Tasting Wine at Bacchus

Upper West Siders discovered last Tuesday whether they were crisp, bold, mellow or bubbly, as they gathered for a wine tasting event at Bacchus, a wine store on Broadway between 71st Street and 72nd Street. A variety of wines from California, to Tuscany was on display. To taste the wines, all the guests received a Riedel Crystal wine glass that they took home at the end of the evening. Some regulars admitted to having more than 20 of these glasses.

MASH UP: This is how you'll enjoy a rainy fall

As the summer comes to an end and fall comes back to town, New Yorkers and tourists alike need to be prepared to entertain themselves during rainy Sunday afternoons. We have compiled a little list of extraordinary experiences in the West Village. All the places are within walking distance, so huddle under that umbrella and enjoy yourselves.


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1. Breakfast at Amy's Bread on 250 Bleecker Street: Enjoy some pastry before a long pampering-filled day.

2. Don't forget it's Sunday, so church goers can take a seat in the Neighborhood Church on 269 Bleecker Street.

3. Make a stop on the corner of W 11th Street and 7th Avenue South to pick up the perfect Halloween costume. There is something for everyone. (A personal favorite: gentlemen can dress up as Father Will U Tell)

4. On the same street, after purchasing the perfect Halloween outfit, wander into 182 7th Avenue South for a psychic reading. See what the stars have in store for you this fall.

5. Walk a little further, and step into the Pleasure Chest. The store is quiet until a flock of women from the Sex and the City bus tour walks in. Giddy and giggly, they look at all the different objects to enhance female pleasure.



6. Cross the street to have some lunch at Jekyll and Hyde on 91 7th Avenue South. According to the restaurant's Web site, "Jekyll and Hyde is a haunted restaurant and bar for eccentric explorers and mad scientists where guests can eat and drink among the unusual and the bizarre." If that does not grab your attention...!

7. After lunch, if the rain persists, it is time for some pampering. Get a manicure at 168 Bleecker Street at Model Nail. After that, keep on relaxing during a real Chinese back or a foot rub on 88 7th Avenue South. For the more adventurous

8. With all this leisurely behavior, it may be time to step into an ATM, but do not step into this one. Washington Mutual was the biggest American bank to go bankrupt. So better to step into another ATM.

9. If you are in the mood for an Asian dinner: stop by Chow Bar on 230 West 4th Street.

10. Have after dinner drinks at Wicked & Willy's, where the sign reads: "Time flies when you're having rum." With that motto in mind, the rest of the night will be a guaranteed success.

11. After dinner it's time to put on a stylish outfit, sip a manhattan (or another drink of your own choosing) in the stylish underground Madam X on 94 West Houston. The outside looks like an Amsterdam style red light district brothel, but the inside is a Zagat rated lounge.

LINK ROUND UP: Did anybody spot Palin in the city?

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin visited New York City today to meet with world leaders, who are in town for the UN General Assembly. She met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai today as well as with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

While the Republican vp pick stayed mostly out of the public eye, a doppelganger entered the New York Streets to shake hands and eat a hot dog from a street vendor. The fake Palin was hired by the Daily News to investigate the reaction of New Yorkers to the Republican running mate.

PROFILE: The owner of a neighborhood beacon

Customers can get more than just pastry in The Hungarian Pastry Shop. It's a place that brings the community together and where many romances start, and some end, says owner Wendy Binioras.

She now mostly works in the sandwich shop next door she opened with her husband 7.5 years ago. ("This is the baby," she said as she compared it with the pastry shop, that has been there for 32 years)

When people started asking for food in the Pastry Shop the idea of opening a sandwich shop began to take shape.

For desert, specialty coffee drinks and love stories one still needs to go next door. Binioras, 50, is a successful Pastry Shop love story herself. She met her husband of 24 years, at that time her boss, when she was a waitress there.

Binioras remembers the turning point of her relationship with her then-boss, shortly before they started dating. "We used to have an old espresso machine, that had a pull down handle," she begins her story. "...One time it sprang back in into my eye. He took me to the back and put ice on my eye. It was a very tender moment."

MEMORABLE MOMENT: European tourists expect more from 9/11

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, Sept. 11, 2008--It is a regular September morning. The weather is mild. People are getting into the subway, reading the paper, walking to work. Flocks of tourists are exploring the area. The streets are filled with cops and roads are blocked. It is exactly seven years after September 11, 2001 and people from everywhere have gathered to remember that day.

A ceremony for the direct family members of the victims started at 8:40 a.m. (the time the first plane hit) "We cannot see anything," said Caroline Combe, 30, a tourist from Paris, France who had arrived a day earlier for a vacation with her girlfriend.

"The police is blocking everything," Combe said. Many other tourists voiced the same complaints. But the French tourist still calls the scene "emotional." Especially the firemen in uniforms strike her. "It's hard to explain," she said. "It's fitting of how huge the whole thing was and how they were involved."