With temperatures finally warming up in New York City, stomachs are thrilled to welcome back the tenth installment of Mad. Sq. Eats, Madison Square Park’s seasonal pop-up culinary market. Presented by UrbanSpace and the Madison Square Park Conservancy, the dynamic outdoor market is one of the city’s most anticipated dining destinations. Mad. Sq. Eats brings together some of New York City’s most popular restaurants and well-respected chefs, who prepare dishes that feature the area’s best local produce and seasonal ingredients.
Maine Style Lobster Roll
Mad. Sq. Eats is located at Worth Square, across the street from historic Madison Square Park, and features 30 merchants. Opening on Friday, May 3, the market will run from 11am-9pm daily, and conclude on Friday, May 31.
At Mad. Sq. Eats, guests have come to expect a perfectly curated blend of old favorites and experimental newcomers. Exciting new vendors this spring include Eleni’s New York, Sunday Gravy NYC, Third Rail Coffee, Mason Jar NYC, Seoul Lee Korean Bar B Cue, Dreamscoops Ice Cream, Mrs. Dorsey’s Kitchen and MMM ENFES. They’ll showcase their creations alongside veterans like Roberta’s, Red Hook Lobster Pound, people’s pops and Mexicue.
Written by Oscar Sanclemente
Photography by Kevin Ornelas
click images to enlarge
Manhattan NYC, “the big city of dreams”, the “modern Gomorrah”, and “the city that never sleeps” are just a few of about a million kitchy monikers pertaining to the Gotham city. No other place on earth is associated with more cheesy catch phrases than NYC. However, of all these idioms and expressions, none stands truer than “if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere”. Thus, in a city crawling with bars, lounges and drinkeries all claiming to be top dog, the validity of said phrase is put to the test.
We’re back once again at Employees Only (510 Hudson St.) talking with one of their principal bartenders and mixologist, Steve Schneider to learn a little more about the history of The Manhattan Cocktail.
W Hotels of New York in collaboration with UK based underground music site Boiler Room present, Do Not Disturb, an innovative series of unique live online music broadcasts from each hotel’s E-WOW suite. The third and final event in the series which kicked off in London and continued in Paris took place in the newly renovated W Times Square EWOW Suite. The event featured performances and back-to-back DJ Sets by Cam’ron, Solange, Kenny Dope, Brenmar B2B MikeQ, Pete Rock, Ryan Hemsworth & A$AP DJ’s. Each Do Not Disturb event draws inspiration from legendary hotel after-parties of the past and gives music fans globally an opportunity to experience these intimate hotel moments first-hand.
Written by Oscar Sanclemente
Photography by Kevin Ornelas
click images to enlarge
Last week, we gave our readers a taste of the latest addition to our dining section: ‘Limité Ultimate Meals & Drinks‘, with a look into ‘Employees Only‘ prize winning cocktail “Ready, Fire, Aim”. This week we check back in with Steve Schneider, principal bartender/mixologist to learn all about EO’s top selling cocktail the “Amelia”.
EO has built a reputation for doing things the way they’re supposed to be done. There is an obvious discipline and dedication that comes through in every drink they make. There are no blenders or fratty beer and shot deals. Every drink on the menu has been carefully assembled and perfected.
The name Amelia comes from Employees Only and 86 Company co-founder Jason Kosmas. During his travels through Greece, Jason would befriend a kind woman named Amelia who would shelter and care for him during his stay. It seemed only right that a cocktail created solely for the purpose of making patrons feel at home be named after the woman who did just that for Jason. Amelia herself would be proud to know that her simple act of kindness would eventually spawn what is now one of the most popular names in Greenwich Village.
Vodka has never been my own personal drink of choice. However, as our friend Steve informs us, approximately two thirds of EO’s patrons ask for a vodka drink. Therefore springing the challenge of creating a vodka cocktail that would satisfy even the pickiest pallet. Steve tells us, “Mixologist don’t prefer vodka! But our job is to give people what they want, even if they don’t know what that is”.
So what makes the “Amelia” so incredibly popular? If you think we’re going to get into a whole thing about infused liquors and pickled fruit, you got another thing coming. The guys at EO have found that the key to success is to K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid!). Containing only 4 common ingredients, the “Amelia” is a true testament to the skill and level of execution being exhibited at EO. A simple, yet genius manipulation of lemon juice, blackberry puree, American vodka and St. Germain, makes for a cool, smooth, sweet and sour concoction that is certain to make your lips smack.
Stone. Glass. Steel. Dark oak. Calcutta marble. Colored mirrors. Sumptuous silks. Artfully-embroidered leather. Those are the materials that went into creating the spectacular new Hakkasan San Francisco: a 10,000-square-foot bastion of Chinese dining and contemporary Chinoiserie. Gilles & Boissier, an internationally – renowned Parisian design firm, created the rich, sensuous interior including a curved bar, two private dining rooms, 50-seat lounge and main dining room with latticed cage partitions and Chinese screens. Gilles & Boissier also curated the magical lighting. When creating the space, masculine and feminine appeal was considered — and the contrast between darkness and light resonates throughout.
Written by Oscar Sanclemente
Photography by Kevin Ornelas
click images to enlarge
The people of New York City have been anxiously awaiting the change of the seasons. As spring finally begins to settle in, many of its residents are ready to drink, eat, and explore, all of what this corner of the east coast has to offer. With so much fruit and produce perfectly in season there’s no better time to indulge in flawlessly crafted cocktails and masterfully prepared steak tartare.
We recently visited our friend Steve Schneider at Employees Only (510 Hudson St. NYC) to talk about booze, inspiration, and the secret that keeps EO busting out the seams with patrons night in and night out.
Steve is one of 6 principal bartenders/mixologists at EO. If you ever questioned their dedication to what they do, you can see the restaurant’s logo tattooed on any one of them. All believers that simplicity is key and execution is everything. Nothing is more important than understanding every drink and not just learning a recipe, but pairing flavors and knowing what tastes good. This belief is certainly reflected in their cocktails. Simple, fresh and common ingredients prepared in perfect balance and harmony.
This week we highlight one of EO’s prize-winning cocktails, the “Ready, Fire, Aim”. Named after a military term meaning ‘Act Before Thinking’. It may look sweet and pink and served in a glass called a coupe which was modeled after Marie Antoinette’s breast, this appetizing spring cocktail packs a spicy fragrant punch.
It goes without saying that the Margarita is one of the most popular cocktails in the world and that’s for two reason: how easy it is to make and how easy it is give you the buzz you’re looking for. There’s no better time of the year to announce and celebrate the warmer days to come than during Cinco de Mayo and what’s the drink of choice that day? You damn right, a Margarita!
Be the person who take the party to the next level with Patrón Citrónge – a pure and natural Mexican orange liqueur made from premium oranges. It’s clear, bright color, and aroma of fresh, sweet and bitter oranges will make everyone drinking sigh in joy as they lift their glasses to their mouths.
Try out this recipe and own the moment!
Patrón Perfect Margarita
Ingredients:
1.5 oz. Patrón Reposado tequila
0.5 oz. Patrón Citrónge orange liqueur
2.0 oz. Sweet and Sour mix
Juice from 1/2 orange
Juice from 1/2 lime
Lime for garnish
Foodies meet the munchies in a fascinating new campaign from online retailer FreshCotton. For “Baked by FreshCotton,” the online retailer partnered with Stüssy to become the exclusive retailer of the Stüssy Amsterdam tee. To draw attention to the shirt and its Spring Collection Lookbook, FreshCotton made an integrated lookbook-cookbook.
The twist? Marijuana (and a few other Amsterdam substances).
“To make ‘just’ another lookbook really interesting we decided to have it represent a mash up of Amsterdam popular culture. Including the progressive, edgy part,” Didi Sustina, Global Planning Director for Arnold Amsterdam.
FreshCotton.com’s “Baked” campaign creates haute cuisine using, in its words “a wide variety of street-legal drugs as recipe ingredients.” These legal (in Amsterdam) drugs include marijuana, hashish and “more esoteric buzzes.”
Chef Misha Sukyas wears the exclusive Stüssy Amsterdam tee while making baked veal in a Salvia Divinorum Crut with Magic Truffels and Marijuana, Morning Glory Ravioli with Coquilles, Damiana and Marijuana and a Savoury Cappuccino of Bali Kratom, Hashish and Baby Woodrose with Foie Gras Marijuana Lollipops coated in Magic Truffles.
FreshCotton’s accompanying lookbook combined the recipes with fashion layouts for other brands. A sample: “This flavor captures the tones and notes of the new urban jungle: the Carhartt ‘Cane Blazer’ in Camo peels back to reveal a center of Gant Rugger ‘Solid Pique’ polo, with Carhartt ‘Vicious Santa Monica Denim’ pants on a base of ’6667R Cupsole’ boots from the Timberland Earthkeeper collection.” FreshCotton has made the recipes available as PDF downloads as well.
Was Stüssy on board from the beginning? Sustina says Stussy was “informed through the whole journey.” She adds that, even though Stüssy put the agency in touch with rashCotton, “some reassuring was necessary that it wouldn’t be tasteless. The challenge was to find agreement in using their exclusive product but not presenting Stüssy as the brand behind this. This was important considering the sensibilities between Netherlands and US, or the rest of the world.”
The rest of the world. Of course, following these recipes to the letter outside of Amsterdam may present a bit of a problem, but FreshCotton sees the message being valuable nonetheless. “It reinforces their perception of the online shop. And secondly, an online retailer doesn’t have any borders when it comes to customers,” Sustina said.
Arnold Amsterdam says the campaign’s effectiveness will be measured on some hard analytics numbers like traffic and sales, but Sustina says its long-term goal is international diversification of its current customer base make-up.
For those interested in how Chef Misha Sukyas put together the “Baked by FreshCotton” recipes, there is a behind the scenes video.
Heineken marketing and design types are huddling these days to prepare for the final phase of this year’s annual Your Future Bottle Design Challenge. A team of brand people and design experts are planning to select a single winning bottle design at Milan Design Week next month as Heineken uses the second consecutive year of the crowdsourcing initiative to mark the company’s 140th year in the beer business.
The brand also is fielding new advertising videos under its two-year-old “Open Your World” campaign, unveiling a new multi-media advertising effort called “Get in the Game” around rugby’s Heineken Cup tournament in Europe, looking for volume gains in central and eastern Europe by positioning Heineken as a “five-minute luxury,” and enjoying a new designation as the winner of a “Digital IQ Index” for beer brands.
Heineken seems to be all over the place—all over the world, really—with these new branding efforts and mini-campaigns, which of course is the idea.
A young man named Rodolfo Kusulas won the inaugural Your Future Bottle Design Challenge last year. This year, Heineken put an extensive archive of some 250 treasured items and images in the hands of designers around the world for use as inspiration, and designs poured into the submission platform on Facebook before the end-of-February deadline.
After the winning design is selected in Milan, digital-design pioneer Joshua Davis is slated to remix the Future Bottle challenge’s winning design with past logos and the distinctive Heineken red star to come up with a special gift box to house the winning bottle design.
In the meantime, Heineken’s latest 90-second ad—a fixture—under the “Open Your World” campaign features a jet-setter who sorts through clubs in Ho Chi Minh City, Lagos and New York, thwarting gangsters and flirting with their girlfriends, before he sleuths his way into a tete-a-tete with a woman at a bar in New York—over a pair of Heinekens.
A pair of standard, green, “star bottle” Heinekens, that is.
December 2012 marked fifteen years of contemporary artist Jitish Kallat’s artistic journey. To celebrate the momentous occasion, Jitish Kallat and Richard Geoffroy, Chef de Cave and Creator of Vintages Dom Pérignon showcased a rare ‘creative combustion’ at the Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur on December 1, 2012. The occasion saw the unveiling of two of Mr. Kallat’s recent video-installations – Forensic Trail of the Grand Banquet and Breath.
