A new gallery space opened up on 17th street around the corner from 5th called Open Source. Although small, it's still good to see people investing in the neighborhood. There's not a website as of yet, but the current show of paintings runs through 27th of April if my memory is correct.
5th Avenue's newest restaurant, Eurotrip, opened up a week or so back. I've browsed the internet menu but haven't gone in yet. Seems like they have an interesting selection of European beers, however sadly, unlike Cafe Steinhof, they don't have Kostritzer on tap.
So far the Chowhound boards have been quiet on the place.
EuroTrip
667 5th ave
btw 19th & 20th streets
according to a couple of sources, 7th street between 2nd and 3rd aves will soon be home to a new musical venue run by the good folks at union hall. given the problems that i've heard about with their current location - i.e. noise complaints, it makes sense to open something in a location where noise is not an issue. additionally moving the music aspect of their business down the street opens up the basement for quieter activities such as the brilliantly booked sunday night comedy shows - an example being:
Sunday, December 16, 7:30pm
TEARING THE VEIL OF MAYA
comedy with Eugene Mirman + Michael Showalter + Aziz Ansari + Jon Glaser + special guest
$7 : tickets available at the door
In the coming months, I expect a lot will change down on 3rd and 4th avenues. speaking of change, i noticed that the fencing has come down from the "no baby gap" building on the corner of 13th and 5th.
no idea if an actual baby gap is going to be the retail anchor for this new "green" condo project but it will be interesting to see what does open here in the next couple of months.
oh lastly - the union market on 7th and 13th looks like it's going to open any day now, beer table is still awaiting it's liquor license. a sign announcing a new tapas restaurant has appeared on the old aarons space on 5th and 17th. kitchen bar's "public house," the new pizza and beer location on 6th and 21st is looking like it's fairly ready to open as is the mystery restaurant/bar on 5th and 20th.
packed up the garage gallery show yesterday and have put the remaining suitcase prints up in the etsy shop - all pictures are framed 4"x6" prints, printed on kodak professional metallic paper. with frame, the total size is 5"x7"
available suitcase prints can be seen here.
also, i still have a number of the holga prints available. these can be seen as a slide show here.
all holga prints measure 20" x 24" and come framed.
all holga prints have been printed on fuji super glossy paper by acclaimed color printer carol fonde
Prices are Negotiable
* images in slide show are negative scans and not actual prints - please contact me to arrange a private viewing.
lastly - i still have the large canvas print for sale or trade. 
measures 36" x 50" - printed on canvas with archival ink.
if there is one good thing that can be attributed to the end of summer it's the amazing produce available at the farmers market. the tomato is as close to perfect as it's going to get and so when i discovered this recipe for a tomato bread soup yesterday, i knew that i had to make it as soon as possible. it was really simple to make and the only problem was that i've eaten it all and i still want more.
tomato bread soup
3 pounds plum tomatoes
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
salt & pepper
2 cups diced sourdough bread.
1/2 cup grated ricotta salata
basil
- quarter the tomatoes and remove the seeds, put into a food processor and pulse several times until the tomatoes are well chopped.
- set aside the tomato and heat the oil in an appropriate sized pot, dice up the onion and add it in with the minced garlic
- sauté the onions and garlic until translucent and tender, add the tomato and season to taste with salt and pepper. turn down the heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes.
- meanwhile, trim the crust off the bread and cut into cubes, after 45 minutes of simmering add the bread into the soup and simmer for another 15 minutes.
- top each bowl with some torn basil and some grated ricotta salata and enjoy hot, cold or somewhere in between.
3rd avenue feels like a leftover from the 80's. an expressway rumbles above you while cars rattle by at top speed on hamilton avenue, which runs underneath. most of the business being done seems to revolve around gas stations, car washes and tire shops. at night and on weekends the area is especially desolate which can make for some interesting shooting. if you head north from here, you skirt along the waterfront, passing warehouses, factory's, box stores and a federal prison. 
i really like how they took the time to give the garage some nice details.
continuing down 3rd on my way to the mugs record release party, i noticed that it looks like the new restaurant on 3rd avenue at 9th street was still progressing along at a fair rate. they had poured some new concrete in what looks like it could be an outdoor seating area.
lastly, a couple more pictures after the expansion.
south slopers had few choices when it came to food last year, there were a few taco spots on 5th avenue, an el salvadorian restaurant (which is rumored to be one of the better ones in the city), the forgettable kitchen bar and it's better neighbor bar bq--both on 6th. there was more of a selection up on 7th after you passed 16th street heading north. one of my favorites along that stretch was tost, which sadly closed it's doors earlier this year. i have to suspect that it was because it was mainly a sandwich/salad place and it wasn't open during the day during the week- which always seemed like a mistake to me. the good news is that another restaurant is currently working on renovating the space.
the new restaurant is, as i'm told, going to be a german restaurant/bar which will specialize in esoteric german beers and small plates. hopefully they will have our favorite german beer, kostritzer, on tap.
the other two tidbits that i've heard about come from chowhound. where a commenter speculates that a sushi bar is going in where the diner coffeeshack used to be, which is on 5th ave. between 17th and 18th street. 
the commenter "fat hot" also notes that "where Aaron's used to be will be a, and here I'm just reporting what I heard, a "Southwestern French" place. That's Southwestern as in Southwestern American, not Southwest France..." very interesting, considering that the space would have to be seriosuly subdivided as it currently is a whopping 7,500 square feet. although according to the sign, the owners are very much willing to do just that. my favorite rumor that i had heard as of yet was that someone was going to turn it into a music hall in the spirit of southpaw. that would be really amazing and i'll bet you that it could do a thriving business. 
another active pit of speculation has been the new restaurant that's rumored to open on 5th ave. between 19th and 20th. when i walked by it appeared to be true, however still very much in the renovation phase. the DOB signage read that they were adding an extension to the back and the permits had been filed for an eating and drinking establishment.
more on the snacks at quarter and kb:pizza bar after the expansion
finally, the snacks at quarter are pretty good too. we had the meat and cheese platter ($8) which was tasty (and giant) the other night for dinner and last night sampled one of the curry vegetable pies, which reminded me very much of a samosa. in total, they also carry three types of DUB pies including steak and cheese, shepard's pie and curry vegetable for $5 each.
oh and lastly, the kitchen bar:pizza bar - which is located on the corner of 21st and 6th looks like it's going to open anytime now in the next couple of month. i had heard that they had done a really nice job with building the bar area (and i can only hope that they do a better job with the menu than their, imo, misguided big brother up the street) and when i peeked in the window today it seemed like they were making some decent progress.
caught this post running on brownstoner today, this building is 3 doors up from our apartment and has been the subject of much speculation as to how much they're asking and, more specifically, who's going to pay the overinflated prices they are sure to be asking. brownstoner is speculating that since the listing has been pulled from the corcoran site, the building will become rentals. apparently, only one of the eight units has sold in the approximately two months that it has been on the market. lastly, i might point out that the building sits next to the worst building on the block...the front door is always wide open, stray cats wander in and out, people are coming and going at all sorts of odd hours of the night. the day before one of the open houses, in what can only be called preemptive damage control, the neighbors gate was freshly painted, the normally overflowing trash was neatly organized and there was a suspicious lack of kids hanging out on the stoop. however the "no loitering, no ball playing, no hanging out, no exceptions" sign was still prominently displayed next to the wide open front door.
view the corcoran listing here
read about the minerva on street easy
read the update on brownstoner
where to begin - the prospect of having a yard was one of the strongest appeals of the apartment. it was visions of gardening and bbq's that ran through my head those cool autumn days as i peered out the kitchen window into the weedy abyss. i can say with certainty, that is was not the hours of strenuous, back-wrenching work that it would take to make that happen in an affordable manor the general decision in the fall was that it was far too overgrown (and filled with raccoons) for us to make any headway and that it was best to wait for spring.
winter passed and finally, late in march, we got a look at the full scope of what we were about to undertake. 
walking around the littered lot gave one a sense of the the enormity of the project. the visions of bbq's, a garden (and waging war on mosquitoes) were still quite alluring and filled us with a good deal of motivation and over the course of the next several weekends we managed to bag up a couple of boxes worth of contractors bags filled with trash from the yard. suddenly, things didn't seem quite so bad.
see the results after the expansion
we had lost some time (and ground to weeds)when we left for the trip to berlin, however by the middle of june things were really starting to come together. we erected some lattice as a privacy fence. planted some flowering pants and were now only faced with the dilemma of what to do with the center area that was ringed with concrete (and filled with dirt and broken glass.) 
the initial idea was that i buy some bricks and create a patio. that was discarded when we did the math and realized that it would take over 1,000 bricks to do the job. the next concept was to deck it over, that too was eventually seen as too expensive of a solution. we considered paving stones, but like brick they were proving to be expensive and numerous (and 36 lbs apiece). lastly, we reconsidered using cedar mulch and keeping open the option of using pavers on part of it to create a sitting area.
currently, we're pretty close to done. we've purchased a grill, a table and chairs, some tiki torches to keep the bugs away. most of the trash is out of the back, some of our plants (morning glories and four o'clocks) are growing and there are only really a few more small bits to work out before we'll have rehabbed the yard.
however, one of those last bits, is actually one of the bigger projects that we'll embark upon and that is installing a door to the yard. currently, we access it through a door sized window off the living room - 
- i've spoken with the landlord about putting in a door and building a small set of steps and he seems ok with it, so now it's just finding someone who can do at a price that's reasonable. so if that's you - shoot me an email: hello [at] samhorine [dot] com.
