Yes, NYC food events are getting to be almost dime a dozen these days: from the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party (this June, in Madison Square Park), to the summer-long Smorgasburg in Williamsburg, to the Stone Street Oyster Festival every fall, to the first-ever, oddly-named Great GoogaMooga in Prospect Park (this weekend!), to on and on and on, it seems like not a week goes by without something tempting us to grab some friends and go and gorge in a large, communal setting. That said, it just so happens that one of the city's best food fests is happening this weekend, the New Taste of the Upper West Side 2012, under a huge tent on Columbus Avenue (right near Shake Shack and the Museum of Natural History), and sponsored, in part, by yours truly, Glenwood.  

The New Taste of the Upper West Side 2012 is offering two separate feasts this year, both featuring signature dishes and tastings and treats from local chefs, and it's tough to pick which one would be more fun. Friday is all about Comfort Classics, hosted by Travel Channel's Adam Richman (Man v. Food Nation) and Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods), with DJ Phresh on the ones and twos, wines and cocktails via Southern Wine and Spirits, and starring fresh takes on old-school favorites from 35 different UWS eateries. There's a ton of good-sounding things here, including plenty from the best upper west side restaurants like Luke's Lobster, Barney Greengrass, Five Napkin Burger, Sarabeth's, Mamajuana, and Ed's Chowder House. The price for Comfort Classics is $95 ($170 for two), for all you can eat and drink between 7:00 and 10:00 pm.     

Saturday night at New Taste of the Upper West Side 2012 is a bit more upscale, with the Best of West showcasing seasonal fare from 40 of the neighborhood's most acclaimed chefs and restaurants. There's too much that appeals to list everything here, but we'd definitely be taking plates from Blue Ribbon Sushi, Nice Matin, Bar Boulud, Gastroarte, Lincoln, Salumeria Rosi, Jean Georges, and Jacques Torres. Gael Greene will be honored, Joe Bataglia and The New York Big Band will be swinging to the standards, and the wine will be flowing like, well, wine. Best of the West costs $125 per ticket ($200 VIP passes are sold out), and you can drink and dine from 7:00 until 9:30. 

New Taste of the Upper West Side 2012 Details

New Taste of the Upper West Side 2012 will be held this Friday and Saturday night, May 18th and 19th. Tickets are available for advance purchase online. Proceeds from both nights go to Citymeals-on-Wheels, the O'Shea School complex Greenhouse Classroom project, and the Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District. All photos from Taste of the Upper West Side 2011, via Socially Superlative. For more information about everything, please see the New Taste of the Upper West Side 2012 website, here. 

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At least twice a month we like to wander around the Chelsea gallery district (roughly: between 20th and 28th Streets, and 10th and 11th Avenues, hard by Hudson River Park, and right below the High Line). With more than 400 active galleries of all description, it's truly one of New York City's great treasures, a word-class concentration of contemporary art, constantly changing, always free. And although we tend to just show up without a plan–nothing more than "pick a few blocks, pop into everything"–sometimes it's nice to have a least a couple of specific destinations in mind. Like these two shows, for instance, both on 21st Street, and both well worth seeing: Richard Avedon photography at Gagosian Gallery NYC, and Anish Kapoor at Gladstone Gallery NYC. 

Anish Kapoor at Gladstone Gallery NYC

First, the Anish Kapoor piece, which will be at the Gladstone Gallery on 21st Street until June 9. Although we were initially a bit disappointed–Kapoor's one of our favorites, especially his reflective works, like "the Bean" in Chicago's Millennium Park, and his Sky Mirror that stood in Rock Center for a bit in 2006, and his stunningly bright sun-like yellow disc at last weekend's Frieze NYC Art Fair on Randall's Island–this installation grew on us the more we walked around it, and watched other people's surprise upon entering the gallery, and whistled loudly into it, just to, you know, "check" the echo factor. The untitled new sculpture will most obviously remind you of some sort of alien relic, a spaceship crashed and left to rust, ancient and menacing. Anish Kapoor also has a sculptural installation–it's like a forest of poured, blobby concrete–at Gladstone's 24th Street location. 

Richard Avedon Photography at Gagosian Gallery NYC

However the real treat of our afternoon in the Chelsea gallery district was to be found at Gagosian Gallery, an unheralded exhibition of classic Richard Avedon photos from the the late 1960s and early 1970s that kind of blew our mind, as they used to say. There are many reasons why this show so perfectly hit our sweet spot. First, of course, is just that Richard Avedon portraits nail the light and composition and his subject's expression every time. Then there's thrill of seeing such massive prints in person, the exhibition's four main murals composed of two or three huge, casually overlapping photographs creating a truly larger than life sensation. 

Finally and crucially, there are Richard Avedon's subjects, which include something of a late-1960s counter-culture hall-of-fame, from Warhol's factory to the Chicago Seven (top) to Allen Ginsberg's family, two above, as well as many of the architects of and participants in (willing and otherwise) the Vietnam War, including the Mission Council; Lt. Joe Hooper, the war's most decorated soldier (above); and haunting shots of Vietnamese napalm victims. If the era interests you at all, or if you just like superb photography, the Richard Avedon show at the 21st Street Gagosian, running through July 6, is a must. 

Anish Kapoor at Gladstone Gallery, Richard Avedon at Gagosian Gallery Details   

Both galleries are located on 21st Street between 10th and 11th Avenues, and are open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. The Anish Kapoor wil be up until June 9; the Richard Avedon until July 6. For more information about Gladstone, please see here; for more on Gagosian, click here.

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They call it a "DVR for electricity", and it could revolutionize the way entire city blocks–heck, entire cities–think about energy consumption. But for now, only two buildings in all of New York City are saving money and cutting usage with Demand Energy's brand-new battery storage technology, the Demand Shifter: Glenwood's Manhattan apartment buildings the Barclay Tower in Tribeca (on the right, above), and The Caldwell, on the Upper East Side (below). At Glenwood, it seems, the future is now.

Glenwood Encourages Living Green by Incorporating LEED Certified Green Home Design

Glenwood has long been at the forefront in embracing green construction materials and environmentally-conscious management practices, a dedication made most explicit in the LEED-certified Emerald Green, a luxury tower recently opened in Midtown West. Now Glenwood becomes the first company in New York City–and one of the first in the world–to utilize the green construction technology of Demand Energy's power storage solutions. Oversimplifying things a bit, Demand Energy's Demand Shifter works by using incredibly efficient batteries that, once filled by an outside source, maintain an energy foundation for the building that can be drawn upon during both peak and non-peak hours.

This is huge for green home design, and necessary, when it comes to relying on "intermittent-supply" energy sources such as solar and wind power. For example, the Demand Energy batteries can be filled when the sun's out, and instead of dissipating, the stored power can be called upon as needed. As Josh London, Vice President of Management at Glenwood says, "We view our work with Demand Energy as an important part of the future of smarter, more sustainable green home building and design. This pioneering technology continues our goal of providing residents with a higher quality of life by incorporating green design and the latest innovations that promote efficiency.” Good news for Glenwood NYC residents; good news for us all. 

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Pizza on the Upper West Side is clearly ready for Fratelli la Bufala, the upscale pizza-centric restaurant that recently opened near Glenwood's luxury rental apartment buildings The Grand Tier and The Regent, and which has been packed just about every night since. It's exactly the sort of place the neighborhood craves, a casual but cool-looking spot with an interesting, crowd-pleasing menu that's as comfortable for families as it is for, say, a second date, or a rowdy meal with a pack of friends. Only thing is, is Fratelli la Bufala ready for the Upper West Side? Well… after one visit we'd have to say the answer is: yes and no. But let's backtrack for a minute first. 

Fratelli la Buffala: Upper West Side Pizza

Fratelli la Bufala NYC is an Italian pizzeria chain (there are more than 100 locations worldwide, mostly in Italy, and only three in America) that opened its first New York City outpost a couple of weeks ago on a prime Upper West Side corner, the long-time home of Niko's, 76th and Broadway. Fratelli la Bufala, like so many Upper West Side NYC pizza newcomers these days, specializes in those individual-sized pies of the Naples variety. They're charred, chewy and slightly "wet" in the center after a quick blast in the wood-burning oven that dominates the restaurant's entranceway. We sampled a pair of Fratelli la Bufala pizzas, and have to say we were pretty impressed. The Margherita DOP–always a good "baseline" pie–in the tomato-based "Le Rosse" section of the Fratelli la Bufala menu, a simple concoction topped with mozzarella and a couple of fresh basil leaves, was bright and lively, the crust soft and salty, just the way we like it.  

Over in cheese-based "Le Bianche" territory, we tried the Irpina pie, covered in mozzarella, bufala cream (delicious, but certainly not adding any "dryness" to the already wet pie), some decent, sweetish ham and a large helping of mostly lackluster mushrooms. Again, this was a solid rendition of the sort of New York City Neapolitan pie that's been popping up all over town. So what's the problem with Fratelli la Bufala NYC? Well, mainly the management. The servers and hostesses and buspersons were all friendly and trying hard, but clearly the front of the house is a little overwhelmed. Tables sit empty (we counted more than a half dozen!) while increasingly impatient diners stand cramped in the too-small waiting area by the oven. And though our pies came quickly and without incident, we watched multiple order-errors unfold around us, and one poor woman had to practically beg for her salad, which she finally received while her young son was just finishing his pizza. Plus the prices are a bit a high–in the high teens and low twenties for each pie–for this sort of thing, and this sort of place. Fratelli la Bufala has the opportunity to become a favorite local spot. Let's hope they can pull it off. 

Fratelli la Bufala Details 

Fratelli la Bufala is located on the corner of 76th Street and Broadway, and is open on Sunday through Thursday from 11:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m., and Friday and Saturday until midnight. For a look at the Fratelli la Bufala menu, please see the post on the My Upper West website, here.  

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There's art that you stand and admire (or not, as the case may be) from a distance… and then there's the stuff Ernesto Neto does. The Brazilian sculptural-installation-ist Ernesto Neto has become something of an art star in this town these past few years, especially after his sensual crowd-pleaser Anthropodino–the New York Times called the womb-like, aromatic work a "Great Spicy, Gauzy Mother"–filled the vast Park Avenue Armory in 2009. Now Ernesto Neto's enveloping magic is back, albeit on a much smaller scale, with a very fun, extremably  climbable series of works at Chelsea's Tanya Bonakdar Gallery called, for some reason, Slow iiss goood. 

Slow iis goood at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

We went to Ernesto Neto's Chelsea exhibition last Saturday, and had a blast clambering and falling and laughing through his dangling "tunnels" installed on Tanya Bonakdar's first and second floors. It's not like we're total spazzes, either. It's just that the Neto's two big pieces here, The Island Bird and The Sun Lits Life, Let the Son, have pathways made of hundreds of fairly loosely packed plastic balls, so you're constantly sinking and stumbling, grabbing on to the stretchy, crocheted walls for purchase, but finding little help there. Smiles and giggles all around. These are great. 

Ernesto Neto: Slow iis goood at Tanya Bonakdar also features two hammock-like pieces–named, appropriately enough, Blue Hammock and Green Hammock–made from the same crochet/plastic balls combination of materials. Soundway, through which you walk at the gallery's entrance, is a clever piece as well: on one side dangles seashells; on the other, bells. There are also several wall sculptures, including the insect-y Grub and Grub Measure. And as if all of this isn't playfully engaging enough, The Sun Lits Life, Let the Son has these hanging pots filled with various spices, just so you (and, if you have them, your children… this is, needless to say, and extremely kid-friendly art show), can play "identify the aroma."     

Ernesto Neto: Slow iis goood, at Chelsea's Tanya Bonakdar Gallery Details 

Ernesto Neto: Slow iis goood, will be at Tanya Bonakdar until May 25. Tanya Bonakdar is located at 521 West 21st Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues, and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. For more information, please see the Tanya Bonakdar website, here. 

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The New Amsterdam Market, located right by the old Fulton Fish Market in the South Street Seaport area, reopened last Sunday for the season, which is good news indeed for all New Yorkers, but especially for downtown Glenwood residents (in both the Barclay Tower and Tribeca Bridge Tower), and especially ESPECIALLY for Glenwoodians fortunate enough to live in the luxury rentals of LIberty Plaza, just a few blocks away. The New Amsterdam Market is one of our favorite such markets in all of New York City, because it combines the on-site fun and feasting of a good snacking/dining destination (think: Smorgasburg) with the take-home, locally grown or produced pleasures of a solid farmer's market. 

The vendors at the New Amsterdam Market vary slightly from week to week (though many of the best will be there for duration), but on opening day we particularly enjoyed such old favorites like the Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels at Liddabit Sweets; the smoky, chewy Classic Jerky at King's County Jerky; the creamy frozen treats at La Newyorkina (on this day: a scoop of spectacular Arroz con Leche ice cream); and the juicy, crackling piggy sandwiches at Porchetta. Also of note: Pie Corps is back with their awesome savory delights; the Moroccan "sandcastle" cookies at Black and Blanco are unique and, if you opt for the Marzipan variety, totally delicious; the Fire Cider will, no question, wake you up in a hurry (ask for a sample); and the Queens County Farm has a booth this year, and though they were "only" selling lovely flowers and herbs on Sunday, their fruits and veggies are always among the best at the Union Square Market, so this is an excellent addition for downtown residents.   

Downtown NYC Food Artists? Not Quite But New Amsterdam Market Entertains Every Week!

Want another reason to visit the New Amsterdam Market? Every week they host some sort of special, thematically-organized mini-festival, with a pop-up "pavilion" of purveyors as well as as workshops and demonstrations. Last Sunday, for example, the New Amsterdam Market featured all things made from grain, with 16 of city's top bread-bakers selling their wares and a pizza-making exhibition, complete with wood-burning oven, by Jim Lahey and his superb Co. pizzaiolo Matt Aita. And this week's special sounds possibly even better: a celebration of "International Meats" from the likes of Solber Pupusas and Guadelupes Tamales. See you on line. 

Lower Manhattan's New Amsterdam Market 2012: the details

The New Amsterdam Market is located on South Street between Beekman Street and Peck Slip and is open every Sunday between now and late fall from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. For more details and a list of vendors on any particular week, please see the New Amsterdam Market website, here.  

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For the urban adventurers among you, this is a great plan: hop on the 4 train, or the D train, and head up to the South Bronx, just one stop past Yankee Stadium. There you'll find a massive old limestone mansion, the Andrew Freedman Home, built by decree of its namesake's last will and testament in 1924 as, amazingly enough, a kind of homeless shelter (or, to put it more kindly, a retirement home) for the formerly well-heeled who had lost all of their money but not their manorial taste or sense of entitlement. Right? Those were the days. The Andrew Freedman Home abandoned its primary purpose in the 1980s, and though certain sections have remained open and active as, for a example, a day care center, or a community-events facility, most of the space has been sealed off for decades. Until now.     

This Side of Paradise at the Andrew Freedman Home

This Side of Paradise at the Andrew Freedman Home is a one-of-a-kind exhibition for which curator Keith Schweitzer of No Longer Empty commissioned more than 30 artists to transform a wing's-worth of long-abandoned rooms in the mansion into a site-specific art installation. The result is not only a fun art show–some rooms are more clever, finished, spectacular than others, but that's to be expected at these sorts of events–but also a rare opportunity to wander through a time capsule of the splendorous past of the South Bronx's Grand Concourse. And because part of the assignment of This Side of Paradise was the make some sort of social or aesthetic commentary about the Bronx, past, present and/or future, there's a bit of bite to the whole thing as well.  

We really enjoyed the whole adventure of visiting the Andrew Freedman Home (and, afterward, walked down the Grand Concourse a few blocks to check out the Bronx Museum, and then over to the Yankee Stadium subway stops), but here's a few of our favorite rooms from the This Side of Paradise show. How and Nosm collaborated on a very cool, perspective-skewing installation in which the walls are honey-combed with 3D cardboard cutouts, the floor mirrored, the lighting tricky, the entrance-way perilous (not really, but seemingly), the whole space loopy. 

Photographer Sylvia Plachy revisits–and recreates–the same room, Room 246, she photographed for a Village Voice piece in 1980. Adam Parker Smith bedecks his "gallery" with fabulously ornate 3D-wallpaper made from jelly beans and butterflies, flowers and pearls. Adding to the sense of haunted-ness, much of the materials used in all of these installations were found within the Andrew Freedman Home itself, as the artists were granted free reign to rummage through abandoned rooms, and help themselves to whatever was left behind when the last tenants left some three decades ago.    

This Side of Paradise at the Andrew Freedman Home Details 

The Andrew Freedman Home is located at 1125 Grand Concourse in the Bronx, between McClellan East 166th Streets, two blocks from the D train and a couple of blocks more from the 4 train. This Side of Paradise exhibition is on view Thursday through Sunday, 1:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m., from now through June 5. Admission is free. For more information, please see the No Longer Empty website, here. 

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Gabe Stulman is something of a genius when it comes to creating West Village restaurants that combine exciting, excellent food with pretty, convivial surroundings with welcoming, total-pro service. First at Joseph Leonard and across-the-street Jeffrey's Grocery NYC near Sheridan Square, then at Fedora on West 4th Street–and before those at nearby Little Owl with former partner Joey Campanaro–Stulman's restaurants are total crowd-pleasers (albeit with crowds that can afford drop a hundred-plus bucks for dinner for two… these may feel like casual neighborhood spots, but they're not cheap), perfect for all sorts of occasions, and appreciated equally by locals, destination diners, and in-the-know tourists alike.  

Perla NYC Restaurant & Chef Michael Toscano's Creations

Now comes Perla restaurant, Gabe Stulman's full-on Italian restaurant–featuring a large selection "of contemporary and traditional" dishes, says the owner–that just opened in the old Belavitae space at the foot of Minetta Lane, and it seems as if the man has another huge hit on his hands. We stopped in to Perla NYC early in the evening this week, before the crowds turned the lovely little space into its nightly party, just to sample of few of the dishes we've been hearing about. While there's a lot more of the Perla NYC menu to explore, even after one visit we can give Stulman's Italian restaurant a totally unqualified "eat here and soon it's awesome" recommendation.   

Take the wood-fire-roasted Blue Prawns, for example (just don't take ours!): a trio of plump, sweet crustaceans, complemented perfectly by creamy, citrus-y yogurt and brown butter, served head-on, of course, and it is highly recommend that you eat the whole thing. Yes, including the eyes. A pair of pastas came next–which seemed like a reasonable strategy, given that Perla's chef, Michael Toscano, is a vetaran of two Mario Batali restaurantas, Manzo and Babbo NYC – and both were sublime, with flavors bold and bright. We can tell already that we'll be craving the Tortelli (which is like ravioli) with Asparagus and Ricotta Salata all summer long; and the Garganelli  with Tripe, Guanciale (so nice and chewy!), Tomato, and Chili is a marvel of intense tastes and contrasting textures. If we could only order these three dishes from the Perla restaurant menu, we'd be more than satisfied every time. But there's also all those meaty, offal-ish meals to attend to… 

Perla West Village Restaurant Details 

Gabe Stulman's Perla NYC Italian restaurant is located at 24 Minetta Lane, just east of Sixth Avenue, and is open every day at 4:30 p.m., and until 11:00 on Sunday and Monday, 12:00 midnight on Tuesday and Wednesday, and 1:00 a.m. on Thursday through Saturday. For more information and a look at the complete Perla NYC menu, please see the Perla NYC website, here. 

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When Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover, the co-founders of London's huge (and hugely influential… AND hugely fun) Frieze Art Fair decided to bring their fabulous spectacle across the Atlantic, they chose to forgo the insanity of NYC Armory Art Fair weekend and set up camp at a location, and at a time, all their own. The location turned out to be Randall's Island–fairly close by for Glenwood Upper East Side and Gracie Point residents; fairly not-at-all-close-by for everyone else–and the time is almost now!     

Frieze Art Fair 2012 hits NYC: Pop-up Exhibition village Designed by SO-IL

Starting next Friday May 4 and running through Monday May 7, the Frieze New York Art Fair opens up its "temporary pop-up village", designed by the Brooklyn architecture firm SO-IL and highlighted by a huge, centipede-y tent, on Randall's Island. At first glance the dominant feature of the location seems to be "remote", but what the Frieze New York lacks in walk-upability, it more than makes up for with its vast acreage (256!), its site-specific installations, its spacious food and beverage offerings, its lovely waterfront views. That's the plan, anyway.  

• The aforementioned winding tent, which could be aesthetically really cool
• The more than 170 international galleries, both heavy hitters like Gagosian as well as scrappy newcomers, showing their stuff
• The eight site-specific commissioned pieces that take full advantage of the outdoor setting, such as Virginia Overton's flexible mirrors hung from the trees, and Joel Kyack's "country-fair game trailer." 
• Free ferry rides every 15 minutes to and from East 35th Street
• A sculpture park right on the water
• The spread-out food court featuring the likes of Frankie Spuntino, Roberta's, Fat Radish, and Sant Ambroeus.

Frieze Art Fair New York – the details on catching London's Frieze Art Fair here in NYC

The Frieze New York Art Fair  is located on Randall's Island and will be open from 12:00 noon until 7:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, May 4 and 5, and until 6:00 p.m. on Sunday and Monday May 6 and 7. For lots more information, please see the Frieze New York website, here.

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For about a month now the great Venezuelan sculptor Rafael Barrios has been messing with people's minds in the heart of Manhattan with his series of ingenious, geometric pieces that are, basically, 20-foot-high optical illusions. Right in center of Park Avenue! The city has had a terrific run of interesting, unexpected public art projects (most everything in Madison Square Park; the Mark di Suvero exhibition on Governors Island last summer; Michael Sailstorfer's Tornado, the tire-tower across from the Plaza at the entrance to Central Park), but this just may be the coolest of them all. 

Rafael Barrios Sculpture Park Avenue

There are ten Rafael Barrios's Park Avenue sculptures in all, each massive mind-blower standing on the mall (or, as we used to call it, the "median"), in between the north- and south-bound traffic. Made of stainless steel, weighing in at some 2,200 pounds, and often, though not always, brightly colored, these are some of the best, most convincing real-life eye-trickery we've seen in a while. Of course, all sculptures change as you move around them–in some respect that's the whole point of the medium, the differing perspectives–but these works by Rafael Barrios take the concept to the extreme. 

When viewed head on, as you're riding by on a bicycle or in cab, or standing there waiting for the light to change, Rafael Barrios's sculptures seem like impossibly precarious stacks of various geometric shapes, almost as if they're floating above Park Avenue. And the boxes, or diamonds, or whatever, appear to change in size and depth as you stroll or zoom past. But then, most amazing, when you see from the side, these huge works are really only about a quarter of inch thick (see below). In fact, they virtually disappear! Pretty awesome.   

Rafael Barrios Optical Illusion Sculptures on Park Avenue Details 

The ten Rafael Barrios optical illusion sculptures are located on the Park Avenue mall, standing at various intersections between East 51st Street (and the Waldorf Astoria) and East 67th Street (and the Park Avenue Armory). The Rafael Barrios sculptures will be on view until June 30. 

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