The Urbane Urbanite

With the holidays looming and a brisk chill wafting through the air, ‘tis definitely the season for eating and drinking. While sizzling thirst quenchers like teas, hot chocolates and warm apple ciders will be bought and consumed by the boatloads this winter, what hot beverage options are available for folks looking to get lit - and stay toasted? I commissioned the head bartender at 169 Bar, a down-home dive bar on the lower east side of Manhattan, to concoct five warm, charismatic cocktails perfect for keeping the cold at bay and a buzz on deck this winter. I've tried them all - and they're good!

I started working on my novel (for real, for real) in January of this year. I sat down and pumped out a couple of decent chapters. And I got some good feedback that propelled me to keep writing. As I started to use the momentum to pump out more work, something stopped me dead in my tracks: Procrastination. I would set aside time to sit down and write or brainstorm or jot down notes and plot ideas, but, instead, end up on Twitter shooting the breeze with hundreds of folks I do not know. I quickly zeroed in on the problem and scaled back on my tweets. In the past two weeks, Foursquare check-ins and blog promotion aside, I've only tweeted 23 times. That equals out to about 1.6 tweets per day. And more than half of those tweets were replies to messages sent directly to me. Just when I thought I had tamed my social media activities and was back on the road to literary success, my clever, crafty ass found o...

When I interviewed Jasmine Graham about her fitness company Pace For Success, I also asked her if it was too late to get a beach-ready body in time for summer. "No," she said. "You can start a 6-week intensive program, [which includes] a diet and a combination of 4–5 days of working out at medium to high intensity." Here are Graham's 16 tips on how to get moving, eat better - and get snatched in time for summer.

Ask anybody who really knows me and they'll tell you that I am my own worst enemy.  My biggest critic. No one is as harder on me than I am on myself.  I am not one to rest on my laurels or bask in the afterglow of victory.  If anything, I need to learn how to cement myself in the present and pat myself on the back from time to time when a job is well done instead of constantly worrying about the future. So. As the dust settles on 2010 and the dawn of a new year begins to peak over the horizon, I thought I'd take this time to reflect on the small victories that made my year a memorable one. Instead of beating up on yourself by comprising a lengthy list of unmet goals and things you need to do better in 2011, let's raise a toast to all the noteworthy things you did get accomplished in 2010. Here are ten of mine (in no particular order).

*In Sophia Petrillo Voice* Picture it: New Jersey. 1980 something.  The crack of dawn on a Saturday morning. A young (cute) little boy leaps out of bed and runs into the kitchen to fetch his favorite breakfast morning cereal: Frosted Flakes.  He fills the bowl to the top with cereal and drowns the sugary goodness in milk.  Then he runs into the living room with his bowl, plops down on the couch and crunches away while he watches The Smurfs. Y'all. That little boy was me. We all come from different places, backgrounds, religions and family structures. But if there's one thing we all have in common, it's the vivid memory of waking up bright and early in the morning to devour a bowl of beloved deliciousness. Flash forward many years later and a lot has changed.  I barely have time to grab a granola bar in the morning much less a bowl of cereal. And I be damned if I wake up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday, my day to sleep in a catch up on some...

The holidays are officially upon us. And while many people will get their hands dirty in the kitchen slaving over hot stoves, others may opt to take friends and family out for a nice dinner instead. If you're a food snob like me, you frown at the thought of dinning at a chain restaurant. While I don't have anything against spots like The Cheesecake Factory (that carrot cake cheese cake! *drools*), Chili's (Them lightly salted French fries *licks lips*) or Red Lobster (That there cheddar bay biscuit *faints*) when I want to have a real fine dining experience, those are the last places I want to eat. But not all  chain restaurants are the same. There are some upscale chain eateries that will give you the food and ambiance of a five-star restaurant. Here are my top 6 favorite upscale chain restaurants.

I'm reluctant to say that I enjoyed By Hands Unknown . Not because I didn't like it but mostly because it's an in-your-face no holds barred look at the history of lynchings in the United States and it's affect on both black and white families in the deep south.  It's kind of hard to enjoy that. It's uncomfortable to watch, and at times, hard to listen to, which made its impact on me both poignant and unsettling. Using several vignettes and short plays written during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the 18 person cast reenacts real life incidents in which Black men were wrongfully accused of crimes (raping white women, stealing, talking back to white men of power) and strung up and hung from trees. But the show is about 45 minutes too long (it runs for a whopping 2 hours) and while the material is informative and important, I felt the same message was being reiterated skit after skit. It was only the scene where a pregnant Black woman witnesses a ...

With Oprah on her way out, it's only right that I step in and start my very own favorite things list. It's the same set up: I list my favorite clothing, food, games, books and snacks that I couldn't do without this summer. The only difference is that my list isn't as nice as Oprah's. Or expensive. Or exclusive. And I ain't giving away any of this stuff for free.  But aside from all that, it's just Oprah's. Yes, summer is almost over but I assure you that everything on this list can be used all year long. Enjoy!

Ask anybody who knows me and they'll tell you I love to eat. Many of my favorite restaurants have pricey menus and upscale layouts. But every now and then, when I'm having a fat boy moment, hung over from the night before or when I'm just in the mood for something good and greasy, I head over to Nicos, my favorite hole-in-the-wall chicken shack in Newark, NJ. What's a Chicken Shack?

It's a dreary day here in NYC today but this weekend is poised to be a stunner. I don’t know about you, but I'm already thinking about where I'll be brunching and drinking come Saturday afternoon. Folks are always asking me where they should eat. So, here's a roundup of my five favorite brunch spots in NYC (in no particular order). Remember, I'm not a professional. Just a foodie with an opinion. Enjoy.