Photo by Bette Kerr at 72nd street and West End Avenue.
March 14, 2016 Weather: Rain showers, with a high of 46 degrees.
Notices:
Free meditation, jazz, dance and other concerts are among the awesome local events on our calendar.
Among this week’s events: another public talk sponsored by CEC3, the Upper West Side’s school board, to allow parents to learn about controlled choice and other methods to reduce overcrowding and segregation at Upper West Side public schools. At PS 87 on Tuesday night starting at 6:30.
And parents looking for help for your kids, don’t miss a tutor fair on Wednesday night at PS 191.
Mark your calendar: a meeting to review the scope of an environmental review of the Museum of Natural History’s expansion plans is set for 6:30m p.m. on April 6 at the American Museum of Natural History, Lefrak Theater. Enter on Columbus Avenue at West 79th Street. Read the Environmental Assessment Statement, Positive Declaration, Scoping Notice, and Draft Scope Work, on the city parks website here.
Looking for work? Check out some seasonal jobs available with the parks department.
News:
Felice Cohen, who famously lived in a micro-apartment on 70th street and Columbus, has written a book about the experience. “Her e-book, ’90 Lessons for Living Large in 90 Square Feet (. . . or More),’ is due out next week…Cohen said she had a panic attack her first night in the micro-unit but ended up enjoying the loft bed, which was so close to the ceiling that she couldn’t sit up. Still, it became her safe haven.” Check out the video about her apartment here.
Han Dynasty on 85th street got a nice write-up in the New Yorker, which included this amusing tidbit: “there are two barriers to Han Dynasty’s success uptown. First, its Web address, www.handynasty.net, can be a special problem for anyone trying to order delivery online (it has run into trouble with some porn filters). Second, it’s not clear that the Italian chain restaurant which previously occupied the space failed because of bad food—the vast dining room is genuinely hard to fill.”
Questionnaires unearthed by ProPublica provide a window into the complicated world of rent regulations.
Someone defaced the Banksy graffiti on 79th and Broadway. Dude!
An addition to the W 79th Street #banksy #banksy20 … pic.twitter.com/FW2TCScNYC
— Sonia Moghe (@soniamoghe) March 14, 2016
Someone defaced graffiti??
The whole love affair with Banksy is completely overrated and I’m always surprised when I read or hear of people buying in to it.
Another problem with Han Dynasty, and the one which has led us to shy away from it, is the artificial difficulty in getting a seat — despite the fact that it is always half empty (or only half full, if you prefer).
If you walk in off the street, they will not seat you if you do not have a reservation, again despite the availability of many tables.
And if you call to beg for a reservation before walking over, you are told that reservations must be made two hours in advance. Huh?
So, in our experience — and this has happened several times — you can’t just walk in, and you can’t make a reservation shortly before dinner time. Unless you have decided well in advance to make the place an exalted destination, therefore, no HandyNasty for you!
We *were* lucky a couple of times and seated at one of the many empty tables without a reservation, though it was made *quite* clear to us that heaven and earth were being parted to allow such an unheard-of thing. We’ve been turned away more often than not, including by telephone. The food’s good and service nice but all that’s irrelevant if they refuse to seat you because of their posturing rules.
They really should get realistic and take walk-ins (or short-term reservations) or they’re not going to fill tables. And if they don’t fill tables, well, they’ll just follow all the other places that have filled that cavernous space for a short time.
Han Dynasty is a perfect example of the absolute necessity for a hyphen in some web addresses!!!!! if it was Han-Dynasty.com it would be fine. But I read Handy Nasty. How did they not see that???
Han Dynasty is grossly overrated in my opinion. My expetience has been it is too oily and salty. As far as the ridiculous reservation- walk in policy, they should seat everyone who walks in. It is rately full as was the case w all the predecessors. It was otiginally the grand ballroom of the former hotel in which it is housed back in the day. Lack of visibility to and from the street has been another problem, the food has always been decent.
Why can’t they list themselves on delivery.com or Seamless/GrubHub, like most restaurants? No, they use some obscure one that links from their website. Combine that with the reservation policy (maybe they should list on Open Table?) and I don’t eat Han Dynasty as often as I would like. They make it too inconvenient.
They added to the graffiti, I like the addition. Let’s hope Zabar’s isn’t butthurt with their double standards and paint over this while letting the Banksy exist behind plexiglass. If you’re going to let them paint on the walls, let them. Don’t discriminate between “Street art” and graffiti.
I had to stare at the url for Han Dynasty for almost 5 minutes before it clicked. Then I couldn’t stop laughing for another 5 minutes, maybe more! I love the place and go there often, but it is truly ginormous and I wonder how they manage the rent.
I love Han Dynasty. IMO it’s the best Chinese restaurant on the UWS.
I’ve eaten there a few times. Some of the dishes are surprisingly mediocre but the ither dishes are insanely delicious.
I love Han Dynasty. IMO it’s the best Chinese restaurant on the UWS.
I’ve eaten there a few times. Some of the dishes are surprisingly mediocre but the other dishes are insanely delicious.
I won’t set foot in there after reading the NY Times’ review oh Han, which mentioned excessive amounts of MSG in their food. No thank you!
Is not Ms. Cohen’s apartment illegal? There is still a law that does not allow apartments to be under 400 sq ft.
Love Han Dynasty. The oiliness and saltiness are part of the authenticity, if you don’t like it, Szechuan food probably isn’t for you. No steamed-chicken-and-vegetables-sauce-on-the-side here!
I have been a (very) few times, never had a problem being seated immediately. Last time I was there (weekend lunch) the place was mostly full.
We love Han Dynasty, but agree with all the comments– and hope they see these — that they make it way too hard to order online and/or make reservations. Why no opentable or easy access on their website? Why no seamless or grubhub ordering? I hate when neighborhood restaurants fail, but some of the wounds in this case would be self-inflicted.
No Seamless?
No order.
I don’t like the addition to the banksia picture, and it if were my building, I’d clean off the addition. It’s private property; they can keep or delete as they wish. It is a matter of taste, but the addition looks sloppy and ugly to me and I would not keep it.
I’ve never had a problem walking into Han Dynasty without a reservation. Granted, I tend to go on the later side, after seeing a movie at the AMC around the corner. Is it just during prime dinner time that they’re weird about the reservations/walk-ins? I do wish they’d get on Seamless and Open Table.
han dynasty needs to suck it up and go on seamless. First of all, their website just sucks. second of all, you have to create an account to order. I don’t want to do a whole signup thing for one restaurant. They use some kind of bizarre secondary company. It’s easier to just call.
I order most of my takeout on my phone through the seamless app. If I really like a place that is not on there, I will just call, but I hate doing this.
The prices at Han dynasty are certainly no bargain, so I can’t really take a complaint about having to pay a percentage of money to seamless seriously. They are losing a lot of business
No one commented on the cat photo? I love it.
Handy Nasty as we also call it in our house – has earned that name. The food is disgusting, bland, overcooked and greasy.
They service is terrible. Besides the inevitable wait time, the servers are incompetent and the owner is creepy.
And not to mention the last time we ate there there was a giant cockroach running across the floor from the banquette! The waiter smashed it with his food and the sound of the crunch killed my appetite.
“The waiter smashed it with his food and the sound of the crunch killed my appetite.”
You think you had it bad? Just imagine the poor soul(s) whose food it was that the waiter crunched the roach with!