36 Comments
The winds of change (and frigid, seasonal air) are a’blowin’ in Morningside. Beginning with Toast, everyone’s favorite spot for a second or third date. Toast has relocated from its previous location on Broadway between LaSalle and Tiemann (right near 125th) and has taken up residence in Carne’s old spot on Broadway and 105th. With Manhattanville’s development in the works, this seems a bit counter-intuitive to Bwog, as property values in precisely Toast’s old location are sure to skyrocket. Nonetheless, we look forward to schlepping just as far to Toast, this time in the other direction.
Farther up on Broadway, big news for Pinkberry devotees in the form of its latest flavor addition: coffee. Bwog picked the brain of Pinkberry cashier Shadenia who explained that many customers have been sampling coffee, but not many have been ordering it. “They have to get used to it.” Those quickly-adapting coffee converts are enjoying the new flavor with chestnuts, a new seasonal topping. (To those following Pinkberry’s seasonal ingredients, winter’s chestnut is replacing fall’s pomegranate seeds.) “I’m not really a coffee person,” said Shadenia, quite seriously.
Bwog observed six customers in Pinkberry, none with coffee. Melanie and Angela ate original and green tea, respectively. They seem underwhelmed about the addition of the coffee flavor and had no plans to try it. “It’s the same category as green tea,” Angela explained. Bwog asked for clarification. “There’s original. And then the other flavors are green tea and coffee.” Brows furrowed, Bwog exited Pinkberry.
And no recapitulation of developments in Columbia and its environs would be complete without a salute to the new EC elevators. The vaguely space station-y silver elevators are just as sterile and ugly (metal mesh!) as the old EC elevators, the design of which Bwog can barely remember.
– JNW
Loading …
36 Comments
@Julio if anything, the EC elevators are slower. Now they take about 20 seconds to close, no matter how many times you press the door close button.
@remember When Columbia weighs options, it considers which will be the most expensive, have the least effect, and screw students the most. Then they pick an option that fits at least 2 of these 3 criteria. Some times they get lucky and hit all 3 (See: Lerner).
Also, when counting blocks: 125th street isn’t 125th street. It’s going diagonally northward, so at Amsterdam Ave it’s really 126th street, and at Broadway it’s really 128th street. Happy walking!
@Anyone That takes the Hamilton elevators to the 3rd, 4tn or 5th floor right before classes should be shot. 6th and 7th only. Unless you have a legitimate injury.
@Really Guys? Is walking up the stairs in Hamilton too much for you? Maybe it’s time to find that “Dodge Fitness Center” everyone is talking about.
If you can’t manage going from the 2nd to 6th floor in a building, I suggest leaving the higher EC Townhouses alone.
@DHI I am a lazy person and I still don’t use the Hamilton elevators.
@Joseph I don’t think Toast moved. It’s still at the old location. Is this maybe just a second location?
@whatevs as far as cheap, stylish desserts are concerned, rice to riches > pinkberry and it hasn’t diluted its cachet by opening uptown.
@awesome Bwog picked the brain of Pinkberry cashier Shadenia who explained that many customers have been sampling coffee, but not many have been ordering it. “They have to get used to it.”
in recession nation america, your asian overlords will select your frozen desert product flavoring and you will get used to it.
@!!! They need to renovate the Hamilton elevator! And by renovate I mean add another one.
I know Hamilton isn’t a residence hall, but walking up to the 5th and 6th floors every day four semesters in a row is not pleasant. I’m not some kind of olympian.
@ooh lucky they did renovate the Hamilton elevator, yet in the same way as the EC elevators, ergo it might actually go slower but at least when you’re packed in there with 24 other students and an arthum professor who thinks showers are overrated, you’ll have something shiny to look at.
@Alum Columbia has tried several times to figure out a way to add another Hamilton elevator, but it just can’t be done economically. Ripping out an entire new elevator shaft and installing the necessary hardware would be absurdly expensive, even compared to some of the high-budget work Columbia has done on various buildings (Hamilton included).
I think it’s dumb to keep so many classrooms in Hamilton, especially on the upper floors. It makes no sense to create so much demand for elevator traffic when there is no way to increase the supply.
@DHI Where else they got class space, eh? I think it would be dumb to decrease the supply of class space when there’s so much demand. Elevators whatever.
@sorry to be so stupid about this… but are we talking a renovation of the elevator interiors, or are we talking about the kind of thing that will make them go faster?
@nope... just the interiors. The Hartley elevators are as slow as ever…but now they’re easier on the eyes.
@another anon why did they only replace the Hartley elevators? what about Wallach? we’re always forgotten.
@wallacher can’t wait till the 23rd for the new furniture to be setup in wallach skylounge! (new sofa chairs with fold out desks, new sofas, etc)
@pinkberry maybe no one is ordering the coffee because they read the small print– that shit has 90 calories in an ounce. which means the 5 oz small… well, you do the math.
@math actually there are 90 calories in 1/2 cup of coffee. so a small container (1.3 servings) has 117 calories. not including toppings of course.
@math is right! especially since the coffee is a nonfat flavor it makes sense to assume pinkberry’s goal was to limit calories…
@anon Hartley also got new elevators, that look exactly like EC’s!
@i thought that Toast was simply opening up a second branch downtown of its first one? I walked past the new Toast and it mentioned something along the lines of being “a second outpost of Toast”.
–enthusiastic foodie
@FACT CHECK BWOG! Get your facts straight. I just called up Toast to verify what commenter #12 just pointed out — Toast opened up a second location (replacing Carne). It DID NOT relocate. I repeat, there is still the same old Toast just shy of 125th St.
This leads to an interesting dilemma for those who live in the general vicinity of 115th St. (Schapiro, Furnald), but I think it’s pretty unambiguous which way to go if you’re in EC somewhere or, conversely, McBain, etc.
@me me me Well no matter where I’m living, I have fond memories of the bathroom at the Toast that used to be Carne. Let’s just say there was some involvement of mammaries and some white powder
@that makes no sense where did you find an udder to lick sugar off of?
@please! carne was big on steak…where do you think the steaks come from…duh, cows!
@what do you call the proliferation of trendy bars in a once-industrial area?
Gin-trification!
@The King of Spain With massive construction beginning in 2009-ish?? and no delivery until 2012 and the opening of a ton of new spaces in the area, the *retail* rents in Manhattanville won’t be going up for another couple years.
@none amir’s falafel sandwich is like 4 bucks
@well, mcbain needs some heavy duty elevator renovation, and they were doing something to them over the break, but no dice–still a piece of crap
@haha i love how EC elevators (which were fine to begin with) were higher on the priority list than mcbain elevators.
i mean elevator. singular. shit.
@hmmm You must not go to EC enough to know that each elevator has had different tricks to get them to close all semester.
@resident is there any food in morningside heights that is truly delicious? cheapish too? help! help! losing weight fast.
@Nope Delicious, cheap, not Koronet: pick two.
@jpm Toast and Carne (and the Heights) are all owned by the same people.
@maybe maybe toast decided to sell its original location because whoever bought it agreed to pay a shitload (on account of manhattanville).
@didn't they just install new elevators in ec like two years ago?