Tag: east village

Downtown Highlights: Funny Face Bakery – Hilarious, Delicious, and A-dough-rable Cookies

Post author By Samantha Doria
Post date September 2, 2021

Hilarious, Delicious, and A-dough-rable Cookies

In this episode of Downtown Highlights, we visited Funny Face Bakery, where they make a variety of very detailed, hand-piped cookies.

About Funny Face Bakery

Funny Face Bakery They are located in the Seaport District at 6 Fulton St, New York, NY 10038

Funny Face Bakery was founded in 2016, Sarah Silverman opened her first bakery in East Village. She gained attention for her cupcakes, made with Swiss meringue buttercream. Silverman debuted her face cookies in August 2016 for the first time with the faces of the 2016 Presidential Candidates. These cookies quickly gained a lot of attention. As a result, Silverman hired a cookie decorating team to keep up with the demand.

Some classic cookies at Funny Face Bakery: Kim Kardashian Crying, Leonardo DiCaprio as the Great Gatsby, You’re Doing Amazing Sweetie Meme, and an Adidas Sneaker.

Each cookie is made with a laser printer cookie cutter to ensure each cookie is the exact shape needed. Cookies go through two rounds of icing, first a base coat of icing and then the detailed hand piping. The making of one cookie can take 20 to 30 minutes to make depending on how involved the design is.

Five deluxe cookies at Funny Face Bakery: Chocolate Chip, Rainbow Crumbfetti, Double Chocolate, S’mores, and Oatmeal Raisin

They also have freshly baked, 6-ounce deluxe cookies that come in flavors including double chocolate, chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and more.

Some of Funny Face’s best-selling cookies are the Kardashian cookies, the Harry Style Cookies, the Birthday-themed Cookies, and the Mean Girl’s themed cookies. Funny Face Bakery’s animal cookies, such as the horses and dinosaurs, are very popular among kids. They will also make personalized cookies of your face or your pet, the perfect gift for someone who loves sweets.

Tasting the Cookies at Funny Face Bakery

These cookies taste as beautiful as they look! Since Funny Face Bakery has not yet developed gluten-free options, Sam did the tasting in this episode. First, she tries a birthday-themed decorated cookie. This cookie was absolutely beautiful and sweet. She almost felt bad for eating such a detailed piece of art. The second cookie Sam tries is the deluxe double chocolate cookie. This cookie was so gooey and soft, and of course, very chocolatey.

Funny Face Bakery is Something Really Special

This bakery is one of a kind. There are no other bakeries nearby that create as detailed and beautiful cookies as Funny Face Bakery. Also, Funny Face is in on internet culture, allowing them to relate well with people, especially younger generations, with their celebrity and meme cookies. Funny Face Bakery is definitely worth the visit!

For more Downtown Highlights episodes, click here.

Tags birthday, Britney Spears, celebrity, chocolate, chocolate chip, cookies, custom desserts, deluxe cookies, Downtown, east village, Gifts, Harry Styles, Kim Kardashian, Memes, NYC, oatmeals, sugar cookies, treats

Art Culture NYC

The Color of Things

Post author By Dan Metz
Post date February 6, 2020

Painter, artist, and author Kelly Fischer has been a woman between worlds since she was 22 years old. More specifically, the day that the 22-year-old college student from Memphis met a young Swiss man on the second day of her study abroad. They got married, and she decided to stay. Since then, Fischer has spent her time split between Bern, Memphis, and New York City. Today, she works to define the differences between her worlds, and the similarities that link them, through her painting. Her current exhibition, Blending Worlds, is a combination of pieces that seek to articulate the feel and energy of her favorite parts of Downtown Manhattan and her home in Switzerland.

Blending Worlds is a combination between her Street Art series, inspired by NYC, and other pieces inspired by her time in Switzerland. Each piece of abstract art tries to capture the culture, energy, and interactions of the people wherever she goes. Especially the interactions; her goal, she says, is to make the lines and the colors so cohesive that everyone feels included. “It’s about connection. The lines, the circles, everything has to connect with each other.”

Before her professional career as an artist, Fischer was an educator and administrator at a Montessori school in Switzerland. She started her professional career in the arts by creating children’s books–she has written 12 to date–blending two more worlds. Eight years later, she quit her education job and became a professional painter and children’s book author. She has blended those worlds as well, with an interactive exhibition of her best selling book, “The Most Beautiful Color of All.”

Much of Fischer’s current exhibition came from her Street Art series, which draws on the souls of different downtown neighborhoods. Each one, she says, inspires her a different way, affecting her style. Avenue B, in the East Village, was colorful and lively, with a lot of movement. “The East Village felt like there were no rules,” she said, which inspired her to push her artistic limits and try new things. Tribeca’s energy, she said, felt more like Switzerland. “People don’t think out of the box as much.”

For Fischer, Downtown Manhattan is a home away from home. Seven years ago, shortly after she became a full-time artist, she stayed on Perry St in the West Village. She still gushes about it today. “It felt like home, and I knew that I wanted to spend more time there.” And she has, but she hasn’t limited herself to Perry St. She splits time between the West Village, East Village, Bowery, SoHo, and Tribeca. Cipriani’s is her favorite restaurant, and she loves the Bowery Hotel, especially the lobby. “It is the style of me.”

The exhibition’s host, the Swiss Consulate, is especially meaningful to Fischer, and her art. For the first time, she gets to express her two worlds, and she gets to do so in a building that does the same. After this show ends, catch Kelly Fischer in Madrid or Toledo for her next shows, or back in Downtown Manhattan for a short documentary exploring the influences behind her street art series through six exhibitions in four countries. The film was accepted at NYC International Film Festival and East Hampton TV Art and Film Festival.

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Tags art, consulate, Dan Metz, Downtown, east village, Gallery, kelly fischer, manhattan, paint, painting, swiss consulate, Switzerland

Culture Entertainment Events Featured Music NYC Theater

Bowie homage by Raquel Cion returns to the East Village

Post author By Deb Martin
Post date January 18, 2020

Raquel Cion In tribute to David Bowie — Raquel Cion in Me & Mr. Jones, photo by Steven Menendez

Me & Mr. Jones: My Intimate Relationship with David Bowie is writer/performer Raquel Cion’s homage to the music icon’s artistry and his humanity, and to her own lifelong Bowie “soul love.” In her 90-minute cabaret performance at Pangea (178 Second Ave., New York), Cion takes us through her highs and lows, bracketed by David Bowie’s music, his life, and his death, told with humor, emotion, and passion. She describes her youthful misadventures growing up in Connecticut, her relationships, and her battle with breast cancer, and connects all of those things through the words and mysticism of an artist who meant so much, to so many.

The New York Times described Cion as “half witch… half cabaret performer,” and she lives up to that accolade. She is not an impersonator, or a cover artist. She seems somehow to embody the very spirit of David Bowie, the ultimate shape-shifter, the master of multiple personas, and the creative genius who challenged every single idea in the world of art, performance, music, and beyond.

Raquel Cion channels David Bowie, photo by Deborah Martin

Cion weaves her own story into the Bowie timeline, finding parallels with wry humor, sharing her pain, and her joy. She quotes Bowie, “I’m a born librarian with a sex drive,” and reveals that she is, in fact, a librarian. After the artist’s untimely death from cancer in 2016, Cion was diagnosed with breast cancer, and while being treated with radiation, she discovers that her tech’s name is Aladdin, like the Bowie alter ego, Aladdin Sane. She notes that during treatment she was a block away when Bowie’s art collection was auctioned off by Sotheby’s. She delights in the fact that her home in Brooklyn is in the same zip code as the Brooklyn Museum’s massive David Bowie Is retrospective, and slyly reveals that she found an error in one of the displays. Naturally she sought out the curator to inform him.

Cion is a true Bowie fan but this show is so much more than just a true fan’s tribute to a great artist. Her experience will resonate with anyone who has ever taken solace in music, with anyone who has been considered “other” in any capacity. It is a tale of love, and of finding something meaningful in a world that can sometimes work hard to strip away the meaningful things. Cion’s performance is theatrical and unapologetically emotional, and while the show is seen through the mournful lens of the death of David Bowie, it is also delivered with a spirit of joy, and a lesson about cultivating and celebrating individuality.

Me & Mr. Jones: My Intimate Relationship with David Bowie will return to Pangea on Friday, February 21 and Saturday, February 22, and again on March 13 and 14.

Tags Aladdin sane, Black Star, Bowie, bowie tribute, Cabaret, clubs, david bowie, Downtown, east village, events, Lazarus, musical performance, pangea, raquel cion, show, starman, ziggy stardust

Dining Restaurants

Where to Feast On Christmas Day in Downtown NYC

Post author By Aida M. Toro
Post date December 23, 2019

After feasting and partying with friends on Christmas Eve, many want to go out for a nice meal on Christmas Day, whether it be prior to opening presents or after. Downtown Manhattan contains some of the best restaurants that’ll give your palette the merriest Christmas ever.

Bubby’s:

This Downtown New York City staple will be opened on Christmas Day which is such a delight because what better place to be at with your family on this special holiday? Both the Meatpacking and Tribeca locations will offer their brunch menu. Of course, their fluffy pancakes, finger-licking good fried chicken, as well as some holiday goodies such as Swedish pancakes with lingonberry, eggnog pie, and roasted duck cranberry hash will be served from 8 AM to 4 PM.

73 Gansevoort Street, 212-219-0666 and 120 Hudson Street, 212-219-0666

Tuome:

Strut over to this quaint Michelin-starred East Village restaurant. A one of a kind three-course Christmas menu will be offered and is priced at $82 per person. You’ll have the opportunity to order dishes such as persimmon with scallop, amaranth, calamansi, the “Pig Out” with Berkshire pork and spicy peanut noodles as well as beignets with goat’s milk caramel on Christmas Day!

536 E 5th Street, 646-833-7811

Quality Eats:

This steakhouse brought to you by the prominent butchers at Smith & Wollensky and Quality Meats will be opened on Christmas Day and will showcase a Chinese family-style dinner for $48 a person. Come on down and have some Dim Sum, Mott Street “Hot” Chicken, Beef Short Rib Char Siu, some Crab Cake Fried Rice, and so much more.

19 Greenwich Avenue, 212-337-9988

Harolds at the Arlo in Soho:

A fantastic fact about Harold’s is that it’ll be offering an A La Carte menu on Christmas Day. The most amazing part is that there is no need for a hotel reservation to take advantage of this! This special Christmas menu will feature a tortellini stew with squash, kale, and beans, a roast Christmas duck à l’orange, prime rib, Parker House rolls, and a delectable Gingerbread Cake.

231 Hudson St, 212-390-8484

Dirty French:

This LES hot-spot is offering a prix fixe for $125 a person. The Christmas Day menu will feature dishes such as the Bourguignon, grilled oysters with garlic and parsley, Tuna Tartare, the restaurant’s prestigious Chicken with dijon and chanterelles, Steak Au Poivre with green peppercorns, and so much more. Make it one of the finest Christmases ever by dining at Dirty French!

180 Ludlow Street, 212-254-3000

The Fulton:

This Jean-Georges seafood locale is doing it up by offering the typical three-course prix-fixe for $108 per person. This menu is featuring some favorites from the regular menu, such as the Faroe Island salmon, longevity noodles, warm octopus and mozzarella. Seasonal desserts such as the special buche de noel will be offered as well. Of course, you cannot go wrong with some of the best views in the house!

89 South Street, 212-838-1200

Temple Court:

Tom Colicchio does it again this holiday season at Temple Court. Located in The Beekman, Temple Court will offer a three-course prix fixe menu for $125 a person. This glamorous menu will give you the option to choose holiday favorites such as the Waldorf salad, potato gnocchi, and seared foie gras to begin your feast. Main dishes such as the Strip Loing and Duck a l’Orange will be offered. As for dessert, a Honey Custard Tart and Gingerbread Yule Log are two out of the four options that’ll provide you with that sweet ending.

5 Beekman Street, 212-658-1848

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Tags Arlo Hotel Soho, bubby's, Christmas, Christmas Day, Dirty French, east village, lower east side, Quality Eats, Temple Court, The Fulton, Tom Colicchio, Tribeca, Tuome, west village restaurants

Dining Featured Indulgence

Holiday Cupcake Craze in Downtown NYC

Post author By Aida M. Toro
Post date December 16, 2019

Here in Manhattan, every holiday season is a grand miracle for everyone. Some of those miracles are made via dessert, especially cupcakes, since cupcakes are known as muffins that believed in miracles. Many ask where they can find a solid cupcake in the Big Apple throughout the holiday season. Fear no more, because Downtown Magazine has rounded up five bakeries that offer mouthwatering cupcakes.

Funny Face Bakery by Cupcake Market:

Although Cupcake Market changed its name to Funny Face Bakery due to the popularity of spot-on celebrity Funny Faces and realistic Custom Face Cookies, cupcakes are still sold and are one of a kind as they are literally dense and moist. These guys will provide you with that ideal bite of a cupcake and finger-licking good frosting that will make you smile from ear to ear. Not to mention that the frosting is so light that you won’t feel overwhelmed with the sweetness! The banana cupcake with strawberry icing topped with freshly diced strawberries is quite a favorite and is one to have you purchasing seconds!

Holiday Cupcake Craze in Downtown NYC — Funny Face Bakery

74 East 7th Street
New York, NY

Sprinkles New York- Brookfield Place

Yes, Sprinkles is a major franchise. The location in Brookfield Place, however, is like no other. This Sprinkles location is rather small and is conveniently nestled across the street from the iconic World Trade Center and connected to the Oculus and Westfield Mall. The walk-up counter is splendid for those who go through the city’s hustle and bustle due to the fact that they can get their sugar fix in a heartbeat before heading to their destination. These cupcakes are baked fresh in miniature batches throughout the day and are made from top-notch ingredients. What’s even better is that pickup and delivery services are offered at this location!

225 Liberty St. Suite 241
New York, NY

Little Cupcake Bakeshop

Little Cupcake Bakeshop’s story began in Brooklyn back in 2005. Nowadays, there is a location in the heart of Soho which is such a delight. This bakery doesn’t only concentrate on baking cupcakes, but all of the classic American desserts you can think of. All baked goods are baked by utilizing fresh and sustainable ingredients, which are locally sourced from farms in the Hudson Valley, Catskills, Vermont, and New Jersey. Baking is also done in small batches right at the bakery every single day. Of course, Little Cupcake Bakeshop paid homage to Downtown’s Old Little Italy by creating the “Mott Street” cupcake, which is their take on tiramisu. This cupcake consists of a vanilla bean cake soaked in Illy espresso and topped with homemade mascarpone frosting.

30 Prince Street
New York, NY

Erin McKenna’s Bakery NYC

If you are trying to stay away from dairy, gluten, eggs, and all of that jazz…then Erin McKenna’s Bakery in the Lower East Side is the place for you to grab your cupcakes. Ingredients for cupcakes and other treats are selected in a responsible manner. Not to mention that natural sweeteners are used moderately. This bakery’s main objective is to
make vegan and gluten-free eating fun and tasty. One of the flavors that folks rage about is the Thin Mint Cupcake which literally tastes like a Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookie!

248 Broome Street
New York, NY

Magnolia Bakery- West Village

You can’t go wrong with grabbing a couple of cupcakes from this New York City Classic. Especially from the West Village location. There is a variety of cupcake flavors and each one is charming in its own way as they have different stories to tell. Of course, the Classic Red Velvet or the Vanilla cupcake with Pink Buttercream that Carrie Bradshaw ordered in Sex in The City is a must!

West 11th Street, 401 Bleeker
New York, NY

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Tags cupcakes, dessert, dessert goals, east village, Erin McKenna's Bakery, Funnyface Bakery, Little Cupcake Bakeshop, Magnolia Bakery DOWNTOWN, SoHo, Sprinkles Cupcakes, sweets, Vegan

Culture Featured Music

Christine Smith Waits On The Far Side Of A Star

Post author By Alice Teeple
Post date November 29, 2019

By Alice Teeple

Photos by Alice Teeple

Christine Smith takes a drag from her well-deserved cigarette outside the Bowery Electric. She’s just wrapped a spectacular solo performance for her sophomore album release, Meet Me On The Far Side Of A Star. It’s fitting this album made its debut in the intimate Map Room: its twinkling, celestial backdrop placing Smith in a sort of netherworld somewhere between Weimar Berlin and Major Tom’s shuttle.

“Oh dear! Looks like I’m molting,” she chuckles, as several wisps of black marabou feathers float from her dress to the sidewalk. She stamps out her smoke, signs a CD for a fan, and warmly greets old friends who came to see the songstress on her former stomping grounds.

The Bowery is foggy, with a damp chill in the air: the kind of weather that reluctantly welcomes nostalgia and melancholy. This night, Smith served as the ferrywoman, steering the boat with electric piano keys and a small red Spanish accordion, through an emotive display of loss, longing, and regret. Christine Smith treads the line between days gone by and harsh modernity. She ruefully gazes back at the storms of the past with wry observation, hard-fought wisdom, and persistent optimism. She is a seasoned warrior armed with wit, poetic dreams and a delicious glass of red to calm those tides.

Smith’s seen her fair share of touring and recording over the last twenty years, having played with Crash Test Dummies, Jesse Malin, and Ryan Adams; as well as sharing the stage with Bruce Springsteen, Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan, Lenny Kaye of the Patti Smith Group, and H.R. of Bad Brains.

With such a punk/rock background, it’s astonishing to hear Smith’s own gentle, conversational voice and classic piano plucked straight out of a 1930s cabaret. It turns out that during her early days living as an ex-pat in London, Smith supported herself playing jazz standards. From there she served as the musical director for Newsrevue (London’s longest-running satire show).

There are strong elements of the Great American Songbook in this album, but Smith proudly wears her other influences on her sleeve – echoes of Petula Clark here, some Patti Smith there, some Simon LeBon flair, sprinkled with a bit of Angelo Badalamenti and 1950s doo-wop. She is a shining result of her eclectic tastes and influences. Her autobiography will be one hell of an incredible read one day.

Meet Me On The Far Side Of A Star began as a collaboration with Texas singer-songwriter Victor Camozzi, who shared Smith’s passion for 1930s-40s American classics. A year and some massive life shifts later, Smith’s “achingly beautiful” masterpiece was finished. Meet Me On The Far Side Of A Star is an artistic triumph. Rolling Stone recently praised her track Happily Never After (featuring Tommy Stinson of the Replacements) as a top ten Country/Americana song of 2019. One hopes that Christine Smith keeps exploring her own voice and draws more from her deep well of experience and compassion.

The album is available for purchase here.

It can also be streamed here: