After over a year and a half of near constant closures, restrictions, and other setbacks, New York City restaurants finally had a reason to celebrate this past week. NYC Restaurant Week has returned to the City, this time lasting for over a month (July 19th to August 22nd) to accommodate for the business lost during the pandemic.
Since its inaugural year back in 1992, Restaurant Week has grown into a tradition for locals, students, and other New Yorkers excited by the prospect of a quick, cheap, delicious meal.
Organized by the Mayor’s Office and hundreds of partnering restaurants, the celebration offers special $21, $39, and $125 menus that allow guests to sample new foods at a reasonable price.
“It’s extraordinary, the greatest restaurants in the world — an opportunity for you and me to go out there and experience them… even if you don’t have a lot of money, great, great, deals,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at the start of Restaurant Week last month. “We know the restaurant community went through so much during the pandemic, but people fought back. The restaurant owners, the employees, they fought back, they kept their businesses going, and now Restaurant Week is going to give them more customers, and a whole lot more energy.”
A total of 511 restaurants are featured throughout the five boroughs during Restaurant Week. However, only 47 of those are in Brooklyn. Queens has even less, with only 33 eateries featured throughout the month.
Our paper caught up with the owner of one of these lucky restaurants to discuss their experience.
“It [Restaurant Week] has turbo-charged everything,” explained Bart Hubbuch, owner of Prospect Heights Korean BBQ fusion joint Memphis Seoul (569 Lincoln Place). “It has been unbelievably, mind-bogglingly successful.”
Hubbuch continued: “I am from Texas originally, but I am so honored to feel at home here in New York. It’s a prestigious thing to be honored in Restaurant Week.”
Multiple North Brooklyn favorites are also featured this restaurant week, including Domino Park Taqueria Tacocina (25 River Street), Williamsburg Mexican Restaurant De Mole (2 Hope Street), and the original Junior’s Cheesecake location in Downtown Brooklyn (386 Flatbush Ave).
Sean McCloskey, General Manager at De Mole, praised the City for making Restaurant Week even more accessible this year.
“The nice feature this time with restaurant week is NYC & COMPANY has decided to waive the normal fee that is associated with participation in Restaurant Week,” McCloskey explained. “Doing so has allowed the small mom & pop restaurants to participate, where in prior years they wouldn’t due to the fee.”
He continued: “Restaurant Week has played a major role in bringing people to the restaurants after the pandemic, as the pandemic has taken a devastating toll on the restaurant & hospitality industry in NYC. This year one of the nicer features that NYC & COMPANY has added is the signa Menu, which has been a draw for our customers, hopefully it is something they will consider offering from here on.”
In addition to in-person dining, many featured restaurants are offering take-out options this restaurant week to accommodate those who are still wary of large crowds.

The Brooklyn DA’s Office last week asked a judge in Brooklyn Criminal Court to dismiss 3,578 pening marijuana cases.
The DA’s Office also asked Judge Keisha Espinal to vacate any relevant arrest warrants, judgments of conviction and guilty pleas related to those cases.
“For too long, criminalization of marijuana has disproportionately impacted young people and communities of color whose members made up about 90 percent of those arrested,” said District Attorney Eric Gonzalez during a virtual town hall announcing the request. “These arrests ruined the lives of thousands of people over the years, saddling many with criminal convictions that prevented them from pursuing opportunities in life.”
If the judge grants the request, only eight criminal cases involving marijuana would remain active, and all of them involve allegations of driving while under the influence of the drug.
The request by the DA’s Office comes after the state voted on legislation to legalize recreational marijuana earlier this year. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill in March.
Gonzalez’s predecessor Ken Thompson stopped prosecuting marijuana possession cases in 2014, and later stopped prosecuting most cases involving the use of marijuana.
“Since its passage, my office has moved to dismiss open cases,” said Gonzalez. “I asked the court to dismiss over 3,500 warrant cases that remained in the system, effectively clearing the Brooklyn docket from these vestiges of previous models of policing and prosecution.”

Since COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings have been widely lifted, (at least for the time being), baseball season is in full swing and ballparks nationwide are operating at 100% capacity. Mets fans are not just returning to Citi Field, they are also hitting the road to support their team at away games.
Though traveling to see your favorite team is nothing new for baseball diehards, The 7 Line, a supporter group and Mets-centric clothing brand created in 2009, hosts a unique experience for fans traveling to support the team. The 7 Line, which acquired an official MLB license to produce merchandise in 2014 and has a kiosk at Citi Field, creates a unique ticket package that includes a t-shirt and a “special event” patch for each road game they attend as a group.
“We travel around and hit different ballparks, last year it wasn’t a thing, but now we’re back to full-strength trying to give our guys that home field advantage when they’re on the road,” said Darren Meenan, the owner and creator of The 7 Line. “We had about 1400 fans in Pittsburgh and we’re going to Philly in a couple of weeks with almost 900, and to Boston with 1400 people in September.”
On The 7 Line’s most recent road trip, to see a three-game set with the Pittsburgh Pirates from July 8-11, a total of 1409 fans converged on the “Steel City.”
“Our Taproom is located a little over a mile from PNC Park. I’m originally from Queens and a lifelong Mets fan,” said Adam Bey, owner of Pittsburgh’s 412 Brewery. “It was great having members of The 7 Line Army stop in before the games on Friday and Saturday, seeing a flood of Mets gear at PNC, and the loud cheers for the Mets, even if they did drop two of three games to the Pirates.”
The 7 Line began hosting group outings at Citi Field in 2012 and organizing road trips in 2013. Since then, they have visited almost every National League ballpark to support their beloved Amazin’s, bringing droves of Queens-based Mets fans with them. Meehan says “The 7 Line Army will check the final NL stadium off of their bucket list on August 21st when they visit Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where he’s already expecting a group in excess of 1,000.
Woodside resident, Angel Livreri, said her family loved traveling to Pittsburgh to watch the game with The 7 Line.
“My wife and I have been to Philly to see the Mets at away games but this was our first trip with The 7 Line,” Livreri said. “It’s a great excuse to get out to see a different area and stadium as a family and The 7 Line brings such excitement to the game, there’s really not much else like it.”
Livreri, an NYPD Sergeant, and her wife, Elia Cortes-Livreri, brought along their 4-year-old daughter, Leni Livreri.
“Leni absolutely loved it and we had an amazing time as a family. We’re thinking of going to see the Mets play in Boston with The 7 Line,” Livreri said. “It’s a great experience to bring kids with you. She had so many people stop and talk to her and they were genuinely happy to see her cheering on the Mets.”
Anthony Giordano, a Howard Beach native, and his wife Patrizia, were with The 7 Line Army for their Spring Training Outing in Port St. Lucie, Florida, in 2017. They decided to leave their kids home.
“There was lots of heavy drinking. They serve these rum buckets at the stadium (in Port St. Lucie,) and if I remember correctly there were over 350 of those buckets tied to the outfield fence after all was said and done,” Giordano said. “It was the first time The 7 Line went to Spring Training. I hear that the line of empty buckets of rum has gotten even longer now.”
Other Mets fans are finding their own path to road games.
Kathleen LaVeglia of Middle Village said she and her boyfriend attended the series in Pittsburgh without knowing The 7 Line Army would be in town. LaVeglia saw all three of the games of the series, using the between time to check out the city.
“We got to see a lot of Pittsburgh, had sandwiches at Primanti Brothers, took the Duquesne Incline to Mount Washington, and went to Southern Tier Brewery after the games,” LaVeglia said. “It’s cool that the Roberto Clemente Bridge into PNC Park and the streets around the stadium are closed to vehicular traffic. There was face painting and balloon twisting for kids, outdoor bars, and live music. I wish we had that at Citi.”

Bucks crowned NBA champions

The Milwaukee Bucks won their first NBA championship since 1971 last week, defeating the Phoenix Suns in six games. It was a remarkable performance from Giannis Antetokounmpo that sealed the series, as he became the sixth player to score 50 points in a Finals game.
It was the second time Milwaukee overcame a 2-0 series deficit, previously coming back to beat the Nets in a 7-game thriller. They never backed down from a challenge and the hunger of Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton prevailed.
Antetokounmpo was named Finals MVP after three games with 40+ points. He joins LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only players to win an MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Finals MVP award.
After a brutal injury in the Eastern Conference Finals, it seemed like Giannis would joining a long list of star players to miss time with an injury, but the Greek Freak made a remarkable recovery and helped Milwaukee advance to the finals.
Not enough can be said about Antetokounmpo’s journey. After making money as a street vendor in Greece, he and his brothers found a path to fame through basketball, and now three of them hold NBA titles.
Now Giannis and the Bucks can look forward to a daring title defense, as plenty of challengers in the East and West are starving for a chance at a championship.

Nets need finishing touches on roster

There’s no doubt the Bucks championship will make Nets fans bitter, as they fell in seven games, beaten in overtime in their own home.
The Nets were pegged as favorites for the title, especially after the Lakers fell in the 1st round. They will likely be favored again next season, as Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden look ahead to their first full season together. Brooklyn set a franchise record .667 winning percentage (48-24 in the shortened season), with the Big Three only taking the floor together 8 times in the regular season.
The glaring issues with the Nets were their lack of depth at guard and center and inexperience at the helm in Steve Nash’s first year as coach.
Brooklyn would love to see a breakout season from Nic Claxton, the athletic big man entering his third season. Increasing his strength and longevity should earn him plenty of minutes next year.
It may be a pipe dream to bring back guard Spencer Dinwiddie. Brooklyn could offer his desired 5yr/$100M deal, but it’s more likely they deal him in a sign-and-trade or let him walk.
Brooklyn will also need role players to deliver in the postseason. The bench is a big part of a championship roster, and the Nets need to improve theirs if they want to win their first NBA title.
With the right tweaks and Nash growing more comfortable in his 2nd year, the Nets should be playing deep into the playoffs.

Knicks need a star to take the next step

The Knicks blew away all expectations this season as they finished as the East’s 4th seed. Unfortunately they only picked up one postseason win, their only one since 2013, as they fell to the Atlanta Hawks.
While New York’s rebuild was progressing well, nobody expected them to make the jump this season. A remarkable year by Julius Randle earned him the Most Improved award, and Tom Thibodeau was great at the helm, winning Coach of the Year.
It’s clear that the Knicks are in a prime position to attract stars to the lights of Madison Square Garden after losing a lot of that appeal over the last decade. The Nets were able to use a playoff appearance to help lure Durant and Irving to Brooklyn, and the Knicks could do the same.
The name tossed around the most is Trail Blazers superstar Damian Lillard, though there’s no confirmation he’ll be leaving Portland. It would take a massive package to land him, including multiple 1st round picks and players like RJ Barrett or Obi Toppin.
The Knicks have plenty of cap space to pick up a strong option in free agency. Grabbing Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, or even Lonzo Ball could give them help at guard.
The Knicks were a top defensive team last season, now they just need the offensive power to put them past opponents. New York made a lot of noise this year, and now they can keep progressing and earn the respect they’re hungry for.