Soho manhattan

Zouheir Louhaichy, the head maître d’ at Balthazar , the perennially popular SoHo brasserie, doesn’t give just any customer his cell number. Those who have it, though, are not shy about reaching out on Sundays, his day off. “I’ll get texts from regulars who are either desperate to get in on short notice or need help with future requests,” he said. But apparently, he doesn’t mind. “Our regulars are nice, lovely people. And it makes them feel appreciated.” Mr. Louhaichy, 58, also the assistant general manager of Balthazar, lives in Manhattan’s Financial District with his husky, Skyler. His mother, Fatna Sougrati, 76, often stays with him, and his two daughters — Zina Louhaichy, 19, and Leila Louhaichy, 24 — will drop by. Between returning regulars’ texts on Sundays, he trains for triathlons. ALOHA I wake up between 7:30 and 8 a.m., and I make a cappuccino. I love Hawaiian coffee because the beans are sort of a connection to Hawaii, which I love. I go there for triathlons, which … [Read more...] about How a Maitre d’ at Balthazar Spends His Sundays

It wasn’t where you would expect to find the composer Julia Wolfe shopping for musical instruments. The store she walked into one morning this fall, Steinlauf & Stoller , is one of New York’s garment district survivors. It’s a family business that has supplied the sewing industry since 1947 with pins and needles, buttons and snaps, threads and ribbons, and tools of the trade. Including Ms. Wolfe’s object that day: scissors. “The big thing is the sound,” she explained to the store’s manager, Sid Schwarzenberger. “I’m not really looking for how they cut.” Ms. Wolfe was in the market for scissors to be wielded by the women of the chorus in her new oratorio, “Fire in my mouth.” The work, which will be given its premiere on Thursday by the New York Philharmonic, explores the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire of 1911, which killed 146 garment workers, mostly immigrant women, including many who were trapped by locked exit doors. Their deaths helped change the way New York … [Read more...] about Arming a Chorus of Women With Scissors

See the article in its original context from December 21, 1990 Section Page Buy Reprints View on timesmachine TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. To the innocent eye, there would seem to be something drastically wrong with the five large-scale photographs by Rodney Graham on display at the Christine Burgin Gallery. Each imposing image depicts a single tree standing in splendid isolation in a field of grass. But the grass is at the top of the pictures, and the trees are upside down. Fear not. Mr. Graham, an artist from … [Read more...] about Review/Photography; When Upside Down Is Right Side Up

IT was a police operation worthy of prime-time TV. A half-dozen officers armed with search warrants stormed into a six-bedroom house on Laura Court in the Southampton, N.Y., hamlet of East Quogue at 6 a.m. on a Sunday last August. The 30 or so people inside, all in their 20's or 30's, were rousted from mattresses strewn throughout the house. According to people who were there, bleary-eyed young men stumbled out onto the front lawn and winced in the daylight. First the Conscience Point Inn, a favorite eastern Long Island reveling spot, is shuttered, and now this. The long tradition of dozens of young people crowding into a Hamptons house for a summer of wild abandon is under attack. A rush of activity last year in East Quogue -- neighborhood spying, morning police raids and, perhaps most effective, authorities' use of a television documentary by Barbara Kopple to identify offenders -- has led to a crackdown on Hamptons share houses this year. The Town Board of Southampton, which … [Read more...] about HAVENS; Is the Party Over For Summer Shares In the Hamptons?

Grace Palumbo, a kindergarten teacher in Denver, has one goal right now: to get access to a beach house. “A Hamptons house is one of the things I am manifesting, but I’m not picky,” said Ms. Palumbo, 26. “It can be Cape Cod, Long Beach Island, Jersey Shore.” Neither she nor her family owns this type of real estate, so she is actively seeking a solution. When she scrolls through men on dating apps, mostly Hinge, she searches for signs of summer homes. “Like, if they have a beach in the background or their hometown is the Hamptons or Long Island, that is something I take note of,” she said, laughing. “I also half-jokingly ask them where they are summering.” She believes in putting her desires into the universe (and in newspapers). “I’m writing in my journal every day that I want a beach house, and I’m also telling as many people as possible,” she said. “This is how things happen.” She’s making progress: “I haven’t found anyone with Hampton houses yet, but I have found … [Read more...] about Is That a Summer House I See? I’ve Missed You, We Should Catch Up.

Bar Sardine , a cozy bistro in Manhattan’s West Village, has been Maggie Kennelly’s go-to spot since she moved to New York three years ago. It’s where she introduced her boyfriend to her father for the first time. It’s where she and her friends always went for Sunday brunch, sitting at “the sunny booth” by the large windows. One day, while waiting for a table, she was able to take a peek at the host’s tablet, where there were some notes about her in the reservation system. “It said, ‘She’s very friendly, she likes hugs, her boyfriend lives in Chicago, and she’s trying to get him to move,’” she recalled, laughing. “I guess I’m a regular.” Last week, Maggie Kennelly had her final meal at Bar Sardine. The restaurant announced that it would be closing at the end of August. She ordered the usual: a Fedora burger and fries. One of the waiters brought over Champagne to mark the occasion. For over two hours that night, she and her boyfriend savored their last dinner at Sardine. … [Read more...] about Final Meals at Closing Restaurants: ‘I Will Dream of Those Dumplings’