Happy Monday. Did you watch the Save Birdland Benefit Concert last night? It was a star-packed show with an introduction by President Bill Clinton.
“There is a light at the end of this tunnel. What a tragedy it would be to lose one of our great venues now when the end of the long nightmare is within reach,” he appealed. “I know all of us want places like Birdland to be a part of our lives for the rest of our lives.”
The event put on an additional $75k (bringing the fundraising total to $382k) — so Birdland has been saved. “Because of you the show will go on, because of you we saved Birdland. See you at the club,” said Whoopi Goldberg. This success adds to a similar rescue fundraiser for West Bank Cafe and Mama Mia 44SW being saved by The Barstool Fund.
Everyone loves a little tittle-tattle, some gossip, a sharing of opinions — social media needs a topic to discuss. A couple of weeks ago, at social network Nextdoor, one of its members decided to start a new topic: “Spare a dollar for coffee guy.” If you are a Hell’s Kitchen resident and a member of Nextdoor, you might have followed the thread that extends to over 180 comments.
He has died. His name was Camacho. Everyone who has come across Camacho in Hell’s Kitchen will reflect in some way on his death. He might have been annoying, but our neighborhood has lost a character and another human being who touched our lives. I liked to think that I could do a good impression of Camacho’s voice — and I am certainly going to reflect. We’ve turned off comments on the post, and suggest that you pick up the phone/grab a coffee and chat one-to-one to a friend if you want to discuss. Read our story here…
NYC Restaurant Week starts today and continues until February 7. This year is a special “To Go” version of the event. You can order takeout or delivery — lunch or dinner — at home for just $20.21. If you’ve got a Mastercard you can even get $10 off each order! These local restaurants are taking part:
Bareburger
5 Napkin Burger
Danji
Bann
Etcetera Etcetera
The Meatball Shop
Badshah
Ousia
Marseille
Le Sia
Ardesia Wine Bar
Añejo
Chez Josephine
Sushi on Jones
Mamasita Bar & Grill
We’ve added a link to the NYC Restaurant week offer in the W42ST “Hell’s Kitchen is OPEN!” app. There are over 140 local eateries to chose from there. Please let us know if we’ve missed any of your favorites (or any restaurants that have changed their hours/closed).
What we’ve been reading
Emily’s gone from Broadway publicist to… Tarot card reader! (New York Post)
Penn 15 rises next to the Empire State Building. (New York Nimby)
Happy 40th Birthday Alicia! (Africa News)
While everybody was taking time photoshopping Bernie into New York scenes, this guy photoshopped the ads out of Times Square… (Reddit)
Sorting out NYC Sanitation… in 1895. (New York Almanack)
Freeze Frame
Thanks to Thomas Piercy for today’s Freeze Frame. His picture from earlier this morning is captioned on Instagram as “Smoke’s rising; the sun’s coming up. Looking forward to a day filled with the little black dots of composers Joseph Jones and W. A. Mozart.” Tune in tonight to hear his clarinet…