The Good Old Days on Fifth Ave.

Tim Horton’s donut shop is taking shape on Union Square East at the former Zen Palate location. In case you don’t know, Tim’s is the Dunkin Donuts of Canada. Instead of Munchkins, they have TimBits.

Num Pang has reopened just across 12th St. from its former location. Cambodian sandwiches for everyone.

The University Diner has finally found its new identity…as a European cookie shop. The details:

“Almost a year after the closure of the classic diner University Restaurant, an Austrian corporation will open a specialty food shop in its place later this month, the owner of the incoming business said Tuesday.

“Gunz Fine European Food will sell cookies, snacks and other fine foods imported from across Europe, Daniel Gunz said.

“It will be everything from Belgian chocolate to Spanish cakes to Italian olive oil,”

Next week (July 2 to July 6), Mechanical equipment and work will continue at the 17th and 18th floor levels. Deliveries for the internal systems of the building have been ongoing and will continue, although they should not greatly affect the flow of pedestrian and road traffic. The site will be closed on Wednesday, July 4th, for the holiday.

The following week (July 9 to July 13), we will be working on the machine room levels on the 17th and 18th floors. Deliveries for the internal systems of the building have been ongoing and will continue, although they should not greatly affect the flow of pedestrian and road traffic. The crane is scheduled for demobilization on Saturday the 7th.

This weekend the site will be open on Saturday, June 30th for superstructure related activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City. To control noise levels within the site, work activities will be limited to working on the mechanical systems of the building and using the crane and equipment to support 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.

From the NY Times:

The latest record store to close in New York is a big one: the Virgin Megastore in Union Square. Following its announcement last month that the Times Square Megastore would close down in April, Virgin Entertainment Group North America will shut down the Union Square shop in late May or early June, a spokeswoman said, confirming a report in Billboard. Virgin will also close its Market Street store in San Francisco in April. The New York closures will leave Manhattan without a large-scale record store. Thousands of music retailers have shut down in recent years as CD sales have plunged, and Virgin has been closing most of its locations around the country since it was bought by the real estate companies Vornado and Related in 2007, but its high-traffic New York stores were said to be profitable.

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