Hunter's Canvas

Astroland is closing for good this weekend

Astroman at Coney Island's Astroland - 1960s, originally uploaded by Coney Island History Project.

If you are in NYC, you should go. It's your last chance before they turn it into Disney World. From a statement made by Carol Hill Albert, Astroland co-owner:

I am making this statement today to set the record straight. I have not "given up on Coney Island" as Thor Equities has stated. I have given up on trying to get Thor to negotiate which I have attempted to do every month since June, and numerous times in August. Each time their response was, "We have no answer." The safety of our customers and our commitment to employees means our time has run out. Ride parts must be ordered a minimum of eight to 10 months in advance. My employees cannot live in a state of limbo any longer. It takes six months to pack up a three-acre amusement park that has been in operation for 46 years, so a January 31st deadline means start packing yesterday. We are out of time.

From New York Post's blog,

Many expected Astroland to return in 2009 since the city is at least a year away from implementing an area rezoning plan that, in part, would replace the park and other attractions with new amusements.

Astroland's potential closing comes while many other boardwalk business owners who rent from Sitt are also sweating it out over whether they'll be back next summer. Like Astroland, they had to wait out a lease extension a year ago also.

"I don't know why they wouldn't bring us back – especially when they don't have anything to replace us with?" said a concerned Dianna Carlin, owner of the Lola Staar Souvenir Boutique.
...

It was unclear just how far apart both sides are in dollars, but Albert's lawyer told Sitt's lawyer in a letter dated Friday that the park has seen expenses increase since last year, particularly a $700,000 surge in insurance costs.

Astroland was seeking a multiple year lease, in part, to give its workers some stability.

The Albert family sold the 3.1-acre Astroland property to Sitt's firm Thor Equities in 2006 for $30 million, but negotiated last year's deal to squeeze in at least one final go-round for Astroland and its employees, many of whom are neighborhood residents with years of service.

This is the end of Old New York in my opinion.  It's a sad day.

Gourmet food from the toaster oven

Get Toasted Avec Eric is a video blog with Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin fame where he cooks fancy dishes in the toaster oven.  Convenient? Yes. Cheap? No.  But I think most of these recipes are manageable if you swap ingredients for ones you can afford.  

Hillary vs. The Coffee Machine

Bento!

I'm always looking for better ways to get my food from the store to my apartment and my apartment to my office.   We have the all-important canvas grocery tote, the increasingly-important mesh produce bag and now (by now I mean 2001) there's the absolutely indispensable Laptop Lunch! It's a lunch box with four containers for main dishes and a little container for dressing and such. 

I found this lovely contraption on Flickr where there are many folks posting pics of their bento lunches.  This particularly tasty-looking lunch (I love quinoa!) was made by Bento Jane.

Coney Island remains open for another season!

Coney Island will stay open through next season.  I am very happy to hear that we can enjoy Burlesque at the Beach once again.

Pic Cred

The kid wanted Applebee's!

  Pic Credit 

"BROOMFIELD, Colo. - A 6-year-old boy was hungry and decided he'd go to Applebee’s. So he grabbed the car keys, took his booster seat from the back seat of his grandmother's car and placed it in the driver's seat, then made a go of driving himself to the restaurant Tuesday."

He was hungry!  I love that he grabbed his booster seat from the other car.  Very funny.

Is it too much to ask?

To have naturally raised meats and organic beans in our burritos?  Apparently not!

I ran into some very nice folks from Chipotle at Farm Aid a couple weeks back (working with OROE to make sure folks recycled/composted at the show).  It was an eye-opening conversation.

I've been going to Chipotle for the last year or so and always felt mildly guilty considering their association with McDonald's.  But the Chipotle peeps gave me the scoop - McDonald's fully divested their shares last year so Chipotle is free to be a great company.  They use local, naturally raised meats as much as supply allows (100% in NY stores), as well as organic beans and rBGH-free sour cream.  Hence their presence at Farm Aid.  They call it FWI - Food With Integrity. 

I had a lot to thank my new Chipotle friends for - besides freeing me from the fast food guilt, they also gave me a coupon for a free burrito and some chapstick ("guac-stick" it's called).  And as if that weren't enough, I went back for lunch the next week and once again got a free burrito - this time for simply bringing back the bag from my previous lunch. 

Check out their fun website. Good stuff.