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Help Astoria by eating its best food |
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Here's a tasty way to lend a helping hand. Astoria is one of the most vibrant culinary hubs in the city, and you can now bring a taste of the Queens neighborhood home. Many of the area’s best restaurants have banded together to create a cookbook featuring recipes for their most popular dishes and drinks
. We're talking The Last Word's eponymous cocktail, spanakopita from Taverna Kyclades, Mom's pancake burrito, Vesta Trattoria's "Baby Jesus cake" and more. And the cookbook isn’t just a great way to up your at-home cooking game. All proceeds are being donated to the Astoria Mutual Aid Network
. "We are so spoiled to have access to not just really good food of just one cuisine, but every possible cuisine you could imagine and the love and care that gets put into them," says Katie Riley, who helped put the cookbook together. "This is a way to celebrate the food scene in Astoria." | |
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Aliyah and Ryan grab pizza at Fornino |
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Our newly relaunched dating series Undateables continues this week with a pizza date at Fornino in Brooklyn Bridge Park. “I wanted to create an awkward moment so we could feel more relaxed, so I jokingly suggested she should feed me food, and that it would make for a great photo opp,” Ryan tells us. “I loved seeing her face when feeding me the food—I bit the fork and pulled it with my teeth. The funny moment made the environment way more relaxed.”
Read more about how the rest of the date went. | |
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The week ahead |
EAT: Grab a perfect grandma slice from Cobble Hill’s Brooklyn Pizza Market on Smith Street and enjoy it al fresco in their new outdoor dining area.
DRINK: Try the North Fork Royale with vodka, cranberry, grand marnier, lemon and sparkling rosé at Williamsburg’s recently reopened Westlight (It comes with a side of jaw-dropping views.)
DO: Secretformula is throwing a ‘90s TV Party this week where you can stream a bunch of classic 90s TV shows and riff on them with strangers. If only the rest of this year could be saved by a bell. |
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Get your own backyard on the waterfront |
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An out-of-reach dream for many of us over the last few months has been to have a backyard to call our own. (There are only so many times you can stare longingly at the sun out of an apartment window.) Now that dream can come (kind of) true. The Rooftop at Pier 17 has created a new venue called The Greens
which boasts 28 “mini lawns” with cabana-style lounge chairs, umbrellas, Yeti coolers, USB ports and more that you can rent. (You can also have food and drink from R17 delivered straight to your lawn which is something those suckers with real backyards sure can’t do.) Also, we asked, and there is free wifi available if you want to treat yourself to an especially glamorous day of working remotely. | |
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First look at Eataly’s new summer rooftop |
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We may not be able to travel to Italy anytime soon, but on August 7, Eataly Flatiron’s popular seasonal rooftop restaurant will offer up a taste of an Italian summer (and we got an exclusive look
.) Serra Fiorita by Birreria will be decked out in florals with a gin cart and even a special, biweekly flower dinner. The restaurant’s last concept was set to debut in mid March, but that’s when New York went on lockdown. This time around, however, the expansive rooftop space (Serra means “greenhouse”) on the 14th floor will have its capacity reduced by 50 percent, and they’ll implement a host of safety measures
. Starting on August 13, the restaurant will launch a biweekly special menu called Cene Fiorite (or flower dinner) that showcases different ways flowers—including seeds and pollen—can be cooked. | |
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The American Museum of Natural History announces reopening plans |
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When AMNH was forced to close in March, it’s cool new exhibition “The Nature of Color” had only been open for a few days. Odds are, you weren’t able to see it. But that show may soon be open to the public once again. The museum has announced
tentative plans to reopen next month, pending city and state approval. There will be a number of changes when the institution reopens (mandatory face masks, lowered capacity, timed tickets), but the dinosaurs will all still be there. | |
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Free cookies! |
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To celebrate one of those made-up holidays (National Cookie Day, in this case) Insomnia is giving away free traditional cookies all week with any purchase. Just think of the possibilities: Buy a cookie and give one to your spouse. Buy a cookie and give one to your neighbor that has been forced to listen to all of your at-home workouts. Buy a cookie and give one to yourself because this has been kind of a rough year, damn it, and you deserve it. | | |
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News you can use |
NYC’s first outdoor cycling studio is opening in Brooklyn.
Read more
A new upstate art exhibition lets visitors commune with hummingbirds.
Read more
The MTA’s app can now tell you how crowded buses are in real time.
Read more
Top of the Rock observation deck has announced an opening date.
Read more
Revel is shutting down its NYC scooter service indefinitely.
Read more | |
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One last thing before we go…
Ever wish you could see the New York of the past? This cool augmented reality app lets you “see” historic buildings in the city through your phone. It’s like time travel, but you’re still staring at an iPhone, so, you know, not really. But still cool! | | |
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Hey New York, share the love! | | | | |
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