Manhattan

Cheryl Reid, founder of Spa Week and owner of SPA MEDIA LLC, launched the first Spa Week in October 2004 as a way to educate New Yorkers about the benefits of spa services while providing an affordable way to enjoy them. Spa Week gained such industry hype it quickly expanded nationally and caught the attention of major corporate sponsors. (Saab, Allure, etc.) Now Cheryl aims to introduce a new generation of spa goers to wellness benefits they can take part in, at least bi-annually. Maybe it’s for “wellness benefits” or maybe Spa Week is just a genius marketing idea. After all, Reid formerly owned a New York City public relations firm. Either way, Spa Week allows the average Josephine great treatments for just half a hundo – AKA $50.
How to participate? Visit http://www.spaweek.com. Register your name, email and other optional information. Then click on your respective territory. An index of results will appear with – at least for New Yorkers – an overwhelming amount of spa participants. Here it helps to have a specific spa in mind. Ask rich friends which spas they frequent. Each spa lists the Spa Week services they are offering. For instance, Completely Bare offers laser hair removal for bikini or underarm, Fresh in Soho offers a 60 minute Balance and Nourish Face Treatment, and the Salon & Spa at Saks Fifth Avenue offers a 60 minute Therapeutic Massage amongst other services.

How to book? Fall Spa Week runs October 12-18th – as in next week. Make a list the spa/services you intend to book complete with back ups as services do fill up during Spa Week. Try for days when your schedule is more flexible as you want to maximize the benefits of your relaxing services by pairing them with a relaxing day.  Call individual spas to book. Spa Week does not book through their website, but if you sign up on their email list, they do provide spa specials throughout the year.
Emma Dinzebach

Remember when I said the mac and cheese at Delicatessen hurt my stomach. Well, they must have read that and laughed in my pretty face because the creative masterminds behind Cafeteria and it’s Soho sister have launched their newest ode to America’s cheesiest staple – Macbar. Between Delicatessen and McNally Jackson on Prince street you will find a glowing orange light. If you’re distracted trying to catch a glimpse of Chuck Bass, you could very well miss it. It’s teeny tiny.

Macbar sort of reminds me of the Rice to Riches of mac and cheese, albeit smaller and more futuristic. There are three, maybe four two top tables on the left, a standing bar or trash section on the right and you order due south. A flat screen menu highlights the day’s mac and cheeses, and your order shoots out on the right. They have duck confit mac and cheese, lobster mac and cheese, chicken mac and cheese with chipotle or cayenne pepper or something spicy that has since slipped my mind. There is a pizza-esque mac and cheese with basil and tomato sauce. Pick that one. That one is good.

Then you can add some ranch (gross) or bacon and breadcrumb (gross again) or pepper (okay, we’ll take it) and head out. Yeah, you have to head out because it’s teeny in there. So why love Macbar? Mainly because it’s open late, so after you have too many cocktails you can stuff your face with noodles rather than tacos. When you have on six inch heels La Esquina seems very far away. However, no guarantees you won’t wake up with a belly ache.

Macbar 54 Prince Street between Lafayette and Spring; 212-226-8877

Emma Dinzebach

Riding the green wave are restaurants screaming from their bamboo surfboards, “Eat local, Dude! Buy local, man! Cowabunga.” Tasting Table toots that it’s been suggesting local since it’s launch. Dude, wasn’t that like last year? Okay true, shoring the gap between what we eat and where it is grown lends to sustainable restaurant practices, supports local businesses and reduces heavy carbon emissions created from distant transports. In fact, eating locally has been a goal of many area restaurants way before green was the new black. Furthermore, choosing local produce is a better, more earth-conscious approach than choosing organically. (For more information on how eating locally as opposed to organically helps our planet and your health, click here.)

Restaurants like Mas Farmhouse, Five Points, and Blue Hill have been serving local ingredients for nearly a decade. These pioneers use seasonal ingredients, and talent, to achieve culinary artistry that tickles our tastebuds and touches our hearts. New Yorkers – and surrounding area farmers – realize that out of everything bad, comes something good, and are happy that the alarming state of our planet has at least awoken minds to the joy of eating locally.

How can you celebrate? Several area chefs are celebrating September by highlighting where their food came from. You can find a detailed PDF of how area chefs are celebrating this month at Tasting Table. Or, cook something yourself. You’re long overdue to host a dinner party, right? Hit up Union Square Market, New Amsterdam or the 77th Street Sunday Flea & Green Market and pick up some local ingredients to cook up some splendor of your own…dude.

Emma Dinzebach

Remember when you had a t-shirt that said “Team Aniston” or “Team Jolie”? Imagine one with a corn on the cob sketch and printed on the bottom “Team Habana” or “Team Esquina.” Which one would you buy? I know; it’s a really hard question, but one I was set on solving. Having resided in Nolita for the past five years, I’ll give it to Cafe Habana for being the neighborhood corn making veteran. But this is New York! And what are we if not competitive. So along came La Esquina and their hoity toity downstairs and Yukons parked outside and yadda yadda and John Mayer looking all fine.

Unfortunately, it took me a while to warm up to the idea of friendly on top, snobby on bottom. (And being a neighborhood regular, I never even experienced the snobby on bottom first hand. Thus, it took me a bit to warm up to “Skeener,” as my brother calls it. But once I did, I realized there are some wonderful palate pleasers Skeener does that Habana does not. For instance the soup and the chicken tacos with cabbage. On the other hand, no one rivals Habana’s mole or the rice and beans or the Cuban pork sandwich.

Ah, such the dilemma. Well, fortunately there is enough difference – after all, Habana is Cuban – that one isn’t forced to make a decision unless, you want corn. If you have never had the corn, then honestly, you are not a New Yorker or you’ve had braces since moving to Gotham. It is buttery, spicy, limey deliciousness dipped in Mexican cotija cheese. So here it goes, the face off, the battle, the true but biased, somewhat honest testament to years of research on who has the best Mexican corn.

Personally, I like when the corn is a little charred on the outside, and sometimes Cafe Habana doesn’t really get enough char action for me. Buuuut… the guy who makes it and has that big barrel of corn and just keeps grilling it and grilling it all day long is just so sweet. I don’t think they sell as much corn at Skeener, but it could also be because the order comes with just one corn, not two. At Cafe Habana there are two corns per order, which is an advantage unless you’re ordering by yourself because you will eat both. Don’t let the word corn fool you. It may be a vegetable, but Mexican corn is no health food.

Delivery: Cafe Habana wins hands down. I think the foil paper La Esquina wraps their corn in keeps the heat in too much making the kernels a bit mushy. I live super close to La Esquina, so if it gets mushy in the block and half to my apartment I can’t imagine living on Houston and Mott.

But when someone asks me which I prefer, right off the top of my head I say La Esquina. I’m not sure why. Maybe because it is always perfectly charred…? Or maybe because it’s closer to me. If Cafe Habana could consistently char their corn properly every single time, then maybe… Ah, hell. It’s a tie.

Bring floss.

Cafe Habana  17 Prince Street @ Elizabeth; 212-625-2001 

La Esquina 106 Kenmare @ Lafayette St; 212-613-7100

Emma Dinzebach