Eddie Huang , the Flavor Flav of the downtown dining scene, has abruptly closed his popular Orchard Street restaurant Xiao Ye after barely four months in operation. Business seemed to be good at the funky little joint, and though critical reaction was mixed, the positive end of the critical spectrum was really positive. ( The Times called it “an artful misfire,” declaring that “Xiao Ye could almost be the right place to eat right now.”) But Huang tells Eater that he’s “vacating the space as we speak,” and he says the SLA’s Four Loko-related crackdown is to blame. You’ll recall that earlier this month Huang wanted to throw a $15 all-you-can-drink Four Loko cocktail party, but when he blabbed about it in the press, the SLA came a-knocking, because it’s illegal in New York to offer patrons “an unlimited number of drinks during any set period of time for a fixed price.” Huang tweaked the special , instead holding a $3 Four Loko party, which was in turn shut down by an SLA raid just before midnight. Huang claims that ever since that fateful night, the SLA has been all over him like flies on dumplings, and he’s been raided three times since, which resulted in a stack of fines for serving underage customers. An SLA rep tells Grub Street that, duh, “If you tell the Daily News you’re going to have an open bar, or say you’re going to cause patrons to black out, that’s something we’d look at.” Xiao Ye was just issued a liquor license in October that won’t expire in two years, but Huang tells Eater that he decided “it would be best to sell the restaurant space for fear of having to continue to operate without a liquor license.” He also says that during one raid a cop told him “this kind of intense scrutiny from the SLA was extremely rare for a restaurant.” For now, Huang will go back to cooking at his other love, BaoHaus, and maybe this will give him some time to reflect on what his mother told him after the Times review dropped: “You do not even understand your own strength or the whole scope of this business, and you are not even willing to listen. YOU MUST GET BURNT BEFORE YOU WILL HEAR YOUR MOM.”
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Xiao Ye Felled by Four Loko (And Huang’s Big Mouth)!
The city’s latest subway hero, Carlos Flores, has been reunited with the man he saved on the subway tracks, Thomas Grant. On Sunday , Flores jumped to the tracks to pull Grant to safety (after he suffered an epileptic seizure), as a 6 train was approaching. Luckily, a second subway hero alerted the station agent, who gave the train conductor a heads up—and both made it out of there alive. According to the Daily News , when the two men met at the hospital, Flores said: “People kept asking me if I felt like a hero. I didn’t feel like a hero.” While Flores was headed to his $19/hour shift in the produce section of Gristedes, Grant was at the East 103rd Street station to get from the Bronx to an East Village soup kitchen where he volunteers. He told the paper, “I knew I was about to have a blackout. It happens all the time. I remember looking at the yellow section near the train and then everything went black. I saw the light of the train. I knew I didn’t have enough time to get back up there. I felt alone.” Flores’s coworkers are calling him Spider-Man now, and one declared, “It’s beautiful how people in New York City go out of their way to help each other. We are so bold. We are open. We are brash. But it’s a great how people help each other.” Is this the feelgood story of the year or what? Anyway, Flores’s 10-year-old son (who he was working to buy Christmas presents for), had this message for his superhero dad: “I love you.”
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Subway Hero Reunited With Man He Saved
Besides teen girls, The Real Housewives of Wherever and, well, dudes, guess who likes velour sweats with the word “Juicy” on the butt of the pants? Bedbugs! The Fifth Avenue Juicy Couture store has been closed because of the horrible pests—CEO Edgar Huber sent an email to the “Juicy Team”: As you may be aware we have temporarily closed the 5th Avenue location due to the discovery of bed bugs. Our top priority is to protect our associates and our customers and we are moving swiftly and aggressively to address the problem. We expect to re-open the store later in the week and will keep you updated when we have specifics around the re-opening. At this time there have been no other locations identified with this issue but we will continue to take all necessary precautions. And an official statement says: We wanted to inform the public and our consumers that we have temporarily closed the Juicy Couture Store at 650 Fifth Avenue due to the discovery of bed bugs. Like other major retailers recently impacted by this issue, we are moving swiftly and aggressively to address the problem. We expect the store to re-open later this week. The people who shop and work at the store are our top priority and we are taking all necessary precautions. There are three other Juicy Couture stores serving New York City shoppers – 860 Madison Avenue, 368 Bleecker Street, 103 Fifth Avenue – and of course all merchandise is available 24-hours a day at www.juicycouture.com. As the statement says, Juicy Couture is only of many retailers hit by this modern plague ( , Victoria’s Secret , Niketown ), and honestly, bedbugs are just everywhere .
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Bedbugs Force Juicy Couture To Close 5th Avenue Store
· That view above? This house, in Vegas, comes with it. [Lavish Property] · Which Disney park decorates for Christmas best? [Mouse Planet] · Pacific Design Center opens to consumers on Saturdays only. [Editor at Large] · Scandinavian design history, as told by interiors guru Lars Bolander. [Shelterpop] · A pretty gallery of Marimekko patterns. [Apartment Therapy] · A staff studio in NYC’s most prestigious building sells for $2.6M. [Curbed NY] · Barbie -themed hotel rooms. No joke. [homedit]
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Linkage: Views in Vegas; Scandinavian Design; Barbie-Themed Hotel Rooms
Bloomberg News reports that JPMorgan is giving all of its investment banking associates iPads in a pilot program. An internal memo said, ” We believe there are real benefits in our working environment that can be realized using this device – as well as the personal productivity and enjoyment that come as part of the package ,” and an analysts think that this means trouble for Blackberry maker Research In Motion. One said, “There are two things attracting IT managers to the iPad: it’s easy to use and the price is pretty attractive relative to traditional notebooks.” But the real question is: What’s a good dwarf app ?
Yesterday President Obama proposed a two-year pay freeze for most of the 1.9 million federal employees. Since this proposal (which exempts military personnel, though some argue it shouldn’t ) comes with a jump in health insurance premiums and a drop in transit subsidies the freeze would, if approved by Congress, in effect represent a pay cut for many. All to save roughly $1 billion a year, when the deficit is expected to top $1 trillion . You can guess how well this is going over with those who would be taking the hit. ” That’s why Obama’s ratings are below [ex-President George W.] Bush’s ,” one Social Security employee in Manhattan told the Daily News ” and that’s hard to be unless you’re Osama Bin Laden .” The same woman also explained that though she’d voted for Obama, she wouldn’t again. Ouch.
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Obama’s Federal Pay Freeze Finds Cold Shoulders
Click on the images for the scoop on Edible Manhattan’s very limited Belgian Beer and Food Dinner at Almond, a week of Hanukkah-related ragers at Idle Hands, and the debut of latkes at Brooklyn favorite Mile End.
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Eat Cetera: Belgian Beer Feast, Hanukkah "Rager," & Latkes
According to our super scientific poll , almost 90% of you thought that spending $27.5 million on a street sign font change was pretty stupid. And the federal government might agree! Officials say they’re “reviewing” the proposed changes to make sure they supposed improved safety is worth the money. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told the Daily News , “Given the difficult economic conditions states currently face, asking for additional input on compliance dates is the right thing to do. We want to be sure these safety requirements are reasonable, fair and cost-effective.” The changes must be done by 2018 by the latest, because of another deadline requiring all the signs to be more reflective by then. The state will be picking up the most of the tab, but the city would be responsible for a portion of the amount. State Transportation Commissioner Stanley Gee said, “Given the current fiscal situation, we must weigh the improvements that would come from these required changes against other safety-related priorities.” A 45-day public comment period on the changes starts today. Federal officials says the new font with lowercase letters will make the signs easier to read, but the Highway Administration previously said New Yorkers “opposed the change [because] the amount of improvement in legibility did not justify the cost.” Plus Clearview is a such a lame font. If they were talking Futura , we’d say spare no expense!
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Feds Say $27MM For Lowercase Letters Might Not Be Best Idea
Our sister site Curbed SF made the eyesockets sore by singing the dirges of a five-bedroom home, built in 1963, that’s listed for $499K and features the bathrooms displayed above. These are just the bathrooms, folks—visit Curbed SF’s full post for the remainder of the photos. · Cold War-Era Bayview Bombshelter Commits Treasonous Acts of Interior Decorating [Curbed SF]
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That’s Rather Hideous: Eerie Neon Bathrooms May Require Radioactive Shielding Material
Flickr user Vivinsect Community garden volunteers praised recent Parks Department rules which will prevent the land from being developed as long as the gardens are registered and licensed by the department. But many gardeners worried that the next administration won’t be as kind to community gardens as Bloomberg has, and want more permanent protections. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe (father of Quidditch Association founder Alex Benepe) announced an extension of the license terms for Parks community gardens. He said in a statement , “We are pleased to have worked with the City Council to extend the license term for gardens and to strengthen their protections.” The new provisions will license and register parks for four years, instead of the previous two, starting in January. It also requires that if a gardening is failing or inactive, the Parks Department must identify a gardening group to take over and give them nine months to restore the garden. Licenses will continue to be renewed as long as the garden meets registration criteria. Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito said, “This is a common sense move that will continue to help preserve our city’s gardens in the short term. I look forward to continuing to work with the Department to explore measures that will provide for stronger long-term protections.” Christine Quinn insisted this was an important step to long-term protection of gardens. She said , “These will be the first licenses that will be in effect into the next administration, so it underscores that these gardens are meant to endure, regardless of who is in office.”
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Community Gardeners Win Permanent Protections