Frozen Food for When You Don’t Have Time to Cook—for the Dog
When Marie Moody first started her pet food company, Stella and Chewy’s, she rarely hailed a cab, unless she had to make a delivery.
“We’re selling millions of dollars’ worth of pet food and I can actually afford to take a cab now,” Moody said, punctuating the end of her sentence with a boisterous chuckle.
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Baking is Art at Soutine
Madge Rosenberg has baked in her 612-square foot bakery at 70th Street and Columbus Avenue for 28 years, where children stop in on their way to school to pick up one of her famous croissants and celebrities order extravagant cakes, such as an edible volcano created in honor of L. Ron Hubbard.
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Life Is Sweet for Mr. Chocolate
Jacques Torres has made a name for himself in the New York chocolate world, first as pastry chef for Le Cirque and then for opening six specialty stores throughout the city.
His passion for chocolate is evident when you walk into his shop at 285 Amsterdam Ave. Sample his chocolate-covered Cheerios and Wicked Hot Chocolate, and you’ll get an idea of why his shops are so popular. When he’s not giving cooking demonstrations for charity, he serves as the dean of pastry arts at the French Culinary Institute.
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From Riverside Drive to the Yangtze River
Meet Sharon Huang, executive director and founder of Bilingual Buds, a Mandarin Chinese immersion school tucked away on Riverside Boulevard. Inside, teachers and students are growing silkworms, eating rice dumplings and, of course, speaking in Chinese, in the only program of its kind in the neighborhood.
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Swipe Fee Blues
To the Editor:
Last year, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the Dodd-Frank Act, which included important protections for Main Street businesses from debit card swipe fees that have gotten out of control. Almost immediately, credit card companies began pushing Congress to weaken the amendment, and last week the Senate voted on an amendment proposed by Senator Tester (D-MT) to delay this critical reform.
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The Stories of Hell’s Kitchen
Block Association is rich in character and ‘characters’
The old New York of colorful personalities and a story in every apartment still exists on West 45th Street in Hell’s Kitchen.
“Part of what makes our community so rich is its cast of characters,” said Chana Widawski, vice president of the West 45th Street Block Association. “The people have such fascinating stories.”
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Seven Generations of Pleasing West Side Palates
Opened in 1941 at 67 W. 67th St., 67 Wine retained its name even after moving to its current location at West 68th Street and Columbus Avenue in 1966.
Actor David Hyde Pierce named it one of his favorite places in Manhattan in the New York Post. An episode of Sex and the City was filmed inside. It was also featured in New York Magazine’s Guide to 1600 Best Stores in New York.
Owner Bernie Weiser proudly runs the business his family created seven decades ago. He and his 48 employees will happily assist in selecting a bottle to serve at your next dinner party.
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Business Not Booming
To the Editor:
Re: “Second Annual Business Survey Shows Signs of Life on West Side” (March 11), I am sure the Spirit was only trying to sound an optimistic note. But even a cursory glance at the two maps shows that, despite the optimistic claims of their respective leaders, the Columbus Avenue BID and the Lincoln Square BID are both doing worse now than they were a year ago: in 2009, they each had four vacant storefronts; in 2010, your map shows eight vacancies in the Columbus Avenue BID, and nine in the Lincoln Square BID. In fact, only the Columbus-Amsterdam BID remains unchanged: 24 vacancies on both maps. Read more
Second Annual Business Survey Shows Signs of Life on West Side
Business isn’t booming yet, but commerce on the Upper West Side is definitely experiencing a comeback. That’s the consensus emerging from local business leaders and the conclusion indicated by West Side Spirit’s second business survey, conducted almost exactly a year after the first.
The methodology this year was the same: Feb. 22, West Side Spirit canvassed Broadway, Amsterdam and Columbus avenues from West 59th to 110th streets, counting all the ground-floor, on-the-avenue businesses. Read more
Free Wal-Mart
To the Editor:
New York City residents will miss out on Wal-Mart’s offering a $20 meal for eight people this Thanksgiving. This includes a 12-pound turkey at 40 cents per pound, along with discounts on vegetables, cranberry sauce, stuffing, potatoes, dinner rolls and pumpkin pie. The unemployed, seniors, those on fixed incomes and the less fortunate will suffer.
Consumers continue to be denied the opportunity to shop at Wal-Mart. This is a result of narrow-minded New York City Council members who refuse to allow Wal-Mart an opportunity to open stores within the five boroughs. Read more
