NYC NOW - The Tourist Who Sued Over Spicy Salsa and NYC’s Sober Nightlife Scene

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Jene Pierre. A lawsuit over spicy salsa, a heated rivalry parody musical, and Mayor Zoramam Dhani's cultural references. That's ahead on this edition of the Arts and Culture Check-in. But first, here's what's happening in New York City. For decades, the watchtower buildings in Brooklyn served as the world headquarters for Jehovah's Witnesses.

Now, a private developer wants to turn the complex into housing. Councilmember Leekin-Ressler says the buildings have sat vacant for years. We have a lot of negotiation left to do, but I want to see empty buildings activated, and we have a housing crisis across our city. Under CIM Group's proposal, the buildings will get more than 660 homes, including 165 affordable units. The project faces multiple rounds of review. Some older adults in New York City are advocating for a larger share of the city's budget. A coalition of seniors and elected officials are asking for the city to designate more than $2 billion to senior services. That's more than tripled the amount in the city's proposed budget released last month.

They say it should pay for investments in things like housing, senior wellness programs, and older adult centers. 80-year-old Kitty Rutterman lives in Queens and volunteers with AARP. She says seniors are most affected by the city's affordability crisis and need the support. rent just went up for one year, at least $200. My Social Security increase was $35. I mean, and they keep talking about cuts and taking it away. The final budget has to be adopted by the end of June. New York City officials are doubling down on pothole repair this weekend to help the

streets recover from this winter's harsh weather. Mayor Mumdani says the city will launch a pothole filling blitz on Saturday. beginning at 6 in the morning, 80 Department of Transportation trucks will be out in all five boroughs. The goal is to fill thousands of potholes in just one day. Still ahead, our arts and culture check-in. We're going to eat, drink, and be merry. You'll see. That's after the break.

Welcome to another edition of our arts and culture check-in. You know, this is where we take a look at what's been coming across the arts and culture desk here at WNY. and our news site, Gothamist. And of course, joining me to walk us through it all is Matthew Schnipper, who is the editor of our newsroom's Arts and Culture Desk. Hey, Matt. Hi, Janay. How are you?

I'm doing really well. I got a good dose of sun this week. I'm feeling good. How are you? I mean, I'm feeling full of pizza. Shout out to Johns on Bleaker Street. Nice. Well, Matt, I have a quick question, you know, as we jump into things on your desk,

Are you familiar with the term fools spring? I am, yes. Okay, let's talk about it because according to Wixionary, it's this period of warm weather before spring, but also before a cold snap. And we had, like I mentioned, some really nice days beginning this week. I'm talking really, really nice. What's going on? It was the type of weather where I'm like, I need to make a reservation to be in the yard of some restaurant, you know. Did you?

I do not. It's been a busy week. It's true. But your desk has been doing a lot of reporting on some good eats lately. And there are 10 New York City Vietnamese restaurants serving some delicious f. Yes. And we did this story knowing we would hit the end of winter. This is not necessarily a full spring story, but it is a March story. We were like, you know what, this is a good last attempt to eat some very hearty soups. So Robert Sistema, who is a great longtime food reporter, went out and hit the burrows and came back with a really fantastic list of Fah restaurants to check out. Okay.

So can you throw out some recommendations for us? You know, it's cool. One that I really like is small chain called Lucy's. And we talked about how they are like if Fah was invented in Texas because they serve a brisket version. And it's kind of smoky. So I really, I actually really like that. And I'm within ordering distance of one of the Lucy's. Same.

So I can have that sometimes. Yeah. I get the vegan ginger chicken fa. Oh, wow. Delicious. Yeah. Delicious. Yeah.

So I really like, I love that one. Any other recommendations aside from Lucy's because I'm not sure if they have a location in Manhattan. You know, in Chinatown, there is pasture grill and noodles. Okay. Which is actually, Robert, says it's the first post-war Vietnamese restaurant in the city. Oh, cool. Yeah. Because there are a lot of Vietnam.

at these restaurants in the city, you know, it's not like you walk in being like, oh, this one has been around for 50 years versus this one's been around 20, 30. So kind of knowing how far back the legacy is there was was exciting to me to find out. Okay. Well, let me know when you check that one out. I will. Do you like it spicy? Medium. I'm a medium guy.

I'm a hot girl. I think we talked about this. We did, yeah. It's not something I'm proud of, but it's something that's true. Yeah. Well, I only ask because spice is another hot topic on your desk this week. on what I did there. So you guys did something about a lawsuit

against a taco restaurant because the salsa was too spicy? What's up with that? We did. I love this story. And shout out to Walter Withman, who brought this story to us. Essentially, a German man went to Los Tacos number one, which is a great chain in New York City, highly recommended, and ordered some tacos and spooned a bunch of salsa on them.

So I'm Faikal Mans, I'm from Germany. I ordered three tacos, and the last one was the most spiciest one. The salsa is not labeled. He says he ate some of this green salsa and experienced a good deal of distress. My mouth is burning. It was absolutely bad, bad. Like I got blisters in the mouth after this incident. I had the feeling I was in a sauna.

With the 50 degrees inside, my head is like getting red. My appellate showed me that I have a pulse increase like I am running. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to laugh at this guy's distress. I mean, I think he does not think it's funny. I will tell you that. He said he had some gastrointestinal issues. I think he had some mouth problems.

He was struggling. And because as he has said, he is a German man. He expects there to be rules. Oh, I want to just to have an explanation why there is absolutely no warning for this saucers. He needed a warning label. Exactly. Okay. And so he sued Los Tacos number one, saying, you didn't warn me, and the salsa was too spicy.

Wow. Real lawsuit. He did not win. The judge, you know, shot down his case, you know, compared it to, you know, there have been cases where people sued McDonald's. for the coffee being too hot. Yeah, I remember that. What is interesting to me about this gentleman is that on this trip to New York City, he also sued the NYPD, but then he also sued Walmart because he said he went to a Walmart, New Jersey, and he wanted to use their Wi-Fi, and he has a German phone number, and they would not accept his German number as a valid number. And he couldn't log on to the Walmart Wi-Fi.

Okay. Okay, so that this guy just traveled to the States for a spree of lawsuits? It's, you know, we talked to him. Walter talked to him and he said, look, this was a bad trip. But he said, tell me about it. Yes, I mean, he wants to be compensated, but he says, if things are wrong and I can make them right, that is my duty. So Walter also went up to Los tacos number one, talked to several tourists who said this. The salsa is fine.

I'm Amanda. Hawksne. Okay, I'm a whim. And this is not spicy. I mean, it's spicy. There's some heat on my tongue, but I'm not going to assume anybody for a person. I'm going to say. I mean, maybe they should put a little sign, but also, I mean, you should probably, like, try a sauce before you, like, dump the whole thing on your taco. Just try a little bit before you dump it all over your taco. Yeah. I mean, that's good advice right there. Maybe wash it down with a little seltzer. Yeah, and we call that spicy water. What's what my three-year-old calls it?

Seltzer Fest is kicking off this weekend, right? Yes, in Brooklyn. The second year in the row? Yeah. Seltzer festival is happening in Industry City this weekend. I mean, I think this is incredible. There's going to be a ton of egg creams there. There's going to be Lime Rickies, people just coming out and drinking Seltzer.

It's funny, you know, when we heard about this, we looked into it and it's like, are they going to be doing, you know, seltzer in a hot air balloon? Like, there's got to be a thing, right? Yeah, what's the thing? Seltzer is not. Just seltzer. It's seltzer. Yes, I mean, it's great. You can go get an egg cream. You know, kosha dills, the rapper is going to be performing. Okay. But mostly it's just if you want to go have a bunch of seltzer. Enjoy yourself. Get refreshed.

Yeah. Do you like seltzer? You know, from time to time. I'm not the one that's like, oh, this is, you know, this is what I need. If it's around, I'll drink it. I honestly will have to bring a few shooters of gin. Like I can do seltzer and gin. Oh, my God. Sorry. You know, that's actually something I don't know. Are they serving booze at Seltzerfest? I'll bring mine.

I like that. Just a DIY. It's Gin Fest for you, actually, with a side of Seltzer Fest. It's ginfest. All right, if you're looking for a little bit of a pick-me-up at Seltzer Fest, find Jene. Yeah, the good stuff, not the cheap stuff. Speaking of thirst, there's a heated rive. Parity

musical going on. How thirsty can we get here, Matt? That is what I was asking myself when we were writing this headline. I'm sure you

watched Heated rivalry, right? Yes, I have watched the show. For listeners who don't know, I don't know,

can we keep this podcast friendly? But tell us what Heated rivalry is. Tell us about this show. Heated rivalry is a TV show. So I wonder, if it was a movie,

would it be rated R? I guess, yes. Yeah. There is, I mean, there's butts, but there's not full frontal. No. There are booties. Yeah, there's full back, full rear.

So heated rivalry quickly for those who do not know is a phenomenon that has swept in from the north, a Canadian TV show about two closeted hockey players who are rivals and enter into a heated love affair. And people are obsessed with this show, including a gentleman named Dylan Markerel, who decided to script a unlicensed parody musical based on it. He seems to actually be, and I love this interview with him, because he seemed to be deeply overwhelmed by the response that he is getting. sold out immediately more shows set up sold out immediately and he has a director but it's just going to be a table read you know he's like we don't have money and so we're just going to have some people reading through it and people are coming a very quick green lighting process i'm sure so it seems like you know it seems like it's going to be popular and i can only imagine more so you know it's funny he was pretty tight-lipped about what some of the songs were going to be we were trying to

find out a little bit more and dig into some of what I've got to be an incredible amount of hockey puns. Listen, I know you're a music head, so tell me, do you have any suggestions for this guy as far as the music? I mean, to me, I think, like, just straight up, John Williams, like, Star Wars epic kind of thing, right? That's the first thing that comes to mind. Just, like, just big and absurd, you know, like, Dune. Like, you know, we need some, the brutalist.

We need just, like, hockey. I'm not going to try to sing. I did that one time on this show, and that's enough. It was a hit. Thank you. But we need like some hockey drama, like real, real just stakes. Yeah. That's what I think it needs.

Yeah. Check out the show Heated Rivalry on HBO. So you can indeed then check out Heated Rivalry, the unauthorized musical parody. Again, as Matt mentioned, 1,200 tickets already sold. And it's so popular that Mayor Mamm Dani actually means. mentioned it as one of his cultural references earlier this year, right? Yes. Not the parody musical, unfortunately.

He actually referenced the books because they are based on a series of books. And when it was snowing recently, he was like, go get it out of the library and just start doubling down on your heated rivalry. So he did talk about that. And speaking of Mundani's cultural references, this is a thing that, you know, you're tracking. Any updates? You know, I think I do have one update, but I want to say what has been interesting is the lack of updates. It has been a fairly serious time in the city and in the world. And in it, you know, in his speeches and in his press conferences, you know, in his Q&A's, you know, Mom Donnie is, he's just been serious.

you know, there's, there's not a better word for it. It has just not been a time for jokes. And not that every time he brings out a cultural reference, it is necessarily in order to drive humor. But it is to bring some bit of levity, I think. And lighten things. You know, and to say, hey, he's a real person experiencing this. He has been in mayor mode, I think, out of necessity.

That's not a thing that where you're going to start kind of like making jokes about family guy or whatever. So I was happy. When I comb through all the transcripts of everything he does, I was happy to see him actually make a cultural reference this past week, which was nice. What was it? He was talking, you know, he has been working over time, I think, on getting increasing access to child care and school for young kids, growing the 3K program. And he was talking about that. And he happened to break.

He said, if there's one thing that I know, he's like, and I do know actually that for a little while, I was the mouse who stole the cookie from the cookie jar. I'm paraphrasing here. But he interrupted himself to say, hey, when I was talking with these kids earlier today, we were going through, who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? And he said at one point, it had been him. And I thought for a moment, you know, as someone who has been tracking the stuff and kind of like actually a little bit desperate to be like, can we get a reference? Like got something? I was, I felt almost like, like, I was like, oh, there's our guy, you know?

Oh, he's back. Yeah. So this wasn't, to be honest. this is not like the greatest mom-dani cultural reference of all time, but because it came in a, you know, in a dearth of them, it felt like, oh, we're seeing. Like a flare went up. And it was him again. Yeah. That's WMYC's Arts and Culture editor Matthew Schnipper. Thanks so much for talking with us, Matt. Chenet, always a pleasure. Thank you. Always, always indeed. So Arts and Culture editor, Matthew Schnipper and I spoke a lot about this thirsty moment in New York City culture. from Seltzer Fest to heated rivalry musicals.

And another journalist here at the station has a really interesting angle that I wanted to chat about as we go into the weekend. Producer Elizabeth Shway has been looking into what sober nightlife is like across the five boroughs. What's up, Elizabeth? Hey, Jeney. How's it going?

Good. How are you? I'm doing so good. The closer we get to the weekend, the better I am. Yeah, me too. I'm the same way. So what did you find out about sober nightlife? Yeah, so I myself enjoy a good drink once in a while, but as I've gotten older, I don't like to drink every single time I socialize now. And that's because I usually just don't feel that good the next day. I feel like it's kind of a wasted day. I don't really do anything. She can't take the hangover, guys. Can't take it anymore. So I've been trying to find more spaces where I can just hang out with my friends without feeling the pressure to drink. So I found that there are four completely alcohol-free bars in the city. Really? I'm hoping you tell us where. Yeah, there's two in Manhattan and two in Brooklyn, and they sell mainly mocktails, but they also sell drinks like coffee and tea and sometimes food.

And they've all opened up in the last few years or so, which makes sense because after the pandemic, alcohol levels have been going down. Okay, I do definitely love a good mocktail. Yeah. Refreshing. Yeah. But obviously nightlife isn't just bars. There's also a substack called Bright Night's Social, where Sam Bail carries a list of alcohol-free events at night throughout the way. week in the city, and that includes stuff like game nights and live jazz and dance parties.

Nice. And there are also several cafes and tea houses where you can hang out until late into the night. Like Kawa House has multiple locations across the city, Cafe Reggio in Soho. There's Prince Tea House and Barzok in Crown Heights and Nook and Bushwick. And there are also 24-hour diners all across the city where you can hang out. I absolutely love Nook. I had no idea about all the extras. I literally just go there too.

I love Nook. I love the live music on Fridays. Yeah, yeah, cool vibes there. All right, so I understand that you and one of our digital producers went out to some of these sober nightlife bars. And you talk to some people. What did you find out? Yeah, we met a 19-year-old college student named Evnika Maihovish, who is obviously under the drinking age, but she wanted to find a place to hang out with a friend off campus.

I literally searched up on Google, non-alcoholic jazz club. and like this is the first place that popped up and I did my research and I was like, Thursday night, we're free on Thursday night. It was perfect. We met Nat Garrett who was pregnant but still wanted a date night with her partner. We're expecting in like a couple of weeks. So it's like our last little date night also.

Oh my God, congratulations. Yeah. We also met Ezra Goh who still drinks from time to time but prefers these alcohol-free spaces to read and work. I think that a lot of New Yorkers especially, they go to bars to escape. And even if they go to connect, you're not really connecting to the person,

you're connecting to the drunk version of them. So it's like, sure, it feels like you're having a social time, but like, at least for me, I kind of walk away, not knowing who I actually talk to, and there's still kind of an empty feeling at the end of the day. Yeah. Whereas here, I found that I have been able to make meaningful connections. Nice.

Now, Elizabeth, as you mentioned, you know, nightlife doesn't just mean bars, right? What about places to dance and get your groove on? Yeah, that's a really good point. So I talked with Gene Sebastian Serena, who is the co-founder of Zero Proof, N. Y, which is a pop-up substance-free dance party. And he started it a year ago with a couple of friends because they all like to go out. They enjoy good music. They all like to dance.

But they just all don't really like to drink. We just wanted to put together a space that's not necessarily. about completely stopping alcohol consumption or anything like that, but to prove to people that they're capable of having fun without that alcohol. And they wanted to create a space for people like themselves. You can go and dance. You don't need to take a shot first before you go and dance. Like just the only thing stopping you is yourself.

And to him, a sober party isn't really all that different from any other party. We went to many sober parties in our lives, and we all had the time of our lives. Like, my 11th grade masquerade ball was some of the most fun. I had in my adolescence, and there was not a lick of alcohol anywhere to be seen. Like, and everyone was turned and having fun. He said he's met a lot of people who tell him that they don't think they can party without alcohol, and he's pretty surprised by that.

There's also something called For the People, which are substance-free dance parties in Bushwick, and there's also something called reboot NYC, which is the family-friendly silent disco dance party. You know what I love most about a silent disco? The person right next to you can be grooving to something else. You have no idea. You're just like, hey, aren't they offbeat? Love that. All right.

So I find it very interesting that people are drinking a lot less these days. Why is that? Yeah. So during the pandemic, alcohol consumption increased a lot across the country. But now there's a record low number of Americans who are drinking. And that's according to data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health. And when I talked with Dr. Timothy Brennan, who works on addiction at Mount Sinai, he told me he thinks it's because recent research is showing that not even a drop of alcohol is good for you and linked to all sorts of

bad things like cancer. But when I spoke with Gene, again, he is the co-founder of Zero-proof NY and host Pop-Up Substance Free Dance Parties. When we were talking, we're both Gen Z, and we think it's more because Gen Z is more broke as a generation. Ding, ding, ding. That's exactly what I was thinking. Like, drinks are about $24 if you want a good cocktail, right? Exactly. And you need at least two to really party. Exactly. You know, in the same way that we can't afford homes like our parents did in their 20s and 30s. We also can't afford all these expensive cocktails. So Gene said that he thinks that Gen Z is just good at finding other ways to have fun and that he predicts that naturally alcohol-free spaces will continue

to grow in the city, especially those late-night cafes like Nook and Brooklyn. Yeah, for sure. Exciting times in New York City. That's WNYC's Elizabeth Shway. Thanks a lot for joining us. Thank you, Jene. And thank you, dear listener, for listening to NYC Now. Are we missing anything here? Send us a voice note letting us know what's up in your New York. You can shoot that over to NYC now at WNYC.org. We'd love to hear from you and you may hear your comments on a future episode. I'm Jenae Pierre. See you next time.