Rainbow Room loses pot of gold

New York’s Rainbow Room is about to close its Rainbow Grill restaurant. Perched atop 30 Rockefeller Center, the restaurant has accumulated a reputation for dazzling views and putting you on top of the world in as close to the literal sense as possible. This week, the restaurant suffered its own fall … a 65-storey fall, to be exact.

The Rainbow Grill, which serves pricey Italian-style food, will shut down on January 12, 2009. The bar, banquet facilities and weekend dinner-dancing will live on, however. The twin culprits are the general economic decline and a dispute with its landlord, the “pirates” at Tishman Speyer.

Of course, everyone in Manhattan is entitled to a second act, and the Rainbow Room may come back. The Cipriani family, which owns the landmark restaurant, calls the decision temporary.

[Via MSNBC and Gawker]

Skating in NYC

It would not be a winter-time romantic comedy set in New York, if there was no ice-skating involved. Not sure why the idea of wearing a trendy hat and matching gloves while attempting to slide across a frozen body of water screams romance, but it is one of those things that filmmakers made into a NYC must-do.

While I don’t know many New Yorkers who have actually skated any of those famous rinks, a lot of them say it is on their list of things to do before they move to the suburbs (shhhhh, their husbands don’t know yet).

Today’s New York Times has a review of all the outdoor rinks and ponds to skate in NYC. Forget Rockefeller Rink; too touristy. There is the Wollman Rink at the southeastern end of Central Park (the prettiest) or Lasker Rink, at the other end of Central Park; Riverbank State Park; Sky Rink at Chelsea Piers; The Kate Wollman Rink in Prospect Park; and the Pond at Bryant Park.

Don’t forget your matching hat and gloves combo. And, as they say, break a leg!