New York thread

[mike]

i dunno i feel balthazar is too commercial and lacks the precision required to achieve subtle qualities such as texture. even tho a lot of it looks good and tastes alright, there is always something off. in particular, i find their canelé unsettling.
i'm starting to feel the same way about ceci cela. their croissants (and variations of) are still solid, but i avoid pretty much everything else.
i've always wanted to go to almondine but never find myself to be in dumbo.
i think my clothing obsession has shifted in the direction of pastry.

[endersgame]

^^ financier is the most commercial tasting.

balthazar always tastes stale, and wtf a $25 bread basket?

bergamote is also stale tasting..

ceci looks like it will fail health inspections.

nothing tastes traditional here, but i like city bakery the most in terms of croissants and breakfast breads..

there's a new bakery on smith st and atlantic ave that opened up. i forget the name, but it had some killer croissants..

i don't know why baked goods always come up in this thread. nyc sucks in this dept..

[interest1]

oh ferfucksake, you two..

Just start a Pastry Wars thread already. And take the suicide smiley with you.

[t-bone]

The spot on Smith is Bien Cuit. It's very good but I haven't tried their croissant yet. I'll also mention Patisserie Claude in the west village though I haven't been in a while and I believe he retired and it's now run by his long time assistant.

[Faust]

Was that the guy who retired because the price of flour has gone up significantly and he refused to charge Manhattan prices?

[PoubelleMaBelle]

any recommendations on where to take a basic sewing/alterations class?

[Patroklus]

Check Google for places that sell sewing machines, and call to ask about lessons. Most offer free lessons along with the purchase of a machine. A lot of community colleges also offer sewing classes, for considerably less cost than a design college.

you can feel free to ask me questions but I will only answer them in return for artistic nude photographs of yourself

[laughed]

any recommendations on where to take a basic sewing/alterations class?

sewing is a b****.
just buy a cheap home sewing machine and watch videos on youtube and buy a couple books. you'll get the basic stuff down.
if you plan on sewing full-blown garments, plan on investing years of practice, or better yet - have someone else sew it.

[Patroklus]

feh
not only are 90% of the youtube sewing tutorials I've seen utter shit, anyone can learn to sew anything short of a tailored suit or couture gown with a few months of lessons from a talented instructor.

[Ochre]

Anyone else going to Chris Corsano @ The Stone tonight?

[laughed]

feh
not only are 90% of the youtube sewing tutorials I've seen utter shit, anyone can learn to sew anything short of a tailored suit or couture gown with a few months of lessons from a talented instructor.

sorry, but no way. it takes years of experience to sew a perfectly tailored suit or couture gown. i went to fashion school - thus, i was forced to sew. I sewed for years straight, along with my classmates obviously...to compare even the best of my classmates work with that of my best instructor (who taught some of the best himself) - is like comparing chicken scratch to calligraphy. the master (rick) personally told me that having garments sewn by anyone other than "done it forever sewing ladies" is a bad idea. once he told me this, i sold my machines and have never sewn a thing in my life...i take whatever i need made to just that - done it forever sewing ladies. sure, i can sew a suit, and it will look damn good...but compared to people who have been sewing all of their lives - no way. i only say this because i have been around, worked with and spoken to many designers and great people who can work a needle - and i have respect for the craft and i have learned that this is the case. i once thought i could sew until i begin to understand what makes a great tailored suit. some people have dedicated their lives to sewing - and these people are the ONLY people sewing fine garments. There's a difference between a perfectly straight line and a line that drifts a 16th of an inch.
Not only that, but there's no way in hell someone can learn how to sew a suit unless you understand how a pattern is made, and this cannot be taught in a few months. crappy, sure, good - no way.

[Patroklus]

anything short of. I never said they could sew a suit or gown with months of experience. Shirts, pants, banana hammocks, these garments just don't require skills that couldn't be learned by a dedicated student in a fairly small amount of time.

[laughed]

yeah i get it. anything short of. no way.
you gotta know how to make patterns. you can't just start sewing stuff.
all of these things go hand and hand. you start sewing seams. and you start with sewing things like tunics and understanding how tunics are made. these are simple. then you must learn basic bodice construction. pattern making, draping, etc. without understanding how the garment is made you can't sew it. it's just that simple.
jeans are just as difficult to sew as a tailored suit. a suit has more patterns but you can't just hand over a pattern of a pocket and say - go for it. like i said - you want a shi**y garment - yeah, you're right.
dedicated student? a few months? let's put it this way - you take a class somewhere for 3 months and go for 2 hours a day, 3 days a week - you're not gonna be sewing a shirt that looks like it came off the rack. maybe your idea of quality differs from mine. student work - yes. something i would actually wear - NO. I don't care who you are - it's not gonna happen.
when the question is asked about sewing - it is also asked about patternmaking, draping and other foundation skills. you gotta know it all chief.

[Patroklus]

Sewing, pattern drafting, and draping are separate disciplines - you could do any of the three without being an expert in the others, and that happens in the industry all of the time.

jeans are just as difficult to sew as a tailored suit.

That's absurd!

dedicated student? a few months? let's put it this way - you take a class somewhere for 3 months and go for 2 hours a day, 3 days a week - you're not gonna be sewing a shirt that looks like it came off the rack.

I see plenty of garbage on the racks*, stuff that I would have picked out and resewn if I was capable of making such egregious mistakes, and the biggest factor in that sort of thing happening is that a lot of garment factories just don't take the time to do it properly, which gives bad results no matter how talented your seamsters are. But that isn't the point; most garments require nothing more complicated than sewing in the round and a little bit of blind seamwork, neither of which are difficult to do if you're willing to take the time to do them properly. I don't want to slight the skills involved in expert sewing, but you've gone far beyond honoring the craft. You're fetishizing it.

*Even the racks at Barneys, Saks, et al.

[darkbydesign]

I can usually make decisions for myself quickly, but moving to New York is pretty amazing and I honestly cannot decide which of the following two places to live. There are tons of nice apartments in Midtown East(say 40s-60th East of Park) and Hell's Kitchen/Midtown West (say mid 30s to 50s out there). I'll be working on UES, but don't mind the public commute from either location.

I've got all week to view and find the right apartment but I've looked at some and many are just fine for me. So I need some advice from more locals to push me one way or the other.... Most of my friends think both locations are decent.

Any thoughts would be fantastic. Thx