Happy Friday. Our friends at New York Metro Weather got the overnight forecast just right: “Colder, cloudy, and damp again. A wintry mix of crap moves into the area. Fire up the coffee!” It gets better around 2pm and we are then set for a week of crisp days with sunshine.
McPutin’s — the cheekily-named pop-up operating out of Russian Samovar on W52nd Street — is immediately rebranding after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine turned their satiric homage sour. Read more…

Doom for the VROOM!? New York officials and light sleepers are hoping a state law aimed at deterring noisy, souped-up vehicles and a pilot system to detect and ticket loud roadsters will bring peace to city streets. Read more…

What we’ve been reading
Waterline Square is being used as a location for top TV shows. (I Love The Upper West Side)
The line at Wendy’s is a sign that midtown Manhattan office workers are coming back. (New York Times)
Inflation hits New York — “everything is too damn high!” (amNY)
Immersive theater is back in New York. (Forbes)
How those oddly shaped “squares” along Broadway got their names. (Untapped New York)
Freeze Frame

Many of you will be aware of the controversy surrounding a nine-story building to be built on an MTA-owned lot on the corner of Ninth Avenue and 54th Street.
Nick Garber at Patch did a good summary of the issue last month — and yesterday, Catie Savage (Hell’s Kitchen’s Trash Queen) told her personal story about the need for affordable housing in our neighborhood. “We desperately need middle-income affordable housing in Hell’s Kitchen. This is not a NIMBY stance. Hell’s Kitchen has the 3rd highest amount of supportive housing in all of Manhattan,” Catie said. What are your thoughts?
Happy birthday to Anthony Kitch and Shanti Nagel.