The New York Post has an article today championing uptown as the new downtown. Leading the change are Harlem's new high-rise luxury condos. The article highlights The Dwyer at 123rd and St. Nick with it's 54 loft units, 111 Central Park North with its wraparound garden terraces, and The Lenox at West 129th and Lenox Avenue.

Says The Lenox developer Joseph Holland in the article about his building's 24-hour concierge, valet service, an on-site gym and a landscaped roof garden, "They're all the things you would expect in a luxury building downtown, but we're providing them at 129th Street and Lenox Avenue." The best part is that Joseph Holland is not jumping on a recent Harlem bandwagon. I met him several years ago when he was in the initial stages for a Harlem luxury building.

Retail gets a nod too. Post writer Hasani Gittens covers N, the new boutique at 114 W. 116th St. whose opening party Harlem Fur crashed last week. Cheryl and I stopped by recently as patrons, and the staff were excellent. As much as she helped, N doesn't need supermodel Iman to keep the party going.

Now, if only the Post had included Posh Paws...

Posted by Chris at 07:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Posted by Chris at 09:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Law & Order SVU was filming tonight on 127th Street between Lenox and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevards.

Any idea who she is?

Posted by Chris at 09:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Since NY City Pets asked last month where all of the New York City cat websites are, I have been randomly looking around for ones focusing on Harlem. I am still trying to find CImbi a buddy to hang out with. After a month's search, it seems that finding Harlem cats online is about as elusive as finding my animal a playdate.

After I talked Cheryl into taking my place as Cimbi's online handler, the project was picked back up and completed. Cimbi can now be found here, where Cheryl handles all of her Catster inquiries. Playdate proposals, however, need not come through there.

Posted by Chris at 11:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've walked past Society Coffee on Frederick Douglass Boulevard at 114th Street many times without feeling compelled to stop in. Although it has a well appointed interior with exposed brick, leather chairs and a plush leather banquette, something about naming it Society seems a bit forced. The choice of name reminded me of the kid in first grade who walked around telling everyone he was tough, because he wasn't. But a couple of people asked me what I thought of the place, so I stopped by.

Society has a decent website in development, with photos of the venue, so I thought I would try a short video clip panning the interior to offer something different.

The first thing that hit me was the attractiveness of the staff, both male and female. Whereas last night I felt underdressed, at Society I felt undersexy. This was not just my observation. A friend who joined me later made mention of the same thing.

The next thing that hit me was that Society has wait staff. Starbucks has ruined me. I now always assume that there is register service at coffee houses, even at Settepani, where I have been many times. I always walk up to the register and then feel like an ass when told that there is service at the table. The same thing happened at Society. I was politely told that someone would soon see me at a table.

Once at the table, I talked briefly with the server. He let me know that the venue will be celebrating its one year anniversary next month, I believe on the 9th. He said to expect notice in the next week.

The final big realization of the visit was that Society offers more than coffee and small cakes. Also on the beverage menu are smoothies, beer, wine, and on the food menu are breakfast items, panini sandwiches, and small plates. The lunch options nicely extend out to a lite diner option, and the breakfast menu becomes brunch on the weekends.

Posted by Chris at 07:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Bonus! Womens Wear Daily, which is not something I normally read, has an article on one of N's designers, Nicole Miller.

Posted by Chris at 10:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

Harlem saw two great openings this weekend, and Harlem Fur was kinda there.

Bonus: If you read to the end, you can find out how a free bag of Innova cat food, courtesy of Posh Paws, can be yours!

Minton's Playhouse
Minton's Playhouse was a raging success on Friday. The jazz was hot, the joint was packed, and the drinks were surprisingly well priced. I know most of this because I took photos like the one below.

I will be posting more shots from Friday night at Minton's on Flickr. Take a peek by clicking on the photos in the right-hand side bar. I have a shot of Mr. Earl Spain, the jazz impresario who did what Robert DeNiro could not and re-opened the birthplace of be-bop. The first person to point out Dean, my co-op's president, wins a Posh Paws logo food lid.

Posh Paws
Cheryl and I made our first purchase at Posh Paws on Sunday. We bought Cimbi a blue Flexi-Mat pet bed for the windowsill. The attractive and durable fabric is machine washable and dryable, which makes it ideal for cleaning before our allergic friends come over.

Cheryl and I also met the owners, Doris and Helen, two warm people who are very knowledgeable about companion animal supplies.

Please don't think Cimbi will eat just any cat food, or Cheryl for that matter. Previously, we tried giving our animal Greenies, as we ended up with 20 or so sample bags from a cat show at Madison Square Garden. Neither the cat nor Cheryl showed any interest in them. Not knowing what to do with the remaining bags, we gave them out to Trick-Or-Treaters last year while keeping straight faces. (We didn't live in Harlem then.) Cheryl is sitting next to me right now saying, "don't worry, it wasn't malicious... the kids couldn't get sick... and if they read what it was before eating it, they could give it to their pets."

Now for the good part, how a bag of Innova cat food, courtesy of Posh Paws, can be yours. If you are a Harlem resident, send a photo or two of your cat with a brief bio and a memorable anecdote to editor [at] (no spam) harlem fur [dot] com. I will post your kitty on Harlem Fur and mail you the bag of food. Please specify regular or lite food.

Posted by Chris at 07:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

As mentioned before, I am ecstatic for Posh Paws' opening this Friday. Having a well-stocked pet store with high end products fills the supplies part of South Harlem's void in companion animal services.

Of the other two missing parts, veterinary care and grooming, the Petland on 117th and Lenox is helping with the former by hosting two more Vet My Pet companion animal vaccination days: Sunday, May 28th and Sunday, June 25th, from 2pm to 4pm each day.

Cheryl and I take Cimbi to Animal General at 87th and Columbus (212-500-5815), and out of curiosity, I checked on Switchboard.com to see if there were any vets closer.

For the vets closest to us, Switchboard returned Henry M. Fierman, DVM at 250 W 108th St (212-864-3631), who is 1.5 miles to the South, the 145th Street Animal Hospital at 454 W 145th St (212-234-8087), which is 1.8 miles to the North, and Oliver's Dog & Cat Clinic at 2232 1st Ave (212-348-7070), which is 1.6 miles East. For comparison's sake, Animal General is 2 miles away, which is not that much of a difference. This leaves a huge section of Central Harlem without a vet close by.

And speaking of missing pet services...

NYCityPets is wondering where all the cat websites are. Although not strictly a cat blog, Harlem Fur offers HuntGrunt. Anyone who can teach a cat to use the toilet should be nominated for everything.

Or, maybe the people at this weekend's Empire Cat Club show know.

Posted by Chris at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Cheryl and I went to the Morningside Park Farmers' Market on the plaza at 110th Street and Manhattan Avenue a few Saturdays ago and were not too impressed. The entire market consisted of one vendor with some broccoli raab, a slightly different kind of broccoli raab, and a few bunches of radishes.

The following Saturday saw two vendors and a somewhat better selection of goods. In addition to the broccoli raab and radishes, there was a decent selection of apples and flowering house plants. Also, the vendors were more engaging than the week before, when they were sitting in their truck completing the Daily News crossword puzzle.

I'm giving the market the benefit of the doubt and holding final judgement until next month. The Community Markets website claims that it opened April 8th, but the sign posted on the plaza reads that it does not officially start until June. I'm hoping that this is just the preseason and things will pick up in the coming weeks.

The market is open every Saturday from 9am to 5pm through November.

Posted by Chris at 09:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This Friday will not only be the re-opening of be-bop's birthplace, Minton's Playhouse, but it will also be the opening of Posh Paws pet store on Frederick Douglass and 114th Street. I am ecstatic.

As a great example, Cheryl and I had to get on the subway to find usable cat litter after 7pm in 2003. Petland, on 117th Street between Lenox and 5th Avenue, was the only place in Central Harlem that carried Feline Pine litter, and its 7pm closing time made it virtually inaccessible during the week. One night when we could not wait until the weekend to refill the litter box, I broke down and purchased a bag of Hartz pH, the only thing offered at three different delis. The stuff gave off enough dust in the apartment to give us both sore throats by the morning. I can't imagine what it did to the cat.

When we moved back to Harlem late last year, I was happy to see that Fine Fare on Lenox and 116th now carries both Feline Pine litter and a large selection of Fancy Feast flavors with gravy, Cimbi's favorite. However, I am more happy to know that Posh Paws, which will carry Wellness, Innova, California Natural and many more products, will be open at the week's end.

Now, all we need is a good vet and groomer.

Posted by Chris at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Hard up to wet your whistle in Harlem? Well Gabriel, blow that horn. It's the rebirth of the be-bop womb. Minton's Playhouse is set to reopen for the first time since 1974, dig? And yes, the bar is stocked.

The Fur has a history of the joint shorter than an epic Ken Burns documentary:

In 1938 tenor Saxophonist Henry Minton opened Minton's Playhouse using a part of the dining area in Harlem's Cecil Hotel.

Although the club had a house band, it was the after hours sessions that earned the joint its reputation as a place of innovation. The house band would play earlier in the night. Later, jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Mile Davis, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Thelonious Monk and other musicians of the time would experiment with their music, eventually giving birth to Be-Bop.

Minton's ran for 32 years straight before shutting down after it switched over to disco. The Cecil Hotel changed to. It became a single room occupancy hotel for men down on their luck. The neon signs for both places remain, with the Cecil Hotel's on the corner of 118th and St. Nick and Minton's on 118th between St. Nick and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. Minton's is featured in the 116th Street 2/3 subway stop's glass mosaic.

In early February of 2001 the Cecil Hotel suffered a cigarette-sparked fire that injured twelve people and resulted in the death of at least one man. Had fire inspectors not been near-by when the fire broke out, the results may have been much worse.

Since closing in 1974, Minton's has seen a number of attempts by high-profile people to reopen the venue. Robert De Niro with restaurateurs Drew Neiporent and Melba Wilson (who opened the new Melba's on Frederick Douglass Boulevard) tried in 1996. In 1999, Wall Street hot-shot Kevin Ingram sought to reopen Minton's, but getting caught trying to launder $2.2 million in a federal arms money sting gave him little time to devote to the project.

Now it seems Minton's time to return is here. Harlem jazz club impresario Earl Spain and the owner of both Minton's and the Cecil Hotel, Housing Services Inc., will be opening the venue Friday, May 19th at 3:00pm. Live music begins, again, at 9:00pm.

Let Harlem Fur take you inside for a sneak peak.

The stage is ready...

Posted by Chris at 11:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

We Own the Night, starring Mark Wahlberg (sometimes credited as Marky Mark), will be filming on my block at the end of this week.

From the looks of things, they own not only the night, but also street parking on the South side of 117th between Lenox and Adam Clayton Powell.

The movie's synopsis after the jump.

Also, Bagel has some hot celluloid action in her neck of the woods too.

As per Rope of Silicon, the movie, is "set against the turbulent world of Russian organized crime and an embattled New York City Police Department in the 1980s, a Russian narcotics gang has a hit list of NYPD officers and it is up to Joseph, a night club manager to save his brother Bobby and father who are next on this list."

Marky Mark plays Joseph.

Posted by Chris at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Finally, the Time Warner complication is solved. And not a minute too soon.

There is a new posh pet store opening in South Harlem, and Harlem Fur will be attending the opening as press.

Speaking of press, Pebbles' human was spotted at the opening of Lt. Governor candidate and Harlem State Senator David Paterson's Harlem campaign office kick-off. Pebbles, however, was nowhere to be seen.

Speaking of openings, Minton's Playhouse, where Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and Max Roach held late-night jam sessions, is set to reopen.

Speaking of celebrities in Harlem, my block is about to have another street shooting.

Speaking of my block, Cheryl and I were able to walk another dog, this time a Chihuahua, in our on going quest to find the right pooch for us.

Speaking of pooches, Petland is holding two more vaccination days for dogs, cats and ferrets.

I will have posts for each of these and more up soon.

Posted by Chris at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My Time Warner Cable has been down for the past couple days and I don't have time in the office to post. I will be back when the home problem is resolved.

Posted by Chris at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)