Good morning and happy Tuesday. It’s been lovely to surprise business owners with their awards over the past week — especially when the person is genuinely not expecting to be a winner. Thanks to all our readers who took the time to cast votes and make the day of these hard-working neighborhood folks!
“I’m really surprised because we didn’t expect to win. We’re kind of in-between the categories as a wine bar, a cheese bar. We’re not really a restaurant, not really a bar. I just expected, we would slip through the cracks — somebody else would win bar and somebody else would win restaurant,” said Brian Keyser from Casellula, as he received the award for Best Bar. “We were happy to have been nominated.”
Casellula took 9% of the readers’ voting for the Best Bar category of the 25 shortlisted venues — and was 15 votes ahead of the nearest runner up. The bar, like many in Hell’s Kitchen, has won many hearts for the fight it has made to survive the pandemic. More details + runners up list…
There’s no doubt that you’ve seen the iconic “I ❤️ NY” logo on everything from T-shirts to bumper stickers and highway signs. But where did New York’s most ubiquitous branding come from? What many don’t know is that the legendary logo was the creation of graphic designer Milton Glaser, who passed away in June 2020 at the age of 91 — and is now the subject of a new exhibition at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in their tribute, “SVA❤️Milton: The Legacy of Milton Glaser”. Details here…
SPONSORED POST
What we’ve been reading
Shakespeare in the Park’s Theater is to get a makeover. (Gothamist)
Dick Gottfried is retiring from local politics after over 50 years. (New York Times)
Cycling in the city: “Right now it’s like the Wild West. You’re on your own if you’re on your bike in New York City.” (Brooklyn Mag)
Are you noticing the price spikes at restaurants and grocery stores? (Eyewitness News)
Stunning archive photos of Coney Island in the 1950s. (Bygonely)
Freeze Frame
Thanks to Rene Lutz Stanley, who is great at capturing unusual New York city scenes. “Looks like the mannequins are having an office party,” she said on Instagram.
Happy birthday to Betsy Bober Polivy.