May 2026 City Notes

Patricia Isen
04/30/26

CITY NOTES

CURATED BY PATRICIA GREENE ISEN

Mother's Day
Art Openings, New Restaurants
& Gift Guide
2026

Welcome to the Mother's Day Gift Guide!

One of my favorites! I love choosing fun gifts for you to enjoy!

Happy May!

I love May....it's my birthday, some of my closest friends' birthdays. I love a Taurean.

I also added some new restaurants & exciting new art shows.

I'm hoping to get out and about this weekend.

Enjoy the below....

Please note at the bottom of the email you MAY NEED to click 'view entire message" as sometimes the list gets cut off. I don't want you to miss anything.

Also please note that if you want to access any old CITYNOTES from the past seven years please click here CITYNOTES

Have a beautiful May. Happy Mother's day!

Enjoy! Be Kind! Be safe!

Much Love to all of you & your families,

xoxoxoxox

Patty

Gifts for the Jewelry Obsessed

Small Mobile Earring

Ten Thousand Things
237 West 13th Street
Small Mobile Earrings

hand cut stone earring on 18k gold casting

Molten Diamond Tahitian Pearl Earrings

Ten Thousand Things
237 West 13th Street
Diamond & Pearl Earrings

hand carved gold molten castings with set diamonds and a tahitian pearl

Apatite Serafa Snake Earrings

Marie-Hélène de Taillac
20 East 69th Street- Suite #3B
Snake Earrings

Marie-Hélène de Taillac's latest creation, the Serafa Snake earrings, are feminine yet with an ancient touch. Composed of hand-crafted 22 karat gold, using traditional Indian weaving techniques.

Green Quartz Milady Earrings

Marie-Hélène de Taillac
20 East 69th Street- Suite #3B
Green Quartz Earrings

I love these drop earrings. they come in many different colors. i own a smaller drop of 3 stones that I love that Robert bought me a few years ago.

Dangling and elegant, in subtle green quartz Milady Earrings

Gifts for the Gardener

Row 7 Organic Green Mix

Gardenheir
Row 7 Salad Set

A special set of five packaged in a Row 7 gift bag, this assortment ensures you have delicious leafy greens through the season.

Dino Lettuce

Spinach Lettuce

Teagan Lettuce

Winter Bloomsdale Spinach

Delfino Cilantro

Kitazawa Melon Seed Collection Set

Gardenheir
Melon Seed Set

A curated selection of sweet, juicy, and easy-to-grow melons perfect for home gardens, small spaces, and summer snacking. These hybrid varieties deliver tender, flavorful fruits that are ideal for fresh eating, salads, or chilled desserts.

Korean Melon

Japanese Melon

Icebox Watermelon

Heirloom Tomato Candle

Gardenheir
Heirloom Tomato Candles

I love everything this company makes! They were a go to gift for the Christmas holidays. The first time i was introduced to them my good friend Nanda and my nephew Sawyer gave us a picnic basket with ALL of the veggies and fruits inside! Handcrafted from beeswax harvested at Swarmbustin’ Honey in Chester County, the Heirloom Tomato Candle is molded from a real heirloom tomato picked at Kneehigh Farm in Pottstown, PA. Each candle carries the natural, gentle scent of beeswax.

Fleurs D'Hiver Herbal Tea Lollipops

Gardenheir
Herbal Tea Lollipops

Beautiful handmade herbal tea lollipops, made of honey caramel and flowers. When submerged in hot water the honey melts and the flowers release their aromas, creating a botanical infusion.

Rose & Verbena: The rose delicately unfurls its fragrant petals and mixes with the freshness of lemon verbena.

Cornflower & Lemon Balm: The delicate lemony notes of Lemon balm will relax you before falling asleep.

Marigold: Sunny, floral and beneficial, its sweet bitterness is balanced by the honey.

Elderflower & Mint: The floral and sweet notes of elderflowers meet the freshness of mint.

Jasmin: A calming and soothing floral infusion.

I think these are so great!

Gifts for Beauty & Wellness

Nonfiction Hand Cream

Gardenheir
Non Fiction Handcream

Nonfiction's hand cream is rich in shea butter and vitamin that instantly absorbs into skin, leaving velvety smooth texture and caring your dry hands with revitalizing elements.

SANTAL: Sandalwood, Vetiver, Fig, Cardamom, Ginger, Bergamot

GAIAC: Wild Rose, Guaiac, Oriental, Vanilla, Amber

FOREST: Hinoki, Frankincense, Turkish Rose, Yuzu, Nutmeg

Wonder Valley Hinoki Bar

Gardenheir
Hinoki Soap

Let this bar of soap transport you to a serene hinoki forest in rural Japan, with the feeling of soaking in the hot waters of an onsen. The Hinoki Bar is made with the cleanest ingredients for a pure cleansing experience to start each day anew. Formulated with our extra virgin olive oil as well as coconut and avocado oils, this bar of soap works into a luxurious, rich lather and effortlessly removes impurities while adding moisture back into the skin. Encased in a waxed paper wrapper with artwork by Logan Maxwell Hagege, tucked inside a gilded paper box with a small poem inscribed by the venerable writer and bath enthusiast, Leonard Koren.

Susanne Kaufmann Nourishing Lip Balm

Susanne Kaufman
Lip Balm

A nourishing lip balm formulated to protect, condition and restore dry or chapped lips.

Nonfiction Hand Wash

Gardenheir
Hand Wash

Your hands are easily exhausted from pollution and drying out and thus, need careful protection. Rich in plant-derived surfactant and calming ingredients, Nonfiction's hand wash soothes hands with its formula made of squalene, avocado, sweet almond, and sunflower seed.

SANTAL: Sandalwood, Vetiver, Fig, Cardamom, Ginger, Bergamot

GAIAC: Wild Rose, Guaiac, Oriental, Vanilla, Amber

FOR REST: Hinoki, Frankincense, Turkish Rose, Yuzu, Nutmeg

New Restaurants

Deans

213 6th Ave.
Deans

Dean’s is inspired by the British pub and from the owners of King..one of my favorite restaurants and definitely Charlies!

Dean's will bring that age-old convivial spirit to Soho. The cooking draws from the coastlines and traditions of British heritage cooking: simple, seasonal, and rooted in place.

Pubs have been part of British life for over a thousand years, evolving from early alehouses into the public houses we know today. At their core, they are places of gathering—informal, convivial, and open to all: a place to stop in or stay awhile.

To cultivate Dean’s regulars, they’ll have a never-ending drinking game. People can enter to see if they can drink 500 pints over the course of many visits, which they will track on a visible leaderboard. Those who win will get their own engraved pewter tankard that they can drink out of.

Or'resh

450 Broadway
Or'esh

Named for light and fire, Or’esh is centered on ingredient-driven, live-fire cooking over coal. Inspired by the Levant, the menu celebrates pristine seafood, flame-kissed meats, and seasonal vegetables sourced from the Union Square Greenmarket.
The owners are behind the Corner Store , the Eighty Six, and The Catch Hospitality Group.

Saverne

531 West 34th Street
Saverne

Chef Gabriel Kreuther built his reputation in Michelin-starred kitchens . Gabriel has just opened Saverne , bringing a refined, modern expression of his heritage to a new dining experience.French cuisine reimagined through the lens of live-fire cooking.

La Tazzo D'oro

220 Park Avenue South
La Tazzo D'oro

La Tazza D'Oro, an iconic café originally established in Prato, Italy, in 1984, stands as a timeless testament to quality and tradition. This beloved establishment has long been a gathering place for those seeking authentic Italian flavors and a warm, welcoming atmosphere.

Gifts for the
DESIGN ENTHUSIAST

Japanese Indigo Shibori Kit

Gardenheir
Shibori Set

The Japanese Indigo Shibori Kit was designed for those who want to explore the world of shibori and indigo dye, this kit comes complete with 10g of Yamato Indigo Dye, enough to create a small vat, and all the necessary tools. With easy-to-follow instructions, you can produce beautiful shibori patterns on any white fabric.

Kyoto Gondola Soft Pastels 36 Piece Collection

Gardenheir
Pastel Set

From Japan’s oldest maker of soft pastels. These are carefully handmade in small batches by a fourth-generation family workshop that adjusts pigment and drying time according to the season. The result is pure, saturated color with remarkable depth and softness.

Mahjong Board Game

Gardenheir
Mahjong

Another Mahjong Board Game by Printworks is designed for the American version of Mahjong .Is everyone I know obsessed? I certainly am! However it is hard to find a block of time to devote to this!

Japanese Botanical Paperweights

Gardenheir

Paperweights

Preserved botanicals, suspended in clear acrylic resin, reveal the sculptural forms of the natural world in striking detail. These unique cubes can be used as paperweights or kept as objects of curiosity. Thoughtfully made in Japan, each piece captures a fleeting moment in lasting form.

New Art Shows

LEE UFAN

DIA BEACON
3 Beekman Street

Beacon, New York 12508
OPENING MAY 8th
Lee Ufan

Lee Ufan is a founding member of Mono-ha (School of Things), a loosely defined group of artists who worked in a shared sculptural idiom in Japan roughly between 1969 and ’74. In work from that time, rather than asserting or denying authorship over an object, Lee distributed forms across what he called a “system” of material and physical relations that inherently incorporate the viewer. paintings and sculptures produced over three decades of his practice.

MARCEL DUCHAMP

GAGOSIAN
980 Madison Avenue
April 25–June 27, 2026
Marcel Duchamp

Gagosian has opened a significant presentation of key works by Marcel Duchamp to inaugurate the gallery’s new ground-floor space in the historic building at 980 Madison Avenue ( right next to Kappo Masa- one of my favorites!) The exhibition, opened on April 25, 2026, brings a selection of works—including all of the artist’s most iconic readymades—back to the location where these editions made their American debut in a 1965 exhibition at Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery. It also coincides with Duchamp’s first retrospective in the United States since 1973, which is on view at the MOMA until August 22.

“It all started with Duchamp, I couldn’t imagine a better artist or a more critical body of work to be the first exhibited in our new gallery at 980 Madison, a building he showed in just over sixty years ago.”

—Larry Gagosian

FRIDA AND DIEGO: The Last Dream

MOMA
11 West 53 Street

Through September 12th
Frida and Diego

Frida and Diego: The Last Dream celebrates Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera—two of Mexico’s most beloved icons of 20th-century art—in a first-of-its-kind collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera. Organized in conjunction with the Met’s new product