Friday, October 10, 2025

October 10, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Friday, October 10, 2025 

Welcome to another Friday edition of the Tech:NYC Digest, featuring our favorite five highlights in New York tech this week.

  • Programming note: The Digest will be off on Monday for Indigenous Peoples’ Day. We’ll be back in your inbox on Tuesday.

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What is Zabar’s without Saul? (Grub Street)

  • Saul Zabar, the 97-year-old co-owner and figurehead of the iconic Upper West Side food institution, passed away this week, leaving a legacy of taste, precision, New York grit. 🕊️

    • Known for his uncompromising standards (and for sampling latkes like a sommelier), Saul epitomized a generation of neighborhood establishments built on integrity and quality. This story looks at the family business — and the big shoes left to fill.

Anthropic took over a NYC newsstand to welcome slowing down and thinking (Trendhunter)

  • This week, Anthropic’s Claude was brand-in-residence at Air Mail, hosting a pop-up at the digital weekly’s West Village storefront. 

    • Part of Anthropic’s Keep Thinking anti-AI-slop campaign, the collaboration saw over 5,000 people swing by for coffee, connections, books, and ‘thinking’ caps.

This cool new subway installation turns transit data into art at Fulton Center (TimeOut New York)

  • Designer Giorgia Lupi’s A Data Love Letter to the Subway transforms MTA data into black-and-white animations and a living data story.  🎨

    • Visualized across 52 digital screens at the Fulton Center, the artwork personifies trains into living characters, celebrating the invisible choreography of New York’s daily commutes. 

    • “It’s about seeing the subway, and our daily journeys, with a bit more poetry and wonder,” says Lupi.

It’s Ellie’s world, we’re all just livin’ in it (Bon Appétit)

  • Big Ellie, the Liberty’s beloved elephant mascot, embodies Brooklyn’s swagger — and keeps the WNBA champs hyped at Barclays. 🏀

    • Here’s a day-in-the-life glimpse of milkshakes at Shake Shack and postgame bites at Pop’s Patties, where Ellie’s pregame rituals and halftime Mary J. Blige medleys are pure New York energy.

What would Elphaba grow? The Botanical Garden has some ideas (New York Times)

  • The Bronx goes full Emerald City this month as the New York Botanical Garden blooms in the signature pinks and greens of “Wicked”. 🌸🌳

    • Inspired by the moment Glinda offers Elphaba a pink flower, the Wicked Broadway Garden comes complete with live performances by alumni of the show’s national tour and “witchy” trivia. 

    • Festivities start this Saturday, Oct. 11, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.


That’s a wrap for this week’s Friday Five — have a “Wicked” weekend, New York! 🧙🏻‍♀️🔮

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