Mobissimo

A news Subway Sandwiches has been erected on the top of the World Trade Center construction area for the workers.

The restaurant, a Subway franchise, opened its door on Wednesday at the top of the steel honeycomb that forms 1 World Trade Center, the skyscraper rising at ground zero. The building will be the city’s tallest when finished in 2013, and the sandwich shop, currently sitting on the 27th floor, will rise along with it.

The shop was built by DCM Erectors, the same company that is putting up the 46,074 tons of steel girders and beams that will be lifted, bolted and welded into place at the 105-story skyscraper. The sandwich shop is one of four movable “pods” on hydraulic legs sitting on either side of two tower cranes; the other pods house offices, a shanty where workers can change clothes, and bathrooms for men and women. The bathrooms alone were considered a breakthrough for workers who previously had used bottles and slop buckets.

Surfing in New York is common, Far Rockaway, Montauk, but the Hudson?  Now it's possible.

Whether you're a beginner or a professional, you demand the same thing from your equipment: quality, performance, dependability and value. No matter what you do, no matter where you do it, Naish equipment will give you more confidence on the water. Naish stand up paddle boards - now available at New York Kayak Company!

Croatia has been the new darling of sun seekers for the summer.  A long known secret to many, the masses have descended en masse and have made the Adriatic rather busy.  However not all is lost, check out this condensed guide for Dubrovnik - a must see.

Sitting proudly on the calm blue waters of the Adriatic, Dubrovnik is one of the world's most magnificent fortified cities. Today a UNESCO world heritage site and Croatia's most upmarket destination, it was once the capital of the wealthy seafaring Republic of Ragusa (1358-1808). During its Golden Age in the 16th century, it had one of the largest merchant naval fleets in the world, with consulates in over 50 foreign ports.

Without a doubt, a hotel room in New York is expensive, even the YMCA is 120 a night.  So what to do?  Stay in Jersey?  Sleep in the airport?  Here is a solution, while not super cheap, a break from the median price of $500 for a hotel room.  Read more here via USA Today.

Welcome news for those seeking a nice room in pricey Manhattan at rates that aren’t as high as a
skyscraper:

A former Quality Inn just off Times Square has been transformed into the hipper Stay. (the period is
part of the name.)

Rooms at this new boutique hotel aren’t spacious, but start at $240 a night, before taxes. That’s below the Manhattan average of about $300. Rates are due to be as low as $190 in January, typically a slower time in busy Manhattan.

Without a doubt, New York City can be expensive.  While many things are less expensive than London, for example subway tickets, many things are much more expensive, like a good meal.  Here are 10 things to do in New York for free via the Guardian.  Check out number one, a personal fav, free booze.

There's never been a better time to visit New York. Obvious, really - the dollar is in a bad way. But the Big Apple also happens to be one of the freebie capitals of the world … free food in bars, people showing you around for nothing, and there's even booze on the house if you know where to look. Most of these freebies are online for us all to share.

So, New York is full of really, really good looking people.  Fashion capital of the world?  Well, dunno if I'd go that far, but the banners around town seem to be trying to push this.  But then again, that would mean - from the banners - that New York is the finance capital, the culture capital, the culinary capital ...  Here's something via NY Magazine about a certain marketing campaign aimed squarely at vanity.

Have you met 9-a yet? Tousle-haired, drives a black BMW, does Vinyasa on the roof every morning? Never got his name—Stefan, maybe? Works in hedge funds. He has this killer apartment in District, that new building on Ann Street. Thursdays, he has his buddies over for single malts in the billiards room. Shops at Prada, spends Saturdays gallery-hopping in Chelsea. Dinners at the Spotted Pig, nightcaps at the Bowery Hotel. He’d be a catch if he were ready to settle down.

So the airline woes continue, Aloha, ATA, Skybus, perhaps the lowcost model doesn't work as well in the states where distances are long and fuel prices high, just my take on it.  Go old school, take a bus.  For $3 roundtrip, plus wifi (sort of, read below), and multiple pick up sites, can't be that bad, or is it?  A little more here via Budget Travel.

BoltBus, a new discount express service operated by Greyhound, launched yesterday, and I took one of the first trips on the NYC to DC route. (Routes to Boston and Philly are in the offing.)

Starting prices are $3 round trip, after fees and taxes. (The first bunch of seats sell at this low rate. Last-minute bookings cost more. See prices at boltbus.com.)

NYC.  Full of celebrities packed onto one small island, well probably even one small area that being Greenwich, West Village, and Soho.  Yep, I myself am more of a west sider, hanging out with Lebron at the Waverly, Gisele at Duvet, Kanye and the Mercer, I am right in the thick of it.  Well, actually these people were all in the US Weekly I was reading at the time.  So how to get in?  You still getting the auto-message from the subMercer?  Tim and the Beatrice Inn still not letting you through?  Here's a great article about what a high-profile establishment means.

I was walking around the Village when I stumbled upon the Beatrice Inn. It's been there since 1926. I've passed it before, but never went inside. I took a couple pictures and made a note to go back for dinner sometime. But after an eye-opening Google session, I realize that I won't be going back to the Beatrice Inn, because I seriously doubt the bouncers would allow me inside.

Yes, the Beatrice Inn has bouncers. It's exclusive. It's uber-hip. A celebrity hot spot. But long before Lindsay Lohan started going there to make out with hunky guys, it was a family business run by Elsie and Ubaldo Cardia, and then their children, Aldo and Vivian. It was a neighborhood place where regulars dined nightly. As for celebrities, Jane Jacobs ate there, but today she'd never make it past the proverbial velvet ropes--she was not very fashionable.

It's been a mild winter in NYC, not much snow, the random 60-70 degree day.  Does that mean this summer is going to be a squawker?  Perhaps.  Remeber when you're standing on that subway platform, beads of perspiration are rolling down your back, then you cram into a car with other as-such-sweatie people, usually that brick layer from Queens on the N, remember that you still look super cute and sexy in your little summer dress.  More here via New York mag online.

Alice + Olivia

80 W. 40th St., 212-840-0887

    You don’t have to traipse to Ludlow Street to rouse your wardrobe from its woolen winter slumber this year. Head to the improbably located new Alice + Olivia boutique on Bryant Park, where fashion’s current sixties revival has resulted in a colorful parade of sleeveless mod shift dresses and flirty pleated minidresses. At $240 to $350, they’re not cheap, but over jeans or a turtleneck, you can wear them into fall.

Hard to just on what constitutes art these days. One could argue Mapplethorpe, Hirst, even Basquiat, but still, beauty exists in the eye of the beholder. Enter graffiti, the scourge of public surfaces. Here's a map to the well known artists of NYC, I've seen a couple of these, kinda neato. More here via Gridskipper.

New York City's streets are home to a wide range of street artists, graff writers, or vandals, depending on what vernacular you prefer. For most New Yorkers it's easy to appreciate the more conventionally beautiful of the artists' work, while the murky and destructive world of the tagger is a seeming blight on the city.

New York is full of lonely people, perhaps more so than Los Angeles.  Instead of the little metal box of a car in LA, you get the slighter larger studio to confine your days and nights.  One cab driver seeks to correct this and has become a fairly successful matchmaker in the process, read more here.

A cab driver has been playing matchmaker for lonely New Yorkers who flag him down.

Ahmed Ibrahim, 53, claims to have set up more than 70 dates for customers during the past few years.

The cupid cab driver, as he refers to himself, insists 19 couples he helped get together had relationships that lasted more than a year.

Mr Ibrahim planned to decorate his yellow cab with red and white hearts and roses for Valentine's

In no way do we condone underage drinking, nor do we think that drinking is the definition of cool, this story from the New Yorker online suggests differently.  More here.

Today a Dartmouth student blog took a peek at the numbers of alcohol-related infractions per thousand students in each of the Ivy League schools. Unsurprisingly, Dartmouth itself came out on top. There's not a lot going on off-campus in terms of nightlife, and since the popular fraternities are in and around school grounds, it makes sense that the university would be busting people with high regularity.

New York is about many things, cocktails included.  I mean c'mon, the Manhattan is one of my favourites, simple and potent ... another classic New York drink is the Blue Hawaii ... teehee, I make joke.  Read more here via CitySearch about the best cocktails and where to get them.  By the way, Temple is great for happy hour, two for one drinks, the best vodka selection in NYC, and free hors d'ouvres, all in a very classy, speakeasy setting.

Forget the low-carb beer and go retro instead. From a classic martini to a timeless Manhattan, find the best 1950s-era cocktails in New York.

The ubiquitous food cart is seen on every corner in NYC. You've seen them, most likely you've smelled them, the long queues of people waiting for a greasy handful of mystery meat. Or a Sabrett's. Or a Poland Spring. Anyway, some of the food is actually pretty good, not just a 'I shouldn't have eaten that' snack before lunch. Here are some of NYC's best competing for the best Vendor Award.

You don't need reservations or deep pockets to chow down on some of the best food in New York City.

Any number of culinary wonders can be found from street-corner vendors, who serve up unexpected ethnic meals from tiny metal trailers on the cheap.

Is that a monkey under your hat or are you just glad to see me?  A passenger from Lima, Peru smuggled a small monkey into the United States:

 NEW YORK - A man smuggled a monkey onto an airplane Tuesday, stashing the furry fist-size primate under his hat until passengers spotted it perched on his ponytail, an airline official said.

The monkey escapade began in Lima, Peru, late Monday, when the man boarded a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said Spirit Airlines spokeswoman Alison Russell. After landing Tuesday morning, the man waited several hours before catching a connecting flight to LaGuardia Airport.

Brings a whole new meaning to Zoo York.  Zing!