Near the High Line in Chelsea
After two years, John and I were due for a visit to New York City. The more I travel the more I appreciate NYC as a cultural and fashion mecca. I’ve never been to the megalopolises of Asia, but New York seems to me the ultimate city. We spent four solid days there this time with two nights in Midtown and two nights in Brooklyn.
{Saturday}
Chelsea Walk
After checking our bags at Penn Station, we ate lunch at Sullivan Street Bakery to experience their pillowy, yet crusty bread. John enjoyed the Cuban sandwich and I was pleasantly surprised by the room temperature “cavolfiore” pizze with cauliflower, olives, hot peppers, and Parmesan.
Open space along the High Line includes this amphitheater-like seating area, cafe seating, and areas for lounging on oversized wooden chairs
We found a staircase to the sun-drenched High Line easily. The elevated park offers inviting spaces for relaxation, engaging sculpture, and gorgeous views of the surrounding neighborhood. May this wonderful example of clever city-scaping be a lesson to urban planners!
After exiting the High Line, I consulted my map for other points of interest in Chelsea. First stop: the British mini-mart, Myers of Keswick. Although I didn’t buy anything, I’m comforted by the fact that I can find Cornish pasties this side of the Atlantic.
The Chelsea Market‘s narrow walkways bustled with shoppers and, packed in with my fellow foodies, I felt overwhelmed by the number of shops and restaurants. I’d love to go back when it is not a Saturday afternoon and when I have a ravenous appetite.
To console our disappointment in learning that the Hotel Chelsea is under renovation, John and I went next door to El Quijote. Little seems to have changed since this restaurant/bar opened in 1930. We reveled in being the youngest couple there and entertained ourselves by identifying the easy listening instrumentals (I heard “Alfie”).
As we continued north to go back to Penn Station, we took a detour to the antiques flea market in a garage on W. 25th Street. In one booth, we saw some amazing printed art books from the 1920-40s. The George Gershwin Songbook with illustrations by Alajalov was tempting, but we refrained. Across the street from the market, we visited a vintage store with some beautiful pieces.
We returned to Penn Station, got our bags, and walked ten blocks north to the Royalton Hotel, across from the Algonquin. (Unfortunately, the hotel has a very silly website featuring a large picture of a woman’s legs. It’s much better to look at the Visa Signature Hotels page for it.) I rested my feet for a short time before hustling down to Murray’s Cheese in Greenwich Village so we could have grilled cheese sandwiches before the 6pm cut off.
Greenwich Village Crawl
The subway got us down to the village quickly. Murray’s is a cheesy paradise and offers plenty of other tasty treats. While we waited for our sandwiches, we looked at the catering menus and catalogs. On a bench outside, we ate the gooey, satisfying melts, which had a little tomato and pesto as well. Next time I would like to attend one of Murray’s classes, which typically focus on how to pair beer or wine or cider with cheese.
Sated and stuffed, I led John to the Market NYC, which features crafts and clothing by local artists. I bought a flapper-esque hat and earrings made from old tin signs. Woo! I also went to McNulty’s Tea and Coffee to look for varieties of Japanese green tea. McNulty’s has a delightful, old-fashioned atmosphere. The tea is not self-service and I had help from a young man who helped me find bancha tea, a green tea varietal I’d never heard of before. Turns out, it is quite tasty.
In search of jazz with no cover charge, we stopped for drinks at the laid back Arthur’s Tavern, festively decorated for every possible holiday. John and I had fun talking to the Macedonian bartender and analyzing the trio which played original compositions by the Japanese pianist leading the group.
Our long day caught up to us, so we headed to the hotel for a night cap. The dark, warm lobby has a sleek fireplace and comfy chairs — a perfect place to relax.
{Sunday}
Museuming
The Cloisters overlooks the Hudson River
Each time we visit New York we have gone to a different museum. Early on Sunday morning we rode the A train to the very last stop to see the Cloisters, an extension of the Metropolitan focusing on Medieval and Renaissance art. We loved the museum for its fantastic objects and its atmospheric presentation. Every museum should have outdoor spaces, fountains, and living plants (these were all in the reassembled period cloisters). With only 20 rooms and a clearly guided route that took us through the museum chronologically, we exited feeling refreshed and energized by the experience rather than overwhelmed and exhausted. Highlights included the exquisite sculpture “Standing Virgin and Child” and the famous unicorn tapestries.
The imposing Cloisters
We walked through the park surrounding the Cloisters and left by a different subway station. Sometime later we re-emerged at 86th Street and walked across Central Park while eating super salty pretzels.
Once on the east side, we walked to the Neue Galerie, which features Austrian and German art. This small museum contains exquisite paintings and drawings by Gustav Klimt and fantastic work by German Expressionists. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the dimly lit room housing faint pencil drawings by Klimt of gorgeous, sensual women, who upon close inspection — one had to follow the lines of the figures’ arms and hands — turned out to be masturbating!
All the stimulation couldn’t suppress the rising hunger for lunch. We happened upon a Dean and Deluca, got sandwiches, and ate them in Central Park.
Class Consciousness
After lunch and a good sit on a park bench, we started walking along Madison and later 5th Avenue. John and I discovered our differing approaches to high end shopping. He has no fear and can touch a $2,000 dress without qualms. I am afraid to go into any such shops where I feel I do not belong (some kind of inferiority complex here). Also, I don’t want to draw any attention from the hawkish salespeople (although others were quite friendly even though there was no way we could buy anything). As a non-serious buyer, I don’t want to waste people’s time, although John and I can be rather entertaining. In Barney’s, he picked up a pair of sunglasses which resulted in a cartoonish encounter with the salesman who said “Hellooo?!” as he stuck in face into John’s. Saks Fifth Avenue provided us more freedom to wander at will and I viewed the women’s department as a kind of fashion museum (like seeing the first ladies’ dresses at the Smithsonian). Later on, we peeked through the windows of Bauman Rare Books and John checked out Hickey Freeman suits. We finally compromised that if I refused to go into shops, I would at least keep a list of designers to look up online, free from social anxieties, at home.
We had walked some 40 blocks so we returned to the hotel to rest before getting ready for a big evening out!
A New Tradition
We took the subway downtown and arrived at the Flatiron Lounge for pre-dinner drinks. We had the art deco bar almost entirely to ourselves and talked with the friendly bartender who convinced us to try the cocktail flight of the night: three mini-drinks with sherry. I discovered a new personal favorite — sherry cobbler — with sherry, simple syrup, and fresh fruit.
Whereas I have anxieties about fancy clothing stores, John got a little nervous about our dinner date at Gramercy Tavern. However, we couldn’t have had a better experience or better food. We had planned for this foodie splurge and tried the vegetable tasting menu. We tried a new (to us) white wine, an Austrian gruner veltliner, which was delicious on its own and accompanied the parade of courses spectacularly. Five savory courses featuring kale and cabbage, brussels sprouts, vegetable salad with farro, curried squash, and finally mushrooms, celery root (the new “it” vegetable), and polenta preceded a dessert bonanza! Dessert part 1, a mango panna cotta, cleansed our palates for part 2, a coconut chocolate cake with divine butter pecan ice cream. And then! came an assortment of gorgeous chocolates. And then! after we paid the bill came the little goody bags — a mini-coffee cake for each of us to have the next morning at breakfast. We felt truly pampered by the waitstaff who were kind enough to laugh at John’s question “What is the record for napkin dropping” (since he had done it twice without realizing and newly folded napkins would appear for him like magic), but professional enough not to answer it.
Despite being dressed up, we were so close to Forbidden Planet comics that we stopped there after dinner. Then, because it was a beautiful night, we took the subway uptown to the Kimberly Hotel’s Upstairs bar on the 30th-something floor. The view was lovely, especially because we were in the midst of the skyscrapers and not looking down on them. I’d love to go back to this totally chill spot in the summer when the bar isn’t glassed in.
Though I was wearing heels and my feet were killing me, we both felt a sudden urge to go to the Empire State Building. We took a taxi the 6 blocks to the hotel, so we could quickly change. By 11:30pm, we were on the 86th floor:
There’s something intoxicating and lovely about eating an amazing meal and then visiting romantic high places.
{Monday}
Trinity Church cemetery
The Seekers
We slept in on gloomy Monday morning, ate our mini-coffee cakes, checked out of our room (goodbye amazing shower!), and left our bags at the hotel before going downtown. In the cold and mild drizzle, we visited the cemetery of Trinity Church where we found a delightful assortment of spooky gravestones.
We walked by elegant City Hall and decided we needed a second breakfast/early lunch as the rain picked up. At Andy’s Deli on Broadway we found warmth and delicious sandwiches.
Another great stone at Trinity
We took the subway a few stops north and spent a good while in foodie heaven at Eataly. Since we didn’t want to go back out in the cold just yet, we scoured every corner of the shop and came out with an assortment of chocolates, meats, dried pastas, and a loaf of seeded semolina. The bonet-flavored (amaretto and cocoa) “pralines” by Bodrato are quite possibly the most divine mass-produced confections John and I have ever had. I wish I had bought bags of the other flavors!
The weather improved slightly so we walked around the Flatiron District toward Chelsea and stopped at a few vintage stores. After a short time we took the subway uptown near the hotel and looked for the AXA Equitable Tower on 6th Avenue, where we had hoped to find a Thomas Hart Benton mural, but it had been moved in December to the Met.
Before picking up our bags, we had lunch at the Long Room, a friendly Irish pub in Midtown with an awesome draft selection and to John’s delight, buffalo bangers and mash! Each month the pub features a different brewery. John tried Sixpoint‘s Belgian farmhouse ale and the next day while eating lunch at a different place I tried Sixpoint’s Diesel, a rich stout.
Brooklyn Bound
Alexander Hamilton is the most famous resident of the Trinity Church cemetery. The church museum offers this irresistible photo opp.
With our luggage we got on the F train for a long ride to Brooklyn. At three o’clock we arrived at the doorstep of John’s cousin and lounged around the rest of the afternoon.
When hunger struck, we walked to Hamilton’s, where we found comfort food (I had mac and cheese as well as a stellar kale salad with dried cranberries) and, surprisingly, Greek wine by the glass. I enjoyed my Nemean red. The restaurant’s folky soundtrack (perfect for a dreary Monday) got us talking about music straightaway.
{Tuesday}
A Very Long Walk
We didn’t set out to walk seven miles, but that’s what happened. It all started with a sunny morning on the Brooklyn Bridge.
John’s view to Manhattan
Lanah’s signature diagonal
Then we picked up where our self-guided cemetery walk left off on Monday. We visited the site of an African burial ground, now covered by a federal office building (290 Broadway). I enjoyed the informative exhibit, which incorporated archaeology and forensics. The guards were so fixated on getting us to go in to watch the exhibit’s 20-minute movie (which we didn’t), when they should have told us that there was more to the memorial behind the building outside (which we totally missed!).
In Chinatown, we saw one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in North America: the small First Shearith Israel graveyard. A short distance away we found the Eldridge Street Synagogue, a gorgeous temple built in 1887. We entered the building at the basement level, but weren’t really sure where to go. John and I stumbled upon some kind of ritual or prayer service when we went upstairs to the sanctuary. In our befuddlement and embarrassment, we quickly left, so we didn’t see the interior.
We continued our wanderings north and slowly honed in on the Doughnut Plant, where we ate three light, tasty cake donuts and rested our feet. Then, we visited the Essex Street Market, bought a fruit cup, and enjoyed it in Tompkins Park. Throughout our trip we relied on the public toilets in the New York City parks. Tompkins, however, offers no stall doors in the men’s bathroom; even curiouser, the doors to the women’s were sawed off mid-thigh level, but there was still a working lock!
Toasted almond, lemon, and double chocolate
While in the East Village, I also got a hair cut at Whistle. I had never been to a salon where I was asked whether I would like water or something else to drink and Will gave me a fun, but professional cut that I have been able to style successfully at home! The fact that Whistle has two resident dogs made the experience even more awesome!
Lenin watches over us
Bolstered by my new ‘do, we continued window shopping through the village with stops at vintages stores, Trash and Vaudeville (who can forget a name like that?), and a few book stores. We also walked down streets just to gape at beautiful fire escapes. Around 3pm, we found ourselves near Cooper Union and saw the Barrel. The restaurant was nearly empty, but we found good food and relaxed while deciding what to do next.
We walked through NYU and over to Greenwich Village, where we stopped for a drink to rest again. John realized that our cash was running low and we thought that finding an ATM for our bank would be a fun adventure. Deceitful Google maps directed us to Wall Street so we began walking down 6th Avenue and eventually made it to Broadway. Our walk through SoHo yielded gasps from me at the sight of every 19th century Italianate (if I have my architecture correct) building:
Closer to Wall Street, we saw an incredible art deco government building:
We found an ATM, the one we were looking for didn’t exist, and we also discovered that there is a T. J. Maxx on Wall Street. Yes, there is. We saw it.
Totally wiped out, we heaved ourselves onto the subway back to Brooklyn.
Calling Eastern Europe
Visiting New York inevitably provides me an opportunity to get in touch with my mysterious Eastern European heritage. There’s no doubt I have a bit of Bohemian Czech, but there must be something else as well. Last time I stayed in Brooklyn I went to the Golden Fest; this time I persuaded John and his cousin to come with me to tiny Barbes to see Slavic Soul Party for their standing Tuesday-night gig. To our unexpected delight, they played Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite during their first set (I still need to listen to the original), before launching into their standard Balkan brass band party music for the second set.
The young crowd really knew how to squeeze in tight and after 90 minutes or so of having my spine misaligned and being jostled I was ready to go home, as much as I was enjoying the music. If there’s no room to dance, it’s just not as much fun. John and I hadn’t really had dinner, so we got late night pizza slices before riding the subway the few stops to home.
{Wednesday}
When I awoke my legs and feet refused to move. I spent the morning relaxing and doing stretches. At some point John and I went for a walk to Prospect Park in the hopes that light movement would get me limber again. Nope. We stopped in a mini-mart for Tylenol.
Around 1pm, we gathered our bags and got on the subway to Penn Station. We found a healthy lunch at Chickpea and ate in the Amtrak waiting area where there is plenty of good people watching to be had. By 3pm, we were settled in proper seats on the train and heading through the coastal marshes back home.
Now that I’m back home and have recovered from our invigorating escape, I’m looking toward our inevitable visit in the future (I can’t help myself!).
{Thoughts for Future Visits}
Murals: see Benton’s America Today in its new home; visit the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel to pay homage to Maxfield Parrish’s mural
More music: Joe’s Pub, Le Poisson Rouge, Smalls, Jazz Standard
Eastern European music in the East Village: Drom, Mehanata
More markets: Brooklyn flea, Hell’s Kitchen
House museum mania: Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House (1652), Morris-Jumel Mansion (1765), Dyckman Farmhouse (1785), Merchant’s House Museum (1832), Lower East Side Tenement Museum (1870s-1930s), the Frick (1913)
Other notes: Still need to go to the Guggenheim and to the New York Historical Society. I also need to pay a proper visit (i.e. not 10 minutes before closing time) to the NYPL. John’s interested in checking out the Society of Illustrators museum.
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