Location: Steve, you’re opening a second Magnolia Bakery on Columbus Avenue this week, and Danny, you just opened a second Mermaid Inn on Amsterdam Avenue this past November. Both of you used to live here on the Upper West Side. What is it about the neighborhood that brought you back for these new endeavors?

Danny Abrams: I think that we both knew the neighborhood about as well as anybody did. And we both felt—at least I did—that there was a lack of good places to go.  read more »

Hallowed cupcake mecca Magnolia Bakery has spawned a second location -- three times bigger -- on the Upper West Side.

For this week's Observer, out tomorrow, I sat down with Magnolia owner Steve Abrams and brother Danny Abrams, owner of the Mermaid Inn, who similarly opened a second location in the same neighborhood.  read more »