The long awaited Harlem Shake restaurant is finally open to the public today, offering a tasty menu that includes griddled burgers, New York-style hot dogs, and hand-spun shakes.  Located on the corner of Lenox Avenue and 124^th street, Harlem Shake gets its inspiration from Harlem’s rich culture and energy, as well as the iconic “original” Harlem Shake dance. The idea for the restaurant was in fact developed before the recent Harlem Shake viral video craze, but all of that free publicity and awareness doesn’t hurt.

I was welcomed for a preview of Harlem Shake the other day by co-owner Jelena Pasic, who was very excited to show the interior which features a retro design by Dennis Decker. It definitely gave off an old school diner vibe, which will be unique to the area. I got a kick out of the eye-catching “Wall of Fame” which featured an impressive collection photographs signed by a bunch of well known stars,  as well as Harlem Shake’s restroom with walls that showcase vintage covers of JET magazine.

After scoping out the joint, I was ready to taste the goods. I went with the spicey “Hot Mess Burger” with hand-cut fries and a “Red Velvet Shake” which had bits of Red Velvet cake in it, and yes it was as delicious as it sounds. I sat in one of the comfortable booths right next to “Miss Harlem Shake,”  a life-sized lenticular photo of Harlem resident and fashion model Shannon Thornton. Harlem Shake is a great place to take a date, or eat with friends, but at about $8.00 a burger (without fries) it is a bit expensive to take the family and kids out to eat after a movie.

According to Harlem Shake, other delights on the menu include the signature Harlem Classic – two 2-ounce custom blend Pat la Frieda beef patties ground fresh daily and griddled smashed-style for crisp browning and served on a toasted Martin’s Potato Roll with house-made condiments. Specialties also include the Pigskin Classic topped with crisp fried pork rinds and the Jerk Fry Burger topped with jerk-seasoned, triple-cooked fries and smoked jerk mayo, as well as juicy turkey burgers and house-made vegan burgers. Let’s not forget the New York-style all-beef hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, grilled cheeses/melts, kale and legume salads, and fries hand cut from Kennebec or sweet potatoes.

Old-school, handcrafted milkshakes are said to be made with whole, all-natural ingredients, and local products like ice cream from Blue Marble, organic milk from New York Fresh Milk, and peanut butter from Peanut Butter & Co., as well as seasonal fruit and hand-spun additions like house-made salted caramel sauce and malt. Sticking with a vintage diner theme, Harlem Shake also has a nice selection of vintage real sugar sodas and regional specialty sodas including Cheerwine Cherry Soda, Vernor’s Detroit Ginger, Foxson Park Birch Beer, along with a selection of draft beers and house wines.

Harlem Shake’s Jelena Pasic also mentioned that they expect to open an outdoor seating area in the near future, which will make this a nice new spot in Harlem this summer.

 “Our aim is to celebrate the soul of the neighborhood and reinvigorate modern Harlem with a bit of nostalgia and a nod to pop culture,” explains Pasic. “Not to mention, bring residents and visitors high-quality, affordable offerings in a welcoming environment.”

Welcome to the neighborhood Harlem Shake!

Black Ink Crew premieres tonight, January 7th at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Enter the world of the “Black Ink Crew” and meet the girls and guys that run the only black-owned and operated tattoo parlor in the heart of Harlem at 113th St. and Lennox Ave. The employees are a tight, but totally dysfunctional “family.” For many of them, this shop is the key to turning their lives around, and for some of them, it’s their first legitimate job off the streets. To the people who work there, Black Ink is more than just one of the most famous –and infamous– tattoo shops in the country…its home.

The shop is also a magnet for hip-hop stars and athletes, but the real flavor comes from the quite colorful characters that walk into the shop on a daily basis. Inside the doors of Black Ink, you never know what you are going to get. From the sexy new girl on the block, Dutchess, to the party animal of the group, Puma, the characters are crazy, sexy, funny and, most of all, loveable. This hour-long docu-series follows the lives of Ceaser, Dutchess, Alex, Sassy, Puma, and O’ S**t, as they work, live, party, and hang out in Harlem. “Black Ink Crew” explores the friendships, crushes, rivalries and craziness that comes when a group of friends become family.

Harlem Harvest Festival Schedule is as follows:

ON STAGE PROGRAMMING

Services have been announced for the late Sylvia Woods, the “Queen of Soul Food” and founder of the world-famous Sylvia’s Restaurant in Harlem.   To celebrate the life of Sylvia Woods,  a public viewing and service will be held on Tuesday, July 24th 2012 from 10 a.m. at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem with Reverend Calvin O. Butts.  Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, July 25th at 11 a.m. at Grace Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon, NY with long-time family friend Reverend Al Sharpton delivering the eulogy.  The Woods family is asking that donations be made to the Sylvia and Herbert Woods Foundation c/o Sylvia’s Restaurant, located at 328 Lenox Avenue New York, NY 10027, in lieu of flowers.

Related articles

• Harlem loses a culinary matriarch: Sylvia Woods of Sylvias(harlemtrends.com)

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• MAISON HARLEM Restaurant BISTRO to open in Harlem(harlemtrends.com)

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• The Studio Museum in Harlem – Summer 2012 Exhibitions and Projects(harlemtrends.com)

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And don’t miss the Harlem Book Fair and Total Equity Now‘s first annual “Literacy Across Harlem” March at 10:30 a.m., which will take over 135th Street for a great cause.

Schedule:

QBR The Black Book Review’s Author Panels in the Langston Hughes Auditorium:

MY FAVORITE BOOK STORY: BRING YOUR STORY!
In Partnership with QBR The Black Book Review
11 am  –  12:15 pm
Hosts: Max Rodriguez, Founder – QBR The Black Book Review, The Harlem Book Fair; Roland Barksdale-Hall, Managing Editor – QBR The Black Book Review

AUTHOR TO AUTHOR: THE AFRICAN AMERICAN READER AND NEXT GENERATION PUBLISHING with ZANE, CHARMAINE R. PARKER, and CAROL MACKEY
12:30 pm  –  1:45 pm

WHO IS FAILING WHOM? BLACK MALES and THE AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
2:00 pm  –  3:15 pm
Moderator: Dr. Carlton E. Brown, President, Clark Atlanta University
Panelists: Dr. Akil Khalfani (The Hidden Debate); Baruti Kafele (Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School and in Life); Dr. John Michael Lee, Jr. (The Educational Experience of Young Men of Color); Dr. Shaun Harper (Student Engagement in Higher Education)

DECISION 2012: RACE, DEMOCRACY and THE NEW JIM CROW
TIME:  3:30 pm  –  4:45 pm
Moderator: Peniel Joseph (Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama)
Panelists: Khalil Gibran Muhammad (The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America); Cornel West (Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism); Fredrick C. Harris (The Price of the Ticket: Barack Obama and Rise and Decline of Black Politics); Sonia Sanchez, author and activist (Shake Loose My Skin)

WHAT PASSES FOR FREEDOM: THE 150TH YEAR CELEBRATION OF THE EMANICIPATION PROCLAMATION
5:00p  –  6:15p
MODERATOR: Christopher Paul Moore (Fighting for America: Black Soldiers – The Unsung Heroes of World War II; The Black New Yorkers: 400 Years of African American History)
PANELISTS: Nell Irvin Painter (The History of White People), Obrey Hendricks, Jr. (The Universe Bends Toward Justice: Radical Reflections on the Bible, the Church, and the Body Politic); Farah Jasmine Griffin (Who Set You Flowin’?: The African-American Migration Narrative)

Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, is slated to open an East Harlem space next month as the museum’s Upper East Side headquarters undergoes a renovation, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The move, to 111 Central Park North at Malcolm X Boulevard, comes as part of a campaign to give the museum new venues around the city, according to the Journal.

The museum recently held an exhibit at the United Nations and will hold another one on Governor’s Island.  The 1,500-square-foot space will open May 12.

The new space, leased for a four-year period, will be called the Cooper-Hewitt Design Center and will hold free workshops for children, teens and adults.

The renovation of the main headquarters, at 2 East 91st Street at Fifth Avenue, which is Andrew Carnegie’s former mansion, will increase the museum’s space by 60 percent to 16,000 square feet, the Journal said. It will reopen in 2014.

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• Camilo José Vergara – Photographs of Harlem: The People and Harlem: The Place(harlemtrends.com)

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See larger image Design for Life: Our Daily Lives, the Spaces We Shape & the Ways We Communicate, as Seen Through the Collections of Cooper-Hewitt Natio (Paperback) By (author) Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Susan Yelavich, Stephen Doyle List Price: $22.01 USD New From: $1.79 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock

On May 17th, Corner Social  will open its doors, its sidewalk cafe and its arms to this vibrant community, offering an effortlessly inviting place to dine and drink while absorbing the area’s pulsing future and storied past. The bar and restaurant had a soft open this Spring with modified hours and a modified menu. The Corner Social, which wraps the entire northwest corner of 126th Street and Lenox Avenue, is the vision of social-life entrepreneur and local owner Anahi Angelone. It’s exactly the kind of place she’d dream up: part local tavern, part after-party, part exclusive club where everyone is a welcomed member. It’s where old friends meet up for dinner and new ones are made around the communal table. It’s exactly where you want to start the evening for dinner and drinks, or spend an entire prime time gabbing over great food, or end up after for a midnight snack.

Running the length of its interior space is a 20-foot bar that feels like home, if home had 40+ brands of bottled beer, an 18-tap brass beer box, an enticing specialty cocktail list and a beat. It’s hard not to feel like you are celebrating something here- even if that something is just a Tuesday night in New York City. The history is here in the reclaimed subway tiles, punched tin ceilings and century-old wood, but today’s Harlem lets this bar’s style and vibe shine through. It’s a cool that knows better than to try too hard, yet manages to get it oh so right.

Behind the voices hums what could be New York’s best background music, punctuated by the celebratory ping of glasses clinking together and a chorus of variations on “yum,” and “aaah,” as they tuck into plates that taste even better than they look.

Think pork belly practically melting in your mouth, or semolina crusted branzino – first the crunch, then the sweet soft center, then share. Or think bar favorites with a twist like Cheeseburger Spring Rolls and local “Hot Bread Kitchen” Nachos sourced from La Marqueta in East Harlem. Come back for brunch and you’ll find Cornflake crusted French toast stuffed with banana and mascarpone, topped with maple crème fraiche. Executive Chef, Jonathan Romans has already spread his own particular Pixie dust around some of New York City’s most exciting restaurant audiences and projects, from Tribeca Grill and the Essex House’s Southgate, to the creation and building of Ze Café. Of course it’s all fresh, seasonal and is even sourced from local partners that serve the community.

All this among stylish tweed banquette seating and earthy interior that practically begs you to relax and have fun. Accents of soft amber light flicker from sconces and pendants, framing diners to the outside world through gorgeous glass and wood expansive doors. On cooler days, the steel wrapped fireplace – the centerpiece of the interior space – offers an extra layer of warmth while groups of friends perch at long communal tables facing flat screen TVs. In warmer weather, the sidewalk cafe is a sublime people-watching venue with full kitchen and bar menus.

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• Harlem often featured in this Sunday’s New York Times (harlemtrends.com)
• National Jazz Museum in Harlem announces March 2012 Schedule (harlemtrends.com)
• Hedge Fund Manager’s Driver Shoots East Harlem Robber (harlemworldmag.com)

For those of you looking for an excuse not to cook this Thanksgiving, a friend at Red Rooster brought to our attention that November 24 they will be having a Thanksgiving Celebration for the first time.  Upstairs, a prix-fixe menu will be available for lunch, from 12:00 – 3:00 p.m.; and for dinner, from 5:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Downstairs, in the restaurant’s private dining space, A Thanksgiving brunch buffet will be available from 12:00 – 3:00 p.m. and a Thanksgiving dinner buffet from 5:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.  Check the link for menu details.

The food is always good here so I am looking forward to checking out their Thanksgiving Dinner.