New York City’s most iconic holiday market is back. The Union Square Holiday Market by Urbanspace returns this year on Thursday, November 17th with 170+ vendors showcasing a dynamic mix of global cuisines, original art, handcrafted accessories, and more. The market will be open through Saturday, December 24th.
Weird that Il Laboritorio del Gelato has chosen to open at 56 University Place on the corner of 10th Street, directly across from Amorino, but so it goes.
Today Goathamist reports that the city has picked Simon Oren’s Chef Driven Market, LLC to run the restaurant in the pavilion in the northern tip of Union Square. The company currently runs the 5 Napkin Burger chain, as well as a string of other restaurants throughout the city.
The current plan is to run an all-day seasonal American restaurant that will utilize produce from the Union Square Greenmarket, from April through October. The operators also want to annex part of the space just north of the pavilion for outdoor seating and a bar area. The city has reportedly agreed to a 15 year deal with the company. This comes a few months after news broke that OV-Hospitality’s plans for a restaurant in the space called City Farm Cafe fell through.
What: LGBT History of the East Village:
A Walking Tour
When: Sunday, June 26
12:00 – 2:00 P.M.
Where: meeting location available upon registration
Cost: free; reservations required
RSVP: rsvp@gvshp.org or 212-475-9585 ext. 35
Co-sponored by the Lower East Side History Project
Back in the 1880s queer and transvestite bordellos opened on the Bowery not far from the theaters where, 80 years later, Andy Warhol staged transvestite musicals for gay audiences. The East Village was home to the pre-eminent gay artists of the 20th century—Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, Taylor Mead, William S. Burroughs, Quentin Crisp, Klaus Nomi, Keith Haring, among many more. On this walking tour, we will explore significant sites of gay history, along with the artists, writers, and musicians whose contributions dovetailed with LGBT culture. (More information)
UPDATE: JAN 14: Trader John’s has covered up their sign. Apparently the idea didn’t fly past the lawyers.
Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) — Trader Joe’s Co., the operator of specialty grocery stores, sued Gristede’s Foods Inc., alleging the supermarket chain committed trademark infringement by opening a food market in New York called Trader John’s.
Gristede’s is opening the Trader John’s “knock-off food market” three blocks from a Trader Joe’s store in Manhattan, according to a complaint filed Jan. 8 in federal court in New York. The Trader John’s name misleads consumers and diminishes the Trader Joe’s brand, according to the complaint.
“We take seriously any attempt to infringe on our trademark and we are taking the necessary action to stop this particular attempt,” Trader Joe’s spokeswoman Alison Mochizuki said in an e-mailed message.
The lawsuit has no merit, said John Catsimatidis, Gristede’s chief executive officer.
“My name is John and I am a trader so I don’t know what their problem is,” he said in a telephone interview. Gristede’s lawyers haven’t seen the complaint yet, Catsimatidis said. “We’ll see what happens.”
The Trader John’s store at 5 West 14th St. in Manhattan will open Jan. 15, Catsimatidis said.
The Trader Joe’s store is three blocks away at 142 East 14th St. The company has 300 locations in 25 states and Washington. Gristede’s has about 35 shops in the New York area, Catsimatidis said.
Trader Joe’s sent a “cease and desist” letter Jan. 6 to Gristede’s, asking it to “immediately change the name and decor of the infringing store,” according to the company’s complaint.
A major renovation is coming to the former Tammany Hall headquarters in Union Square where owners want to put a new glass dome over the landmarked building and demolish a theater to make way for retail and office space, the project’s architects said.
The historic structure at 44 Union Square East, built in 1929 to house the Democratic Party machine, will undergo a major overhaul that will restore the facade, gut the existing theater and add windows and glassier storefronts, according to BKSK Architects which is designing the project.
The most striking change will be a new 30-foot glass dome on top of the building, which will add about 27,000 square feet to the structure and will house office space, according to Harry Kendall, a partner at BKSK.
“Our effort is…to make it a more distinctive destination and presence on Union Square,” Kendall said. “We think we can make this building into something it never was.”
After hearing a presentation about the proposal this week, Community Board 5’s Landmarks Committee voted unanimously to reject it, saying the changes would be too drastic for an historic building that was just landmarked last year.
“While I like the way it looks — can you put something like this on a landmarked building?” said Edward Klimerman, a committee member. “It turns it into a different building.”
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building as a landmark in June 2013, noting its references to early American architecture, including Colonial columns out front. The building’s design drew inspiration from the original Federal Hall in Lower Manhattan, where George Washington took his first oath of office.
