In Chelsea, New Yorkers are working off the holiday weight gain and getting lighter on their feet in the process.

Dance Manhattan is offering an alternative to gym memberships and treadmills with tango, swing, and Latin dance classes. Instructors teach workshops, group classes, individual lessons, and specialized classes for engaged couples to prepare for the first dance at their wedding.

Throughout the year, Dance Manhattan sponsors events at their studio and throughout the city. Dance Manhattan instructors offer free dance lessons at the Hudson River Park Moondance during the summer, and the studio has raffles year round for free private lessons.

Check out Dance Manhattan. Grab a dance partner, learn to tango, and as always, let us know what you think!

For agent and father-to-be Thomas Vojvodich, Chelsea has been a place to work and play Now, Chelsea will be where he starts his family.

Thomas has lived in Chelsea for 7 years and worked in Chelsea for almost 10 years. When asked about the neighborhood, he is quick to point out some of his favorite restaurants Il Bastardo and Le Zie, and he knows the managers and head bartenders by name. At Il Bastardo, he recommends the veal Milanese and lasagna and claims that the spaghetti with meatballs and the short braised ribs at Le Zie are the “best in Manhattan.”

Soon, however, Thomas will have a connection to the neighborhood that runs much deeper than knowing the local eateries. This spring, Thomas’ wife Angela Roukas (pictured on left) is expecting their first child, a daughter, and they will be starting their family in Chelsea. Angela is a successful international model working with New York Model Management and has appeared in campaigns for 7 For All Mankind, True Religion, Levi, and Dove. Most recently, she has modeled for Heidi Klum’s A Pea in the Pod maternity line.

Thomas and Angela’s lives will change this spring, but they are looking forward to taking the next step with their family in Chelsea. Thomas praises the tight-knit and diverse community as a great place to raise a family, saying, “In Chelsea, neighbors and shop and restaurant owners know each other by name, and you feel like you are part of a community. Because of the diversity of people who live in the neighborhood, [my daughter] will experience difference cultures.”

In New York’s bar scene, Mercury Bar is setting itself apart as a unique hang-out with cheap lobster meals, guest bartending, and movie nights with free popcorn.

Located at 493 3rd Avenue, Mercury Bar has a full menu featuring pizza, pasta, sandwiches, and pub food including Sheppard’s Pie and fish and chips. On Tuesday and Wednesday nights, they feature a 1 ¼ lb. lobster with corn on the cob and a baked potato for $16.95.

The bar’s calendar is packed full with events almost every night of the week. While they offer the standard fare (football, beer pong on Mondays and Tuesdays at 9, ladies nights every Wednesday), Mercury Bar also offers unusual alternatives to a typical night out. Recently, they hosted their first movie night with a screening of The Hangover. Recent titles included The Dark Knight on January 18th and Titanic on January 25th.

Guest bartending, another fun feature at Mercury Bar, gives patrons the opportunity to book the bar on Thursday nights and pour drinks for thirty of their friends. Guest bartending is free, and guest bartenders keep all their tips, making the experience ideal for young people trying to make some extra money or charity organizations looking for a different kind of fundraiser.

Mercury Bar has a lot of upcoming events, so check them out and let us know what you think. Mondays are movie nights with free popcorn, Tuesdays are ‘90’s nights, Wednesdays are ladies nights, Thursdays are guest bartending nights, and Fridays and Saturdays feature a live DJ with no cover charge.

Can an apartment building help residents who are searching for love? At first glance, it seems like a ridiculous claim, but the truth is that the right real estate can help spark romance.

A survey by Apartments.com ( link in http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/apartmentscom-national-valentines-day-survey-reveals-renter-romances-at-the-apartment-community-83875572.html ) found that about a third of renters have been in a relationship with another resident in their apartment building, and furthermore, the survey found that there are steps that a building can take to become more romantic.

Resident relationship most often start with a meeting at the pool and the laundry room, but buildings with more common areas like entertainment lounges or roof decks offer more places to accidentally bump into a crush. Tower 31, a rental building in Chelsea, has its own Club 31 which features billiard tables, an HDTV entertainment lounge, a sundeck, a fitness center, and a high-definition movie theater. These common areas encourage residents to spend time together and get to know their neighbors, but neighbor bonding can grow into romance with the right encouragement.

Buildings can push these crushes or friendships in the right directions with something as simple as a mixer. Apartment-wide events push neighbors past an occasional greeting in the hallway to conversation, even if it is over cookies and punch instead of dinner and drinks.

The surrounding neighborhood is another factor in the possibility of inter-building romance. If a date results from a building mixer or an encounter at the gym, then dinner will most likely happen at a nearby restaurant, and a night out at the theater, movies, or the club will probably stay in the neighborhood. Dating someone from the same building cuts out the awkward part of deciding where to meet, so there is no splitting the distance or picking one person’s neighborhood or the other. Sticking around the neighborhood is no fun, though, if there are few restaurant and entertainment options.

Ultimately, an apartment will not make or break chances at romance, but there are certainly factors in play that can gently push fate one way or the other. Two people can be sunbathing on a beautiful landscaped terrace and miss each other completely, and two people can be doing laundry in their sweatshirts and lazy pants and find each other. The point is that love could be right down the hall, but they have to take a chance that a neighbor could become something more

Yummy

The ChikaLicious Dessert Bar is an absolutely delicious part of New York’s East Village.

Owners Chika and Don Tillman have created a mouth-watering menu of wines, cheeses, and desserts. The dessert menu changes daily and has included Pumpkin-Caramel Trifle with Spiced Genoise and Pecan, Warm Chocolate Tart with Pink Peppercorn Ice Cream and Red Wine Sauce, and Poached Pear with Bourbon-Molasses Ice Cream and Crispy Kataifi.

There is almost always a line for tables, but the best seats in the restaurant are at the bar where patrons can watch Chef Chika Tillman prepare the gourmet desserts. The restaurant’s stylish interior was designed by Hiromi Tsuruta who also designed the interiors of Momoya, Jewel Bako, and Kyotofu.

Food critics universally love the ChikaLicious, and Metromix New York suggests that ChikaLicious would make “the perfect finale for any date.”

If you are in the East Village area, check out the ChikaLicious Dessert Bar, and as always, let us know what you think!

Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop on 22nd Street and 5th Avenue has been attracting famous patrons for years including Jodie Foster, Cynthia Nixon, and Susan Sarandon, but last year’s appearance on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations has brought Eisenberg’s a whole new batch of sandwich converts.

From traditional ham and cheese to liverwurst and meatloaf sandwiches, Eisenberg’s menu is stocked full of old favorites. Their selections might seem typical, but the difference lies in the execution. Anybody can make tuna salad, but Eisenberg’s tuna salad is, according to Anthony Bourdain, sublime.

Now readers, I call upon you to check out Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop if you haven’t already. Stop by for a tuna melt and an egg cream, and as always, let us know what you think!

What is the chance to meet your countryman on the street of such a huge city like New York City? Mexicans, Russians, Chinese say, “Easy.” I would say it’s a one in a million chance.

I am from the small country of Kyrgyzstan with a population of a little over five million people. Never heard of it? I bet you haven’t unless you work for the United Nations.

That one-in-a-million chance happened to me recently. I am a real estate agent with Benjamin James Realty, and I was in my office working, going through my daily routine. Suddenly, I overheard someone with a familiar accent talking to my listing director about one of our apartments. I looked up and saw a young woman, like many others on the streets of New York, and I immediately felt that something was different about her. I asked her if she spoke Russian, and she confirmed it by switching from English to Russian.

She could have been from any one of the fifteen Russian-speaking countries of the former Soviet Union, but then she said she was from Kyrgyzstan.

What? Kyrgyzstan? My country? I was already shocked, but the next thing she said completely floored me. She tells me that she is from the city of Bishkek. Oh my God, that’s my city! Can this day get any more shocking?

Some would say, “So what, you met somebody from your country. What’s the big deal?” But for us from Kyrgyzstan, it is a big deal. We have a very small community here, and we don’t see each other very often. This chance encounter could happen only in New York. Everyone knows that New York City is the modern day Babylon. Every single country of the world has representation in this wonderful city. New York City is a melting pot of languages, cultures, traditions and religions.

I love this city. Where else but in New York City could I meet someone who grew up on the same street as me, halfway across the world?

The sign for Waterfront Ale House reads, “Home of Warm Beer, Lousy Food, Ugly Owner,” but after being named a Critic’s Pick by New York Magazine, they aren’t fooling anybody.

Waterfront Ale House, located at 2nd Avenue and 30th Street, offers a mouth-watering menu featuring barbeque specialties, venison and black bean chili, and burgers that received a rave review from Serious Eats.

They also have a great selection of beers, and their list of beers on tap can be viewed here.

For people stopping by to watch the game, the Waterfront Ale House offers fresh-popped popcorn to its patrons, and for the musically-minded, the Waterfront Ale House hosts live bands including Popa Chubby.

Check out the Waterfront Ale House. Try their beer and barbeque, and as always, let us know what you think!

In the highly competitive New York real estate business, landlords are attracting new tenants by offering them more sunlight and fresh air.

Shared roof decks and patios are a fairly common amenity in apartment buildings like The Caroline, and some buildings, such as 90 Lexington Avenue, are even offering a private patio with every unit. In January, an outdoor patio is very rarely used for barbeques or parties, but the simple act of going outside can help New Yorkers get out of a winter slump.

During the winter months, some New Yorkers go into a sort of hibernation, as humorously portrayed on the CBS comedy “How I Met Your Mother.” When Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) begs his friends to go out on the town with him, Marshall (Jason Segal) sighs that he has a “warm soup belly” and has no intention of leaving the apartment.

This problem is not only a problem for New Yorkers. In his article “The Big Sleep,” New York Times contributor Graham Robb talks about a “human hibernation” which happened during winters in northwest Russia and in France. He calls the behavior “a sensible…decision to stay in bed for as long as possible.” Studies by the Better Sleep Council have also found that adults spend more time in bed and indoors during the winter months with one-half of adults reading more and two thirds watching more TV.

Staying cooped up in an apartment, however comfortable, is probably not a healthy decision, so a community roof deck or private terrace, similiar to ones found at 21chelsea.net, allows tenants to get outside and have a small change of scenery without even having to leave their building. For New Yorkers, the sight of the New York City skyline might be enough to push them out of their sweatpants, into their jeans, and out the front door.

While schools are cutting arts programs, a theater company in Chelsea is bringing arts back into classrooms.

Every season, Atlantic Theater Company produces stage shows that are aimed at young audience. Past productions have included A Year with Frog & Toad, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and The Phantom Tollbooth.

The theater’s Atlantic For Kids program teams up with schools to promote learning and creativity after the students have left the theater. Productions host talk-back sessions after the show, and teachers are encouraged to integrate the show’s themes into classroom discussion.

The Atlantic Theater Company inspires a love of theater in young people, but they produce shows that appeal to theater-goers of all ages. Last year’s season included Tony-nominated revivial of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow, and in 2006, they were the home of the racy Tony-winning musical Spring Awakening.

As a theater lover and an advocate for arts in the schools, I am impressed with the Atlantic Theater Company. They consistently produce high-quality, award-winning shows, and their commitment to arts education is an example for theaters not only in New York but across the country.

Ages of the Moon is currently playing on Atlantic Theater Company’s main stage, and their newest show A Behanding in Spokane, written by John Crowley (The Pillowman), premieres January 25th at the Schoenfeld Theatre.

Usually I end these posts asking you the readers to check out these hot spots and let us know what you think, but this time, I will be going out as well. Tonight, I will be looking at tickets for Ages of the Moon and A Behanding in Spokane, and I will write a follow-up with more about the theater and my reviews for both shows. Check out their website here, see one of their shows, and let us know what you think!