Issue #007 · June 7, 2026
Your NYC week, all in one place.
The best of what happened and what's coming up, curated for the people who live here.
🍽 Food & Drink
This Week's Reads
How an art world powerhouse and a fisherman built Zoli, one of Brooklyn's most exciting seafood restaurants in East Williamsburg.
via The Strong BuzzSocceria Opens in Greenpoint: A Cantina 'With a Soccer Problem'The team behind Taqueria Ramirez opens a new CDMX-inspired cantina on Norman Ave on June 11. Technically 'not a sports bar', but you'll definitely want to post up there and watch the World Cup.
via GreenpointersOriana Lights the Wood-Fired Grill Just in Time for SummerThe West Village team behind The Noortwyck opened Oriana in Nolita on May 28 — a live-fire restaurant built around a wood grill featuring barbecued duck, steak tartare, and 7,000 bottle wine cellar.
via The New York TimesMamdani's $26 World Cup Meal Deal Puts Hundreds of Neighborhood Restaurants In PlayStarting June 11 through the World Cup final, hundreds of local bars and restaurants across all five boroughs will offer $26 drink-and-meal specials.
via Time Out🎨 Art & Culture
This Week's Reads
Lincoln Center's outdoor summer program is back — free and open to everyone, with a June - August schedule that includes a silent disco, dance parties, Jazz performances, and a Brazil Week celebration.
via Lincoln CenterA Reconstructed Bamiyan Buddha Now Stands Over ManhattanTuan Andrew Nguyen's 27-foot sandstone figure stands tall at the High Line: "This sculpture creates a friction with the surroundings here in New York. It's not sleek like everything else you can see here." — Cecilia Alemani, High Line curator.
via HyperallergicUpcoming Events
🎭 Entertainment
This Week's Reads
Julianne Shepherd from Hell Gate writes, 'For the next two weeks, all social conversations will revolve around the New York Knickerbockers. Here's how to navigate that knowledgeably.'
via GothamistYour Guide to New York City Pride 2026Pride is facing an uphill battle after losing corporate sponsors, a tension that's hard to separate from this year's political backdrop, and one that organizers are being unusually transparent about.
via GothamistCan You Still Afford to Go to a Baseball Game in NYC?Gothamist ran the numbers this week on what a low-budget night at a Mets or Yankees game actually costs in 2026 — spoiler: it depends heavily on how far you're willing to sit from the action and whether you eat before you get there.
via GothamistUpcoming Events
🖥 Tech & Startups
This Week's Reads
Comptroller Mark Levine released the city's first rigorous assessment of AI's fiscal risk, modeling five scenarios — three of which point toward job losses, tax revenue shortfalls, and budget crises — while noting that recent college graduates with degrees are, for the first time, experiencing slightly higher unemployment than those without.
via NYC ComptrollerNY Tech Week Highlights New York as Applied AI HubThe a16z partner David Haber proclaimed NYC the capital of applied AI deployment while, across town, City Hall officials raised concerns about white-collar job displacement — a gap in worldview that defined this year's edition of the festival, which drew 40,000+ attendees and over 1,000 events.
via Let's Data ScienceModal Labs Raises $355M to Become the Infrastructure Layer for AI WorkloadsNYC-based Modal Labs — the cloud platform teams use to run AI and ML workloads without managing servers — closed a $355M Series C led by General Catalyst and Redpoint Ventures, bringing total funding to $466M and cementing its position as one of the most serious AI infrastructure companies anywhere.
via AlleyWatch15+ NYC Startups Raised a Series A in May – Here's Who's HiringTech NYC shares the New York City startups who are hiring across engineering, product, GTM, operations, and AI roles.
via Tech NYC🏛 Politics & Civic
This Week's Reads
A new report from the city comptroller found that NYC's commercial vacancy rate stands at 11%, up from 10.5% in 2020, mostly concentrated in Lower Manhattan, north Brooklyn and western Queens.
via The City ReporterInside Mamdani's NYC Housing BlueprintThe mayor's housing plan targets 200,000 new affordable units over the next decade via transit-oriented rezonings, but also tries to simultaneously pressure landlords and preserve rent-stabilized buildings, which are two forces that don't always point the same direction.
via The Real DealTrump's DOJ Is Subpoenaing NYC Hospitals for Trans Medical RecordsParents of trans children at Mount Sinai were called this week and told their children's health records would be shared with the federal government — mirroring a DOJ subpoena already issued to NYU Langone — while families and a class-action lawsuit race to get a court order before records are turned over.
via GothamistCourage Can Save Us: A discussion with Gov. Mikie Sherrill, Gov. Wes Moore, and Rep. Don BaconAhead of America's 250 birthday, hear a discussion with Sherrill, Moore, and Bacon about this moment in American politics and American history — what it demands, and why service, character and shared purpose have never been more crucial.
via 92NYNYC Launches Plan for 500 Secure Bike Locations Across the CityThe city kicked off a public planning process for a 500-location bike parking network and is inviting New Yorkers to share their opinions on where to put them.
via NYC.gov