The team behind the world-famous Union Square Greenmarket, GrowNYC, just launched Project Farmhouse, an event space and sustainability center that hosts workshops, galas, speakers, community meetings and interactive exhibits. The new space is located on 13th Street, on the ground floor of the Hyatt Union Square.
Manhattan’s second legal marijuana store will open in February at the site of the former Chase bank on the corner of Broadway and 13th Street.
When it opens it will donate 51% of its revenues to the Doe Fund, which helps vulnerable populations in New York City with work, housing, and access to continuing education, career training, and counseling.
The Doe Fund was one of more than a dozen NGOs and businesses to get a dispensary license in November, indicating that the city is poised to see an influx of legal recreational dispensaries.
The 5,000-square-foot area will be a “higher velocity” store, which means it will be designed to accommodate a larger volume of consumers effortlessly, whether they come in to pick up a pre-order or speak with a budtender.
This rather fascinating report on pedestrian foot traffic in the area reveals that sidewalk crowds are up 53% in the past five years. If you’ve ever walked past Whole Foods at 6 PM, this will come as no surprise. In fact, Whole Foods is probably mainly responsible for the surge.
Sad to see Patsy’s Pizzeria leave University Place. For more than 15 years it was the most reliable pizza in the neighborhood. What will take its place?
Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York has a look back at the old Union Square Theater, which once stood on the site of the big (former) Virgin store building on 14th St. Interesting!
Tacos on 12th St., strangely enough in the same location that used to house The Big Enchilada. What’s old is new again.
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