© Copyright 2025MACV Technology, Inc. Get important news about your town as it happens. Something went wrong. Please subscribe again. Get the top stories from across our network. Are you sure you want to unsubscribe from daily updates? A hip and visually pleasing new restaurant in the Hudson Valley is getting lots of buzz from online reviewers and foodies alike. Located in Rockland County, Lavagna—in Italian, it means blackboard—opened in May in Suffern and was quickly embraced by food lovers for its small plates, impressive beer and wine list, and unique artwork on blackboard walls by Nyack artist Mike Delaney. For those wondering where this place is, it's the former home of Capital One and then Java Love Coffee Roasting Co., at 50 Lafayette Ave., in Suffern. The restaurant is the brainchild of Ariel Aufgang, a longtime Rockland resident and owner of Aufgang Architects in Suffern, and Don Brennan of Mahwah, New Jersey, of Recon Construction. The two turned it into the type of place they would like to hang out in. Here's how one Yelper described Lavagna: "Lavagna is amazing! Great service, great food and Lloyd is THE BEST!!! If you love wine he's your man, he is so knowledgeable about wine he makes everything work together perfectly. This is a new restaurant and usually a restaurant takes some time to figure it out...not Lavagna, awesome all the way. A must!!!" From online reviewers, some favorites seem to be the hanger steak, meatballs, flatbread pizzas, the Spanish octopus, the wines (that are stored in the old bank vault turned into a cellar), oyster crudo, the Black Bass, and the list goes on. Bob D. of Stony Point had this to say: "Excellent food, service, and ambiance. I love the octopus, oysters, and gluten-free pizzas." Foodies say there's much more to explore and learn about Lavagna, but think of small plates to share, wine, wine, and more wine, and relaxing. Prices are moderate to high. Service was rated as excellent. Not a kid's-type place. Plenty of parking. Check it out. For information, call 845-533-4160. Chris Stang The East Village has its share of Italian restaurants for you to choose from We've spent plenty of time at Lil' Frankies but Lavagna was the one that we'd been neglecting for some reason over the last several years Maybe it's because Lavagna (Italian for "lasagna" we assume) has a bit of an older clientele than the others Our friends never really talk about this place like they do Frank or Supper and we only do things that all of our cool friends are doing Even though it might not be the coolest of the East Village Italian restaurants Chalk it up to an excellent and consistent menu of pastas and entrees that keep the regulars coming back It's everything that you want a cozy Italian restaurant to be The service can be a bit...abrupt at times but for some reason we kind of like that here They are so busy making good food for people that they have no time for your bullsh*t indecisiveness So don't take it personally when your server is less than amused with your witty banter at the table definitely don't try dropping that lasagna joke East Village A legendary East Village Italian restaurant that we have decided we can now only visit when nobody else will be eating there Pasta Wine Bar Il Posto Accanto in the East Village is home to some of the best meatballs and pastas in town it has a great wine list and open air dining Italian Pasta Pasta Italian Porsena has never been about the ambiance – it’s always been about the pasta And this is still pasta that’s worth serious praise Rockland County Business Journal Lloyd Leon didn’t go to a culinary school – he did something better The 53-year-old spent 25 years working at the former Marcellos Ristorante on Lafayette Avenue in Suffern honing the art of wine Now he’s joined forces with Suffern architect Ariel Aufgang to open a high-end innovative wine bar and Italian eatery in the former bank turned coffee shop at 50 Lafayette Avenue The pair are calling the restaurant Lavagna and connotes the idea that menus should be daily Tip of the hat to Aufgang and his design team who’ve covered the walls with giant chalk-filled blackboards lending the recently opened restaurant a feeling of whimsy and fun But this is serious business – and Leon and Aufgang who briefly co-owned a New York City restaurant that folded after the pandemic owned by former Suffern mayor Dagan LaCorte an entity affiliated with Aufgang for $1.2 million a former bank building with a large parking lot housed Java Love Coffee Roasters from 2019 until this past January when Java Love announced the closure of its Suffern location The roaster still has a roasting company in Montclair but had said at the time it was closing due to post-COVID difficulties and increased business expenses sold his family-style Italian go-to restaurant but mostly because he was ready to for a new adventure The Rockland foodie fixture runs food and wine tours in Italy Lavagna was hatched over a dinner between Aufgang and Leon The restaurant is helmed by Chef David Werner and also previously ran kitchens at The Leroy House in the West Village and was executive chef under Wolfgang Puck at Cut at the Four Seasons The owners were itching to take a culinary swing along with Don Brennan of Recon Construction of Mahwah Aufgang had already owned a restaurant and is a skilled architect and businessman while Leon had lived the restaurant life since he was 14 years old working in kitchens as he scaled the ladder with a certificate from the Sommelier Society of America in New York Leon remembers early working days at Hebrew National Deli in Spring Valley and speed – skills needed in a bustling restaurant environment “I worked at restaurants and none of them exist anymore,” said Leon which is not surprising but his long stint at Marcellos and he promoted me to maître di within three months “I had a nose for wine,” Leon said recently while showing this reporter around the new collaboration The former bank safe has been converted into a 70-degree wine cellar with 16-inch walls housing 115 labels 23 of which will be available by the glass “I have everything from humble to high quality.” Leon didn’t grow up in a house with notable chefs or foodies – the Cuban family from Spring Valley viewed food as fuel He learned that food and wine is an art at Marcellos adding he grew up in a family of six siblings “I started working in restaurants and thought it was fascinating,” he said I’d see how important it was for hardworking people to come out for an evening This is where Leon polished his craft with wine He joined Marcello on several trips to Italy meeting multi-generational winegrowers who were still picking grapes by hand And these travels taught him something very important: food and wine is all about curation and storytelling and that’s what separates a good food and drink experience from a memorable one I’d find myself telling diners about a wine how hard the winemaker worked to overcome obstacles or a bad vintage Told them the back story.” He recalls one vineyard in Monzano where he learned how vintners plant wildflowers to enhance the bouquet of the wine He witnessed villagers showing up at harvest to pick the grapes “The entire concept of building a restaurant around the wine selection is Lloyd ‘s idea to begin with,” said Aufgang “We are confident that his 25 years of experience as a world traveled sommelier allows him to build a wine selection that will have people coming back to try something new or taste an old favorite Even our food menu is conceptualized around what works well with the amazing selection of wines and imported craft beers.” The pair hope to evangelize on the upscale food and wine experience in Suffern and beyond — a much needed aspect to Rockland’s food scene They are hoping to give Suffern a culinary boost in the arm but understand how important and challenging it will be to market this concept around the county and beyond to Bergen County Aufgang believes Lavagna will draw from Bergen County because New York has a competitive advantage “Having a restaurant with under 100 seats and a liquor license is very difficult due to the cost of the license in New Jersey This means we can have wine and beer offerings and still have a chic romantic vibe for people from both New York and New Jersey who can appreciate a boutique eatery as opposed to a large corporate restaurant.” Ariel Aufgang, who owns Aufgang Architects in Suffern had long coveted the building down the street from his office when it was formerly occupied by Capital One he reached out to find out its fate and when the chance arose leasing it to Java Love Coffee Roasting Co he decided to take it over and turn it into the kind of place he and his friends would want to hang out at The result is Lavagna a snazzy 54-seat wine bar and Italian eatery that opens May 7 Aufgang, a first-time restaurateur and longtime Rockland resident, calls his passion project. He owns it with Don Brennan of Mahwah, N.J.-based Recon Construction was gutted — except for the cement floor that still exists from the Capital One days — and the old vault (more about that in a minute) Aufgang has streamlined it into a place that's approachable There's a marble bar with 10 bar stools that takes center stage in the back along with a salumeria area to the right that's an extension of the kitchen where you can watch Chef David Werner in action There's also a pizza oven where Roman-style pies will be made More: Restaurant X and Bully Boy, in business 27 years, closes What's most compelling — and noticeable upon walking in — are the black walls decorated with colorful chalk illustrations commemorating different aspects of Italian life and history by Nyack artist Mike Delaney Blurbs about their meaning will be in place before the restaurant opens — Aufgang said the artist can explain it all better than he can — but there's a directionality starting with Roman figures and objects that represent the Earth "Being inside the dining room is like being inside the art," said Aufgang who emphasized that Delaney had free reign to do whatever he wanted "I basically gave him the keys to the place and let him at it." The old bank vault is now the wine cellar with an open door diners are encouraged to walk in and check out Lloyd has a story," said Aufgang of host Lloyd Leon a certified somelier who for 25 years worked at the since-closed Marcello's As someone who's been to Italy too many times to count Leon is eager — and excited — to share (and educate) diners about the 115 labels that hail from almost every region in Italy as well as from producers in Greece He has personal relationships with each one of them Same with the 14 different Italian craft beers that will also be served here More: Rockland smashburger with maple onion bacon jam is Muchnick's 'Best Thing' she ate this week Diners can expect a variety of small and larger plates with an emphasis on seasonality and a nod to the Mediterranean "The concept is for diners to order multiple plates and share," said Werner Among the options: Burrata with spring pea pea tendrils and Pinot Grigio vinaigrette; a mushroom pizza with whipped ricotta; Fava Beans pecorino cheese and extra virgin olive oil; Oyster Crudo; Local Black Bass; Hanger Steak and Spanish Octopus who's been cooking for 22 years including most recently for Chef John DeLucie's NYC restaurant Spritz said they also want to expand on the salumeria idea so each time diners visit there will be different meats and cheeses to try (An antique slicer can be viewed from the open kitchen.) was "How much fun could we have letting people express their creativity?" That means allowing Werner to express his creativity through food Delaney through his art and Leon through his wine selections whose pottery is being used for many of the restaurant's serving plates The three men emphasized the casualness of the spot — of coming here for a date night with a gaggle of friends or simply the kind of place you impromptu drop by after work — with no reservations required The name of the restaurant means blackboard in Italian and there are two more blackboards that display specials one near the bar and one near the wine vault Both Leon and Aufgang said the palette of the place is a pizza or a bottle of wine and color in their own experience Hours: Dinner only to start but eventually hours will be noon to 9 p.m Friday and Saturday; Sunday brunch hours to come Good to know: There's a newly-paved parking lot adjacent to the building with plenty of spaces Stay tuned: Watch their social media for an official opening date Jeanne Muchnick covers food and dining. Click here for her most recent articles and follow her latest dining adventures on Instagram @jeannemuchnick or via the lohudfood newsletter She is a member of Brunswick’s European Cybersecurity Group Elisa worked for leading PR agencies in Italy managing cross border mandates and handling the corporate communications of companies such as Rothschild Elisa graduated in Public Relations and has a MA equivalent in Consumer Sociology With a diversity of experience and backgrounds – including former CEOs and more – we have built teams of sector experts that operate seamlessly across regions and global practice groups Read more about Argentina’s upcoming elections President Mauricio Macri and his populist nemesis, former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, are the frontrunners in Argentina’s October presidential election. But while they loudly wage war, a soft-spoken, 77-year-old economist is quietly reshaping the high-stakes contest who served as finance minister following Argentina’s 2001 economic collapse disappeared from public life after a failed presidential campaign in 2007 while winning the country’s second-largest province Córdoba.) But Argentina’s latest economic struggles have rekindled interest in Lavagna’s role in engineering Argentina’s rapid economic recovery almost two decades ago and Argentina is plodding through its second straight year of recession Given that grim economic performance, Macri’s re-election is far from assured. But his predecessor, Kirchner is beset by corruption scandals and has failed to capitalize on Macri’s stumbles Her support has remained at around 30 percent since she left office in late 2015 That has opened the door to a third-party bid another young and ambitious moderate Peronist But neither Massa nor Urtubey – both under 50 – has generated nearly the buzz surrounding the septuagenarian Lavagna who first served in government in the 1970s in the twilight of Juan Perón’s political career The excitement over Lavagna’s campaign is the most surprising development so far in the election – and it has created the potential for an electoral upset in October That is largely because Lavagna’s last time in public service involved resuscitating the country’s ruined economy under interim President Eduardo Duhalde and later overseeing a spectacular recovery under President Néstor Kirchner During Néstor Kirchner’s administration, Lavagna also led the country’s debt restructuring and negotiations with the IMF – relevant credentials given Argentina’s daunting repayment schedule in future years the Argentine polling firm Synopsis found Lavagna far ahead of Massa and Urtubey compared to 6 percent for Massa and 2 percent for Urtubey 63 percent of respondents cited either inflation or unemployment as the country’s top problem Though Lavagna’s experience is an asset, he is seen as a lackluster campaigner, whose preference for socks and sandals has become a popular meme despite opening a campaign headquarters in Buenos Aires he has been reluctant to enter the race formally insisting Massa and Urtubey first drop out who selected a member of a different party as his running mate in 2007 he is building a broad coalition that includes traditional Peronists such as former presidential candidate Margarita Stolbizer Following Kirchner’s failed populist experiment, and Macri’s floundering market liberalization, Lavagna offers a centrist path out of Argentina’s endemic stop-and-go cycle. In his 2007 run, he criticized Kirchner’s overspending Lavagna has also suggested he would serve only one term – a pledge that addresses concerns about his age and could persuade other parties and traditional Peronist candidates to subordinate their ambitions temporarily Still, Lavagna’s plan is a long shot, in large part because Massa has shown no interest in standing down. Massa was the first major figure to announce his candidacy and he insists Lavagna face him in a primary in August This face-off must be resolved quickly. Next month is the deadline for candidates to confirm their coalitions and join the race Continued divisions among traditional Peronists would doom Lavagna’s campaign A second round slugfest between Macri and Kirchner is too close to call But one thing is clear: In a head-to-head contest against either frontrunner Lavagna would be Argentina’s next president a former South America director on the National Security Council is the senior adviser to the Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and an adjunct lecturer at Johns Hopkins University Americas Quarterly (AQ) is the premier publication on politics We are an independent publication of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas PUBLISHED BY AMERICAS SOCIETY/ COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAS Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information Photographer: Juan Mabromata/AFP via Getty Images 2019 at 11:29 AM EDTBookmarkSaveLock This article is for subscribers only.Roberto Lavagna who oversaw the rebuilding of Argentina’s economy after the 2001 default is emerging as a compromise candidate in what looks to be one of the most divisive presidential elections in the nation’s history The former economy minister would offer voters a middle path between current on whose watch the country has fallen into two recessions and former leader Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner whose populist policies many blame for Argentina’s current economic woes Lavagna says he wouldn’t run in a crowded primary race but would be a candidate in a general vote SEARCHThe global authority in superyachting The classic 24.4 metre canoe-stern Lavagna motor yacht Black Pepper has been sold in-house, with Jaap Havenga at Northrop & Johnson representing the buyer and seller Constructed in steel by Italian yard Lavagna, Black Pepper was delivered in 1975 and enjoyed a €800,000 refit in 2016 Accommodation is for nine guests in four cabins including a master suite Samsung television screens and en suite bathrooms while there are crew quarters for up to four members Her glossy interior features cherry wood panelling and oak flooring, while Benetti oversaw the naval architecture The main saloon maintains its classic style by blending the original fitted joinery and features modern sofas and a centrepiece glass and bronze coffee table Light is provided by a combination of traditional lighting modern soft LED overheads and large windows on either side Forward is a formal dining room with an extendable walnut table comfortably seating eight guests guests are treated to a vast sun deck with loungers and sun pads Twin 525hp Detroit Diesel engines give her a range of 1,900 nautical miles at her cruising speed of 11 knots Black Pepper was asking €850,000. Latest news, brokerage headlines and yacht exclusives, every weekday SubscribeSign up to our newslettersSign up to BOAT International email newsletters to get the latest superyacht news Boat International Media Ltd © 2008 - 2025 Content presented under the "BOAT Presents" logo is an advertising feature and Boat International Limited has been paid to include this content you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading the use of luxury goods in diplomacy has been an essential part of relationship and nation building Be it vassal kings paying tribute to their feudal overlords or impressing guests at a political fundraiser with champagne and caviar luxury has been an essential tool in winning over adversaries and flattering allies the political power of luxury has geopolitical repercussions Brands that constitute the essence of luxury have been resilient to crises through the decades and centuries More recently – between the 2008 global economic collapse to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic – luxury goods have taken a short term hit but almost instantly rebounded to pre-crisis levels of consumption This is because luxury is not just a tangible extravagance a consultant who specialises in the geostrategy of luxury "One of the main characteristics of luxury is that whether we are confronted by climate change natural catastrophes – luxury is always there whether you are rich or poor," Lavagna said you will go back to luxury – whatever that might be." It might take the form of an item from a fancy brand And it's through this quest for a dream within the so-called “great houses” like Louis Vuitton and Chanel that a lexicon has emerged rich in diplomatic vocabulary representing the "national spirit" of a brand expanding a country's international reach through a luxury commodity the use of diplomatic jargon is hardly a coincidence who is also the founding director of the Be.Exclusive consultancy in Monaco I've been working in the luxury businesses for more than 35 years And I have very [specific] geographic and historical roots the diplomatic echoes resonate within it." Asia has become the epicentre of the luxury market with China accounting for 40 percent of the world's 450 million global luxury consumers But as Beijing seeks to dominate the new silk routes under its colossal Belt and Road project Have the “great houses” questioned the authoritarian approach of leader Xi Jinping Do the affluent brands of status and style offer any response to rights abuses in Xinjiang, military expansionism in the South China Sea or the contentious status of Taiwan Perhaps the Chinese market is too important to the "purveyors of dreams" to rock the political boat "Don't forget that there are 1.4 billion Chinese living in a world of seven billion people," Lavagna says Even during the pandemic when the Chinese market was closed they still bought luxury goods because there was a hunger and desire to buy it would appear the big brands are resigned The rise of China as the world's largest consumer of luxury goods has been good for France French companies account for six of the top 10 “houses” with Louis Vuitton at No.1 Italy’s Prada at No.10 is a "lowly" €3.5billion Lavagna explains why the “French Touch” has resonated so persistently across the globe so powerful that to be proud of our French identity years ago the French government promoted the savoir faire In fact, it all goes back to the Sun King, Louis XIV, whose expansion of the Chateau de Versailles under the financial guidance of Jean-Baptiste Colbert established the economic model of importing cheap raw materials Fast forward 350 years – from the Sun King's reign to the G7 meeting of world leaders – and host French President Emmanuel Macron in Biarritz used the gathering of the world's most powerful players as an opportunity to showcase French produce and know-how Lavagna believes this national grandstanding of opulence and "art de vivre" become the norm when nations host the G7 gatherings, adding that Macron's move to hold the G7 in the Basque resort town of Biarritz was very clever "We don't always need to put Paris or Versailles in the spotlight It could have been another city [other than Biarritz] but it's a part of French history .. it showed that France has a very different landscape," he says When it comes to the gatherings of the "great and good" protests on the inequities of the modern world are sure to follow to highlight the impact of climate change environmental degradation and collapsing biodiversity With these challenges at the fore of modern political debate, what lies ahead for the use of luxury as a geopolitical tool? How have the “great houses” adapted to the next generation’s demand for sustainability and ethical production Critics maintain that any moves by high-end brands to move towards carbon neutrality or reduce environmental impact has been done in the name of upholding the image of luxury brands right?" Yet the success of brands can also hold them to ransom "It's what's called mass prestige," says Lavagna show restraint and get back to their roots But luxury brands have the money and the power to incite a revolution from the inside," Lavagna says "The climate change youth generation is right to ask for a more responsible environment and less of a footprint But don't forget that luxury brands came from nature when the maitre d'art transformed [raw materials] into food Watch full video here. mixed and edited by Cécile Pompeani and Nicolas Doreau Paris Perspective #19 - The geopolitics of luxury - Bruno Lavagna Bruno Lavagna is a consultant in luxury geostrategy and the founding director of 'Be.Exclusive' based in Monaco Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning Keep up to date with international news by downloading the RFI app The content you requested does not exist or is not available anymore Taking a break from posts about snow to wish Lavagna, the low-key Italian restaurant at 545 E In a time when far too many restaurants are closing I'm happy to see that Lavagna has been able to continue to make it work during the pandemic. Giorgio Lavagna, 46, is no stranger to the Nebbiolo-based Barolo and Barbaresco wines of Italy's Piedmont region. A native of Turin, Italy, he studied enology at the University of Umberto, from which he graduated in 1983. Lavagna then joined Batasiolo in La Morra and for the next 23 years worked as head winemaker he produced his first vintage of Barolos and Barbarescos there as well as other Piedmont wines such as Moscato The first family of Sicilian wine teams with French investors to make biodynamic, bi-cultur… As CEO of Houston’s Goodnight Hospitality—the group behind restaurants March, Rosie … Winemaker Jared Etzel moves on from Domaine Roy & Fils to success with a new Pinot Noir … Winemakers bringing the region’s terroir to the fore Top wine pros share the sweet wines they think deserve more love, from Pedro Ximénez Sherry … Castello Solicchiata is the volcano’s most historic noble winery. Why is it hidden away? Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission This article was featured in One Great Story, New York’s reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly Go to any city in America and you can likely find a good Italian place It’s only in New York that we have the rap-mogul restaurant We go to restaurants for oxtail or cocktails The great New York critic Vivian Gornick recently told my colleague Hilary Reid about the first time she was taken to Café Loup on West 13th Street by an editor: “He told me it was a ‘writer restaurant.’ I was thrilled the word restaurant entered popular usage only about 200 years ago Paris was the western world’s culinary capital Then the Delmonico brothers gussied up their downtown café with European-style glamour and a new era was born Edna Lewis put she-crab soup on the menu at Gage & Tollner and Masa Takayama turned a Columbus Circle mall into a sushi-baller landmark styles evolve; the essential fact that our restaurants are our hubs and our hideouts does not Restaurants are extensions of our offices and refuges from our tiny kitchens our best spots are not defined only by their cooks and their hosts and their servers; they are defined by us What would La Côte Basque have been without its swans It’s impossible to imagine the Odeon without McInerney choosing the moments when individual scenes flourished we found a history of the city that hasn’t otherwise been told The restaurants here were great not because of what they were but because of who we were and who we became while we were there but the feeling of ease that comes from finding your place — or the place where the SNL cast likes to hang out — is timeless and universal On the day that Cafe La Fortuna opened on the Upper West Side in 1976 “We sold one espresso and made exactly 85 cents,” says Richard Urwand But I guess someone liked that one espresso enough to tell someone else word spread to the two most famous people in the neighborhood (and arguably the entire world): John Lennon and Yoko Ono which was best known for its sandwiches and Italian desserts “He would sit at the same table in the back garden Sometimes he’d order a sfogliatella or cannoli.” The cover of Lennon’s posthumous 1984 single “Nobody Told Me” features a photo of him and Ono at the café with the former Beatle about to dig into what appears to be a sandwich They ate breakfast there on the day of his murder in 1980 Urwand says the pair came to Cafe La Fortuna because the regular customers knew enough not to bother them “I remember one time John said he was thinking about going to Florida but he didn’t like it down there because of the mosquitoes Cafe La Fortuna closed in 2008 after the building changed hands and the landlord raised the rent Their son remembers his parents hit it off with John and Yoko and ended up becoming good friends: “Which was funny because my father liked opera He used to say the Beatles were the devil’s music.” Serving as the city’s chief executive in the Roaring ’20s a onetime Tin Pan Alley songwriter turned Tammany politician He was known for devoting maybe three hours a day to the job traveling the city in a flashy Duesenberg automobile that cost more than most houses and swanning around town each night with his showgirl mistress he arranged for a dowdy 65-year-old Central Park restaurant known as the Casino (not a gambling spot despite its name) to become a swanky nightclub the mayor broke the previous restaurant operator’s contract and handed it to his friend and supporter Sidney Solomon which would turn out to be the amount the Casino took in every night Joseph Urban — the architect behind Mar-a-Lago’s interiors no less — redid the place in Art Deco shimmer with black glass ceilings were even higher than at the Plaza or the Ritz One regular Sunday-night customer in the insurance business sometimes spent $300 on caviar alone — equivalent to about $5,500 today — along with the rest of his food and drink He tipped the orchestra $1,000 at a time and sometimes ran a $7,000 monthly tab held on ice in the customers’ cars by their drivers They paid $6 as a corkage fee; club soda was $3 a bottle Never mind the frequent Prohibition raids hauling out illegal liquor You could find Walker there multiple nights a week turning the Casino into the Zero Bond of its day “Will You Love Me in December (As You Did in May)?,” whenever he arrived He was around so much he kept an office there with its own phone line and a soundproof door behind which a fair share of city contracts got worked out The rebuilt Casino had reopened in June 1929 and Walker’s cuddly crookedness began to look a lot less entertaining (The caviar-and-$1,000-tips fellow lost all his money and killed himself.) Within a couple of years and in 1932 he admitted on the stand to taking about $1 million in “beneficences,” a fun word for payoffs without alerting his aides — and hopped on a ship to resettle in the south of France for a few years and wait out the statute of limitations newish Parks commissioner Robert Moses set his sights on the Casino If “the future’s already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed” (see William Gibson) in the Brooklyn I knew growing up in the 1970s and ’80s the past was strewn around in randomized chunks like the clamshells in a giant bowl of Two Toms’ linguine The little spot at Third and Union wasn’t a nostalgic portal into a romanticized Ye Olde Brooklyn (like Gage & Tollner); it was simply stuck in time like a piece of overcooked pork chop you can’t work out of your back molars until you get busy with a toothpick Never sublime enough to become any foodie’s fetish it was a workingman’s red-sauce house to the end The restaurant’s fake-stone stucco and tin awning made it comfortingly resemble the unrenovated façades of the slowest-to-gentrify residential blocks of Carroll Gardens the ones with Catholic sculptures in the front yards You’d suffer no gastronomic epiphanies here nautically themed establishment is famous as the place where Keith McNally cut his teeth and where the original Saturday Night Live crew hung out because Lorne Michaels lived nearby One Fifth quickly became a kind of beacon for downtown art celebrities and young New Yorkers who didn’t quite know they were celebrities yet Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe were regulars and so was a New York Magazine editor named Anna Wintour “It was a particular mix of people who were just starting to make it,” says Vincent Fremont who managed Warhol’s Factory in Union Square it was one of the first places you could go and feel like you were part of something.” That ineffable “something” vanished when McNally and his bartending brother then to open the Odeon with Lynn Wagenknecht who’d worked as a waitress (and was McNally’s first wife) “One Fifth was the Odeon before the Odeon,” remembers one of the regulars Anyone who remembers Coffee Shop remembers this big outdoor area That was where the more finicky people sat and we were so short-staffed I had that whole outdoor area to myself I just set my head down on the edge of the service station and almost cried you need to just put one foot in front of the other and get through this It was one of the most formative experiences of my life and at the time she always came in with her daughter We waited on all these super-notable people we never really ever asked for pictures or anything like that but this was the one exception that we made I was dragged to a Brighton Beach banquet hall at least monthly “Paydyom v’Nassional?” On went the sequined dresses and Men’s Wearhouse blazers usually to the “Nassional.” Established in 1981 by members of the first immigrant wave to land in Little Odessa the National presented a windowless façade but wonders lay within: a two-tiered palace festooned with dizzying carpet patterns Hundreds of seats were crammed into long tables laden with French-inflected Soviet appetizers: smoked sturgeon and tongue; salmon roe and black bread; and — my favorite — Olivier salad (Trust me.) By the time the kebabs and the chicken Kiev arrived lubricated by vodka (a bottle per four or five seats) The highlight of the night was the floor show A parade of performers sourced from across the Soviet imperium executed stiff but sultry choreography alongside synth-heavy bangers in both Russian and English the National’s theme was material aspiration Its regulars had engineering degrees but toiled 14 hours daily in cabs saving for the next generation as well as the occasional cheapish thrill of getting drunk in front of their kids while feathered-haired beauties leaped among lasers and fog machines the son of Hollywood director Mervyn LeRoy and grandnephew of studio chieftain Jack Warner had grown up with an appreciation for the magic of celebrity the most important of whom could slide into the tables along the wall in the back room which was famous for its ceiling covered with glittering Tiffany glass It was the hot restaurant during a time when there were very few inhibitions holding people back,” remembers Drew Nieporent who found himself running the front of the house at age 23 LeRoy had toyed with a variety of sexually charged names (the Silver Cherry was one) before settling on Maxwell’s Plum quickly became one of the first places in town where upwardly mobile single women newly liberated by the Pill — stewardesses actresses — felt comfortable drinking at a bar alone The doors were regularly locked after too many singles had flooded into the bar a woman streaked around the restaurant for $100 but a place like Maxwell’s Plum really sort of was,” one of the old regulars tells me Nieporent agrees: “It was accessible to everybody so anybody could go there — and did.” During its long prime before aids and greed and the general darkness of the 1980s set in the 240-seat establishment did 1,500 covers a night The kitchen didn’t close until after 1 a.m. frogs’ legs “Provençale,” or a foot-long hot dog with chili “I cannot emphasize enough what a great fucking restaurant this was.” If 2006 ever calls and wants its celebrities back the caller ID might well come up as “Da Silvano.” Silvano Marchetto’s Italian restaurant spilled onto an unusually broad sidewalk on Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village from 1975 until 2016 — often with one of his three Ferraris parked outside Perhaps its ample outdoor seating — more like the Ivy in L.A than anything in New York — helped attract the glam clientele for which it was known The stars provided a buffet for the paparazzi (who were always waiting by the curb) without appearing too thirsty for attention Celebrities descended upon Da Silvano throughout its 41-year run but 2006 — with its saucer-size sunglasses and brand-new T-Mobile Sidekicks — was the year in which Frank Bruni began his New York Times review (dropping it from two stars to one) by highlighting not the food but regulars like Madonna It was the year Harvey Weinstein had pasta at a back table with Mischa Barton and the year Lindsay Lohan tried to get a spray tan in the restaurant’s bathroom during an Elle cover-story interview a rubber-chicken event at the New York Public Library that fashion journalist Horacio Silva recalls sitting next to Rihanna: “She was hating the food You can have whatever you want.’ So she had her driver pick up her favorite Da Silvano’s pasta and I think slipped out to go eat in the limo.” Birdland was the club to play on 52nd Street — then still Swing Street though not formuch longer — and Ham N’ Egg Corner was the place to eat this had to do with practicality (it was across the street) and accessibility (it was open 24 hours) “a great vibe.” The peak hour always came around 3 a.m. waiting for other band members to trickle in he saw bassist Wilbur Ware looking in through a frosty glass window smiling at the musicians with their instruments propped up against the linoleum tables and what Barron calls “night people” often mingled had no trouble staying awake: “I’d always start the night off with a cup of coffee.” And what was their regular order we bought a place across the street from Lucali famous for its delicious pizza and doubly famous for attracting celebrities It wasn’t long before I became like Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window watching as a flock of chauffeured SUVs descended upon my otherwise quiet Carroll Gardens street No sooner had I finished telling my date that it was Bey’s favorite pizza than an Escalade pulled up and she and Jay-Z proceeded to house a pie at the table next to ours The lines really started getting crazy after Lucali was featured on David Chang’s Ugly Delicious in 2018 every time someone like Bella Hadid posts a pic from an evening there there’s a subsequent bump in the length of the line and the number of schmoes commandeering my stoop as a picnic spot for takeout pies a trio of dudes with cameras around their necks stopped to watch me and my husband struggle to drag our giant Christmas tree down to the curb “You promise you won’t put it on Twitter?” one said “It’s Taylor Swift.” I grabbed a bottle of Calvados and brought it outside to quaff as we watched Questlove Taylor emerged; we only glimpsed her Reputation-green ensemble before she and Blake Lively pulled away in an SUV At least one of Tay’s exes is also a fan: One year we planned a pizza dinner for Rosh Hashanah and as I ambled across Henry Street to get our order and pile six pies into his gull-wing Tesla the short-lived but seminal club called the birthplace of New York hardcore part of a constellation of Polish and Ukrainian greasy spoons that had fed the East Village for years or even seven in the morning,” says Jesse Malin of the early hardcore band Heart Attack “We worked up quite an appetite in that back room jumping around dancing like crazy.” He’d go with other people from the scene Sometimes he’d run into the Stimulators and Jimmy Gestapo from Murphy’s Law was named after a meal they’d had at Leshko’s The Caldron was opened in 1969 by Marty and Glory Schloss and in its early years it was known as a place where both hippies and Hasids would go for Jewish macrobiotic meals That changed in the ’80s: “It was full of hippies and Orthodox Jews — and punks,” says the photographer Richard Sandler “The owner’s mother was the head of the bakery next door amazingly enough,” says Willie Luncheonette who was deep in the East Village scene at the time and Elvis Costello — who once came in asking if anyone wanted tickets to a show — as well as one of his favorite bands ‘You guys are great,’ and they told me to come out to the van after I finished eating to hang out for a while.” For a certain set of private-school kids who came of age in the mid-’90s the Serafina on 79th and Madison will always be Sofia marching up the narrow steps in bulbous Steve Maddens The hostess would herd us past the main dining room (where grown-ups sat) which had tented ceilings and uneven brick floors “It was the one place you’d see everyone from all the schools,” says Elana Wexler Even if you didn’t know the kids at othertables you knew of them from promoters’ party flyers or high-school lore (It was the ’90s; carbs were fine.) We littered tables with beepers Sofia was where we celebrated birthdays and AP tests It managed to feel adult and aspirational while still comfortable for someone using a fake ID to order a glass of Pinot Grigio the restaurant was an entirely sponsored experience Sofia was the first place I felt part of a scene I learned about the magic of bumping into people and the specific energy of a New York evening that could go in an infinite number of directions — even if those nights mostly petered out into loitering on brownstone stoops following a dispute with a restaurant of the same name We give weary smiles over tennis-racquet pasta or Joe Baum had his share of hits: Windows on the World none more titanic or comically misconceived than the extravagantly over-the-top Roman establishment that opened in the fall of 1957 on the ground floor of Rockefeller Center the Forum of the Twelve Caesars was built to cater to the high-rolling high-spending captains of industry who populated midtown during its corporate-restaurant heyday famously tasteful space in the Seagram Building Baroque-like portraits of Rome’s first dozen emperors Champagne buckets designed to resemble upturned centurion helmets and water taps in the restrooms that Mimi Sheraton merrily reported were shaped like bronze dolphins Guests dined on bizarre creations such as “Oysters of Hercules” and “Fiddler Crab Lump à la Nero,” a dish that was served tableside and flaming the reviews weren’t horrible (Craig Claiborne praised the restaurant’s “lusty elegance”) a longtime restaurant consultant and Baum’s partner of 29 years says it quickly became apparent that there weren’t enough corporate fat cats in midtown who “viewed themselves as Roman senators wandering around in togas or whatever it was Roman senators used to wander around in,” to support it When the managers of the Four Seasons offered to buy that restaurant in 1974 if you took a seat at the also-departed Rockefeller Center steakhouse AJ Maxwell’s you could still see the faded murals — remnants of a vanished time Jimmy’s Bronx Cafe basically started New Age Latino cuisine you would have everybody from Eminem to Mary J they gave a warning to all the Yankees players because they used to be at Jimmy’s every day you gotta stay out of this joint.” —As told to Ben Kesslen Here’s what kind of an event Mark Twain’s 70th-birthday party the New York Times ran not one but two stories about the invitations the novelist and Atlantic Monthly editor routinely called “the Dean of American Letters.” President Theodore Roosevelt couldn’t make it Delmonico’s was almost 80 years old by that time and still the omphalos of American fine dining Everyone received a foot-high bust of the guest of honor The former Samuel Clemens was by then one of the most famous men alive and gone on lecture tours and published his memoirs to earn some money and the party was meant to celebrate what was bringing up his skepticism about the medical treatments of the era and his diet which he said he’d finally moderated after many decades of indifference was an intermittent faster before its time “I have taken coffee and bread at eight in the morning and no bite nor sup until 7:30 in the evening What did Twain and his guests eat that evening Delmonico’s served heavy food without a lot of inclination to seasonality of course — every New York meal of consequence in those years probably included them and fried Baltimore terrapin and quail and saddle of lamb Parsleyed potatoes and creamed mushrooms on toast rounded it all out After three hours of getting ready at the Chelsea Hotel I’d join my fellow club kids at photographer Michael Fazakerley’s studio to have our looks documented we would tread in our platform shoes to an outlaw party staged at a high-traffic hub like Twin Donut or the L train — think flash mobs but before they were invented We’d flood the joint with splendor and party until the cops came then drinks would fly into the air and a herd of club kids and banjee boys would stampede toward Limelight Whisked through the crowds waiting to get in The strategy behind the dinners was to get as many fabulous people into the club as early as possible so when the paying patrons made their way though the door they weren’t confronted with an empty room Seats were given to the top-notch club kids usually a personality from a campy ’70s show like Three’s Company or The Jeffersons These dinners had an Alice in Wonderland quality with all of us sitting at a table in colorful sparkling costumes eating a macrobiotic meal and chatting with someone we’d grown up watching on television The energy would build throughout the night until everyone was completely lit — obliterated on E or some other powder or potion that had been passed around it was a signal that it was time to get paid then dance until noon at places like Sound Factory and that spot was usually Cafe Orlin on St which was known for its cheap breakfasts and gender-nonconforming staff There was a giant round table in the corner near the front windows where club personalities would often hold court and swap gossip about the previous night’s adventures Pink Pony was a place I used to go every single day because I was friends with Lucien So I could go there and get free meals and then sneak into Max Fish and just get wasted It was like French American fusion: cheeseburgers I was such a big pothead during those days I remember having the craziest munchies and eating everything on the menu because it was free You knew Sugar Ray Robinson — arguably the greatest fighter in history — was at his restaurant by the flamingo-pink Cadillac convertible sitting outside working a few doors away as a desk clerk at the Hotel Theresa would escort visiting dancers over if they wanted to get a glimpse of the champ “I’d tell them they probably weren’t going to see him,” he told Robinson’s biographer Wil Haygood they were marketed mostly to Japanese businessmen and these guys did not want to see any fucking white people in their restaurants,” recalls Nobu’s Drew Nieporent Sushiden on East 49th Street was partially owned by the Mitsubishi Corporation; it was a forbidding oasis for salarymen dressed in their dark suits which is still doing business in a small walk-up space on 47th Street was the big-money venue where the sushi was stored in a golden box and the chef (who called his carefully selected fish “my jewels”) charged upwards of $200 for an omakase dinner when “no one had ever heard of doing such a crazy thing.” which thanks to a glowing review by Mimi Sheraton became a kind of proving ground for influential members of the city’s avid sushi community who honed her taste for sushi while living in L.A. recalls seeing the novelist Renata Adler silently communing with her omakase dinner at the bar Reichl had been introduced to the restaurant by her father and they used to dine with the rest of the gaijin crouched at one of the darkly lit tables downstairs She only managed to ascend to the bar upstairs when she went to work for the New York Times and acquired an expense account would give me the most exotic things — fermented squid guts which you couldn’t get anywhere else in the city.” ingredients were never bragged about at Hatsuhana (it was a given that the toro belly was the best) and the key to happiness was a special relationship with a chef like Osada “I used to give him bottles of Johnny Walker Blue at Christmas,” Reichl recalls the authorities would seat her ignominiously at one of the tables Hatsuhana helped an entire genre achieve gourmet status and chefs who worked there went on to open other influential spots including the great Sushi Yasuda five blocks south There was already French food in New York — at the Colony Delmonico’s to some degree — when the 1939 New York World’s Fair opened in Flushing Meadow But it was there that Le Restaurant du Pavillon de France served un-Americanized run by a hotheaded restaurateur named Henri Soulé and prepped by a well-drilled team brought over aboard the grand Art Deco liner Normandie There was capon in tarragon aspic; saddle of lamb; there were The restaurant served more than 136,000 customers from April through October and did it again for the Fair’s repeat engagement in 1940 When it was time for Soulé and his chefs to go home and the Normandie was seized for conversion into an American troopship Soulé opted to start fresh in New York; his restaurant He moved Le Pavillon to a larger location in 1957 and unveiled a very slightly less expensive restaurant calling it “my Pavillon for the poor”: La Côte Basque opened in October 1958 gathered a huge array of descendants: La Caravelle and Le Mistral were all opened by Soulé’s former staff members and their employees opened in 1961 and was widely understood to be the best restaurant in the U.S and the best regarded among them gradually took on the moniker Les Six The ladies who lunch (labeled as such in 1970 by Stephen Sondheim who lived about 300 feet from Lutèce) were the core customers The ancillary Jackie O.’s of New York — her sister Lee Radziwill so many others — treated La Côte Basque’s banquettes as their cafeteria smoking their way through countless lunches and slicing up other members of their cohort as expertly as servers did their Dover sole an immigrant restaurateur named Florent Morellet dressed up as Marie Antoinette and threw a party in the meat market of downtown Manhattan his bistro-diner that felt like a Weimar speakeasy with a Debbie Harry soundtrack had been a hit since opening on Gansevoort Street four years earlier followed by seemingly every boldface name in New York: Calvin Klein But business sagged in the late ’80s as recession loomed and NYPD efforts to clean up Times Square pushed the sex trade into the neighborhood where meat-packers still hung carcasses from hooks under the sidewalk awnings and we were having a very bad time,” Morellet recalled recently from his home in Bushwick and Florent’s annual Bastille Day parties blossomed into a street festival that but it remained the signature event of a restaurant that was like a gay Elaine’s with better food Morellet kept it feeling like a neighborhood hangout he updated his T-cell count on the specials board And then Florent appeared on Sex and the City — twice it was a clear sign this was the Meatpacking District now It’s like the frog that can’t figure out when water’s boiling,” said Morellet It was the rent that finally did in Florent — what had been $6,000 a month became a reported $30,000 more businesses in the area meant more regulations themed around the Kübler-Ross stages of grief “It was so much easier when there was only one queen on the block.” Esther Eng was said to be the first Chinese woman to direct movies in both the U.S a Chinese actor who was reluctant to return to China She decided to open a restaurant to give her friend and his troupe work it was located on Pell Street in the heart of Chinatown the restaurant became a harbor for expat Chinese actors a place where they could get help learning English and money to pay their rent The food was notably excellent: egg roll stuffed with lobster which Craig Claiborne said in his New York Times review was the only issue he had with the place James Alston IV opened his homestyle Harlem diner in 1962 and it quickly became a destination for Black politicians It never fully embraced the trappings of a social club the restaurant nurtured a sense of community and trust among its diners Frequent customers included Muhammad Ali; Percy Sutton; labor leader Howard Bennett who would go on to fight to make Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday; and who became such a fixture that he used the restaurant’s pay phone to make radio announcements and regularly held court in his own back booth (And it’s where he took meetings with Alex Haley who was writing The Autobiography of Malcolm X.) Following his assassination in 1965 a black-and-white oil portrait was hung over his table There’s a certain kind of restaurant that feels fancy when you’re young and broke and brand new to the city the year Lavagna opened on East 5th Street just west of Avenue B By the time I started hanging out there in the mid-aughts the rustic Italian joint was part clubhouse part grown-up restaurant that adults hadn’t spoiled: It was ours The Strokes were and remain the most enduring regulars “Brett first brought them,” recalls the restaurant’s owner who designed the cover of their 2001 debut album “The Strokes started bringing their families “It was our go-to spot for birthdays and celebrations,” remembers then–Strokes manager Ryan Gentles The guys from the National and Kings of Leon and Jack White “and his band of the moment,” as Hatziefthimiou puts it along with “comedians who were friends with the Strokes,” like David Cross and Andy Samberg with whom Hatziefthimiou wound up playing on an indoor soccer team assembled by Strokes lead singer Julian Casablancas there’s still a trophy they won in a tournament at Chelsea Piers celebrating his 46th birthday with a table full of friends there was no place where the raw social power of Condé Nast’s top editors was more on display than at 44 The restaurant was housed inside an Ian Schrager hotel called the Royalton at 44 West 44th Street just around the corner from Condé’s offices The hotel’s interior was designed by Philippe Starck “An early-’90s masterpiece,” remembers Graydon Carter who had been encouraged to open it by his friend Vogue editor Anna Wintour and he came every day as soon as he took over Vanity Fair too.” The most important thing about having lunch at 44 was where you sat Dana Brown wrote about the status scramble in his memoir beginning with how he was actually working at 44 when Carter took a shine to him and hired him at Vanity Fair There were only four banquettes at 44; one belonged to Wintour The remaining banquette “was left open for whatever big shot happened to be in that day — Jackie O. The rest of the room was defined by proximity to those tables ‘Whose number is this?’” when a reservation would come in a junior editor at Glamour,’ which basically informed him that he could put them near the kitchen.” (“We weren’t that snobbish!” insists McNally who now works for the San Vicente Bungalows It would later become a 250-seat restaurant famous far and wide for its chicken and waffles was likely serving its own version over a decade earlier owner Joseph Turner Wells eventually trademarked a logo helping to stake the Supper Club’s claim — misattributed — as the dish’s founder The origins hardly mattered to the Black musicians and performers who headed there after shows at the Cotton Club Regulars included everyone from Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington to Sammy Davis Jr published two years after Well’s closed its doors would get chicken and waffles … The jazz greats — you name ’em Dubrow’s was the “Cafeteria of Refinement” — never mind that the BMT subway ran almost directly over its roof dismantled in 1985) operated in several locations but the one that lingers in the mind was at Kings Highway and East 16th Street surrounded by showy Italianish murals and an elaborate tile water fountain three generations of Flatbush residents ate well for not much The food was comparable to what they’d get at an Automat or a coffee shop but with a slightly Jewish accent: coffee cake arguably busiest on weekends after services let out at Temple Ahavath Sholom That made it a useful place to mingle with — and court — voters campaigning on a Thursday night in October 1960 dropped by to shake hands and have dinner with Carmine De Sapio head of the Tammany Hall political machine JFK ordered a steak and a Heineken; he beat Nixon in Brooklyn two votes to one co-founder of the Food Allergy Initiative (now FARE): Sirio Maccioni would be at the door and sat everyone He was just one of the most intelligent people He knew everybody and seated everybody perfectly former editor-in-chief of Brides and longtime philanthropist affiliated with the Metropolitan Opera and Citymeals on Wheels: We were greeted beautifully author of New York Parties: Private Views and past president of the Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering: You know it was a place you could always call at the last minute and he would find a table for you I think that’s one of the things all of the regulars really appreciated Sirio knew who should get the top table of prestige and the second top table of prestige He kind of knew who was an “I’m important and you’re not” person and he put them in the best place possible he’d apologize six ways to Sunday and put them in the next best place possible JG: My friends and I would go there at least once a week Sirio held the tables on the banquette for people who came a lot ten pairs of women or men or whoever that you knew And then there would be the odd one you’d never seen before past chair of various fundraisers for the American Cancer Society and the New York Philharmonic: Sophia Loren would be there You looked across the room and everybody just sparkled JG: People came in dressed for the occasion All the women had a Bill Blass suit or an Oscar de la Renta dress You didn’t go to that restaurant coming from the gym You wouldn’t walk in there unless you were pulled together But they look like they just came out of the gym do you really think you look so gentlemanly and terrific and handsome that way SM: You would always have to drop your napkin and look both ways Henry Kissinger would be sitting in the front You felt really good about yourself just being there BT: There was a corner where everybody would look right away to see who was sitting there KY: My recollection is that I ate lunch there several times a week if you were trying to finance a charity ball or you wanted someone to be an honoree you would take them to Le Cirque because it was a glamorous place You took out a little piece of paper; you had a pen We planned the sponsoring committee for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund — the one in New York I remember Pat Buckley used the house phone and called Nancy Reagan and she agreed to join JG: If you were celebrating something or wanted to have a good giggle with your girlfriend BT: I remember always trying to lose weight I was always trying to figure out what was delicious but small KY: I didn’t eat very much — lots and lots of salad and grilled fish SM: The pasta primavera was the best in the city That was the first time I ever had pine nuts that were roasted before they put them into the pasta but one person ordered three lettuce leaves in a salad and it’s pretty healthy because it had all the vegetables Sirio heard that she was ill and he sent pasta primavera to her in the hospital They had these desserts in the 1980s that weren’t so much about eating but about looking at them There was one in the shape of a piano and another in the shape of a clown BT: The desserts always had something charming to decorate them but it’s true: A restaurant is a good spot to knock someone off That’s what happened in 1979 to Carmine Galante he was finishing up a meal at Joe & Mary Italian-American Restaurant in Bushwick A cigar he’d lit after lunch would end up outlasting him It’s certainly the way it went in April 1972 for Crazy Joe Gallo at Umbertos Clam House a seafood place that had opened a couple of months earlier He saw the men coming for him — on his birthday but he couldn’t get out the door until it was too late New York’s “Underground Gourmet” ran a review of the restaurant “Service was straightforward and not unfriendly,” the authors noted “but a slight strain in the atmosphere was undeniable if understandable.” Umbertos moved across the street but kept its notoriety Sparks Steak House in midtown seems to exist with no such gangster stigma even though it was the site of what might have been the last great public rubout: Paul Castellano stepped out of his black Lincoln Town Car and into three men’s gunfire who soon superseded Castellano as the top man in the Gambino family a spot he held on to until the government put him away in the early ’90s please take me,” Edie Windsor asked a friend in the early ’60s Windsor was unsure where to meet other women without risking her career at IBM She ended up at Portofino Restaurant on Thompson and Bleecker Portofino was a straight restaurant that cultivated a discreet but dedicated lesbian following who was honing her knack for drawing writers “It was a wild and fun and very scary time because you never knew when the place was going to be raided,” says Friday-night regular Carlotta Rossini Portofino had a loophole that offered a layer of protection: “There was no dancing so what were they going to raid?” A dispute over finances led Kaufman to end her romance with Portofino owner Alfredo Viazzi and she stormed out of the relationship and the business “I smashed every glass and plate in the place,” she told Vanity Fair in 2002 More has been written about Elaine’s than maybe any other restaurant probably because writers and movie stars adopted it as their hangout You went to Elaine’s for any of three reasons: (1) Elaine liked you and was willing to carry your tab if you were talented and broke; (2) Elaine liked your friends and you were allowed in by proxy; or (3) you wanted to get a glimpse of Norman Mailer Elaine was never shy about chucking people out Henry’s Steak House replaced a butcher shop on the corner of Sixth Avenue and West 4th in 1959 The real draw was the people-watching afforded by the outdoor seating and the center-of-it-all Village location; Bob Dylan was known to sit out among the sidewalk tables it became a refuge for Jackson Heights’ Colombian community a modest bakery where you could nurse a café con leche and a guava pastry for hours The energy inside skewed campy: Employees dressed in beige-and-green uniforms and hamburger-shaped neon signs adorned the walls Customers often stopped by wearing waist-trainers and with their hair in rollers The restaurant quickly became — and remains — a queer haven: To this day it’s not uncommon to see a table of trans women and gays sharing a bottle of aguardiente sitting next to a group of straight dudes cursing at the soccer games playing on TV monitors overhead all while waitresses float effortlessly among the aisles calling everyone amor and added a giant yellow cow above the front door to advertise the various cuts of steak Cositas Ricas now serves transforming it from a cozy corner panadería into a bacchanal befitting Roosevelt Avenue Salsa and cumbia play as diners dance in their seats when their song is on Tune your ears and you’ll hear accents from El Salvador and Uruguay and the Dominican Republic mingling with those of the cooks shouting out orders for bandeja paisa — the classic Colombian dish consisting of rice and a crispy arepa — in the open-concept kitchen Cositas Ricas has hosted the likes of Action Bronson and J Balvin who filmed the music video for “Nivel de Perreo” on the roof in 2022 a line cook who was raised in Jackson Heights was a regular at the restaurant around 2010 “It’d be packed with people coming home from work the gay hairstylists from the salons down the street,” they recall “I swear you’d see a baby getting baptized at a table It seemed like all of Def Jam used to go to Time Cafe I was gonna have a meeting with Andre Harrell the former head of Uptown Records and Motown I told my relative to meet me before so I’m not sitting by myself She sat down and started to steal the silverware put it back.” Andre and Russell Simmons came walking in and the silverware fell everywhere — clink But for as long as the fast-food chain has been in New York (its first store opened here in 1972) certain locations have served different purposes — as a high-low venue for a black-tie benefit gala attended by Andy Warhol in 1976 a quasi rec center for elderly Korean patrons in Flushing in 2014 when the Lower East Side nightlife scene known as Hell Square began shutting down the McDonald’s on Delancey and Essex provided an antidote to closing time: You didn’t have to go home It wasn’t just an establishment,” says Brenden Ramirez a bartender who remembers eating “McGangbangs” (a folkloric McDonald’s item that involves shoving a McChicken into a McDouble) while patrons took swings at one another who hosted parties at clubs like Hotel Chantelle and the DL would often marshal groups of people who thought they were following her to an after-party for a late-night visit the Chambers Street McDonald’s has long replaced suburban family basements for Stuyvesant High School students in need of somewhere to misbehave that was the place to be,” says Emma Carlisle “Its value was that it was lawless,” says the writer Becky Cooper who graduated from Stuy that same year and doesn’t remember ever eating anyfood at that McDonald’s denizens of Murray Hill may recall a mostly finance-guy scene at the 33rd Street McDonald’s after a night at Bowery Electric or Phebe’s “The Wolf of Wall Street had just come out,” says one former regular of that location “It was all these kids who thought they were Gordon Gekko — rich kids in suits at the McDonald’s Belmore Cafeteria in 1971| punjabi deli in 1998 Park Avenue South between East 28th and 29th was always lined with cabs; Belmore Cafeteria The Belmore occupied a culinary niche that’s now gone that of steam-table corned-beef hash and boiled potatoes and there were pitchers of water in case a customer needed to run outside and top up his radiator lays out his earnest if incoherent philosophy to Travis Bickle there late one night — but times change and cabbies retire The building came down for a beige apartment tower in 1984 South Asian immigrants had taken on the mantle of the yellow-cab industry Kulwinder Singh faced what he calls “the big problem” of finding a bathroom — public restrooms had vanished and store owners would often turn him away opening Punjabi Deli in a sliver of a space on East 1st Street Getting the message out was easy: He told drivers he knew and affordable food made by his family members and kadhi pakora that tasted like home for men who had left their own families behind Singh estimates 300 to 500 cabbies would visit every day The business could go through 3,000 disposable cups in a week It was open 24/7 because there was always a cabbie on the road By the time Harpal Singh started driving in 2003 It was the first place he found in New York that felt familiar: “For me the food I was getting there was a dream come true.” —Chris Crowley I wrote a note saying I was going to have my own restaurant by the time I was 30 I was looking and looking for a space and everything was too expensive said Chelsea was going to be the next big place He was really so instrumental in sending so many people When Kevin Costner was in town for three months he came in because Bruce Willis told him to I had a great referral system because we made people feel comfortable We didn’t really have a cocktail hour because nobody was around Chelsea at five o’clock who would bring in her whole crew after a shoot She got us on the Vogue radar in the first few months We then did a big after-party for Armani Exchange for 250 A-list people We also had amazing art on the walls: Damien Hirst I wasn’t trying to do anything other than put together something that I thought people would like but I was too afraid to do a classic restaurant We’d go to either Pink Tea Cup or Sammy’s on City Island They always were able to cater to 20 or more people king-crab legs — that was the pig-out place We’d always get the same table: in the back It was me and my people and Jay and his people The writers and artists who loitered around Macdougal Street in the 1950s have been called a lot of things: “irresponsible tea heads,” Allen Ginsberg used to say; “subterraneans,” Jack Kerouac called them; and “real bastards,” according to the artist Mary Frank they are and will forever be the Beats — a group united not so much by artistic style as by proximity and a desire to drink it was just “something they put in their mouth,” says Frank who was married to the photographer Robert Frank and bars they frequented throughout their 20s served more as backdrops places where they could “proselytize and argue,” Frank says Ginsberg trolled the all-night cafeterias around what he referred to as the “lumpen world” of Times Square seeking a bit of thrill and sleaze and occasionally picking up guys He even briefly worked at Bickford’s on Fifth Avenue the best minds of his generation sink in its “submarine light.” Places like Caffè Reggio and the jazz club Five Spot Café became frequent haunts but none more influentially than San Remo Café Ginsberg and Kerouac often refer to it simply as “Remo.” Frank who “barely drinks now and didn’t drink at all then,” remembers it as a “corner filled with people,” though “you couldn’t hardly see anyone because of the smoke.” Wherever they went and whoever else happened to be tagging along with them attracted an audience “They performed in the way they talked,” Frank says who had a voice like a rabbi.” The Living Theatre Judith Malina and Julian Beck’s avant-garde troupe that was at the center of the early Off Broadway movement So were the casual flings the couple’s open marriage allowed Remo was where Kerouac embarked on a tryst with Gore Vidal which the two wrote about separately in later books — Kerouac vaguely denying it happened and Vidal asserting it very much did Remo was also one of the places Kerouac got into drunken brawls and Ginsberg nursed any number of crushes “I would have liked to know you that night wish I could have communicated who I was,” he wrote about seeing Dylan Thomas at the café in 1952 “Ran into Dick Davalos in Remo the other night and we stared at each other and in low voices exchanged compliments,” he said in a letter to Kerouac When Kenneth Giordano took over Willie’s Steakhouse a restaurant in the shadow of the rattling 6 train on Westchester Avenue he bought some instruments and left them onstage Giordano counted the “King of Mambo” himself — Tito Puente — among his customers “It became the epicenter of the Bronx,” says the music historian Joe Conzo Sr. who was Puente’s confidant and longtime friend and Fania Records founder Johnny Pacheco were all regulars too Al Pacino showed up with Puente when he was filming Carlito’s Way Puerto Rican baseball star Orlando Cepeda walked in the same night “They were letting their hair down.” Word quickly got out that whenever Puente was in town and no matter where else he was playing — Copacabana or even Jimmy’s Bronx Café — he would eventually end up at Willie’s and diners would get a free show with their bistec encebollado Willie’s felt like the center of the universe: “When he got on those timbales The gossip columns were full of items about the glamorous shenanigans going on nightly at the funky-looking little bistro on East 9th Street opened the previous year by Roy Liebenthal and the so-called Trinity — Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington — were showing up on a regular basis “It was like lightning striking the gold pot and the gold pipes burst open and all the gold coins spill out That’s what it was,” the journalist George Wayne has said My eyes growing wide as Lucy’s at the Brown Derby I saw Robert De Niro come in wearing a leather duster and go upstairs with Harvey Keitel and some women in furs like some Reservoir Dogs–inspired fever dream Then I saw the Trinity lope in and climb the stairs all laughing and smiling as if being that beautiful was even more fun than it seemed I resolved in the middle of dinner that I had to somehow get up those stairs and into the inner sanctum My date had only enough clout to score us a table downstairs — no small feat So I told this guy (an older British journalist who resembled the avuncular actor Stephen Fry ascot and all) that I was going to the ladies’ room And then — quickly working out that it wasn’t my youth or cuteness that would gain me entry but knowing someone up in the exclusive room — I told the doorman at the stairs that I was Jarmusch’s cousin and on my way to meet him Both ropes (and the curtain) magically opened (I guess it must have seemed impossible that anyone would make up a story that ridiculous?) The rest of that night stays in my mind like glossy stills shot by some great nightlife photographer Imhotep Bey and his son Kaseem dropped by the food court inside the mall — now the site of City Point — after school in 1982 (Biz Markie released his song “Albee Square Mall” a few years later.) Jamel Shabazz the photographer who caught them on that day “He grew up to be a fine young man,” Shabazz says Just about every week starting in the late ’80s the artists Bing Lee and Ik-Joong Kang would round up a crew of friends like Martin Wong and Arlan Huang to meet at a rotating series of Chinatown spots where the Hong Kong chef knew to lace his fish balls with orange peel and seaweed where their performance-artist friend Frog King used to write out the daily menu for the restaurant in exchange for a free meal “The criteria was ‘affordable.’ Food has to be good “that the waiter or waitress doesn’t bother us “And nobody really talked about art,” says Kang bubbling downtown scene full of ambitious Asian painters and performance artists whom at that point the mainstream art world mostly ignored they started to channel those frustrations into action: In 1990 a collective they called an Asian American Arts Network which they wanted to use to get more shows and more critical attention for Asian American artists since anybody who came to a meeting was automatically considered a member It organized shows and publications and in 1991 widely distributed an open letter they’d written to David Ross pointing out that the Biennial that year included only one Asian American artist is one of many reasons why the 1993 Biennial included more Asian American artists than ever before Godzilla stopped meeting shortly after 9/11 they like to meet at Spongies on Baxter Street where they linger over a $1 Hong Kong–style sponge cake before they decide where to go for the main event their regular meals together are “more important than Godzilla Tucked on the quiet corner of Commerce and Barrow Streets in the West Village across from two identical townhouses separated by a shared gated garden (fancifully rumored to have been built for warring twin sisters) and a few doors down from the Cherry Lane Theatre I was hired as a waiter before it opened in 1992 restaurants had a stunning Black woman at the host stand but Black men were mostly relegated to being busboys or barbacks Grange served comfort food in a Great Depression–speakeasy type setting — down to the portrait of FDR over the bar and the Berenice Abbott photography (Abbott had lived in an apartment above the restaurant decades prior.) With its refurbished wood-and-leather booths Grange had a warm glow of comfort and privacy without the pretense that usually goes with that Those werethe last days of indoor smoking at restaurants It immediately became popular: Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson liked to sit at one of the three bar booths gazing contemplatively out the window; Rosie Perez preferred the dining room Matthew Broderick had exquisite taste in wine and liked the booth nearest the kitchen door which I suppose one has to be when dining with one’s mother I had stopped waiting tables and become the weekend brunch manager (it gave me more time to work on my first novel rays filtering through the vintage milk bottles used as flower vases Brad Pitt walked in holding the hand of Gwyneth Paltrow I sensed a shift in the energy in the bar area before I even saw them He demurely made his way through the crowd to the host stand and asked for a table for two “Would you like to put your name down?” I asked and they made their way back through the bar crowd What stood out was not the two of them but how others reacted Didn’t I know they were rumored to be dating These were the years before smartphones made everyone a roving reporter and social-media paparazzo having them there would be good for business This was on my mind as I glided through the dining room Not just for the sake of the restaurant but because they’d chosen to come back The rest of the day went off without a hitch I found out that someone had called “Page Six.” I was sorry someone invaded their privacy The spacious two-story diner near Borough Hall with an exhaustive menu and surf-and-turf specialties attracted politicians Joe’s most famous patron was Dodgers co-owner Branch Rickey who had discussed signing Jackie Robinson at his favorite table It was torn down in 1959 to make way for Cadman Plaza West The catering hall appealed to Democratic bigwigs and labor leaders who needed a banquet room spacious enough to fête governors and senators JFK stopped by for a women’s luncheon three days before the 1960 election to shore up the Irish American voting bloc in what was then a key swing state “Everything is always pretty good there,” says former Queens congressman Joe Crowley After Meade Esposito became the state’s most powerful Democratic leader he summoned aspiring candidates and judges he backed to lunch at a table facing the front window so he could see who was coming in The Italian trattoria specialized in wild game and Esposito frequently recommended a veal dish named after him telling one Timesman in 1972 that if he didn’t like the story While Manhattan elites hobnobbed at Elaine’s or the Rainbow Room Brooklyn bosses preferred a family-run red-sauce joint that hadn’t changed much since 1907 Anthony Genovesi made judges and legislators over antipasto while Brooklyn’s health-conscious borough president Howard Golden preferred roast chicken with broccoli rabe Party functionaries trekked to Coney Island for fundraisers although the banquet hall was also a favorite of developer Fred Trump When David Dinkins became the city’s first Black mayor in 1990 Sylvia’s — already a landmark that had been open nearly three decades — became a second City Hall but breakfasts were more organic,” former governor David Paterson says you looked up the three to four people you were going to interact with that day and you all kind of changed seating to talk about issues you’d deal with later.” Harlem’s next generation of political leaders — Paterson would sit and lecture me on who I should become,” Sharpton recalls and brass fixtures embodied the clubby atmosphere of the Bloomberg era when technocrats and the lobbyists seeking to influence them gathered It opened in 1998 but earned enormous goodwill among the political class for being one of the few downtown spots to stay open after 9/11 “I remember the scene a lot better than the food,” Bloomberg’s former deputy mayor Howard Wolfson says Everyone in the neighborhood knew that he jogged shirtless through the still-cobbled streets that he became a regular at Mary Parvin’s salons at the newsstand–slash–Oriental-rug shop she operated on Hudson And while he was said to drop in at Walker’s you would more reliably find him at Bubby’s one block west which Ron Silver opened in 1990 to sell his pies before it grew into one of the neighborhood’s most durable restaurants “He came in on the second day that we were open,” Silver says And he ate his last breakfast there before his plane crash there’s a fucking paper right over there.” Once Kennedy and the former Carolyn Bessette married the journalist and latter-day Real Housewife recalled ordering delivery from Bubby’s with Carolyn while a crush of paparazzi waited outside “there might be a stalker,” Silver concedes “I wasn’t going to throw them out just for being stalkers — I felt a responsibility to try to manage it.” When Diner opened in 1998 in a dining car that had been sitting empty just south of the Williamsburg Bridge it wasn’t entirely clear who its actual diners might be Shoppers at the nearby thrift store Domsey’s Owners Andrew Tarlow and Mark Firth hadn’t known that the Gretsch the battleship-size guitar factory across the street was full of artists living there illegally “There weren’t a lot of restaurants,” remembers Casey Spooner who ate there daily while recording the Fischerspooner album #1 Diner was a world-class distillery of high-proof cool The fashion editor Cecilia Dean brought Hedi Slimane there in a Town Car looking for “pasty-white lanky rock-and-roll hipsters” to model with actual Diner diners flown in to hang out was installed at the Färgfabriken in Stockholm Indochine was one of the hottest spots in the city — alongside Area and Danceteria But while those places were wild and messy which served Vietnamese food from its perch on Lafayette Street The opening-night crowd in 1984 included Andy Warhol “I loved walking up those stairs with the red light,” Mazar recalls “And then there’s some gorgeous model going let me take you to your seat.’ And me just going Why is she a waitress?” (The staff has long been intimidatingly gorgeous “Whoever did the hiring must’ve been a casting director,” Bethann Hardison told me.) You could see U2 sitting in a booth listening to a cassette of their still-unreleased record on a boom box or an extremely pregnant Sarah Jessica Parker dining with husband Matthew Broderick the night before giving birth to their son (Gossip columnists called the restaurant the next day asking if she’d eaten something spicy that triggered the labor.) One night when I was there with my favorite bodybuilder bottom gay porn star who was in town to film a gang bang the king and queen of Sweden were in another booth with their daughter Madeleine Willem Dafoe liked to sit at the bar behind the giant floral arrangement where he would study the script for the play he was working on Donatella Versace liked a table in the back when she brought her family in for Sunday dinners remembers the time Catherine Deneuve almost didn’t get a seat and I see her just peeking into the window I have a great table for you.’ And she goes “Indochine was always a restaurant where people smoked because cool people smoked back then,” Jean-Marc Houmard says when owner Brian McNally sold it to him and two fellow employees Michael Callahan and chef Hui Chi Le.) This applied to the staff too: “They would light the cigarettes in between taking orders and the bartenders would smoke in between shaking cocktails — and when there was that law that you had to have a nonsmoking section the best tables were always in the smoking section and I asked if they wanted to be in the nonsmoking section we want to be in the smoking section even though we don’t smoke because that’s where everybody who is interesting sits.’” The 36-metre motor yacht Disco Volante is newly listed for sale with Orieta Saraci of EST Yachting and Services Disco Volante accommodates ten guests in five staterooms her master being full beam and positioned amidships for minimum motion There are quarters for a crew of up to seven She has the feel of a classic gentleman's yacht but with an unexpectedly light and contemporary interior finished with dark wood soles and high gloss pale veneers on bulkheads and deckheads formal dining room for ten is positioned forward on the main deck with views forward the midships galley separating it from the saloon there is a spacious aft lounging area with loose furniture that is shaded by the overhanging sundeck There is also an additional space on the foredeck that can have an awning stretched over it when at anchor al fresco dining can be enjoyed at an expandable table while sunpads to port and starboard feel secure thanks to the bulwarks and rails outboard Tinted green windows with varnished wood frames brightwork on the inside of the bulwarks on the walkaround side decks and wooden handrails all add to the classic feel The 205GT yacht for sale is powered by three 1,420hp Caterpillar engines that give her a top speed of 27 knots a cruising speed of 22 knots and a range of 450 nautical miles at 20 knots Lying in Naples, Italy, Disco Volante is asking €2,495,000 with VAT paid. The 35 metre motor yacht Tamara RD, jointly listed for sale by Giulio Riggio at Fraser and Jochen Brill at Northrop & Johnson, has been sold with Marc Händle at Ocean Independence introducing the buyer Built in aluminium by Italian yard Cantieri Navali Lavagna (CNL) to a design by Luca Dini she was delivered in March 2010 as a semi-custom fast planing yacht in the yard's Admiral series she can accommodate up to ten guests in five double staterooms Samsung television screens and en-suite bathroom facilities Her expansive main saloon has comfortable seating in a large relaxation area in front of a 50-inch Pioneer television while forward is the formal dining area and galley The aft deck is fitted with everything necessary for al fresco dining and entertaining while the well-equipped flybridge has a barbecue grill 42-inch waterproof television screen and a Bimini top Tamara RD also comes with a full range of water toys including a Castoldi tender Jet Skis and a professional Bauer dive compressor Twin 2,774hp MTU diesel engines give her a cruising speed of 28 knots and a maximum speed of 30 knots Tamara RD was asking €5.9 million with VAT paid. Hailed by Variety as “a strikingly presented debut,” Carlo Lavagna’s Arianna is a visionary film about an intersex post-adolescent (played by the ravishing Ondina Quadri) who returns to her childhood home after many years Through the course of a sensual and heat-drenched summer Arianna is haunted by the intuition that she grew up as a young boy Her painful inner journey will bring her to realize that her parents performed a sex-change surgery on her when she was three and never told her The emerging Carlo Lavagna seems to be a valid new addition to the fervid Italian film renaissance that has been sweeping up the country with talents like Luca Guadagnino produced by Tommaso Bertani’s Ring Film and co-written with screenwriters Carlo Salsa and Document Journal contributor won two important awards in Venice Days (Best Italian Discovery and Best Young Best Young Actress to Ondina Quadri.) As a few magazines have pointed out the screenplay does not shy away from gracefully representing various stages of sexuality and intuition All the young actors in Arianna seem to be immersed in a state of grace perfectly living up to Lavagna’s penetrating and intimate cinematographic style enhanced by cinematographer Hélène Louvart’s talent (Pina Le Meraviglie) and Emanuele De Raymondi’s powerful soundtrack most of the cast lived and slept in the hauntingly beautiful house where the film takes place and the line between reality and fiction is quite often blurred to the film’s advantage Arianna has received the endorsement of ILGA (The International Lesbian Trans and Intersex Association) and we are sure it will strike an important chord in the LGBTQ community world-wide the chef and owner of Porchetta and the recently-opened Porsena With both her restaurants situated in the East Village it's hardly a surprise her recommendation would be close to home All the new restaurant openings in New York this month Your Ads Privacy ChoicesIMDb The man whose body was found in the Hudson River on Saturday has been identified by Westchester County police He committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge the Westchester Medical Examiner's Office concluded Lavagna died from asphyxia by drowning, the Medical Examiner's Office said Monday. He was discovered Saturday afternoon after a boater called 911 to report a body in the water off Hastings-on-Hudson Westchester County police reported over the weekend that the man's wallet jacket and other personal items had been found on the George Washington Bridge earlier in the week Born in the Rhondda with strong Gibraltarian roots, Caitlin Lavagna has her sights on the big league with release of her latest ‘sassy, quirky and powerful’ new single rich vocal and a knack for instant pop hooks Caitlin blends honest songwriting with an exciting rhythmic core Caitlin Lavagna’s mediterranean roots no doubt help play a part in her aim to always bring the fiesta so people can let loose and shake their frames Caitlin cites her influences from a wide range of Indie rock/pop and reggae artists and artists as varied as Sting and Fleetwood Mac Since ‘Run A Mile’ was released in 2023 Caitlin has performed at the Rock and Roll Panto at Theatr Clwyd been invited to sing on Radio Gibraltar and been nominated for Best Female Artist at the Radio Wigwarn Awards in London She has also recently performed in Turning The Wheel – A New Musical by Kieran Bailey and is currently touring for Operation Julie – a prog rock psychedelic musical based on the biggest LSD drugs raid in British History and set in 1970s – which started this month We caught up with Caitlin to talk about her new music and her touring plans for the year ahead Caitlin told Nation.Cymru: “This is my fifth single I have released as a solo artist I wanted it to represent changing the narrative from being heartbroken to making a decision not to catch feelings in the first place it’s about being confident in making decisions for yourself and being honest about them “I added some Spanish into this track to honour my Gibraltarian roots don’t complicate it’ and I think that’s a message I am taking into my life and therefore songwriting moving forward “I am extremely proud and excited by this track and hope listeners can bop along and look forward to the many other tracks I have planned for release this year.” And it’s not just this project that is keeping Caitlin busy. She shared: “I am currently on a UK Tour of ‘Operation Julie’ the prog rock musical about a famous LSD Drugs bust in the 70’s “I’m multi-roling as part of an ensemble of 9 Actor Musicians and the show is absolutely bonkers in the best way The music is next level and people are raving about it.” And as for live performances, she added: “I am super excited to be headlining the Rhondda Arts Festival on Saturday 29th June “This will be my first solo full band gig – I’ll be announcing the players and setlist closer to the date and it promises to be 90 minutes of classics bangers and originals which will finally be big and bold and banging!” Caitlin added: “I am also on this years line-up for the Wokingham Festival 2024 I am playing an acoustic set on Sunday 25th August around 4:15pm to 4:45pm “I’m hoping to give my originals an acoustic spin and enjoy an afternoon summer vibe. Tickets for that festival with so many amazing bands and solo artists are here I am waiting on Gibraltar Music Festival to confirm a slot for me and hopefully the band to perform there again this summer I performed there last summer and it was absolutely brilliant!” Caitlin was featured in TIWN Media’s latest podcast ‘Artist on Artist’ in March 2024. Check out her episode with fellow artist Katielou HERE Tickets for the Rhondda Arts Festival weekend can be found here Stream Caitlin’s latest track, Gold, here Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" Connect with Nation.Cymru on Facebook and Twitter If you would like to donate to help keep Nation.Cymru running then you just need to click on the box below it will open a pop up window that will allow you to pay using your credit / debit card or paypal Enter your email address to receive instant notifications of new articles All information provided to Nation.Cymru will be handled sensitively and within the boundaries of the Data Protection Act 2018 In 2017 Nation.Cymru was launched after raising £5000 from a crowdfunding campaign Today it is one of the fastest growing news sites in the UK attracting over 1.5 million visitors a month We are not backed by billionaire owners or hidden behind a paywall but we depend on our readers' support to continue our work If everyone who visited the site over the course of a month donated at least £1 we would have enough funding for the next eight years To guarantee our future please consider making a donation today. Retired banker now devotes life to teaching ancient skills to new generation instructs young students in the ancient art of wushu at the Center for the Studies of Oriental Cultures Italy - "Master Ghinolfi is like a father for me," said Simone Mangiante speaking from an unlikely kung fu outpost in the tiny port village of Lavagna in northern Italy became hooked on traditional Chinese martial arts (wushu) in the 1970s his pupils' passion and enthusiasm is a testament to their teacher's dedication "I remember very well the day I won gold at the 2014 world championship in Chizhou," Simone recalled during a break from training at the Center for the Studies of Oriental Cultures My teacher called from Lavagna and said: 'Don't worry Let it be.' The next day I tried my best and succeeded showed off souvenirs gained from three world championships for the traditional tai chi chuan and two European championships for the modern tai chi chuan "I like tai chi because it is complete kung fu," she said culture and traditional Chinese medicine." but his love affair with tai chi began in 1984 after seeing a presentation in nearby Genoa by Yang Li Every morning he rises at 5:30 to begin his routine with meditation and wushu practice he reads books about martial arts and prepares his training courses who is indebted to Chinese masters like Yu Yongnian and Wu Dong "Father Yu Yongnian treated me as a family member As the old saying in China goes: 'Once a teacher always a father,' so I always call Yu Yongnian father," he said drank Chinese tea and discussed Tao Te Ching the Chinese classic regarded as the fundamental text for both philosophical and religious Taoism the more he has for himself," Ghinolfi quotes from the text This piece of advice from Master Yu benefits my whole life passing all the knowledge to the next generation." That process was boosted many years ago when Ghinolfi and other Italian kung fu enthusiasts founded the Italian Federation of Wushu and Kung Fu Now they have many students all over Italy and many are following in the footsteps of their master "This summer I will go to Beijing Sport University to prepare for the world championships in Russia I will train with Master Wu Dong," said Simone who helps Ghinolfi teach kids two nights a week "Seeing the students improve through the years is a huge accomplishment for me." Black Pepper is a 24.34 m Motor Yacht, built in Italy by Lavagna and delivered in 1974 Her top speed is 15.0 kn and she boasts a maximum range of 1980.0 nm when navigating at cruising speed with power coming from two General Motors diesel engines She can accommodate up to 9 guests in 4 staterooms with 3 crew members waiting on their every need She has a gross tonnage of 103.0 GT and a 5.27 m beam The naval architecture was developed by Benetti, who has architected 393 other superyachts in the BOAT Pro database - she is built with a Teak deck, a Steel hull, and Aluminium superstructure. Black Pepper is one of 6024 motor yachts in the 24-30m size range. Black Pepper is registered under the Malta flag, the 3rd most popular flag state for superyachts with a total of 1159 yachts registered un'area riservata con: approfondimenti esclusivi contenuti personalizzati e altri vantaggi speciali Topics: BIIM Comment * document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id" "a60533dba42b2e60f7179a9e59398aa4" );document.getElementById("c3612e14aa").setAttribute( "id" Salva il nome e la email in questo browser per quando commenterai le prossime volte INFORMAZIONI SUL TRATTAMENTO DEI DATI PERSONALI La newsletter di Daily Nautica è distribuita in automatico e via e-mail a quanti fanno richiesta di riceverla compilando il modulo presente in questa pagina Titolare del trattamento dei dati è Carmolab di Claudio Carmosino & C. 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Advertise on Cineuropa Logos and Banners ROME 2020 by Davide Abbatescianni 27/10/2020 - Carlo Lavagna’s second feature lacks punch and offers a largely predictable story who live with their mother (Saskia Reeves) in an abandoned hotel surrounded by a forest forbids the two girls to leave the hotel during the day and teaches them the basics of hunting and the cultivation of medicinal plants and herbs in order to guarantee their survival we discover that the world is no longer what it once was and that there might not a living soul left beyond the woods — only the threat of the "Shadows" which prevent the three women from venturing beyond the river the approximate border of the area they consider to be safe the film tries to create tension through the use of an overly insistent soundtrack which sometimes attempts to punctuate the directing in a didactic way The three actresses offer good performances overall though they are not helped by the film’s unconvincing writing and the fluctuating rhythm of the narration which manages to pick up — if only partly — after the first hour of the film Several details appear strange and incomprehensible: for example abandoned by everything and everyone for years live in an immense hotel where electricity is still available; or it seems quite surreal that no one has come into contact with them for about ten or fifteen years and that there is an old magazine with the title "Global disaster" on the front page Furthermore, the subject of the film, in the themes explored and dynamics taking place between the characters, closely resembles that of recent horror film Il Nido [+see also: film review trailer interview: Roberto De Feo film profile] by Roberto De Feo a young protagonist was the victim of a possessive mother who sought to protect him from an impending and unknown external threat keeping him locked up in a huge estate surrounded by a forest where he was forced to learn what was necessary to ensure his survival Generally speaking, the main narrative twists of Shadows are largely predictable and do not really offer the viewer anything new, falling short of other titles that have explored similar themes better, such as Lenny Abrahamson's Room [+see also: film review trailer making of film profile] The good work from the three actresses is the most convincing aspect of the film even if their performances are not without flaws either — in one scene one of the three women is seriously injured yet her voice does not seem to be altered by the obvious pain caused by her condition Shadows was produced by Ascent Film and Rai Cinema and co-produced with Dublin-based company Feline Films. Italian distribution is handled by Vision Distribution Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox “Directors must showcase their original visions in genre films” Carlo Lavagna’s second feature film Shadows is a tense psychological thriller shot in English, which is now available on Italian VOD platforms 17/11/2020 Set to be presented at the Berlinale Co-Production Market, the drama, now in development, follows a profoundly deaf teenager who endures the horrors of an industrial school in 1950s Ireland 16/01/2024 | Production | Funding | Ireland The Irish festival, unspooling from 20-25 July, will take place in a hybrid format, with in-person screenings for the first time in two years 20/07/2021 | Galway 2021 Carlo Lavagna’s second feature lacks punch and offers a largely predictable story 27/10/2020 | Rome 2020 The 18th edition of Rome Film Fest’s parallel section dedicated to younger audiences will boast a new section created in collaboration with Venice 05/10/2020 | Rome 2020 02/05/2025goEast 2025 Review: My Magical World 30/04/2025Films / Reviews – Italy Review: San Damiano 30/04/2025Hot Docs 2025 Review: King Matt the First 29/04/2025Films / Reviews – Italy Review: Storia di una notte 29/04/2025Films / Reviews – Peru/Spain Review: Kayara. La guerrera del Imperio Inca 29/04/2025Hot Docs 2025 Review: Supernatural Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the most important daily or weekly news on European cinema Cannes 2025 Marché du Film AFCI runs its second annual Global Film Commission Network Summit at Marché du Film Festivals / Awards Czech Republic Czech Republic’s Anifilm goes sci-fi Distribution / Releases / Exhibitors Europe European Arthouse Cinema Day set to return on 23 November Cannes 2025 Marché du Film Indie Sales presents a three-star line-up at Cannes HOFF 2025 The Shadow and U Are the Universe win at Estonia’s Haapsalu Horror and Fantasy Film Festival Crossing Europe 2025 Awards The New Year That Never Came and The Flats crowned at Crossing Europe Cannes 2025 Marché du Film Be For Films to sell Love Me Tender in Cannes Cannes 2025/Sponsored Latvia set to shine bright at Cannes, led by Sergei Loznitsa’s competition entry Two Prosecutors Las Palmas 2025 MECAS/Awards Manuel Muñoz Rivas and Joana Carro win awards at the eighth MECAS Cannes 2025 Marché du Film Playtime to present some high-impact and entrancing trump cards at Cannes Production / Funding Italy Shooting begins on Walter Fasano’s Nino, a portrait of scoring maestro Nino Rota goEast 2025 Market TrendsFOCUSA busy spring festival season awaits the European film industry. Cineuropa will continue to keep its readers up to date with the latest news and market insights, covering the buzziest events, including Cannes, Kraków, Karlovy Vary, Tribeca, Hot Docs, Annecy, Brussels, Munich and many others Distribution, Exhibition and Streaming – 02/05/2025Slovak crime-thriller Černák becomes the highest-grossing film in domestic cinemasThe second film in the saga about a local mafia boss, directed by Jakub Króner, outgrossed its first part, which dominated Slovak cinemas last year Animation – 30/04/2025Mirko Goran Marijanac • Media sales executive, DeAPlaneta EntertainmentDuring our chat, the exec shared key insights from this year’s Cartoon Next and touched on the current climate for the animation sector Jaśmina Wójcik • Director of King Matt the First The Polish director discusses her approach to taking on a 1920s children’s literary classic in an unexpected way Želimir Žilnik • Director of Eighty Plus The Serbian director discusses his deep suspicion of ideologies in relation to his irresistibly charming latest feature, which follows a man whose life spans three political systems Paulina Jaroszewicz • Distribution and marketing manager, New Horizons Association Cineuropa sat down with the Polish distributor to discuss her company’s strategy as well as the connection between its distribution line-up and BNP Paribas New Horizons Festival’s programme Lorcan Finnegan • Director of The Surfer The Irish filmmaker discusses his mystery-thriller, how he created the character with Nicolas Cage and his approach to the use of colours in the film Privacy Policy The images used on this website have been provided by journalists and are believed to be free of rights if you are the owner of an image used on this website and believe that its use infringes on your copyright We will remove the image in question as soon as possible We have made reasonable efforts to ensure that all images used on this website are used legally and in accordance with copyright laws About us | Contact us | Logos and Banners Mission | Partners | Team | Donations | Terms and conditions An exhibition of paintings and drawings by local artist Clive Lavagna has opened at the Fine Arts Gallery although the artist has a particular fondness for vibrant colours with the exhibition open until the 27th May My colleague Michael Beltran asked Clive what inspires his work Sitemap Website design by Piranha Designs The centre came into being thanks to the former Director of the ENT department at the CHPG hyperacusis… These pathologies can now be treated in a dedicated medical centre in the Principality: Otoneuro Monaco Director of the ENT Department at the Princess Grace Hospital (CHPG) from 1992 to 2023 and a specialist in hearing and balance disorders Otoneuro Monaco carries out “the most advanced assessments and treatments” for deafness Dr Lavagna will be working alongside Professor Thomas Lenarz head of the ENT department at Hanover University Hospital who specialises in ear surgery and cochlear implants who has come all the way from New Caledonia Two audiologists and a medical assistant complete the team Professionals will have access to a unique technical set-up comprising a diagnosis and rehabilitation platform equipped with a specially designed seat for positional vertigo rehabilitation The centre will also be equipped with a brand-new tinnitus treatment system: LENIRE which consists of stimulating the auditory areas of the brain using information provided simultaneously by hearing (using headphones) and sensors in the tongue (through gentle electrical stimulation) Otoneuro Monaco is the very first otoneurology centre to provide this system in France The centre will also work in partnership with a number of different professionals from the region: neurologists audio-prosthetists and vestibular physiotherapists as well as with the CHPG and the Institut Universitaire de la Face et du Cou in Nice You can register a free account and get 10 FREE premium articles a month please enter your email address in the box below and we will send you an email with a few steps to reset your password and get you back onto your account Currently on show at the Fine Art Gallery is a painting exhibition by painter Clive Lavanga For some time now I have been wanting to bring Clive to my table but not to talk about his paintings – this you might call the third phase in his life Register free to get 10 premium articles/month Already a subscriber? Read our latest newspaper by downloading our app from the link below The Gibraltar Chronicle is a daily newspaper published in Gibraltar since 1801 It is one of the world's oldest English language newspapers to have been in print continuously Our print edition and e-paper is published daily except Sundays The Gibraltar Chronicle (Newspaper) Ltd is licensed by the Gibraltar Government's Office of Fair Trading This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website These cookies do not store any personal information Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website A new exhibition of paintings and drawings by artist Clive Lavagna officially opens tomorrow evening with a private view at the Fine Art Gallery The show – with no title or specific theme – will then open to the public on Wednesday until the end of the month Joanna Lumley; what do they all have in common they have all worked on a set designed by Clive Lavagna or had a costume designed by him Clive makes a welcomed return to our table this week and whether on stage or.. San Ġiljan ASC player Andreas Galea is set to spend the next few months in Italy after reaching an agreement to join Serie A2 side Lavagna Galea is seen as one of the most established players in Maltese waterpolo and has been a mainstay in the San Ġiljan side that has enjoyed so much success during the last few seasons The 25-year-old Malta international is set to play for teh Italian side in the winter season where they will be competing in the Serie A2 Girone Nord League San Giljan ASC senior player Andreas Galea will be joining Italian Serie A2 team Lavagna to play in the Serie A2 Girone Nord League,” San Ġiljan ASC said in a statement please register for free or log in to your account.