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In This Issue:
The Right Place. The Right Time (Feb. 14).
If you’re newly attached, the ticket might just be a quiet dinner a deux at a place that knows the romance ropes, i.e., will give you discreet service and guard your privacy as you get to know each other better. In New York, a perfect choice is One if By Land, Two if By Sea (oneifbyland.com), housed in a former carriage house with live piano music. The staff has lost count of how many marriage proposals have taken place between these walls. If you’ve celebrated this holiday with your sweetheart for awhile now, there’s no harm in throwing in some risqué fun. In London, book a table at Dans le Noir (danslenoir.com), where sensory deprivation (you dine in pitch-black darkness) heightens all pleasures—and who knows what goes on under the tables? If the object of your affection happens to be in Paris, declare your love publicly on the city’s message boards, which usually broadcast boring traffic advisories (www.paris.fr). Book a room that evening at the Hotel Murano Urban Resort (muranoresort.com), which has custom-color mood lighting and erotic gadgets in the bathrooms. Feeling the call of the wild? In San Francisco, the annual Woo at the Zoo (sfzoo.org) has become the hands-down favorite event for lovers old and new. The guided tour gives you the lowdown on animals’ mating and dating patterns. Night+Day doesn’t discriminate against solo flyers on this holiday that the culture uses to exploit pair bonding to the hilt. Our feature this month on Best Singles Scenes will take you to the top spots in the coolest cities for your next close encounter.
THE WORLD’S BEST Singles Scenes Single in the season of love? Our writers name the best Singles Scenes (with couples cordially invited) in the world’s coolest cities—think of it as romance with a buzz, on Valentine’s Day or any day. SAN FRANCISCO • BIN 38 SHANGHAI • MURAL BAR NEW YORK • UNDERBAR Discover the Best Singles Scenes in other Night+Day cities
INS and OUTS: Night+Day’s Top 5 New Openings LAS VEGAS • Christian Audigier
THE URBIE AWARDS The urbanista experience couldn’t exist but for the creativity and talents of many people and organizations who inspire us and provide the goods that are the city mosaic. In honor of all who have played a role in making each Night+Day city one of the world’s coolest, Pulse Guides gives recognition in the form of its Urbie Award to one individual in each city whose contribution is exemplary. Congratulations to the two most recent recipients: Click here to see all Urbie Award winners
ALAN’S VIEW, February 2009
All of us at Night+Day pride ourselves on providing readers with incredibly useful information and extraordinary insights, but deep down I am attracted to clever nonsense. Not the stuff thrown our way by most politicians, or biodynamic wine advocates, or even sports commentators. I’m talking about those gems that are both fun (or funny) and make you think. (My favorite playwright is the master of the genre, Tom Stoppard.) Last month a friend called to my attention the Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational, in which readers take a word, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and then supply a new definition. How could a fan of clever nonsense have missed this all these years? So, for this month’s Picks, instead of a travel insight, let me provide you with a chuckle with three of my favorites from this year’s MI winners: 1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with. 2. Karmageddon: It’s when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, and then the Earth explodes and it’s a serious bummer. 3. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness. (Look for Night+Day to start using this one!) On the Road: The Big Island of Hawai’i Even dyed-in-the-wool urbanistas need to take a break every once in a while, and I have found no better beach destination in which to chill—perhaps a bad word choice since the weather varies year-round between near-perfect and perfect—than the Kohala Coast on the western side of the Big Island. Of course, the case is especially compelling for residents on the left side of the US, for whom the trans-Pacific flight of four to six hours, depending on wind and direction, is considered a hop, skip, and jump these days. With so-called “2009 prices” hitting both airfares and hotels, the Hawai’i experience is now more affordable than any time in recent memory. At the risk of sounding like a pr flak, The Big Island (which is not Oahu, where you’ll find Honolulu, but actually the island of Hawai’i, which gets confused with the state name) has a unique combination of compelling features, including ease of use, a spiritual core, and lava. The provincial airport (no jetways) of Kailua Keahole Kona International (KOA) allows for quick baggage claim and car rental (Mustang or Sebring convertibles are standard issue). Coming out of the airport, turn left (north) onto the one main road (highway) and travel 15 minutes to the Four Seasons Hualalai, 30 minutes to the Mauna Lani Bay and Fairmont Orchid hotels, or 45 minutes to the Hapuna Prince and recently refurbished Mauna Kea (official re-opening is in March). These are all deluxe hotels with the requisite amenities, including beautiful beaches, golf courses (with world-famous water holes), tennis, spas, and gourmet restaurants… Read more I cannot stand The Office. Not that I’ve actually ever watched the program. But it seems to be the television show of choice on United Airlines, the airline I frequent most. And so, without having anything to say about it, my brain is blasted with episodes of this program while I am trying to read, work, talk, or simply relax listening to music. Perhaps because I don’t watch much television at home I haven’t developed the skill of ignoring the tube in public places. Still, I can’t figure out who does watch these shows on airplanes—anyone who likes the program has probably seen it already at home. So why do airlines punish us this way? Advertising? To get us to upgrade to first class? A more serious threat to the travel experience than what is happening on airlines is what is happening to restaurants and bars. Has anyone else noticed that it is harder and harder to have a drink, or even dinner, and not be interrupted by television? This is, of course, in part due to the trend of combining a bar scene with a restaurant scene—but this positive development is moving into negative territory as televisions have become presumably necessary fixtures of bar décor. There I am, in this great restaurant enjoying a wonderful meal with my wife and friends, and occupying one half of my left eye is Tiger Woods. I think Tiger is terrific, but at that moment I don’t want to be having dinner with him. (And by the way, I’d feel the same way if it were the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.) How did this happen? I blame it either on men running out of pickup lines or getting too old to play sports. On Super Bowl Sunday I was sitting on the beach in Hawai’i reading a New York Times article by Bryan Curtis on “The National Pastime(s).” The piece describes the debate over whether football, baseball, or basketball can lay claim to being America’s favorite… Read more |
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Love Happens. Where is the most romantic place to spend Valentine’s Day this year? As always, this is a highly subjective question, wholly dependent on your style—and, of course, your relationship status.
The Draw: The Marina’s prettiest people flock to Bin 38 for its list of 51 wines by the glass, menu of vino-friendly nibbles—and people watching, of course. With its ample selection of wines and three distinctly different seating areas, Bin 38 has a little bit of something for everyone.
The Draw: In what can sometimes feel like a sexually predatory city, Mural puts the “meet” back into “meat market.” Not only does it bring a semblance of civility to the mating game, it does a better job than its budget-bar rivals of attracting a cosmopolitan crowd. It’s busy every night of the week, especially Fridays when there’s a 100RMB all-you-can-drink deal.
The Draw: New Yorkers work hard, but they play hard too—and this sleek bar is their cocktail-soaked playground.
