Bye, New York. Love you much, see you again soon.

Following up on last week’s post on our holiday take on a Manhattan the massive Thanksgiving party we were lucky enough to attend, we wanted to give a brief mention to one of the many relishes dishes that were featured as part of the celebration—the vegan cheese spread.

Provided by hosts Erica Kubersky + Justin Lamb, we’re told that the overall spread was “played down” from last year’s, but it was, by our estimate, nonetheless the largest array of vegan cheeses we’d seen ever, likely. In this day of what we’ve before described as a bit of a vegan cheese revolution—most recently on our piece covering vegan cheese slices and then with various pieces on one of our favorite newcomers, Miyoko’s Creamery (on the company’s products in general and on their Mt. Vesuvius Black Ash cheese in specific)—the cheeses that impressed us the most this Thanksgiving were from one of the vanguards of vegan cheeses, Brooklyn’s Dr. Cow.

Dr. Cow was the first company to introduce raw vegan nut cheese to the market, beginning to sell their small, cultured cheese wheels in select New York stores year back. Now, the couple behind Dr. Cow sell at locations nationwide, having expanded their line to include sweets, jams, and spreads, and offering larger, more experimental cheese out of their 6th Street Williamsburg shop.

Erica dropped by the shop and picked out five aged nut cheese: a cashew, pumpkin seed, zucchini cheese (pictured above); a smoked balsamic salt cheese; a crazy interesting, amazing cashew blue made with West Indian shilajit, cordyceps, and hibiscus; an equally interesting, dark, dry macadamia reishi; and a hemp, chili, sesame cashew cheese (all pictured below). To the right, an illustration from Dr. Cow of the raw nut cheese process.

If you haven’t Dr. Cow a try, you’re overdue. You can find stockists on their Web site, but if you’re in New York, drop by their shop to get the really good stuff; they’re open every day but Monday.

Pulling up a photo from our archive as we enjoy the timeless architecture of New York City for the week, this one from the courthouse downtown, employed in our 2011 site redesign.

In need of a new holiday cocktail to spice things up this season? We came up with this autumnal take on a Manhattan for our friends’ Thanksgiving party this year and it’s going over like gangbusters so far.

Here’s what you need:

2 oz. Bourbon (we used Bulleit)
1 oz. Sweet Vermouth (we really like the Italian Antica Formula)
2 dashes New England Spiced Cranberry Bitters
Maraschino Cherry

New Orleans-based Bittermens makes the cranberry bitters and they’re pretty great. But the recipe’s easy—just combine ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shake gently or swirl, pour into a lowball glass, garnish with cherry and enjoy, pilgrim.

If you happen to be looking for an escape from the family togetherness this holiday week, or are just looking for a new show to binge-watch, we highly recommend that you check out Aziz Ansari‘s new Netflix show, “Master of None”.

Even if you’re not a fan of Ansari’s stand-up or you think Tom Haverford’s “treat yo self” persona is a bit much on Parks and Rec, you should still give “Master of None” a go.

Not only does Ansari play a more grounded, tamer version of his stand-up and Haverford selves, and not only is the primary cast of “Master of None” wildly diverse (Ansari, playing Dev + Taiwanese-American friend, Brian + African-American lesbian, Denise + giant, white, muppet-like Arnold) but the writing’s intelligent and funny without going over-the-top (thanks mostly to Ansari himself + writing partner/co-creator Alan Yang).

For instance, there are all of these moments you have watching the show where you can suddenly see where it would go as a typically, get them laughing at all costs show, and it never takes the easy way out. Ansari’s character gets wasted at a bar with a bunch of women and doesn’t cheat on his grind but instead discusses feminism with them and talks himself out of a job…that kind of thing. And it still totally works. Better than that, it’s a refreshing departure from what we’ve come to expect in comedies, even the best of them these days.

So give it a try if you trust our taste. We’re wagering you’ll like it. Trailer below. Ansari’s also got a good article in the Times on acting and race in Hollywood.

Okay, yes, Bruce Springsteen is easily one of the most covered musicians of our time, and yes, covers of this particular track are about a dime-a-dozen, but I’d wager that Hot Chip‘s take on “Dancing in the Dark” is one of the best to date.

Watch the band’s 80’s commercial-filled video for the song and see what you think. You can buy the track on the EP of the same name, which also includes a new version of “Cry for You” and two remixes of “Huarache Lights”.

Coming off of a beautiful weekend celebrating a beautiful life, we just wanted to remind everyone—ourselves included—to appreciate life and friendship, and to love deeply. Life is far far far too short for anything less.

Holy shit, ya’ll. On top of Missy’s outta nowhere awesomeness last week, David Fucking Bowie dropped an insanely rock-operatic 10 minute single last night along with an equally epic, creepy-gyration-filled weird-space video/short film.

The song, “Blackstar”, is the title track from Bowie’s forthcoming 25th studio album (!!!)—due January 8th, Bowie’s 69th birthday (!!!!!!); pre-order via iTunes or Bowie’s site—and it is legitimately great, getting us excited to hear the other seven tracks.

Watch the short film below.

Noise’s also got an interviewwith the film’s director, Johan Renck, where he details the collaborative creative process with Bowie.

Somewhere, in Los Angeles, a dog looks out over the city, fully aware of the evils that dwell below and the innocent lives he’ll soon save.

Or he’s just ready to go home. One or the other.

Likely if you’re a resident of Los Angeles, fan of vegan food, and/or follower of electronic music, you’ve heard by now that musician, DJ, animal rights activist, and outspoken vegan, Moby, is opening his long-awaited new restaurant Little Pine in Silver Lake tomorrow. We’ve been waiting with bated breath ourselves, so we asked Moby to take a few minutes in anticipation of tomorrow’s unveiling to tell us more about the work leading up to this point, how he hopes to impact the restaurant scene in Los Angeles, and how he wants Little Pine to make the vegan scene here even more mainstream and accepted.

raven + crow: Alright, first off, congratulations on Little Pine. I know back when we both lived in New York, you had a great little café—TeaNY, on the lower east side—but I’m sure that was a ton of work. What made you want to venture back into the restaurant world in your new LA digs?

Moby: opening and running restaurants is stressful and expensive, but ultimately really emotionally rewarding. walking into a space that i’ve designed and seeing people happily eating organic food is really, really satisfying.

That’s nice. I feel kind of the same way about opening MooShoes here. Though we rarely see people try to eat the shoes. So, Los Angeles is, thankfully, a virtual urban smorgasbord for vegans these days—we can’t throw Goldenberg’s Peanut Chew without hitting a vegan or vegan-friendly restaurant—what gap do you see Little Pine filling in the already dense vegan culinary landscape?

there are a lot of high-end vegan restaurants and a lot of punk rock vegan restaurants and a lot of new-hippie vegan restaurants but i don’t know of any other modern and inviting and neighborhood-y vegan restaurants that stay open until midnight 7 days a week.

No joke there. We were totally shocked at how little of LA is late night, minus the tourist-y/douche-y clubs. Why Silver Lake, though? I know it’s a hotspot, but I’ve talked to other restauranteurs in the city who think that the vegan scene’s totally saturated there as is and are looking elsewhere.

oh, because it’s where i live.

Fair enough. What made you chose that spot? It’s a great area, but I know you’re also right across from an elementary school and you’ve had more than your fair share of pushback from the community on the late nights + alcohol, respectively.

odd questions, almost contentious, are you sure you’re in support of what we’re doing?

Contentious‽ We’re just asking the hard-hitting questions the LA Times + TMZ are afraid to ask.

basically: this is where the building happened to be. i wanted to buy a restaurant building and restaurant buildings for sale are rarer than unicorns. unless you’re the army corps of engineers it’s not really feasible to buy a building and pick it up and move it somewhere.

I always wanted to buy a house in rural southern Virginia and fly it to an empty lot in Brooklyn. Never worked out. It sounds like you won the neighborhood over though—Little Pine’s open late and will have a bar.

7:30 a.m – midnight 7 days a week.

Why was that important to you?

because some people wake up early and some people stay up late and i really like the idea of accommodating people regardless of their schedule. also it’s exasperating to get out of a movie at 9:30 and 9:45 and making a panicked dash to a restaurant that’s just closed.

That’s why we stick to the Arclight next to the Veggie Grill. And the liquor license—I know you personally abstain; why was that aspect of Little Pine worth fighting for in your mind?

most of my friends like to drink the occasional glass of wine or beer, and i wanted a place where they’d feel welcome. also i like the idea of veganism becoming normal, which it already is. 28 years ago (when i became vegan) you could only find vegan food in dusty restaurants where they served cold kukicha. for veganism to become the new norm, it needs to be as normal as other restaurants.

That’s a great point. Also, I feel like having one of the few places open that late on a regular basis be vegan is going to expose animal-friendly eating to a crowd that might not be exposed to that as much normally. Well-done. We were also really impressed that you’re using 100% organic ingredients, not a lot of places can pull that off. Did that shape your menu at all? What you could and couldn’t do or even wanted to do?

pretty much everything we’ve tried to find we’ve been able to find, which says a lot about trying to have an organic restaurant in l.a. opening a 100% organic restaurant in oklahoma might be more challenging…and if we can’t find something that’s organic we just keep looking until we find it.

Face, Oklahoma. And are you all going to take reservations or walk-ins only?

we’ll take reservations and also do walk in. as we’re open from 7:30 a.m – midnight there will be lots of times during the day when the restaurant will be quite calm(like 3pm, i’m guessing). but at night we’ll take reservations for 50% of the tables.

Do you think you’ll be there much yourself or are you leaving most of the day-to-day to the team you’ve now got in place?

as opening a vegan restaurant is expensive and stressful it wouldn’t make sense to do the hard work of getting it open and then not hang out there. i plan on being there at least once or twice a day.

Nice. Finally, where does the name come from?

i’m little and i like pine trees.

As mention, Little Pine opens its doors for the first time tomorrow and stays open every day from 730AM to midnight…we’re guessing it closes for the occasional holiday. Reservations + contact, 323-741-8148.

Feature photo, Michael Buckner/WWD; interior/exterior shots courtesy of Moby; food photos by Melissa Danis.