Gratitude Day: What’s Next

Participating in the Neighborhood Gratitude Day yesterday got me thinking about what could be done with this concept in the future. I used the gratitude day as a reason to introduce my friend to Popover (who I might add wasn’t the most enthusiastic about the trip). Regardless we went anyway, I mean we had to, it was Gratitude Day. Upon arriving at Popover we were warmly welcomed by Carol Baer herself sitting outside the restaurant saying thanks and offering free popovers and lemonade to those who stop by. What really impressed me about what Ms. Baer was doing doing for gratitude day is that it didn’t require participants to spend money, it truly was a gesture of thanks alone. Unlike some of the other participants whose promotions were store wide discounts, popover was hosting a multi-prize raffle with free entrance, passing out popovers, and serving cold lemonade on a hot day; all with Ms. Baer herself welcoming guests.

Following our lunch at popover, and after thanking Ms. Baer and entering the raffle, we walked down Amsterdam Ave checking out the other participants. One in particular I wanted to stop by was West Side Kids, a toy store I knew fondly growing up. Most participants tied balloons outside and had signs describing the events, as far as I could tell it was only Ms. Baer who was personally welcoming guests.

As is my nature I always jump to thinking about how this can be improved next year, and in so doing I realized the biggest problem with it is that there was no third party hosting the actual day. Perhaps we don’t need a third party to do it, but we need then at least one of the businesses to step up and run it. What we need is to make a community day out of it where all the local businesses will have their own events going on with a central group, or committee of volunteers, organizing the participants, locations, and events of the day. Something like this annually would be so much better than the crowded, not locally run, traffic disrupting street fairs.

Just my thoughts for next year. Popover was still excellent for lunch.

GRATITUDE DAY! Go out and be loyal!

Today is Gratitude Day on the Upper West Side.

Visit the local businesses on Amsterdam Ave and enjoy the festivities.

Review to come tomorrow. Today, let’s all enjoy our local hotspots!

Info at Coffee Straws.

Guest Post at Westside Independent.

Original Article from New York Times.

-Huysmans

Tuesday Poll: How do you eat a Black & White?

In shopping for my 1940s themed dinner party this past weekend at Zabar’s I came across the baked goods section. Now my job was to select cheeses and sausages for an appetizer plate (all French themed as my character was a French sausage seller and we were celebrating the end of the war), so to end up in the baked goods section was not part of the plan. But the box of Black & Whites caught my eye and I made the daring assumption that these little delicious pieces of New York probably existed back in 1945 and I could feasibly rationalize their presents at a celebratory dinner in France as paying homage to the liberators (without sounding too patriotic). This got me thinking.

So I researched, and though I love Wikipedia I wanted something a little more substantial.

I ended with this Times article from back in 1998 (when Seinfeld was still on).

So this all brings me to today’s poll: When given a Black & White cookie how do you eat it?

*Photo courtesy of Zabar’s.com

My answer: The middle is the best part, so I start with the chocolate side (a few bites), move to the vanilla side (again just a few bites), and save the middle for a glorious end.

Stop, Collaborate, and Listen!

Check out my recent guest post at the Westside Independent. Come out and support our local businesses on August 19th!

Upper West Side! WAKE UP! This is a call for Loyalty

News pertaining to the effects of the Recession are in no short supply, every day the New York Times is filled with segments on the fallout of this major economic disaster. But one article from yesterday stood out with me and this blog. Popover Cafe’s founder and owner, Carol Baer, fell victim to Bernie Madoff’s devastating fraud. Ms. Baer is one of many to feel both the sting of Madoff’s despicable lies and the loss of a consumer base from this lingering Recession. But the article, by Susan Dominus in her Big City column, is not sad or depressing. Rather Dominus’ article focuses on the gratitude Ms. Baer feels for the support she has been given by her patrons.

Too many times now we have seen restaurants and other businesses fold on Broadway do to higher rents and greedy developers. I am still morning the loss of Prestos, Time, Carne, Aix, and Docks (the last of which closes in part because of this most recent Recession) as chains and banks replace them all (except for Carne which was replaced with an excellent restaurant: Toast). But Amsterdam is holding on.

Which brings me to the point of this post: We, as the Upper West Side, MUST NOT LET OUR NEIGHBORHOOD FALL! On August 19th Popover Cafe, and others, will be hosting a Neighborhood Gratitude Event to thank us for our patronage.

The list of involved businesses include:

• The Popover Cafe
• Good Enough to Eat
• Darryl’s Boutique
• The Robert Stuart Salon
• Super Runners Shop
• Avventura

Upon visiting any of these establishments on August 19th you will be welcomed to various gratitude events including free giveaways and raffles.

The message to take away here is the importance of local establishments and the responsibility of us, as a community, to protect them by patronizing them. We cannot let the Upper West Side become a branded super mall. In the spirit of You’ve Got Mail, we must save the Shop Around the Corner.

So please join me in supporting our businesses and come out on August 19th.

Lastly if you are aware of other participating establishments or perhaps a website devoted to this event please let us at Coffee Straws know by commenting to this post.

Here is to a locally run Upper West Side.

Lebanese Taverna’s Hummus

…pretty good hummus.  Not too olive oil-y, with pine nuts, very creamy.  Get it with the whole wheat pita (have to ask…usually they make it just for you)

Near + Now: Pandora meets Urban Spoon

Now living in an iPhone culture we have many apps to choose from when trying to find a place to eat. Some of my all time favorites include Urban Spoon, Around Me, and of course Open Table’s app. But recently there is a new player to the field of restaurant sleuthing in the urban jungle and that is Near+Now. From what I can tell this app has a fairly extensive database of restaurants, bars, entertainment venues, and cafes. But what makes it a step above the rest is its ranking system. It operates just like Pandora does; the more you rank, the better it becomes at offering recommendations.

Near + Now home page

Popover Cafe on Near+now

The interface utilizes all that the iPhone has to offer providing for each listing a link to view it on a map, call or visit the website, and view reviews.

Even more interesting is the company behind it, SORTUV, whose goal is to pandora-ize search engines. Here they are in their own words:

We build search technologies that make it possible to discover information that is difficult to describe.

Words like cool, modern, hip, romantic, retro and timeless mean different things to different people. So until computers can read your mind, Keywords don’t always work.

With Sortuv technologies you discover places, events, products, people, ideas and experiences that matter to you by comparing and connecting them to things you already know and like.

-From their “About Us” section.

I don’t know much about their other operations but this app has greatly help me find new restaurants in my own neighborhood as well as avoid getting restaurants I hate as options.

Julie & Julia

I read the book a couple of summers back — 2006 — and loved the book.  Haven’t yet seen the movie, has anyone seen it?  Recommend it?

Sony Pictures

A bad change for the UWS

Why Docks… Why?

Be back soon…

The Coffee Straws team has been hard at work in the real world, which has given us little time to blog, but lots of time to think about how to improve CS for all of you. This weekend, get ready for many new blog posts and updated features. Thanks for sticking with us as we get CS up and running, and please do check back frequently and become a straw-fan! 

- The Coffee Straws Team