UCityGuides.com Travel News Blog » New York

7 HOT NEW SPOTS IN NEW YORK

UCityGuides.com Editor — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:20:43 +0000

Robert Restaurant, New York

ROBERT RESTAURANT
While MoMA and its The Modern receive most of the attention, don’t overlook the Museum of Arts and Design and its new restaurant. “Robert” overlooks Columbus Circle and Central Park and features a stylish dining area where contemporary American cuisine mixed with Mediterranean influences is served. From Wednesday to Saturday nights, a live pianist enhances the ambience.

CROSBY STREET HOTEL
The team behind some of London’s top hotels such as the Covent Garden and Haymarket has opened its first hotel in the Big Apple. Since opening a few months ago, it’s already one of the most talked-about hotels in the city, in part thanks to a prime location in Soho by Prince and Spring streets. The interior is made up of modern and antique furnishings, together with original art. Start your day in the outdoor garden before a shopping spree in the neighborhood, and end your night in the luxurious screening room.

CASA LEVER RESTAURANT
In our New York restaurants guide we recommend the acclaimed Sant Ambroeus restaurant and now the team behind it has created another hot table in town. Designed by Marc Newson, the new Casa Lever features Andy Warhol portraits on the walls and offers a menu of Italian classics. It also has an excellent wine list and cocktails menu, in an effort to provide New Yorkers with a true taste of la dolce vita.

Provocateur at Gansevoort Hotel, New York

PROVOCATEUR AT HOTEL GANSEVOORT
The 3 U_Star Gansevoort Hotel is one of the hottest addresses in New York, and it’s become even more so with the opening of Provocateur. It’s an exclusive lounge with a sensual atmosphere created by a lavish décor, and offering private areas for an even more special night of cocktails and light Japanese cuisine.

MAIALINO RESTAURANT
The new restaurant at the Gramercy Park Hotel is a Roman-style trattoria brought to you from the same team that created The Modern at the MoMA in 2005. It serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with the menu presenting Italian specialties. The dining area features wide windows with park views and a diverse collection of art.

GAGOSIAN GALLERY
Gagosian Gallery’s latest opening is its first shop. It’s found on Madison Avenue and offers publications and limited editions by artists and designers like Marc Newson and Jeff Koons.

LE CAPRICE RESTAURANT
London’s legendary Le Caprice has expanded across the Atlantic and opened in the Big Apple. The menu offers all the favorites from across the pond, while the interior designed by Martin Brudnizki features photographs of supermodel Jean Shrimpton and tiled floors in black and white. It’s open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and serves a special Sunday brunch.

-See the complete New York city guide.
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THE 10 TRAVEL DESTINATIONS FOR THE NEXT DECADE

UCityGuides.com Editor — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:20:14 +0000

The last decade has brought some radical changes to the travel industry. From low-cost airlines, to last-minute online booking, to the large number of stylish hostels, to the boutique and design hotel concept. There were even new destinations, with Eastern Europe (particularly Prague and Budapest) becoming one of the most popular city breaks in the world. Even the city break concept is new, with travels now escaping to somewhere else on a long weekend, or on a business trip, and not waiting for a longer summer vacation to go somewhere.
As one decade closes and another one begins, it’s time to wonder how and where we’ll be traveling ten years from now. What can already be predicted is that during the 2000-teens decade, some cities will stand out more than others. They will either host the world’s major events, or will unveil brand-new projects that will capture the attention of the world’s media and travelers.
At UCityGuides.com we’ve taken a look at the calendar and took our insider knowledge of the world’s top cultural cities, and came up with a list of the cities that will most grab the attention of the travel industry. From New York‘s new World Trade Center and Freedom Tower, to a cleaned up Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics, to the emergence of Lisbon as a cultural hotspot, to the rejuvenation of Seville, we give you a preview of what you’ll be excited about visiting in the near future. You’ll discover that some old destinations are new again, and that some often-overlooked cities will no longer be a secret.
For complete details, take a look at the full list of the 10 City Breaks for the Next Decade.

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THE WRIGHT: THE NEW RESTAURANT IN NEW YORK’S GUGGENHEIM AND A KANDINSKY RETROSPECTIVE

UCityGuides.com Editor — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:31:43 +0000

Tomorrow New York’s Guggenheim will open a new restaurant called “The Wright,” celebrating the 50 years of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed museum.
It will only be serving lunches for now, but will open for dinner starting in mid-January. A special brunch will also be available on Sundays from 11AM to 5PM.
The dining area features a sleek design by architect Andre Kikoski and includes a European-style bar in the center for small plates dining. The entire space is a homage to Wright, and reflecting the museum’s contemporary focus there is a site-specific commission by British artist Liam Gillick running up the walls and ceiling. Accommodating up to 58 diners at a time, it will be a comfortable venue with an upscale atmosphere for after a visit to the museum’s exhibitions or any time in between (for reservations, call 212 427 5690).
At the moment the Guggenheim is presenting a Kandinsky retrospective until the 13th of January. It was previously shown in Paris’ Centre Pompidou and Munich’s Lenbachhaus, and is a comprehensive, chronological presentation with over 100 paintings, including some rarely-seen works from private collections.
Solomon Guggenheim bought more than 150 Kandinsky works when he visited the artist’s studio in Germany in 1930, and that is said to have been the inspiration for Guggenheim’s opening of his own “Museum of Non-Objective Painting” in 1939.

AN EBAY STORE OPENS IN NEW YORK

UCityGuides.com Editor — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:36:15 +0000

It’s one of the internet’s biggest shopping sites, and now it’s also an actual store in Manhattan — but only for a few days (until the 29th). In a clear marketing strategy, eBay is hoping to draw attention during the big shopping days around Thanksgiving with a shop located next to Bergdorf Goodman at East 57th Street and 5th Avenue. It covers more than 5,000 square feet of space and is laid out like the website, divided into categories.
There are over 200 million listings every day on the company’s website, and while most of the sales are the result of auctions, the “buy it now” option is increasingly popular, especially for the brand-new items. So at the new shop nothing is actually for sale — customers must use the computer terminals and still do the shopping online. If anyone likes what they see on display at the store, a personal shopper will help them find it online.
As the Big Apple becomes invaded by tourists for its Thanksgiving parade and the shopping extravaganza of the upcoming days, eBay couldn’t have come up with a more creative marketing strategy to capitalize on potential buyers looking for the best deals. But this could also be an experiment that may lead to the opening of a permanent shop in New York or in another major city. And with this being New York, the eBay store could just turn out to be a tourist attraction much like the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue has become…

“LES LALANNE” ON PARK AVENUE – A LARGE-SCALE OUTDOOR EXHIBITION IN NEW YORK

UCityGuides.com Editor — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:56:26 +0000

Claude Lalanne is currently presenting her very first large-scale outdoor exhibition in the United States through New York’s Paul Kasmin Gallery. Her sculptures, together with those of her late husband François-Xavier have been placed down Park Avenue in Manhattan and include eight monumental works such as life-size bronze sheep and a cross-legged monkey by François-Xavier, and a large bronze apple by Claude entitled “Pomme de New York.”

This husband-and-wife team worked together for over five decades until François-Xavier’s death in 2008, but Claude continues to work from her studio in a village outside Paris. As confirmed by this exhibition in New York, their inspiration has always been nature, and their pieces using contemporary electroplating techniques has risen in popularity. One of Fraçois-Xavier’s works sold for over $2.5 million earlier this year when Christie’s auctioned designer Yves Saint Laurent’s possessions.
With much of their work now belonging to private collections, this exhibition on Park Avenue is one of the rare opportunities to see just what makes their sculptures so remarkable, and you’ll be able to see them until the 20th of November.

NEW YORK TO BECOME CAR-FREE?

UCityGuides.com Editor — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:41:27 +0000

We like to walk around cities and apparently modern travelers agree with us because they’ve voted Copenhagen’s Stroget one of the 7 urban wonders of the world. That’s why we love New York’s new High Line and the pedestrianization of Herald and Times squares.
Will Manhattan become mostly car-free? That would be a dream that’s unlikely to ever come true, but what is already one of the world’s best walking cities will only benefit from giving away space for pedestrians and reducing the chaotic traffic from its most popular commercial areas. Imagine a pedestrians-only SoHo?…
The plan was decided by mayor Bloomberg who says this is a way to change the way the city thinks its streets. It’s been reported that it is only an experiment that will last until the end of this year, but could become permanent. Judging from the crowds enjoying the car-free streets, as illustrated on the photo below, we can predict it will in fact become permanent and expand to other areas in the city.
As for the High Line, that’s a former elevated railroad that reopened last June as a “greenway.” It goes from the Meatpacking District to 20th Street, but will eventually go all the way to Midtown, to 30th Street. In 2012, the entrance to the High Line on Gansevoort Street will have a new building for the Whitney Museum which will be designed by architect Renzo Piano.

A PREVIEW OF NEW YORK’S SEPTEMBER 11 MEMORIAL AT GROUND ZERO

UCityGuides.com Editor — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:00:11 +0000

New York remembers today the tragic events of September 11 of eight years ago. A preview site of the future of Ground Zero which will also stand as a memorial for the victims has opened nearby just over a week ago, and has become a popular attraction for curious tourists. UCityGuides.com has passed by and found that, as pictured above, there is a model of what the future World Trade Center will look like, as well as real-time images of the construction progress. The site will include a museum, and the hope is that this preview will serve as a way for everyone to participate in the sharing of the 9/11 story.
Complete information is available on the website which also explains how you can support the plan through a tax-deductible donation (another way is to buy some of the merchandise available at the connected shop, which is quite frankly of debatable taste): www.national911memorial.org

NEW YORK’S NEWEST HIP HOTEL IS IN… NEW JERSEY! – THE W HOBOKEN HOTEL

UCityGuides.com Editor — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:04:19 +0000

New York’s hottest new hotel isn’t in Manhattan. It’s not in Brooklyn either. In fact, it’s not in New York at all, but across the Hudson in New Jersey, or more specifically, in Hoboken. In addition to being known as Frank Sinatra’s birthplace, that city is also known for having some of the best views of Manhattan’s skyline, and they’re just part of what the new W Hoboken Hotel is offering. For those not familiar with the New York Tri-State area, Hoboken is just a 10-minute train ride away from Manhattan, so a stay at the new W is like staying in the center of the Big Apple but with the advantage of having city views from your room’s window.
In total, the hotel has 225 rooms, and was designed by the award-winning Gwathmey Siegel group. Only about two dozen rooms don’t face the river or Manhattan’s skyline, but they all feature the same style expected at a W hotel. The riverfront rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows so guests can wake up with New York’s skyscrapers directly in front of them. Those wishing to add a soundtrack to the views can use the iPod docking stations, and the best views are from the north-facing rooms from the 11th to the 17th floors.
Non-hotel guests can still enjoy W’s young, energetic vibe at the Chandelier Room, a cocktail lounge with an outdoor terrace. There’s also a restaurant which offers Tuscan cuisine, from thin-crust pizza to seafood.
To relax after a day across the river, there are the services of a spa.
More details and booking information here: W Hoboken Hotel

ONE OF NEW YORK’S ICONS DISAPPEARS

UCityGuides.com Editor — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:28:43 +0000

It has illustrated postcards, guidebooks, and magazine articles about the Big Apple for close to two decades, and has therefore become part of New York’s iconography. It’s the DKNY mural on Broadway, at the doorstep of SoHo, showing the Statue of Liberty standing over the downtown skyscrapers. But it’s now gone. The building which it covered was recently sold and has been taken over by a huge Hollister store. Hollister is the California surfer dude version of the casual chic frat boy favorite Abercrombie & Fitch, and this is its first store in Manhattan. The six stories of the building now have the brand’s logo, and is poised to be a major tourist attraction like Abercrombie’s shop on 5th Avenue. But New Yorkers aren’t exactly happy about this, as they fear SoHo is being taken over by suburban mall brands and losing much of its identity. Sure the DKNY mural was an advertisement but when looking at it no one saw the letters — it had become a city landmark and since September 11, a reminder of how downtown looked like with the Twin Towers still standing. If you’ve taken a look at the New York city guide at UCityGuides.com, you’ve seen that the mural is featured on its introductory page, and we’ve decided it’s staying there for a while.

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THE ARCHITOURIST REPORT: 50 YEARS OF NEW YORK’S GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM

UCityGuides.com Editor — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:10:59 +0000

New York’s iconic Guggenheim Museum will be celebrating its 50th birthday later this year, and has just opened a special exhibition to mark the event. This year is also the 50th anniversary of the death of Frank Lloyd Wright, the building’s architect who died only months before the museum’s official opening. Considered Wright’s masterpiece, New York’s Guggenheim will be showcasing dozens of the architect’s projects in the special Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward exhibition that runs until August 23rd. It’s a collaboration between the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and will include civic and government buildings, performance spaces, and privately commissioned residences, as well as urban projects that were never completed. They’re shown through drawings, models, and digital animations, displayed on the spiraling interior of the museum. The building went through an extensive exterior renovation between 2005 and 2008, and now shines even brighter as seen on these photos taken by UCityGuides. It embodies Wright’s pioneering concepts of space, and remains a cultural and architectural icon: