Author: Site Adminstrator

If there’s anything that’s constant in New York City, it’s change, and most New Yorkers have become hardened to the tragedy of seeing their favorite small businesses shutter. Since COVID, the trend has only gotten worse: Places like China Chalet and Coogan’s, which once defined their respective neighborhoods and the city at large, practically disappeared overnight. 

When I think of small New York businesses that have held out, Ollin, the small, orange Mexican restaurant in East Harlem, instantly comes to mind. Located on the corner of 108th Street between First and Second Avenues, they’ve survived multiple recessions and a pandemic, a testament to the power that their community—as well as their undeniably bomb food—continues to hold in the face of gentrification.

RECOMMENDED: Cinco to Celebrate: Meet the stylist bringing Mexico City’s hottest designers to NYC

Ollin’s story began in 1997, when Juan Perez immigrated from a small town in the Mexican state of Puebla and opened a deli called Rosas de Tepeyac. It was a place where other Mexican immigrants could buy ingredients that were hard to find elsewhere at that time, like jalapeños and tortillas. In addition to those ingredients, Juan also sold food he made himself, like tortas, tacos, and most notably, cemitas, a subgenre of torta that’s local to Puebla and that you can’t find in most Mexican restaurants. 

The deli blossomed, and it got so busy that Juan had to recruit his wife, Leticia, to help him out. Soon, their three sons got involved in the business, too. On weekends, Jonathan, the family’s middle child, worked closely with his parents at the register and mopped the floors. In 2008, Juan decided to close the deli and try his luck opening a restaurant just a few blocks away. That’s how Ollin—the Aztec term that means “to act with one’s heart”—was born. 

Shortly after Ollin began its operations, though, there was a rupture in the family: Jonathan realized he was queer and began to distance himself from the family business. He tells me that during this time he barely saw his parents. Instead, he found jobs at restaurants throughout Manhattan and found a chosen family among the Latino queer community in Jackson Heights. 

Then, in 2020, the pandemic hit and restaurants began to close en masse. Even though his relationship with his family was shaky at times, Jonathan worried for his parents. “I thought there’s no way Ollin was going to survive COVID if they already had a hard time when there was no pandemic,” he tells Time Out. He quit his job at the Japanese restaurant where he worked and decided to try and help his family’s restaurant survive.

The first thing he did was get on TikTok. Jonathan began making videos of himself talking about his family’s story, how they’d been in the neighborhood for several decades, and, of course, all their food offerings, including their iconic cemitas and homemade churros. Those videos resonated at a time when we were seeing small businesses close en masse, and Ollin quickly gained a following (today, the restaurant has 83k followers on TikTok). For several months throughout 2021, you could see a line out of Ollin’s door, and people would drive from Long Island and beyond just to see what the hype was about. 

Pretty soon, Ollin became a hub for the local community. They held sip and paint sessions and organized screenings of Coco for children in the neighborhood. They also set up an altar for Dia de los Muertos where neighbors could put pictures of their deceased loved ones and honor them. “Ollin has become a beacon for so many different communities,” Jonathan tells Time Out. “We’re so proud that beyond our food, we built a place of community and care.”

The family’s compelling story is the reason many people go to Ollin. But let’s be real, the food is the reason they keep coming back. For first timers, Jonathan recommends ordering their sope with chorizo, since the dough is made in house. For a main course, he recommends the cemitas, which are made with fresh papalo, an herb popular among Indigenous cuisines throughout Latin America, homemade chipotle, and quesillo, a type of cheese they source from Mexico (it’s also commonly referred to as Oaxaca cheese). 

Another very popular dish from the restaurant is their birria, the quesadilla-like dish that you dip into a beef broth. Ollin uses the dried chilis required in traditional recipes, as opposed to tomatoes, which some restaurants use as a substitute to cut costs. If you’re lucky, you’ll also get a chance to try their mole, which is made and shipped by the family’s grandma back in Mexico—which also means it’s not always in stock.

Another favorite is the Plato Juancho, named after Juan, which is a hearty plate that includes grilled potatoes, a whole cactus, onions, jalapeños, cheese and the meat of your choice. It’s the plate that the patriarch of the family would eat to keep him going after long days of work, and a dish that says a lot about the family’s origins.

Ollin is a restaurant that has survived out of a family’s grit, but has thrived out of the love of the surrounding community. Ultimately, Jonathan sees Ollin as a vessel that will propel his family into a more gentle era, an era where they can rest. He wants Ollin to be successful enough so that his family can build their house in Mexico, where Juan and Leticia eventually want to return and retire. “Once I see my parents’ house fully built, I can think more about my future,” Jonathan says. “I want my parents, who are in their 60s, to have somewhere comfortable to go once they are older.”

You can visit Ollin at 339 E 108th Street Monday through Thursday from 11am until 9:30pm.

* This article was originally published here

Pizza Fun House is a new parlor by the Serafina Hospitality Group set to debut at 63 West 8th Street by 6th Avenue in Greenwich Village tomorrow. To celebrate the grand opening, the staff is giving out a whopping 500 free slices of delicious, warm pizza from 1pm until supplies last. 

Although the promotion is enough of a reason to run to the new spot, the restaurant’s concept and menu deserve some attention of their own as well.  

The pizzeria looks just like what it sounds like: expect brightly colored geometric Googie-style interiors that are inspired by Serafina co-founders Fabio Granato and Vittorio Assaf’s pop culture memories from their Italian childhood. 

The menu plays on nostalgia as well, featuring hearty mains like the meatball parm dish, all served with a side of spaghetti marinara.

House-made pastas include penne a la vodka and meat lasagna but there are also sandwiches and salads on offer.

Of course, the main event is all about pizza, and for good reason. Each pie is cooked at a precise 240-degree temperature for five minutes inside a Roman Castelli oven that “allows for a versatile range of styles, all while maintaining the integrity of the dough’s sourdough-like profile,” reads an official press release. The ingredients are sourced directly from Italy—think tomatoes from Naples and olive oil from Sicily—when creating the pizze that are sold by the slice or as whole pies.

Let’s not forget about dessert: banana splits and cannoli are must-haves alongside a range of milkshake flavors that include the black and white, a variety inspired by the iconic New York cookie, of course.

As mentioned in the press release, Pizza Fun House sounds exactly like the classic Happy Days-style diner that plenty of New Yorkers look back fondly on. We’re here for all of it, especially when a visit involves free pizza.

* This article was originally published here

If you’re anything like me, you’re really enjoying the new X-Men 97 show by Marvel Animation on Disney+ and you want to tell everyone about it (episode 5, right?). 

Well, Airbnb can do you one better and you don’t even need powers! It’s launching a chance to stay at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning in Westchester, NY. The stay, which is set up inside a four-bedroom mansion in High Castle and “hosted” by Jubilee, is a 2D experience that includes:

• A new student orientation video from Jubilee
• The opportunity to concoct experiments in Beast’s lab
• The chance to train like an X-Man in the Danger Room
• A stop in the iconic War Room for team briefings and to try on Cerebro
• Staying overnight in either host Jubilee’s bedroom straight out of the 90s, Wolverine’s room inspired by the series, Beast’s lab, or the new recruits dorm room.
• Beignets for breakfast (Gambit’s secret recipe)

On the Airbnb listing for the X-Mansion, Jubilee writes about the experience:

“Hey, I’m Jubilee! If I’m not at the mall, you can find me hanging with my fellow X-Men. We’re talking Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine! I learned how to light up the sky at Xavier’s Institute for Higher Learning. Basically, I have the power to shoot fireworks from my hands. Rad, huh? Can’t wait to have you over to the house so you can see what we’re all about.”

Before you leave, you’ll get debriefed on your new mutant powers an official diploma and a class photo.

The space itself looks like the animated series come to life — certainly worth hosting the likes of Magneto and our beloved hero Gambit. 

Booking opens at airbnb.com at 5:30pm today (May 1) with stays starting in June. When you try booking, you’ll need to provide your preferred stay dates, your guests, and answer a question about why you want to go. Airbnb will randomly select potential guests and ask them to book it. 

Requests to book close at 11:59pm PT on May 13, 2024, and it’s $97 per person to stay the night.

If you can’t secure the stay, you can just go to the two-hour X-Men experience at the X-Mansion, which you can book starting May 9 right here.

This experience is part of Airbnb’s Icons program, a new category of “extraordinary experiences hosted by the greatest names in music, film, television, art, sports, and more.” 

“Icons take you inside worlds that only existed in your imagination—until now,” Brian Chesky, Airbnb co-founder and CEO, said. “As life becomes increasingly digital, we’re focused on bringing more magic into the real world. With Icons, we’ve created the most extraordinary experiences on Earth.” 

* This article was originally published here

May is full of reasons to celebrate: not only is it the end of that long, cold New York winter, but there’s also Cinco de Mayo as well as, uh, the birthday of action star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson on May 2. All of those festivities are coming together for the fourth annual Guac on the Rock campaign, an initiative from Johnson and his small-batch Teremana Tequila brand. And for the first time, the campaign is stretching out from a mere week of free guacamole to an entire month of gratis guac. 

RECOMMENDED: The best spots for guacamole in NYC, from traditional Mexican recipes to unorthodox takes

From Wednesday, May 1 through Friday, May 31, Johnson’s Teremana Tequila will reimburse restaurant goers for their guacamole orders up to $1,000,000, when they purchase guac with any Teremana cocktail. (Yes, alas, that does mean you have to be age 21 and over to participate.) All you have to do is head to guacontherock.com and use the restaurant locator to find a participating eatery or bar near you. Once there, order a Teremana drink and guacamole; snap a picture of your itemized receipt and submit it on the Guac on the Rock website; and you’ll see a reimbursement (of up to $10) via Venmo for that guac starter, no matter if you dine in or take out.  

Launched in 2021, the nationwide, charitable initiative aims to encourage consumers to support America’s restaurants, by generating additional revenue for the local venues as well as tips for hospitality workers. 

“For Cinco de Mayo and my birthday this year, I’m happy that the Guac will be on the Rock for a full month,” said Johnson in a statement. “It’s a testament to the incredible success of Teremana that we are able to give back to our tremendous bars and restaurants and our loyal fans for a fourth year in a row—in an even bigger way than before. I can’t wait to see more people come together to support our nation’s hospitality workers and say thank you by raising a Teremana Toast and participating in Guac on the Rock!”

* This article was originally published here

Are these otherworldly sculptures emerging from the depths of the earth or returning to the underworld? That’s the question Huma Bhabha hopes visitors will ponder as they explore her monumental new bronze artworks in Brooklyn. 

Titled “Before the End,” the installation of four, eight-foot tall bronze sculptures topped with animal skull fragments is now on view through March 9, 2025. Find it at the Pier 3 Greenway Terrace in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

RECOMMENDED: Go fly a kite—literally—at this beautiful Brooklyn festival in May

Bhabha is known for reimagining the figure in her sculptures and drawings. In this case, she did that by casting carved cork and skull fragments in a piece that interrogates the intersections of art, science fiction, horror, and mythology. The artist collected the skull fragments while working as an artisan in a taxidermist’s studio. She also used a horseshoe crab exoskeleton in the artwork.

The mysterious figures recall ancient effigies cut into tombstones. Each of the four figures has a different name. There’s Feel the Hammer, Member, Mr. Stone, and Nothing Falls. Bhabha drew upon classic cult horror films like Destroy All Monsters, H.R. Giger’s designs for the Alien franchise, and the work of artists including Giacometti, Marisol, and Basquiat.

Situated at Brooklyn Bridge Park, the pieces are surrounded by other formidable landmarks, like bridges, waterways, and even the Statue of Liberty and One World Trade. That makes for a powerful juxtaposition, especially given the long history of the park itself in New York City. Once a deteriorated stretch of waterfront, the park now offers lush lawns, waterfront promenades, and expansive skyline views.  

After growing up in Pakistan, Bhabha moved to the United States for college, and she now lives in Poughkeepsie. 

“Huma Bhabha’s eccentric characters captivate through contradiction, seemingly forged in geological time yet animated with a visceral sense of immediacy,” Public Art Fund Executive & Artistic Director Nicholas Baume said in a press release. “Before The End is set amidst the expansive landscape of Brooklyn Bridge Park, a site where natural and man-made elements converge, allowing the works to take on a profound sense of connection to the earth.”

Huma Bhabha: Before The End is presented by Public Art Fund. It’s the latest outdoor artwork to appear in NYC, joining an eclectic collection of pieces to see this spring, including a hot dog in Times Square, a massive tire labyrinth in the Garment District, and a subway serpent in the Rockaways.

* This article was originally published here

Screaming and crying girls. Innumerable hotel rooms. Nonstop camera flashes. A group of four Liverpudlian guys in the middle of it all. We’ve all seen the photos and videos documenting the insanity of Beatlemania, the obsession over the Beatles from 1963 to 1966.

But it turns out that the Beatles’ bassist and singer, Sir Paul McCartney, actually turned the lens on the crowds, the paparazzi and the cities that hosted them in the early days.

McCartney and the Brooklyn Museum are showcasing more than 250 of the icon’s personal photographs that illustrate the intensity of this historical moment, but also the quiet moments unseen by millions of fans in “Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm.”

The exhibit gives new insight into the demands of touring, the constant media attention as well as McCartney’s band members, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, who were undergoing an extremely life-changing era.

The show opens on May 3 and we got a sneak peek at it beforehand!

RECOMMENDED: A first look at the Met’s powerful new rooftop art installation

First on view at the National Portrait Gallery in London, the exhibition is made up of photography, video clips and archival material between The Beatles’ concert hall performances in Liverpool and London to their international tour, first to Paris and then to the United States. From hotel to hotel and from venue to venue, McCartney was taking portraits, landscapes and documentary shots all along the way. The museum says you can see references to New Wave, documentary filmmaking and photojournalism across the exhibition.

As a massive Beatles fan, access to these personal photos is a gift. Seeing the rabid fans and the insane moments from McCartney’s perspective, especially from his time here in NYC, is something I never thought I’d get to see. It’s easy to build the group up as icons—each individually and together—but this showcase breaks down that perspective because it is like looking at a family photo album.

The galleries are filled with close-up portraits of the guys in various situations—waiting for rehearsals to start, fiddling around on their instruments, interacting with fans and even taking a day off and swimming in Miami! Fans already know that the foursome were close, but seeing these behind-closed-doors images offers a new insight into their humor, individuality and humanity, which can often be forgotten about.

We’ve seen them in so many black and white photos on stage, in the studio and making public appearances, but these quiet moments (and some in bright beautiful color) shift the eye away from ‘icon’ to ‘individual.’

It’s also made more personal with McCartney’s actual pencil marks on the images he selected from his various contact sheets and his quotes about certain images and times during this era. There’s also a camera on display that is the same model that he and his fellow bandmembers used—the 35mm Pentax SLR. Plus, McCartney comments on some of the photos along the way, which you can read on the wall next to them.

“The crowds chasing us in A Hard Day’s Night were based on moments like this,” McCartney said, referencing the photo below. It was taken in New York City during the same trip they went on the Ed Sullivan Show.

There’s an entire gallery about when the Beatles first came to New York City in 1964, in fact, and it’s incredibly cool not only to see New York City in that era with its giant yellow cabs and smaller skyline, but from McCartney’s point of view—through car windows, in crowds that swarmed the group and even from outside the Plaza Hotel. 

“We were staying at the Plaza Hotel, who were pretty horrified by all the hullabaloo,” McCartney is quoted as saying about that time.

The exhibit comes to a climax with the band’s time in Miami. The museum says McCartney shifted from shooting in black and white film to brilliant color to capture the vivacity of the city and beach—a far departure from the snowy, gray they experienced in NYC and D.C. beforehand. The gallery literally reflects this with bright yellow and blue walls. The photos depict a much more relaxed band, who had some time off to swim and enjoy the sun. Seeing a photo of John Lennon swimming in the ocean excitedly was heartwarming to say the least.

“Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm,” supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, opens May 3 and will be on at Brooklyn Museum through August 18.

* This article was originally published here

The queen of hip hop, Mary J. Blige, is about to host her third annual “Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit” throughout New York City and you might want to get the whole crew together for this electrifying family affair.

The three-day festival will include concerts, comedy shows, panels and female empowerment sessions curated by an all-Black and all-women team.

RECOMMENDED: A huge music festival showcasing Asian-American talent is coming to NYC

Mary J. Blige created the multi-day festival in partnership with Live Nation Urban to empower and give resources to women of color across the music, wellness, tech, beauty and financial literacy sectors.

“I’m so excited to bring our Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit to my hometown, New York City, a place that has always been a huge source of inspiration for me,” the artist said in an official statement. “Having the opportunity to continue to uplift, inspire and build within my community is the reason I created this festival. […] Nobody does it like New York, so get ready.”

The festival is going to kick off on Friday, May 10, with a comedy show called “Don’t Call me White Girl” starring Tiffany Haddish and Paris Sashay at the Apollo Theater in Harlem and a jazz concert starring Robert Glasper at Blue Note in Greenwich Village.

The programming will continue on Saturday, May 11, with the Strength of a Woman Summit, an all day affair hosted by Angie Martinez and featuring keynote speakers, panels, workshops and more.

The Saturday will close out with a Coachella-level concert at Barclays Center on May 11 where Blige will perform alongside special guests 50 Cent, Jill Scott, Fat Joe, Jadakiss, Muni Long, Lola Brooke and Funk Flex.

On Sunday, May 12, a gospel brunch hosted by Blige at the Brooklyn Chophouse in Times Square and a gospel concert featuring The Clark Sisters at the recently renovated Brooklyn Paramount will wrap up the extravagant affair.

You can get your tickets to the festival here.

* This article was originally published here