
New York’s 71 Irving Place Cafe
71 is the kind of place which is small enough to miss, but once you see it, you realize everyone somehow knows about it. It’s set three steps down from the sidewalk level, and it’s always packed, except for week late nights and mid-mornings. Even though their service is not the friendliest — like any other spot in New York that’s too cool for school — 71 has a noticeably loyal clientele. Lots of writers hang out with their computers, while photographers check out the scene, and artists meet up with their reps. Besides hot and cold drinks, including their own coffee, they also offer a great selection of pastries, sandwiches and my friend Nicolas’ favorite chicken soup ever.
Tagged: cafes, New Food and Packaging, New York, New York cafes
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Grom: real Italian gelato in New York
Passionate about gelato? The second best to going to Italy is going to Grom. More than $4 for a small cup? A long line? It’s so worth it, trust me. They opened a store in ice cream battleground, the West Village, but my choice is the more quiet and chilled Upper West Side store. A secret tip to a short wait is to never go there after dinner. Early in the day is the short cut to a cup of Extra Noir chocolate. Or any other taste of your choice.

Located on Manhattan’s Crosby Street, the Housing Works cafe is a great place to browse around a huge collection of used and new books. The Used Book Cafe is not only that — they also have live music, readings and book signings. And even better is that one hundred percent of their profits go to Housing Works, a non-profit that helps the homeless.

On those rare occasions when I feel the need to treat myself to an absolutely mind (and wallet) blowing meal, I love to come here. The restaurant is housed in an old diner (the old trailer style diners) which makes for some fun ambiance. Plus, the menu changes every week, so there’s never a written menu. The waiter comes out with a pen and writes the entire menu down on the butcher paper covering your table. Aside from all that, the food is absolutely unbelievable!
Also by FERNANDA COHEN

Children’s Book workshop in New York
I’m producing a children’s book workshop led by Selina Alko and Sean Qualls [above] at the Society of Illustrators of New York on Wednesday, October 28. Their clients include Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Henry Holt, Scholastic, Lee and Low Books and Knopf. It’s perfect for illustrators who want to break into the picture book industry and need that extra push and solid pointers.

Fernanda Cohen solo show in Argentina
I opened a solo show at the prestigious Centro Cultural Borges in Buenos Aires on Thursday. Called Water Makes Me Wet, the exhibition runs until the end of the month. I also just finished a set of window displays for high-end, Argentine fashion designer, Martin Churba, which opened last week. Martin Churba’s window displays can be seen at Tramando until September 6th, 2009. They’re co-related to the exhibition. Read more

Corkboard: Remember What You Want
Corkboard makes my life easier, and if you’re a detail-oriented, hyper-productive, compulsive networker, perfectionist workaholic, it’s very likely it will help you too. Though it also helps avid readers, foodies, travelers, shopaholics, and just about anyone really. Why? Because it’s the first time I can combine hundreds of typed lists, tons of little notes, bookmarks, restaurants and books I see on the go, and just my own thoughts in one single place. Read more
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I’m a big fan of Fernanda Cohen’s work. The Brooklyn-based illustrator — and sometime Lost At E Minor contributor — has just completed a new series called War of Words which has received two silver medals from the Society of Illustrators of NY and LA, and will be featured in HOW International Design in March. Read more
You don’t have to venture far in Bangladesh to encounter a rickshaw, the nation’s most popular means of transport. Read more
This pendant by Portland designer Stephanie Stimek hangs from an eighteen inch 14 carat gold chain. Made from a Japanese quail egg, the entire shell has been coated in plastic for strength and is available for purchase through the Lost At E Minor store.
Kristian Olson’s illustrations look like Magic Eye posters that have come to life as marauding, fractal-shooting creatures from Technicolor hell. Read more
We got the inside word from Josh Diamond of New York experimental group, Gang Gang Dance, on the music that is moving him right now and he started off by propping the beautiful Ryuichi Sakamoto track, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence: ‘It’s just an amazing piece of music — serene, austere (in a heavy, beautiful way), emotional, a great mix of electronic sounds, patient, and a wonderful melody, with a quality of yearning for a better place. Every time I listen to this song, it puts me in a trance’. Read the rest of Gang Gang Dance’s Secret Playlist.
Run Wrake is an illustrator and animator based in London whose recent short animation Rabbit has turned him into an underground hero. Read more
It goes without saying that Hip Hop has taken a few very low hits in the past decade. Thanks to the likes of 50 Cent and company, it accounts for around 40% of all music sold in America. It’s a huge industry. So where does that leave Hip Hop artists doing something a bit different? Lord T and Eloise wear wacky outfits, make crazy music and bring a whole lot of fun back into Hip Hop. What’s more, they’ve started a new genre called ‘Aristocrunk’. Watch out!
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST

Italian-born, New York City-based photographer Paolo Ventura creates fairy-tale like pictures out of amazingly constructed, miniature dioramas that almost trick the eye into thinking he’s a tilt-shift photographer. Read more

Check out Mike Stimpson’s Lego reinterpretations of classic photographs. Stimpson’s version of Malcolm Browne’s iconic 1963 photograph of the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc is particularly twisted. Read more

Forget battery powered vehicles. Cars made from ice are the future of transportation: no pollution, no honking horns, no painful rap music blasting out of souped up stereos. And if they melt, they melt. You just swim the rest of the way down the slipstream.

Alex Passapera’s dizzying pen and ink drawings are cascades of images melting into one another, often looking like contorting, mutating creatures spewing blood-like ink splatters. Read more

Creative advertising packaging
Despite the intentions of many, it’s not so often that advertising — as an industry — truly thinks outside the box. Yet, when executed well, clever eye-catching advertising actually works. It does. As these examples will attest to. Read more
Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more
Your enemies can always be counted upon to be just that. Unfortunately, your friends sometimes cannot.
Created by graphic-tee fashion label, the-affair, and printed on beautifully soft American Apparel in a limited edition of 200. Purchase now. Read more
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Mariel said | 28 February, 2009
My sister lives a block away from Cafe 71 in NYC. I try to go there as often as I can when I’m visiting her, even though I have the rest of the city to explore.