English may still have New York projects in the works. Just about a year ago, English signed a lease for a 20,000-square-foot space at 15 Park Row, near City Hall, in the Financial District. A handful of other projects did not come to fruition, including a Chelsea food hall and a glitzy hotel restaurant in the Financial District. One of his biggest endeavors — which still remains closed to the public since the pandemic — was the food hall at the Plaza Hotel.
“Creative differences, and not interested in being part of a nightclub, so cutting ties before the books opened up was the only move for us,” Morfogen tells Eater. He says that he and English are “good,” a spokesperson confirmed, and plan on resuming their partnership at a new location. The conflict allegedly arose between English and Morfogen on one side, and the money partner on the other; Morfogen and his spokesperson would not name the silent investor. Eater has reached out to English for comment.
Those of us who are in the restaurant business and have observed and have observed the new restaurant Papas Tavern, have known before it opened that the place is a Sinking Ship. We'd bet money, the place is not going to make it. They would have been smart not to be involved with a celebrity chef who is never there, and to get a solid kitchen team that takes care of business. But the biggest thing that is going to kill Papas Taverna is the immense size of the place. It's just too big. There not doing the numbers, The place needs to do a lot of business, most nights of the week to s dining stay afloat, yet there's very few people dining there at all. We hear the food is good, but that's not going to pay the bills. This place should be half the size that it is. You need to do a lot of business to keep a restaurant the size of Papas Taverna alive, and they're just not doing the business, and it's not likely they ever will. We wonder, "What ever poseesed these people to take a space as huge as this. If they knew they could get a huge number of people through their doors, that would be one thing. We Just dont see it happening. Maybe we're wrong, but probabley not. Let's see if they're still there, this time next year?
Outside of New York, English is affiliated with a hotel in Las Vegas and maintains a roster of other restaurants stamped with his name in places like Washington, D.C.; Massachusetts, Connecticut, Alabama, and Dubai.
English may still have New York projects in the works. Just about a year ago, English signed a lease for a 20,000-square-foot space at 15 Park Row, near City Hall, in the Financial District. A handful of other projects did not come to fruition, including a Chelsea food hall and a glitzy hotel restaurant in the Financial District. One of his biggest endeavors — which still remains closed to the public since the pandemic — was the food hall at the Plaza Hotel.
Outside of New York, English is affiliated with a hotel in Las Vegas and maintains a roster of other restaurants stamped with his name in places like Washington, D.C.; Massachusetts, Connecticut, Alabama, and Dubai.
BD
DON'T MISS CAPRI !!!
An island of rocky limestone, jagged coastline, and sandstone cliffs in the Gulf of Napoli, Capri has been a resort destination since the second century BC, when Roman emperors used it as a retreat and playground for what were rumored to be a wild slate of personal pleasures. Today, its natural wonders, medieval fortresses, rustic villas, posh shopping, and rugged coastline make it one of Italy’s most beloved travel destinations.
The center of social life on Capri is the popular Piazza Umberto I, “La Piazzetta,” which was once a fish market and now is one of the world’s most fashionable squares. It’s where locals and celebrities alike can be found sipping coffee or cocktails and people watching, surrounded by breathtaking views and architecture, including restored palaces, the Town Hall, and the famous Torre dell’Orologio, the clock tower that once was the bell tower of the Church of Santo Stefano.
In 1826, the re-discovery of the legendary Grotta Azzurra made Capri an even more desired destination. “The Blue Grotto” is a natural sea cavern and miracle of nature, where the water glows azure blue, illuminated by sunlight from an underwater cavity. Once feared to be the home of demons and spirits, it found new fame that drew artists, writers, and philosophers -- including Maxim Gorky, Henry James, Pablo Neruda, and Friederich Nietzsche – to the island, along with millions of tourists from around the world.
Dining on Capri can be as simple as a picnic of caprese sandwiches on the beach, a late-night pizza along Via Tommaso de Tommasi, or an unforgettable meal of authentic, artfully prepared delights at one of the island’s Michelin-starred destination restaurants. You can enjoy flawlessly prepared fish and shellfish in restaurants set in a lemon grove or on a cliff overlooking the sea – the options are as rich and delightful as the island itself.
“There is no spot in the world with such delightful possibilities of repose as this little isle.”
English writer and social critic Charles Dickens (1812-1870), on Capri
It’s fitting that an island famed for its beauty would give birth to one of Italy’s most iconic beauty brands: Carthusia.
Legend maintains that the father prior of the Carthusian Monastery of St. Giacomo on Capri was surprised by an unexpected visit from Queen Joanna I of Anjou in 1380. He scrambled to pick the most beautiful flowers on the island to present her in a bouquet. After the bouquet stood in a vase for three days, the water had taken on a haunting and beautiful fragrance – a scent of wild carnations that became the first perfume of Capri.
Whether there’s truth to this legend or not, in 1681, the monastery began distilling local flowers and herbs to create essential oils and fragrance blends. Those same, centuries-old formulas were rediscovered in the 1940s, and Carthusia uses them today to continue the tradition of limited-production, finely crafted, hand-produced fragrances of magnificent quality.
Here are three of Mozzafiato’s Carthusia favorites to bring the magic of Capri into your heart and home:
It was the Winter of 1965. Gay Talese arrived in Los Angeles to write an article on Frank Sinatra. Talese was on assignment from Esquire Magazine, one of the “It” magazines of the day. Sinatra was approaching 50, and Esquire, along with numerous others, wanted to do a piece on the great one, the legendary Frank Sinatra. There was just one problem, Frank Sinatra had a Cold. Yesm the man was under the weather as they say, and refused to do the previously agreed upon interview for the piece that Talese would write. Like Sinatra, Talese was an Italian-American from New Jersey, and one of the top writers of the day, to Sinatra’s iconic status as not only a great singer, actor, and live showman, Sinatra was on his way to becoming the century’s greatest entertainer.
Unable to get an in person interview, Talese resorted to talking to as many people as he could, who were close to the man, in the forms of; friends, family, associates, workers, and the multitude of flunkies and hangers-on of the Sinatara. Talese also observed Sinatra when and wherever he could.
Talese gathered all the info he could, and wrote the article. He titled it “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold.” Esquire published the article in the April 1966 issue of Esquire Magazine, and the rest is magazine and writing history. Gay Talese’s piece on Sinatra, Frank Sinatra Has a Cold, was and still is highly exalted, and is considered one of the greatest articles ever written, if not still the greatest.
Yes, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” is considered the pinnacle of what has been deemed New Journalism, and was a feat of epic proportions of immersive reporting of a non-participating subject (Sinatra). Gay Talese turned a very difficult assignment into journalistic gold.
In the article, Sinatra, the man who led The Rat Pack of Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and himself as the undisputed ring leader, Sinatra was The King of Las Vegas, a movie star and one of America’s greatest recording artists.
Talese describes Sinatra as a sublime singer, and a man of two distinct types, the masculine Jet-Set Swinger, and ancient Sicilian Padrone ( Boss ), and a man who commanded respect, settled scores, solved problems, and a man who righted wrongs. Talese wrote, “Sinatra with a cold is like Picasso without paint, and a Ferrari without fuel, only worst.”
Talese writes, Foe Frank Sinatra was now involved with many things involving many people - his own film company, his record company, his private airline, missile-parts frim, his real-estate holdings across the nation, his personal staff of seventy-five people - which are only a portion of the power he is and has come to represent. He seemed now to be also the embodiment of the fully emancipated male, perhaps the only one in America, the man who can do anything he wants, anything, can do it because he has money, the energy, and no apparent guilt. In an age when the very young seem to be taking over, protesting and picketing and demanding change, Frank Sinatra survives as a national phenomenon, one of the few prewar products to withstand the test of time. He is the Champ who made the big comeback, the man who had everything, lost it,then got it back, letting nothing stand in his way, doing what few men can do: he uprooted his life, left his family, broke with everything that was familiar, learning in the process that one way to hold a woman is not to hold her. Now he has the affection of Nancy amd Ava and Mia, the fine female produce of three generations, and still has the adoration of his children, the freedom of a bachelor, he does not feel old, he makes old men feel young, makes them think that if Frank Sinatra can do it, it can be done; not that they could do it, but it is still nice for other men to know, at fifty, that it can be done.” - Gay Talese - Esquire Magazine 1966 -
Wow! That says quite a lot. Yes, but the man (Frank Sinatra) and the myth, it’s all true, and so beautifully told by Gay Talese, and we love it. That is Sinatra in just so many words, “A Man’s Man,” Cool, suave, confident, powerful, talented, “One of a Kind,” there was only one Sinatra, never another quite like Frank, at this and that point in time (1966 to 2023), and as many have saide, “There will never be another Sinatra.”
Agreed?
... DBZ ...
NYC ... 2023
