By Claudie Benjamin Sam Belanger started out in NYC as a singer/actor, supporting himself by waiting tables. After years of success touring on the road and leaving NYC for Regional Theater work, he moved on to restaurant management full-time, opting for a more...
By Claudie Benjamin Serving up 20+ fresh, delicious vegetables daily is a challenge that makes Jay Strauss proud. A recent menu, for example, offered a choice of market vegetables that included artichoke hearts with parmesan; asparagus with...
By Claudie Benjamin “I love my building,” photographer Barbara Ehlers said recently, “I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.” She and her husband, Stephen Frizell, have been living on the Upper West Side for many years, always in...
By Claudie Benjamin No, not muffins, which love them or leave ‘em, are actually cake. Ashley Jaffe, co-founder with her husband, Zach Israel, of their newest venture, Slate Cafe, has a well-developed “modern” point of view about breakfasts with a...
By Claudie Benjamin When you think about how many people live on an Upper West Side block, that’s an awful lot of clothes, bedding, rugs and sometimes even furs that need to be cleaned. Rene Digal has been store manager since 2006 of the Oxford Cleaners...
By Claudie Benjamin Gregg Boisjolie, Manager of Olde Good Things at 2420 Broadway, surely knows his stuff. In conversation, he transitions fluidly from the details of one anecdote related to a notable New York City artifact to another. For example,...
