Monday, July 22, 2024
Cloudy. High 83 degrees.
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Upper West Side News
By Gus Saltonstall
A parrot with a knack for hurling curse words out of his beak escaped from his Upper West Side apartment earlier this month, as first reported by the New York Post.
Goo-Goo, who is a three-year-old Congo African Grey parrot, flew out of a back porch on West 76th Street during the second week of July.
Connie, the bird’s owner, quickly put up signs in the surrounding area, that promised both a $500 award, and an explanation of one of the bird’s favorite words.
“Baba A**hole.”
The owner told the Post that the bird picked the word up from her parents, as Baba means “dad” in Chinese, and that her mom would call her father the phrase.
Thankfully, Goo-Goo survived the unexpected trip. The parrot was found by a housekeeper within a neighbor’s home, according to the Post.
You can read the full story — HERE.
The popular Arthouse Hotel on the Upper West Side just received a major chunk of funding, as first reported by Commercial Observer.
Current owners of Arthouse Hotel at 222 West 77th Street, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation, recently secured a $85 million loan to refinance the boutique hotel. The funding was provided by Citi Real Estate Funding and will be dished out over the course of five years, Commercial Observer added.
Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation purchased the Upper West Side hotel in 2016 for $140 million, which was then named Nylo New York City Hotel. That purchase price came out at the time to around $500,000 per room.
You can find out more — HERE.
An Upper West Side woman was arrested last week on charges of acting as a foreign agent for South Korea, the United States Attorney General announced on Wednesday.
Former CIA agent Sue Mi Terry provided South Korean intelligence officers with access and information in return for luxury goods and funding, according to the United States District Attorney.
“As alleged, Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA and White House employee, subverted foreign agent registration laws in order to provide South Korean intelligence officers with access, information, and advocacy,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams wrote in a news release. “Terry allegedly sold out her positions and influence to the South Korean government in return for luxury handbags, expensive meals, and thousands of dollars of funding for her public policy program.”
The New York Post attempted to speak to Terry outside of her Upper West Side apartment on Thursday morning, where she denied to the publication that she was a foreign agent. She is married to Max Boot, a national security columnist for the Washington Post.
The Upper West Side recently got recognition for a stretch of Chinese restaurants in the northern part of the neighborhood.
Eater New York’s recent — “The Booming Chinese Restaurant Corridor of the Upper West Side” — explains why the area “has become a landing for many next-gen Chinese restaurants.”
The highlighted stretch of blocks goes from 98th to 113th streets and features 12 Chinese restaurants.
- Atlas Kitchen: 258 West 109th Street
- 108 Food: 2794 Broadway at 108th Street
- Happy Hot Hunan: 969 Amsterdam Avenue, near 107th Street
- Szechuan Garden: 239 105th Street
- Moon Ke: 2642 Broadway, near 100th Street
- Mala Town: 929 Amsterdam Avenue, near 106th Street
- Ollie’s Noodle Shop: 2705 Broadway, near 103rd Street
- La Salle Dumpling Room: 2897 Broadway at 113th Street
- Nan Xiang Express: 2783 Broadway, near 107th Street
- Dim Sum Bloom: 2596 Broadway at 98th Street
- Tea Magic: 2878 Broadway, near 112th Street
- Gong Cha: 2810 Broadway, near 109th Street
“The proximity of Columbia University, with its diverse population, could be one reason the neighborhood is seeing such a collection of restaurants, period,” Eater NY wrote. “However, the Upper West Side neighborhood has always been known for its Chinese restaurants. Beginning around 1970, it was the site of some of the city’s earliest Sichuan spots, as well as Cuban-Chinese places during the same era.”
You can read more about the specific restaurants — HERE.
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The UWS and Morningside Heights desperately need some hotels.
They’ve been turned into shelters
New hotels have been made essentially illegal. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/27/nyregion/hotels-tourism-new-york-covid.html
2 corrections to the Eater list. LaSalle Dumpling at 113 is actually Wu & Nussbaum (an outpost of LaSalle), and Dun Huang on Amsterdam was omitted. Otherwise good list.
Glad my faves didn’t make the list. “Those who say don’t know, and those who know don’t say.” But I guarantee you that foul-beaked parrot knows more about area restaurants than Eater does.
Eater missed 3 Times, on the west side of Amsterdam between 108/107. Only a few tables, with no alcohol and not even ice for the water — i.e. mainly take out — but seriously some of the best Chinese food in this neighborhood, and I’ve lived here 30 years. Don’t miss their wontons in chili oil, or the “scallion pancake wrapped with post-stewed beef,” or their sauteed eggplant with garlic and chili sauce. Was just there for dinner last night.