January, 2011
We knew that NoLita was coming up, but today the Post declares that Mulberry St. is actually “the hottest restaurant row” in the entire city, right now. Sure, it’s home to buzzy new eateries like Torrisi, Balaboosta, Rubirosa, and the recently opened Scoarrat Paella Bar. But the thing that really seals the deal are all the trendy, exclusive clubs and bars that have replaced all the tourist traps and old man hangouts. As they put it, it’s like “the Meatpacking District in its early days— a sceney spot once celebrated for its sordid past.”
And those buzzy clubs are: Le Baron, which hasn’t opened yet, the bar at The Mondrian, which also hasn’t opened yet, and the Mulberry Project, which opened three weeks ago.
Category : Blog
Well this certainly didn’t take long. In what should be a surprise to no one, the late night traffic trying to find the Mulberry Project is already drawing serious complaints from the neighbors. The cocktail bar/lounge, which replaced the easily identifiable My Little Secret, has apparently been drawing crowds of revelers all night long, causing neighbors to file numerous 311 complaints. Now management is asking, via PxThis, that “if it’s very late at night (or rather, early in the morning) and you don’t see the doorman poised at the basement entrance of 149 Mulberry St, do the place a favor and just keep walking“, because “you are not getting in”. Noted.
Category : Blog
Nolitans Want to Fuhgeddabout San Gennaro This Year
As Nolita has become more hip, trendy and expensive in recent years, gripes about the annual Feast of San Gennaro street fair have been getting louder. The once-authentic Italian festival, which takes over Mulberry Street and its environs for two sausage-cooking, pashmina-selling, noise-creating and garbage-producing weeks each September, is traditionally not something you want to mess with, but these gentrifiers are fearless, we tell ya. The protests normally don’t make it beyond the community board hearing level, but this year things may be different. Cross your cannolis?
DNAinfo reports that Community Board 2 voted to approve this year’s festival permit, but urged the mayor’s Street Activity Permit Office, which has final say, to consider cutting the festival off at Kenmare Street, leaving Nolita untouched by the shitshow that is San Gennaro. As usual, what San Gennaro backers are left in the neighborhood formerly known as Little Italy think opposition to the festival is rooted in bigotry, tossing out quotes like, “They want to turn Mulberry Street into Madison Avenue — it’s a war on our culture.” He has a point. If San Gennaro sleeps with the fishes, we’d hate to have to fly to Naples to get our fix of authentic fried Oreos and virgin Piña Coladas.
Category : Blog
