The snow is all but melted and today's sunshine and 40 degree weather was enough for me to show off what I'm calling the Columbus Shuffle, as there are lots of vacant restaurants and new additions to Columbus ave in the West
70's.You can imagine the Columbus Shuffle as a storefront dance that borrows the tune from the Rolling Stones' Harlem Shuffle. Dovetail has gotten lots of great reviews (hopefully the last few discovering the uncovered Lindsay Lohan won't bring the nymag site down again), and the cupcake icon Magnolia Bakery is churning.
But there have been heavy asian casualties, hastening an end to their dominance of columbus ave with the demise of Hunan Park and the exhile from main street of Penang. Finally, 
in what may bring true closure to hurricane Katrina, Jacques Imo's rounds out the restaurant out-ings.What will replace all these in their places is not yet certain, but it won't be a bouloud, that already happened in the West 60s.
The big question on all of our minds here on the UWS though is how long will we have to deal with Crocs. If they are staying for branding martyrdom or because they calculated that there were enough strollers to warrant planting roots on the UWS for the next crocs crop, I say at least make the place fun, and more of an emporium for sillyness. Offer a small bar for rice pudding by co-branding with Rice to Riches, then there will really be no frivolity that downtown can say we don't have up here on the Upper West Side
(they really do set the bar for 360 degree, multi-platform frivolity at rice-to-riches, see if you can sit through their whole flash intro) 
Oh and the best part of pre-Oscars Sunday was the return of the Randolph and Mortimer tribute stand between 76th and 77th in the Columbus flea market.
