FIELD NOTES: Week of November 16

Weather: ☁️ Somewhere in the 40s–50s. Kind of gray. A little air.

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Field Notes — a weekly-ish log of the city’s most confusing, suspicious, and questionably legal phenomena.

We’ll be back with another deep dive in two weeks.

Here’s what we observed:

• Giando on the Water continues to raise questions, as locals report never seeing a single employee, diner, or delivery enter the building despite its massive waterfront footprint.

“Ask them to show literally any evidence they’re a restaurant. For one of the largest buildings on Kent Ave, it has the daily activity level of a tomb. I have never seen staff go in or out of it, nor a single delivery. Even the website is mysterious and cryptic.”

Honestly, super fair point.

• Fan Fan Fried Rice Bar remains an economic anomaly, serving great food to what appears to be one customer per hour in the heart of Williamsburg.

• The East Village’s $10 psychics persist in unnerving numbers, prompting concerns about how so many can exist while attracting seemingly no clients.

“I am confused that all their prices have stayed $10”

“I can’t look sideways in this city without one staring me in the face. I’ve never seen any entity be so steadily existent yet desolate at the same time.”

• Blank Street’s expansion onto only the most expensive corners has fueled skepticism about its private-equity backing and its reliance on machines over baristas.

“Why are they always on like the busiest streets like I know that’s not cheap I heard they’re VC backed. I don’t understand what that means not a finance girl but I googled it for about five minutes and quickly realize that that is not a cool chill thing to be.”

“Blank street? You know what it is. It’s a venture capitalist coffee shop where baristas never make coffee and it’s all just in a machine. They’re not trained. They are backed by private equity.”

Case closed. Stop drinking their coffee, probably.

• The city’s car tow depots remain unmatched in visible human misery, according to multiple firsthand observations this week (tbh, the ‘observations’ is just me).

• The ongoing Bigfoot investigation continues, with my dad still submitting multiple field reports.

• A Broadway bodega was observed using branding nearly identical to a regional bank, — I dunno, just kinda weird.

• Transit near the Marcy Ave J/M/Z remains largely theoretical, with the bus depot functioning more as a mirage than an actual transit hub.

• A disturbing, context-free image surfaced on the homepage of the UKG HR platform, drawing mixed reactions.

“I love this”

“One of the best”

“This is so perfectly confusing”

“its the reflection for me”

“Chic”

• A blue Mini Cooper was observed promoting the theory that “Australia Is Not Real.” No further context was provided, and none was asked for. This deserves a deeper dive.

If Australia’s fake, I fear what else is.

Thanks for reading Field Notes. Stay alert out there.