Deals!

Vanity Fair reports:

A month after its opening, the new Union Square Café is booming. With two bars, an extensive mezzanine, and two spaces for private dining, it holds 198, as opposed to the 152 it could accommodate on 16th Street. Some of the old art is on the walls, and the menu, though revised, still includes the bibb and red-oak-leaf lettuces salad and the tuna burger (now the 19th Street Yellowfin Tuna Burger). It also features a New York strip steak with marrow mashed potatoes and radish salad, which two women friends, on separate evenings, pronounced the best they had ever eaten. On one of those nights, I had the roasted pork rack with shell beans, kale, and fennel-apple mostarda, which was choice. The other time I chose the very rich, very satisfying pappardelle with duck and chanterelle sugo, Brussels sprouts, and winter squash. For any and every meal I would recommend for dessert the pumpkin-bread pudding with caramelized white-chocolate ice cream, because it is unforgettable and unmatchable.

Like its sister restaurant, Gramercy Tavern, only two blocks away, Union Square Cafe now stays open straight through from noon to 10 P.M. The sharp, better-paid staff, still warm and welcoming, now wear white shirts, open at the neck

Next week (November 14 to November 18), DOT approved street connections to underground utilities on Fifth Avenue and 13th street will continue. Superstructure work will continue at cellar, 1st, and 2nd floor levels. A street crane will be moved into position early on Wednesday the 11/16 on 13th street to place structural steel in the building and should be out by the end of the day, weather pending.

The following week (November 21 to November 25), we will continue superstructure concrete and slabs. Street utility connection work will continue. Sidewalk sheds will continue being erected around the perimeter of the site. The project will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, 11/24, and open for work on 11/25.

This weekend the site will be open on Saturday, November 12th for superstructure related activities between the work hours of 9AM and 5PM as permitted by the City. To control noise levels within the site, work activities will be limited to the placement of formwork, plumbing and electrical work, rebar for concrete placement and use of the crane and equipment to support all activities. Safety horns are used, and required by law, to coordinate lifting with the crane and to alert the workers of the danger overhead. We have directed the operators to limit the use of horns to one short sounding and to use the crane later in the day so as to avoid any excess noise.

Due to an increasing number of thefts of UPS packages which are left unattended by the UPS delivery man outside shareholders’ doors, the procedure will now change. UPS will no longer leave packages unattended upstairs. Instead, he will place them behind the locked door off the lobby, to which he and Niall will have a key. A notification of package arrival will be on the bulletin board. You can then get in touch with Niall to get the package.

Please address any questions to Niall.

Torch & Crown Beer Garden is back for its third season in the Union Square Park Pavilion, serving up locally brewed beers and fan favorites like the Lou Burger, pizza, and pretzels.

From now through early November, enjoy:

• Jazz with Geoff Burke on Sundays, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• Trivia nights with NYC Trivia League on Mondays at 6:30 p.m.
• Live music Fridays with Shawn Parsons and Matthew Lee & The Standbys, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

She held up the Bank of America on the corner of University and 14th the other day.

Urbanspace has opened a 10,000-square-foot food hall in Manhattan. Urbanspace Union Square is located on the ground floor of Zero Irving, a new mixed-use building on East 14th St. at the foot of Irving Place between 3rd adn 4th Avenues. Vendors include Summer Salt, Twenty One Grains, Kid Brother Pizza, Pita Yeero, Plant Junkie, Goat Café, Bao by Kaya, Bobwhite Counter, Playa Bowls, Wafels & Dinges, Top Hops, Casa Toscana and GoFish. The venue marks the fifth New York City food hall by Urbanspace.