In an op-ed yesterday in the New York Post, Nicole Gelinas of the right-leaning Manhattan Institute makes yet another case against rent-regulation in New York City apartments, a timely topic given the looming deadline for the current regs and all the recent mishegosh in Albany as a... MORE >
Somewhere along the line, beer became as viable an option as wine for something to bring to a dinner party in New York. So be it. Now what? Faux pas await you, ones you'd never find with... MORE >
On Feb. 8, the city's biggest building-sales brokerage, Massey Knakal, blasted a press release announcing the sale of a narrow, four-story, red-brick building along First Avenue, a block southwest of Stuyvesant Town. The walk-up rested snugly between a larger building cloaked in mesh and fronted by scaffolding and a similar-sized, white building. A chicken joint called Senor Pollo occupied its entire ground-floor retail space; there were three market-rate, floor-through apartments... MORE >
While scanning the Web for any New York City events commemorating Abraham Lincoln's birthday on Saturday, I discovered that the 16th president, who was assassinated in April 1865, is, in fact, on... MORE >
The habits of New York craft beer drinkers owe an inestimable debt to ... California. The Golden State birthed the craft beer movement in the United States; it incubated the heavily hopped style that has come to define American craft beer more than any other; and it laid the template for that thankfully ubiquitous of craft beer hosts, the brewpub. Essentially, everything that leads to your next pint in this horrid winter began in... MORE >
Long Island has in the last year become a tender hub of nanobreweries: As many as four are in operation or will be in operation by the middle of 2011. Two of those distribute in the city (which itself hosts no nanobreweries, as far as I was able to find—if I missed one, please let me know:... MORE >
If you’ve been reading The Hophead this year, you know I focus more on the back stories of beers and the people behind them than on the tastes (go elsewhere, please, for serious disquisition on mouthfeel and bouquet—I don’t claim to be a critic). I seek to report on the influencers of what we drink. So I got this question from a reader: Who are the most influential people in American craft beer? Put another... MORE >
"My father's a statistician," said Jen Schwertman on the Friday night before Thanksgiving. She was in the front booth of an after-work bar in the financial district, just off the 1 line, talking over the labored small talk of men in loosened ties and the women in pencil skirts playing defense. She was sipping a Sierra Nevada Torpedo. "He's a professor at Chico State. He is so one-track-minded toward math, it's amazing, and I've always... MORE >
What: The Good Beer Seal Where: Jimmy’s No. 43 and 26 other bars around the city Why: Because wine shouldn't have all the... MORE >
A few years after he left Gracie Mansion, Ed Koch ran into gay-rights activist and playwright Larry Kramer in the lobby of their apartment building on Washington Square. Mr. Kramer had famously been a harsh critic of what he believed was Mr. Koch's slow response to the AIDS crisis, satirizing him as closeted and craven in his 1985 play The Normal Heart, about the syndrome then baffling doctors, and confronting the indifference of public... MORE >
I was out of the country when Jimmy McMillan of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party put on his gubernatorial debate performance, and have only just now gotten around to subscribing to his newsletter. As best I can tell, Mr. McMillan's platform is that New York City rents are too damn high and that's forcing poor people out (this handy, rather hypnotic video explains things, such as they are, better than I... MORE >
What: Old beer recipes Where: Turin, Park Slope and Union Square Why: Beer and civilization—they grew up together I was in Turin, Italy, in the old Olympic Village, last week for the International Slow Food Movement's annual gathering, Salone del Gusto--a sort of trade show meets Baptist tent revival in the shadow of the Alps and in walking distance of several Mickey... MORE >
What: Beer Class Where: Greenpoint Why: Because the verbs matter more than the adjectives in the craft beer movement. I was going to give a talk on Oct. 13 at the Black Rabbit Bar in Greenpoint, owned by the delightful Kent and Anne Lanier, as part of what we were billing as "Beer Class." I would talk about two different beers; people would sample them; maybe even ask... MORE >
What: Homebrewing Where: Williamsburg Why: Because the retail options for buying equipment and ingredients in New York City have multiplied from basically nothing to several in just the last few years, and an entire subculture has sprung up. On Saturday, Oct. 2, I hoofed it from the Metropolitan stop on the G train (why did I trust that subterranean Dodge...) and texted Josh Bernstein that I would be late for the Brooklyn Homebrewers... MORE >
We were trying to come up with a fresh angle on the latest Manhattan housing stats—in this case for the three months ending Sept. 30—and, frankly, came up with a debate instead. Working off the Douglas Elliman report authored by the redoubtable Jonathan Miller and released to the media yesterday, herewith is a Friday morning email exchange between staff writer Matt Chaban and senior editor Tom Acitelli (how the sausage gets made, people): 11:17... MORE >
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