4th Ave Yarn Collective, live music, and an afterparty. 

* This article was originally published here

Like so many businesses in Jackson Heights, entering Mariscos El Submarino, which translates to The Submarine Seafood, feels like taking a trip to somewhere else. Stylistically, the inside makes you feel like you’re in a mom and pop restaurant in a coastal town in Mexico: The bottom half of the walls is painted in a soft blue and throughout the restaurant you’ll see renderings of their mascot, a smiling yellow submarine with a mustache, that looks like an off-brand Disney character. On one of the walls is a hand painted slogan written in red and yellow letters: “El amor puede esperar pero el hambre no.” Love can wait, but hunger cannot.  

As playful as this interior is, the food here is seriously good. In the four years since it opened, Mariscos El Submarino has introduced New Yorkers to a world that few here were familiar with: The complexly mouth-watering multiverse of Mexican-style seafood. 

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The restaurant is spearheaded by Amy Hernandez and Alonso Guzman, a couple that loves seafood but could never find a Mexican seafood spot in New York that they liked. Guzman is from Sinaloa, a northern Mexican state that stretches from the Gulf of California to the Pacific Ocean and is known throughout Mexico for their deliciously tangy shrimp cocktails. “There was nowhere in New York City where I could find food like this,” Guzman tells Time Out. He chalks this up to the fact that most New York Mexicans are not from the coastal states. “There’s a lot of people here who are from Puebla, where they don’t eat as much seafood.”  

There was nowhere in New York City where I could find food like this.

The items on Mariscos El Submarino’s menu started out with all the things Guzman craved and couldn’t find in New York: aguachiles, an avocado-centered dish that is made with shrimp, raw fish, chiltepin peppers, lime juice, onions and other ingredients; and ceviches, two dishes that he grew up eating at home.

He says that the lack of familiarity with Mexican style seafood—especially ceviche, which is typically made with raw shrimp, avocado, tomatoes, and cucumber—meant that he struggled to convince some of the local community to try the dishes, even if they were Mexican themselves. When the restaurant opened in 2020, they had no tables and few customers. “Our customer service, if I’m being honest, wasn’t the best,” Guzman admits.

Some people were also concerned about the hygiene of eating raw fish. “Working with seafood is also pretty complicated because you need a lot of care and cleanliness,” Guzman says. For a year, they struggled to stay afloat. Then in 2021, Pete Wells, the food critic from the New York Times, wrote about the restaurant and things began to quickly turn around.

Not long after the article published, Guzman began to see other non-Latino people visit the restaurant, and not just people from the neighborhood. “There were people who I never saw before,” Guzman says. 

Since then, the menu has expanded to include aguachiles that not only use raw shrimp, but also octopus and other types of fish. More recently, they added hot food in the form of fish tacos and shrimp tacos.

El amor puede esperar pero el hambre no. Love can wait, but hunger cannot.

For first timers, Guzman recommends the mixed green aguachile, which is not too spicy and has a combination of cooked shrimp and raw fish, so that people who are hesitant about trying raw seafood can ease their way into it.

These days, it’s difficult to go to the restaurant on a weekend without seeing it packed with locals and people visiting from other boroughs. Clearly, this Mexican seafood is hitting. In the future, Guzman tells me that he wants to focus on bringing fresher and better quality ingredients. They’ve started looking for the best places to source oysters, clams and callo de hacha, a type of mollusk commonly used in Mexican cuisine. 

When I asked him what their biggest ambition is after those oysters, Guzman says he plans on opening a second location. “My wife and I have always dreamed of what I’m about to tell you, but I’m hesitant because I know dreams don’t always come true,” Guzman tells me. What he said next surprised me. “We want to open a Mariscos El Submarino in Times Square.” 

If that doesn’t happen, he says they’ll settle for Brooklyn.

You can visit Mariscos El Submarino at 8805 Roosevelt Avenue in Queens on Monday through Thursday from 11am to 10pm; Friday and Saturday from 11am to 11pm; or Sunday from 10am to 10pm. 

* This article was originally published here