Good morning and welcome to the gateway to the weekend! Have you got anything fun planned?
My weather forecast is showing 100% chance of rain for Saturday and Sunday, so ordering in might be an option. Check out our feature today on three Hell’s Kitchen Qoyas (that’s Inca queens) who are using a hotel kitchen to produce an amazing Peruvian menu. They’ve shown real resilience to get their business running. Read more…
The sunshine this week has given us hope for spring, and yesterday’s announcement by Lincoln Center of open-air activities from April gives us a vision of seeing live performance again. Read more…
Manhattan Community Board 4 and the Rauschenbusch Metro Baptist Church have a sock and undergarment drive on Saturday and Sunday afternoons for those in local shelters. Please help if you can.

What we’ve been reading
Mad Men-u! Peter Luger fills up with Madame Tussauds’ celebs, including Don Draper. (Grub Street)
Looking back over 25 years of RENT. (New York Times)
Tips to the city’s restaurant workers have dropped since the COVID surcharge was applied. (Eater)
NYC Pride continues the fight in 2021. (New York Daily News)
Mr and Mrs Potato Head go gender-neutral… (NBC)
Freeze Frame

We wandered past the McGraw-Hill building at 330 W42nd Street yesterday afternoon. We could see workers on a platform in the lobby. The last-minute fight to get this space landmarked is ongoing.