Busy schedule at Tudor City Steakhouse. Photo courtesy of Tudor City Steakhouse
It’s getting to be Fall again – You can tell from the bookings at Tudor City Steakhouse that the season’s up and running and that various UN Missions will be assembling for dining and events at the popular nearby steakhouse. It’s the opening of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly. And it’s Fashion Week. So Tudor City Steakhouse is sponsoring an event for the Fashion Designers of Latin America. The Mission of Mongolia will be hosting a luncheon event for a hundred people and they’ll be bringing and playing their own music. The President of Seychelles and a group of delegates will also be lunching. And on another busy day, the Armenian Mission starts with a breakfast event followed by luncheons for the Latvian and German Missions. Looks like dining may finally be back without reservations about whether to dine indoors or out.
Learn all about it – Blockchain? Cryptocurrency? What is it and why should we want to know about this? UES Community Activist Julie Ballington is hosting a Cryptocurrency and Blockchain virtual forum on September 17 at 10 a.m. so we can find out. The panelists include well-informed tech observers: attorney Jolevette Mitchell; Professor Renee Leibler, co-founder/partner of Harmonica Chain and founder/president of NYU Blockchain; Gianna Lum, partner, Convincing Crypto; and Stephen Decker, founder of Tahoe Trading.
The forum is co-sponsored by Alex Bores, Democratic candidate for Assembly in the 73rd AD, Democratic District Leaders Ben Wetzler and William Smith, and Hunter Rabinowitz, President of Brooklyn Young Democrats, all of whom are also well-informed tech observers.
Sign up to attend the Zoom event at:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/introduction-to-cryptocurrency-and-blockchain-tickets-415081669447
Street fare – It was great being back at the Third Avenue Street Fair. People strolling along Third Ave., from 66th to 86th Streets. A smattering of masks, but lots of corn cobs, gyros, sausage and a recent addition of a vendor selling Peking duck. Until I interviewed John Catsimatidis, I thought Ed Kayatt, then publisher of Our Town, came up with the Manhattan street fair concept in 1980. However, in a February 2020 interview with Catsimatidis, owner of Gristedes supermarkets and WABC Radio, he disabused me of that notion, telling me that when he was involved with the West Side Chamber of Commerce, he came up with the concept of having an annual street fair on Columbus Ave. The proof was among the many, many photos lining his office walls – a grainy black-and-white photo of the first Columbus Ave. Festival in 1977. And here we are 45 years later – and street fairs live on.
Closing calls – I mean there are closings, and there are closings and it’s bad enough when a restaurant goes out of business because of the pandemic or their lease hasn’t been renewed or re-negotiated. But in recent months I’m seeing and reading about restaurants being shut down by the health department. Not a good trend.