By Carol Tannenhauser

April 4, 2022  Weather: Partly cloudy. High of 56 degrees.

Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events!

News
In March 2021, 18 concrete modernist sculptures known as the Nivola Horses — for the Italian artist Constantino Nivola who designed them in 1964 — disappeared from the plaza of the Stephen Wise Towers, a NYCHA complex on West 90th and 91st Streets between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. Only their dismembered hooves remained. It wasn’t vandalism, but ignorance on the part of a landscaping contractor, and, now, Curbed reports, after a “painstaking” restoration, “the horses are expected to be reinstalled in a refurbished plaza this fall….[with] new hooves and, potentially, new tails and noses too.”

Last year, “amid what he called ‘the blur’ of formless Covid days,” a former Wall Street Journal reporter walked from his home in Washington, D.C. to Central Park — “a ramble to the Ramble,” The New Yorker called it. This year, in search of more adventure, “he set his sights on…traversing what he calls the Seven Seas of Central Park, from north to south: the Harlem Meer; the Pool, west of the North Meadow; the reservoir; the Turtle Pond; the Lake; the Conservatory Water, with its model sailboats; and the Pond, across from the Plaza….”

Columbia Spectator recently did a round-up of women-owned restauarants in “MoHi.” For those behind the times on neighborhood nicknames, that’s “Morningside Heights” — except many of the restaurants they noted are technically on the Upper West Side, including Silver Moon Bakery, Ortomare, and Cafe du Soleil. You’ll recognize the names of others that are close enough by to easily expand your comfort zone, like Melba’s, Lolo’s Seafood Shack, and Massawa, the oldest African restaurant in New York City.

When Noah Jacob decided to open a Jewish Deli in Portland, Oregon, he prepared in the best way possible, according to Eater: “[He] took his team on his dream trip to New York: A five-day tour of New York’s iconic Jewish delis, bakeries, and restaurants. They ate bagels and bialys at Kossars, kishke and chopped liver at Katz, smoked fish at Barney Greengrass, knishes at Yonah Schimmel’s. And of course, they took the obligatory trip to Zabar’s, strolling the aisles of the famous Upper West Side market and bakery, peering in the deli cases and watching gloved men slice sable.”

Famed Violinist Itzhak Perlman and his wife, Toby, have listed their Manhattan townhouse for $17.5 million, according to VIOLINIST.com. “It’s a pretty hefty price tag, but it might not be much higher than the one on his 1714 “Soil” Stradivarius, were Perlman to sell his violin!” Don’t worry, the Perlmans are not leaving the neighborhood. “‘They raised their family here, but their kids are all grown up now and the house is just too big for two people,’” a friend told the New York Post. “’They adore the Upper West Side. It’s all about being close to Lincoln Center.’”

Finally, it’s official: Central Park “ranks as the single most popular filming location in the world,” according to Thrillist. “A new study from Giggster, a site that facilitates location booking for film sets, reveals that NYC’s own Central Park has appeared in 352 films. This makes it the number one filming destination in the world, outpacing Los Angeles’ Bronson Canyon…” And the study doesn’t even consider TV shows!

Sign up for WSR’s free newsletter here. It will deliver the latest Rag stories straight to your email inbox. Also, send your best photographs of the neighborhood and its inhabitants to info@westsiderag.com. They may end up illustrating Monday Bulletin!