When you first come to Eighth Avenue between 43rd & 44th, it appears to be nothing more than a strip of touristy gift shops. Swing around the corner on 44th Street, and you’ll just find a row of restaurants. But look at this intersection from above, and you’ll see something unusual hidden from view… Nestled…
Last year, I wrote a post encouraging everyone to visit the Times Square Visitor Center, regardless of whether you were a tourist or not. At the time, I had ducked in to use the free bathrooms, and was completely surprised to find chandeliers, marble accents and gold-framed posters in the entranceway… …wood-paneled walls with gilded…
Last year in September, I wrote an open letter to the new owners of the property at 1552 Broadway in Times Square asking a simple request: that they save a Times Square treasure. Nearly 100 years before it became a decrepit, out-of-business TGIF, 1552 Broadway was the showroom for I. Miller shoes, famous for supplying…
UPDATE: This is now closed, sadly. OK, I’ll admit it: I was a Times Square Visitor Center snob. From my earliest days as a tourist in NYC, to my years as a student at Columbia, through my career as a scout, right up until…well, right up until last week, I’ve always considered the Times Square…
Last week, I was scouting a building in Times Square. After, I was standing on that large grate on the island between 45th & 46th checking my email… …when all of a sudden, I noticed something… What the hell was that noise coming up from below? Here’s a recording I took with my phone:
The other day, I received an email asking if a bus station, dating to the 1930s, still existed at the Hotel Carter. A hidden bus station from the 1930s? In Times Square?? I’d never heard of this before (in fact, I only knew of the Hotel Carter as one of the dirtiest hotels in America)…
Some time ago, I was meeting up with some friends to eat in Times Square, and they suggested we go to a diner called Cafe Edison, part of the Hotel Edison on 47th. My culinary expectations were pretty low (as you may have heard, Times Square has a couple of “tourist traps”), but my friends…
Dear Express, The other day, I was walking through Times Square and discovered you are signed on to be the proud new tenants of one of my favorite buildings in the neighborhood, 1552 Broadway. Congratulations!! I know it might not look like much at first. In fact, at just four stories, it may just be…
To find one of my all time favorite signs in Times Square, you have to go a few blocks from the neon lights and hi-def LCD screens of New York’s bustling epicenter… …to the corner of 42nd Street and Ninth Avenue, an intersection that has remained defiantly seedy despite literally existing in the shadows of…