Calexico is new on Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint!
The quilted metal facade gives a nod to their street cart beginnings.


Calexico Hours. Open plenty late. Closed Mondays.
Take note.


The sputnik chandliers. LOVE!
And the recessed tin ceiling is great too. Along with the original poles.
I am guessing turn of the (last) century. So great.


Lighting is always key for me. I love what they put together here.

Excitement in Greenpoint. A new restaurant opened last month (although we just saw it for the first time on Sunday). It's Mexican, has tofu aplenty, margaritas, good prices, and excellent decor. Yes, they had me at tofu, but the sputnik-style chandeliers totally drew me in. Calexico, named for a town near the California/Mexico border where the owners (3 brothers, Dave, Jesse and Brian Vendley) are from, is doing a great business. The tables and bar are packed, so come early if you want the seat of your choice. Take-out customers come in all night, have a drink at the bar, and go merrily on their way. The service is speedy, but not rushed.

This Greenpoint-based Calexico is Brooklyn restaurant #2 for the Vendley brothers (the first location is 122 Union Street in Carroll Gardens) who started their Cal-Mex business running street carts 3 years ago. Hence the speedy delivery of your food. Also hence the quilted metal exterior of the restaurant. Decor à la food carte. Very clever.

The food is great, the vibe is great, and Paulie, the bar manager who works every night except Sunday, is a very refreshing non-pretentious non-hipster, who will treat you like a person and treat you well. Some nearby establishments should take note, but they won't, so scratch this last line.

Calexico
645 Manhattan Avenue (@ Bedford Avenue)
Greenpoint, Brooklyn
347.763.2129

That's Paulie, bar manager. He gave excellent service to everyone who walked in.


Happy Hour special, $5


Where else can you get a mint jalapeno margarita? I'm hooked. $10


Very fresh chips, guacamole, hefty portion, $10


Tofu Torta (sandwich), very delicious, $10


Tacos, $4 each, black bean [L] and tofu [R]

Even when it's a bit gloomy outside, Grand Central still looks spectacular. One rainy day, I was cutting through on the way to the pool. The chandeliers looked particularly lovely on this darker day. For some reason I thought about what it would be like to change all the light bulbs. And then I saw a man getting into a lift to do just that.

That's a lot of light bulbs.

The much-anticipated new Paris Baguette in New York's Koreatown!


Banquet seating in the front. Très luxe.


Good lighting. I'm a sucker for good decor.


A subtle nod to French café society: metal stools originally
designed by Xavier Pauchard in 1934


That's a lot of French pastries.

All the food bloggers have been wagging their tongues about Paris Baguette, which opened in Koreatown on September 9. So much so, that I ran all the way to check it out! I ran because I just got a heart rate monitor watch, and wanted to see how many calories I could burn getting there. (Only 30, but I didn't eat anything, so it was win-win.) As you know from previous posts, one of my hobbies is dessert-gazing. Not eating, just gazing. So enjoy the pics, and go taste for yourself. They have another Paris Baguette in Flushing, which I think I've actually been to for some reason. Again, I just gazed. What is it with me and loving to look at desserts?


Paris Baguette
6 W 32nd Street (5th Avenue/Broadway, closer to 5th)
Koreatown
New York
212.244.0404

The self-serve station.
Grab yourself a tray and a pair of tongs and get ready to dig in!


Every pastry looks impeccable. And the place is fastidiously clean.


This light, flat sheet dotted with almonds fascinated me the most.


Japanese love "choux creme" too. I don't think the French refer to it as such...




These cakes are works of art. I'd definitely get
one for a dinner party.


I wonder how they taste?


...and now for the sinfully delicious (-looking)

I love the staff outfits: cute Paris-style striped shirts and berets.


The seating area in the back is also quite nice.
But I prefer the front banquets.


Checkout in the back. Lots of drinks too.
Like a matcha frappe. And cappuccino, etc.
Meet me for coffee!

This post is featured on Midtown Lunch for September 24, 2010

Stay. A brand new hotel at 157 47th Street near Times Square.

Okay the chandeliers drew me right in. But what else is new. I was walking on 47th on the way to my Y. Stay? What is this? And so I wandered in to check out the really beautiful lobby decor. I am a sucker for excellent hotel lobby decor. Just off the lobby, there is a place for drinks (around $14 for a specialty cocktail), called the Aspen Social Club. The atmosphere at rush hour looked pretty mellow and pleasant. Despite the close proximity to Times Square, it could be fun.

Stay, formerly the Quality Hotel Times Square, just opened in October under the new ownership of the super-posh and ultra-modern Vikram Chatwal Hotels (Dream, The Time, Night, Chopra Center and Spa, and Chatwal, coming later this year). The location, should you wish to investigate in person, is 157 47th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues). I am definitely going to try Aspen Social Club for a cocktail. I'll let you know how it is.

[pageprint from tordboontje.com]

[pageprint from tordboontje.com]

If we are talking about scroll work, cascading tendrils, and designs inspired by crystal chandeliers, we cannot forget the work of Tord Boontje. Although a tad overexposed by the mass roll out of his lighting products at Target in 2006 for their 'Christmas experience,' which in turn triggered Tord-style tendril graphics to be in every ad and branding campaign this side of the Pecos, including perhaps those on the Gen Art site which started this whole cascade of chandelier posts, Tord Boontje is still the original innovator with a valuable contribution, whose designs must be recognized. (Perhaps that last sentence does not ring true for you. I have different perspective on mass design. We can talk about that in the comments section.)

Pictured above are two of Boontje's cascading tendril chandeliers which I like. The Garland Light is a DIY modern-day chandelier which includes a naked bulb on a hanging cord and a long garland of etched metal flowers which the owner can fashion and refashion as (s)he wishes. Options and customization! How very now.

The Midsummer Light is a clever take on another familiar form, the silhouette. (Need I discuss here again my undying attraction to the silhouette? I think not, for now.) This piece is less DIY, but just as modern-day, with a naked bulb on a hanging cord blanketed with layered Tyvek paper cut-outs of cheerful flowers, leaves and tendrils. If you can trace back in your mind to the moment you first saw these pieces in exclusive design boutiques, you will remember that you once thought that they were totally new and exciting. They still are great innovations and inspired takes on the chandelier.



On Tord Boontje's 2006 collaboration with Target:
Boontje designed 35 products as well as packaging and graphic design to be used in all of Target's Christmas catalogues, store graphics and 'environments,' outdoor public displays and television ads. Boontje also worked directly on the art direction for the catalog photography and the 5 television ads.

Well that was fun yesterday with the chandelier posts. I think I must add chandeliers and motifs to my list of regular features, because there are too many directions I can take this and still do the topic justice in just one day.

Pictured above, for all the renters out there who do not want to mess with rewiring the landlord's fixtures, a chandelier decal for your wall! Simply arrange your dining room table strategically for the full effect of this "Grunge Chandelier" as it is called, but I am not sure why, by Vinyl Wall Art (designer: Holly Jones). This item is so pleasingly affordable at $24 for the small or $36 for the large.

If my theory is correct, that the chandelier has influenced wall paper design motifs, as pictured in this post, then Vinyl Wall Art's chandelier decal is twice triggered: by actual chandeliers and by chandelier-inspired wallpaper. Very clever.

[image from design sponge]

Of course a day of blogging devoted exclusively to chandeliers and the designs they inspire could not be complete without a post from the neon enthusiast herself (me) about this incredible paired-down no-nonsense version from Brooklyn-based Lite Bright Neon. Little did I know, until I wrote this post and started to investigate, that Lite Bright Neon does custom work for retail! Look at this piece they did for Bergdorf Goodman! I am in heaven.

In fact, the very chandelier which I love seems to have made quite a prominent debut in the Bergdorf window. Of course, this makes me want it all the more. Although this neon chandelier has inspired strong reactions against, I still maintain that it is a totally wonderful, humorous and clever work of art. I take many a design friend to visit the chandelier at The Future Perfect on North 6th in Williamsburg where it is for sale; and I remain the only one in my group who wants desperately to own it. Alas. What do they know.

Imagine the dining room table that could complement this piece. And the napkins! And the chairs! I am conjuring up an amazing room in my mind.

[pageprint from brocadehome.com]

Well this is a very chandelier-inspired room, from Brocade Home. The wallpaper pattern, the scroll work on the bedframe, and even the mirror frame at left, are all inspired by the lyrical lines and cascades of chandeliers.

I didn't know it when I woke up this morning, but today on the blog is going to be all about chandeliers and the designs that trickle down from the lovely crystal waterfalls. Do you get it? Trickle down. Like a waterfall. Hee.

I must say, this is a gratuitously visual post about the beauty of elaborate chandeliers. The tendrils in the Gen Art graphic below remind me of chandeliers. There is a lot going on in that graphic. The whole thing seems to be exploding. I like the tendrils. I never noticed it before, but chandeliers also look like waterfalls.

Don't forget to vote at the Gen Art site! See previous post. Vote for emerging young talents in Film, Fashion, Music and Art.

Mangos dazzling red decor

a closeup of the fascinating ceiling

I was dazzled by the decor at Mangos as we sipped our cafe con leche and sampled a flaky Colombian-style pastry filled with cheese and guava paste. It was a heady kind of dazzle. The kind I feel when we find something totally new. My husband and I chatted in between the roars of the 7 Train overhead. Right overhead. Mangos Bakery Steakhouse Bar is nestled under the elevated 7 Train on Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens. If you have ever seen a film by Wong Kar Wai (Chungking Express, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love), you would be charmed by this spot. Urban, sleek and rather exotic, with great music.

In addition to the pretty spectacular array of chocolate desserts and French-style tartes, Mangos makes a tasty pandebono. I cannot describe the deliciousness of the pandebono in words. You simply must taste this cheese bread, at times shaped like a giant gumdrop, at other times shaped like a doughnut, made from corn and yucca flours. Make Mangos a must when you visit this fantastic food neighborhood that is jam-packed with restaurants, eateries, small groceries, and food carts from Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina and Mexico.

Mangos
Bakery.Steakhouse.Bar
78-14 Roosevelt Avenue
Jackson Heights, Queens
718.639.3005
E,F,R,V,7 to Roosevelt Avenue

I am sure Mangos is heaven for steak lovers.
If I ate steak, I'm sure I would love their Churrasco.

This post is featured on About.com for March 22, 2007







And also featured on The Girl Who Ate Everything
for April 4, 2008