Come to NYC, Bring Your Pets

Is New York the Most Pet-Friendly Place?

Back to Civilization

Never fear gentle readers, Mr NYC has returned. This time my return flight was only an hour and a half late. Seriously, I'm flying kryptonite -- if I'm on a flight, it's guaranteed to be late. Maybe this is karma's way of telling me I should never leave town. Ah well.

I won't be leaving again until later this month when I'm off to London and Paris. Can't wait!!

Mr NYC goes to the Crossroads of America

Well it's happening again -- Mr NYC has to leave town again for the weekend.

This time I'm heading to the middle-west, specifically the state of Indiana where David Letterman and Kurt Vonnegut as well as a large portion of my extended family come from (Dan Quayle is from there too but no place is perfect). A relative of mine passed away a month or so ago, thus I'm headed to his memorial service. Tis a sad occasion but I'll make the best of it.

And next week I'll be back, blogging up a storm. Until then, both my readers, until then.

The Pump Energy Food

If you exercise and eat healthy, then you should know about The Pump. This place has become the Yuppie fast-food chain and it's incredibly popular with young and middle-aged New Yorkers a like (Howard Stern orders his lunch from here sometimes).

Like Howard, I used to work near one of these places and got lunch there every day (sadly my office moved to another neighborhood two years ago but I had a chance to eat there today and it was great as always). Fortunately for the rest of you, The Pump has five locations: East 21st Street (between Park Avenue and Broadway), West 38th Street (between Sixth Avenue and Broadway), 50th street and 3rd Avenue, East 31 street (between Park Avenue and Lexington), and West 55th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues). If you work or are near one sometime, check it out.

All of The Pump's food is fresh, preservative free, and low-in fat. Best of all, it's really tasty. My favorites are the lemon chicken or tuna salad sandwiches served in pita bread with romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and onion. Among their myriad choices, they also have egg-white omelettes, turkey burgers, nonfat pizza, vegetarian dishes and a wide variety of healthy shakes and drinks (no soda or coffee!). Also really good is the Diesel, a grilled chicken breast with vegetarian chili over brown rice. A lot of their "Supercharged" plates have names like The Rock, Diesel, Lean Body, Marathon -- you get the idea. This is NOT food for the weak!

When you walk into one of these places, you'll notice lots of signed celebrity photos (ranging from Cindy Adams to Jessica Simpson to body-builders and athletes, naturally). One downside of the food being prepared fresh is that it can take a while to get your order and the wait can get tiresome. A lot of people call ahead and then go to pick their food up. I would definitely recommend that.

Mr NYC ... he aims to keep New Yorkers healthy and well-fed.

One Year of Mr NYC

It had to happen eventually and today is the day -- Mr NYC, this lovely blog, is one year's old. Yes, it's hard to believe that for approximately one rotation of the earth around the sun this blog has existed. Is the world a better place for it? That's for you, gentle reader, to decide.

Here's my first brilliant entry: And so ... here we go again. Read it and laugh (at it, not with it).

I can tell you this: even though I've been blogging about my beloved surface for a year and done almost 300 entries, I've only cracked about 0.000000001% of what makes New York City fabulous. Needless to say it'll take many years (and thousands, hundreds of thousands, nay millions) of entries to even crack close to 1% of everything that makes New York great. But I'll try. Lord knows I will try.

And to celebrate this milestone, I went out and got good and drunk -- yes, this entry was done by a man who is mightily intoxicated (actually it was just an after-hours office drinking binge but it's my own private reason for getting hammered).

So happy anniversary ... to me -- your one and only Mr NYC. Keep reading. I'll keep writing. Let's keep loving New York together.

per se

Mr NYC has been fortunate to eat at some of this city's finer restaurants -- Nobu, Le Perigord, Rao's, Peter Lugar's. Many of them I've written about here. There are still many great restaurants here that I hope to go to one day. This past weekend, however, some friends and I went to per se, considered by many the best restaurant in New York and one of the best in the world.

Did it live up to the hype? Could it possibly? At first I was skeptical. But four hours, two bottles of wine, and nine courses later -- my palette and head overloaded with succulence -- I was sold. Oh man, was I sold!

First: the location. High-up in the Time Warner Center on 59th street and Columbus, per se overlooks Columbus Circle and the lower expanse of Central Park. Needless to say, the view is beautiful.

Second: the door. As you can see here it's got a lovely blue door but it doesn't actually open. Instead, the glass sides slide open, activated by motion detectors and ushers you in.

Third: the service. Perfect. Friendly. Makes you feel like a millionaire. My water glass was always full. Each course was explained (even telling us where the fish and foul and meat was imported from). You really feel taken care of.

Fourth: the wine list. Huge. An oenophile's delight. If it's been bottled, they got it.

Fifth and most important: the food. Transcendent. Amazing. Delicious beyond comprehension. per se doesn't have an a la carte menu, you order one of two tasting menus, the Chef's or Vegetarian (it changes everyday and costs $275 per person). We had the Chef's menu and it consisted of:

"Oysters and Pearls" (i.e. caviar)
Salad of Sacramento Delta Green Asparagus
"Torchon" of Moulard Duck "Foie Gras"
Grilled "Pave" of Hawaiian Big-Eye Tuna
Pan Seared Maine Sea Scallop
Four Story Hills Farm's Poularde Rotie en Cocotte
Sirloin of Blackmore Ranch's Australian "Wagyu"
Blackberry Farm's "Trefoil"
"Shirley Temple" (ginger sherbet)
Clafoutis (puff pastry)

Some of the dishes were tiny, other's were standard size. The meal includes hor'dourves (some kind of delicious cheese balls and salmon bites), bread, and a variety of exotic salts. It's good to start with a white wine and then move into a red for the heavier courses.

After our meal, the waiters took us on a tour of the kitchen where we thanked the chefs and I, nerd that I am, shouted "God bless you all!" Then they gave us copies of our menus in white folders and boxes of chocolates as we went back out the sliding glass doors.

Afterwards, sated like never before, my beloved and I walked home along Central Park South, a full moon shining down on us below, the night air crisp and cool. And on this night, my beloved and I truly felt like we were living at the end of the rainbow.

Remembering Beau James:

As we all know, New York City and New York State has produced some colorful politicians. Spitzer, Giuliani, Koch, D'Amato, LaGuardia -- the Big Apple and Empire State has had its share of public servants with "personality." But they all pale in comparison to Jimmy Walker (no, not "DYNO-MITE!" Jimmy Walker) but James J Walker, "the Jazz Age Mayor" (1926 to 1932).

He was stylish, charming, debonair -- and corrupt as hell. According to this 1949 Time magazine book review, Beau James or Gentleman Jimmy (as he was alternatively known) didn't wake up until ten in the morning, didn't get to the office until noon, did two or three hours of work, then hit the nightclubs. Did he cheat on his wife? That's an understatement -- his affair with the actress Betty Compton was the talk and toast of the town (today I guess they'd be called "JamesBet" or something like that). Did this scandalous behavior make Mayor Walker unpopular? Uh huh. He was re-elected in 1929 in a landslide and only left office when forced to resign in a scandal.

No politician today would be so flagrantly corrupt or amoral as Beau James (not even Rudy) and that's probably a good thing. But he's sure fun to read about.

P.S. Bob Hope's only real dramatic role was the 1957 movie Beau James. If Jazz Age New York is your thing, you should check it out.

How Dirty Is Your Subway Line?

According to The New York Times, the E and Q lines are the worst; the L line, the best. I usually take the 1,2,3 and N/R/W lines and they're usually pretty clean.

How Dirty Is Your Subway Line?

Thanks once again to the Straphanger's Campaign -- they do good work.

IntoTheBox.tv

Mr NYC always suspected that he had awesome readers. That was confirmed today when one of them emailed me a link to IntoTheBox.tv -- an interactive website that "takes a look at the news, trends and politics of the NYC real estate market." It contains videos, a blog, neighborhood info breakdowns, and all sorts of other goodies about the surreal, unreal, all-too real world of NYC real estate (accurately comparing its machinations to "bloodsport").

Responding to my earlier post on the Ansonia, the Awesome Reader sent me the IntoTheBox.tv video on the beautiful Upper West Side buildings the Dakota and the Ansonia. It's hosted by the site's creator, Rachel Natalie Klein.

Rockin' Real Estate That Gets Your Rocks Off

Lou Reed 'NYC Man'

If you read this blog regularly, you know that I'm a huge Lou Reed/Velvet Underground fan (interestingly enough I was introduced to Lou Reed, the ultimate New York rocker, by my friend from Missouri. Ironic, huh?)

Anyway, here's Lou Reed performing his solo ballad "NYC Man" (when you hear the song's refrain "Blink your eyes and I'll be gone" I guess we can't NOT think of Elliot Spitzer). It's a great song, mellow and moving, with a real NYC vibe.