Girl + Corn + Toothpick = TLA*

We somehow missed this video from way back when…back in the last decade…a time we like to call “September ‘09.”

But now that we’ve stumbled upon it, we know that sharing it is just the right thing to do.

We just went from 0-60 on the hungerometer - yes, from looking at our very own corn!  (No, really, someone needs to take their lunch break post-haste…)

Note:  Habana Cafe kicks in around the 2:30 mark, but the pizza before it probably added to the current grumbling stomach situation, too.

* When you channel your inner 7th grader, you know “TLA” means “True Love Always,” right?

Haiti Update.

Sean’s been receiving updates from the Cine Institute in Haiti – an incredible program that teaches Haitian students both an appreciation for as well as the technical art of filmmaking.  We can’t help but feel overwhelmingly empathetic, sad – yet hopeful – when we read them, and we wanted to share one of the recent posts, from Paul Haggis:

While I stood by and watched, two people we brought to Haiti, and one old friend and newest APJ board member, pulled off an unbelievable miracle. They saved the lives of 18 people. Working with heroic medical teams, John Edwards, David Belle and Moran Atias, through sheer persistence and force of will, fought an incredible bureaucracy and won.

These were 18 children and adults who could not be treated in Port-au-Prince and so were being left for dead. When we arrived, the staff of St Damien’s told us that they had been begging anyone who would listen to get them medivac-ed out of the country to hospitals in the US, but no one would listen.  But the incredible team of J/P HRO doctors that Sean Penn and Diana Jenkins brought us refused to just let them lie there until they died.

That’s just a snippet – but you can read the full open letter here.  And, please, if you’d like to support Cine Institute and their recovery efforts, check out their site and donate what you can…!

Haiti Breaks Our Heart

…we’re sure the situation is breaking yours, too.

Sean’s got friends with close ties to Haiti, so we asked them which charities they recommend – smaller organizations with more specific goals.  The following are all based in Haiti, which means our dollars can be used quickly and where the need is greatest:

http://www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti

http://www.lambifund.org/

http://relief4haiti.chipin.com/rebuilding-jacmel-haiti

We know everyone’s giving what they can – so if you’re looking to donate, we just wanted to point out some local options.

Spotted: Liev Schreiber at Cafe Habana

Liev Schreiber and [super-cute] son spotted leaving Cafe Habana after what was obviously a delicious lunch.  Check the full photo (and other celebrities enjoying their mini-me’s company) here.

Good eKarma –> Recycle your eWaste

Our friends at the Lower East Side Ecology Center have teamed up with the magical Mac docs at Tekserve to give everyone an opportunity to start the new year right by recycling your no longer working, no longer wanted, no longer this century eWaste.

What does eWaste entail, you ask?  Pretty much any electronics you can think of:  computers, monitors, fax machines, copiers, CD/DVD/VCR players, stereo equipment, televisions, cell phones…  You know that Sony Walkman in the bottom of your junk drawer?  Yeah, that counts.  (Unless you still rock out on the subway to your old mixtapes, in which case – let your 80’s freak flag fly.  We get it.)

The mass recycling is going down over at Tekserve on Saturday, January 16th.  Every green do-gooder gets rewarded with a $25 coupon on Mac and iPod stuff (along with immeasurable amounts of “way to go, man”)!  Check all the details here, and bring all your now-pointless gear there.

Immaculately Infatuated with Cafe Habana

Kinda hard to not like a couple of guys who rock, eat and blog – and think we’re cool.  The coolest, to be exact.

(Plus, it’s possibly even harder to not like a logo that triumphantly grips a turkey leg like some mad-with-power* hipster Henry VIII.)

Check out Immaculate Infatuation’s crush on Cafe Habana here.  They think we’re tops in Nolita, and apparently are on to us as far as how we keep the kids lining up year after year…!

* If by “power,” we mean “hunger.”

Cafe Habana To-Go Goes Longer…

…by 2 full hours!

Yep, out with the old 12 to 10pm regime and in with the extended jam — 11am to 11pm.  Delivery rolls until 10:30.

Consider your stomach set free – get hungry an hour earlier, stay hungry an hour later!

But even more importantly, as it finally looks winter wonderlandy out there (if you ignore the freezing cold, ankle-deep, gray and slushy street corners)…

Sean Meenan & the Habana family wish you a Feliz Navidad and a Happy New Year!

And so it ends–well, and begins.

Today marks the end of our general manager Darcy Le Fleming’s waddling through work days.  A few months without her is making everyone around here pretty sad.  (Possibly panicked?  Nah, it’ll be cool.  She made binders and lists and things…)

But then there’s the flipside that’s making everyone as happy as that photo shows – because that also means today marks the any day now beginning of her I’ve-got-a-daughter days!  Will she be a Christmas baby?  Baby New Year?  Who knows… All we do know is she better like corn.

No need to really miss Darcy, though – check this segue – because there just *may* be a 2010 Habana Girls calendar hot off the presses (also any day now) so you can at least catch her in there…!

Always Hungry New York rates Cafe Habana

Cafe Habana  received an A on Always Hungry New York. If you’ve never checked out the site, you can read the review here – and while you are there, check out some of the other fun features of the site like  the Top 5, which has lists of things like the Top 5 Chicken Fried Steaks, Top 5 Deviled Eggs and Top 5 Tator Tots –  I don’t know about you but I’m hungry now.

Check out Cafe Habana on 60by80.com

60by80.com is a new website known as  “the stylish gay travel guide ” they already have several cities listed and Cafe Habana has made it into their New York listings. To read the full review or check out some of the other cities, click  here.