Planet of the Grapes

81st Street & Broadway The age-old question of quality vs. quantity seems to answer itself when you gaze upon any well-known food establishment. A French bistro with a high Zagat’s rating will clearly be concerned with the quality of their presentation. In the case of McDonald’s, who pioneered the “drive-thru within a drive-thru” and added [...]

620 6th Avenue and 18th Street How many times will we see the following joke?: a patron of Bed, Bath, and Beyond is in said store, and sees three sections: “Bed,” “Bath,” and “Beyond.” They enter the door labeled “Beyond” and start floating in a vast purples sky, surrounded by cherubs with Mia Farrow’s face, [...]

1230 5th Ave. at 104th Street El Museo del Barrio celebrates the rich Caribbean and Latin American cultures in New York. Too tempting to avoid, we must hereby make the stock comment that if you visit the corresponding restaurants these cultures provide, especially if you sport gringo digestive chemistry, you may in fact need the [...]

57th Street and 2nd Avenue We know, we know, it’s no Boston Market…and that’s still not saying a lot. Sometimes, like a wealthy society girl dating the dread-locked pot dealer “musician” who lives down the hall during her second semester at college, you have to slum it. It renews your appreciation of the Caravaggio sketches [...]

50th Street between 5th and 6th Yes, for you out-of-towners, Rockefeller Center is high on the NYC to-do list. It’s where the big tree resides in its Yuletide splendor, where ice skaters find wintry recreation, and where NBC’s office building and studios at 30 Rockefeller Center, with the renowned Rainbow Room Restaurant located all the [...]

40th-42nd Streets between 8th and 9th Avenues If the Port Authority is a monument to anything, it is a monument to the bygone era of Times Square and particularly 8th Avenue, when pimps, hos, heroin, and hobos ruled the land. 8th Avenue still has its row of adult stores, but of course Starbucks and Europan [...]