This archival post was migrated from an old Facebook album, so please excuse the choppy writing and odd formatting.
The view up Elizabeth Street from our hotel room. We stayed at the Nolitan Hotel for the second trip in a row. It’s in Nolita (aka “North of Little Italy) and is pretty much on the boundary between SoHo, Chinatown, Little Italy and the Lower East Side. It’s a great central point with good access to multiple subway lines.
While we were checking in, the hotel concierge asked us why we were visiting New York. Josie mentioned it was our anniversary, and shortly afterwards this complimentary bottle of white wine was delivered to our room. It was Argentinian, and while I know next to nothing about wine, I thought it was quite delicious.
Hungry after the long flight, we hit the brand new Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken joint in the East Village, a short walk from our hotel. Blue Ribbon has a number of more upscale sit-down restaurants across the city, where I’ve really enjoyed their fried chicken in the past. This was a chance to eat it in a much more casual (and cheap) environment.
The food here was like gourmet KFC. We shared a chicken sandwich and a two-piece combo with fries and coleslaw. And cans of great local microbrews. The chicken was good and crunchy, but could have been salted a little more.
Meanwhile, there was a TD Bank across the street which was trying to do some sort of sidewalk promotion. At the same time, a bike rally with heavily tattooed participants was using the corner as a checkpoint. This all made for some interesting entertainment whilst eating.
This is the New Museum on the Bowery. I photograph it almost every time I walk by. This time, the sailboat on the front was a new (and I assume temporary) addition. We thought about visiting this year but the current exhibits looked a bit too conceptual for our liking.
This older building on the Lower East Side was pretty much covered in graffiti. I wasn’t the only one photographing it. I’m sure it will be restored and repurposed shortly as there’s not much of this sort of grit left in the area.
“I used to live here but I can’t afford the rent.”
This is Albert’s Garden in the East Village, one of many similar little pocket parks in New York, maintained by neighbourhood volunteers.
The skyline over Albert’s Garden.
We returned to one of our past favourites, Sake Bar Decibel in the East Village. They have a vast sake drink menu, small-plates food, and a noisy punkish decor/vibe. No attitude. The food was better than the first time, when we ordered less expertly.
The bar area at Decibel Sake Bar.
New York, much like Toronto, is under perpetual construction. This project was ongoing even at night. Since this was somewhere around Second Ave, it occurred to me that this could be part of the ongoing Second Ave Subway construction, the first new major subway line to be built in NYC in 50 years.
This is an aboveground railroad line that runs down the middle of Sixth Ave in East Harlem (aka Spanish Harlem aka El Barrio). This was around 103rd St as we walked to the Museum of the City of New York. I had assumed that the swanky Upper East Side extended all the way to the top of Central Park, so I was surprised to see the different vibe in this area.
The impressive facade of the Museum of the City of New York, which is pretty much exactly as the title says.
The main floor interior of the Museum of the City of New York.
Inside the Museum of the City of New York, they had a giant mural of the City Hall subway station, which was built in 1904 but is now abandoned and unused. If you stand in a specified spot in front of the mural, you can take a picture of someone as if they were standing in that station. So here’s Josie! Looks fairly realistic at a glance.
And here’s me in the virtual City Hall subway station. The train never came.
This was a very elaborate doll house in a glass case inside the Museum of the City of New York. It was hard to capture in photos, but these give an idea of the level of detail. It was built by a women over the course of 25 years. Some of the rooms contained miniature paintings on the wall, which were done by her artist friends, some of whom later became well-known.
The Museum of the City of New York had a section on the history of activism in the city, which covered topics such as unionization, women’s suffrage, historic preservation and the gay rights movement. This is “Gay Bob“, a doll manufactured in 1977. “Come out of the Closet with Gay Bob, the World’s First Gay Doll for Everyone”
This is an enormously detailed photo-realistic painting of Grand Central Terminal, which is hanging in the Museum of the City of New York. The artist’s name is Stone Roberts.
There was an exhibition on New York graffiti art at the Museum of the City of New York. This long photo mural shows a subway train from the days before Giuliani cleaned things up. Now the trains are taken to a yard every night and every speck of graffiti is removed, so you will never see this sort of thing on a train today.
Josie in front of some graffiti artwork in the Museum of the City of New York. The wall on the left is composed of hundreds of empty spraypaint cans.
The Fifth Avenue sidewalk along the north edge of Central Park near 103rd St.
Across from the Museum of the City of New York is the Conservatory Garden in the northeast corner of Central Park. This is the main entrance gate.
A view along a path inside the Conservatory Garden in Central Park.
Someone was doing a little fishing in the Harlem Meer, a fairly large lake at the northeast corner of Central Park, just next to the Conservatory Garden.
A group of mostly older men were doing a little Tai Chi in part of the Conservatory Garden.
These two guys were sketching a fountain in the Conservatory Garden. The man on the right had a Van Gogh look, with a straw hat and a short beard. The man on the left disappointingly ruined my photo by wearing a baseball cap.
One of many nice winding paths in the Conservatory Garden. I like how the city is always rising in the distance.
This is the New York headquarters of Josie’s employer, Infor. Since it’s quite near to Madison Square where we enjoyed our umpeenth Shake Shack burgers, we spun by to take a photo. The building is under restoration and covered in scaffolding, but we did find this plaque.
A view approaching Union Square.
Large paintings of celebrities, for sale along the edge of Union Square.
We didn’t take any photos, but we went for a very excellent and impressive meal at Kajitsu, a Japanese restaurant that specializes in “Shojin” cuisine, which is vegetarian food originally served to monks in Buddhist temples.
We sat at the chef’s table and were served four highly composed seasonal courses, as shown on this menu. The decor is very minimalist, with just a wooden counter, plain walls and no music.
This is the only reservation we’ve ever made in advance of going to NYC. There are pictures of the counter and food in this New York Times review.
We randomly had breakfast at a little diner called the Sugar Cafe at East Houston and Allen St. Great bagels, good bacon and eggs, quirky friendly waiters.
An interesting building we passed by in the Lower East Side. I suspect it is (or was) a synagogue or church.
Bikes parked on a street corner in Williamsburg. I haven’t seen so many in one place since Amsterdam.
Emerging from the Bedford Ave subway stop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, we were greeted with this scene. How many people on smart phones can you count?
The view of the Manhattan skyline from the baskeball courts next to the “Automotive High School” on Bedford Ave in Williamsburg.
This is the interior of Tørst, an incredible beer-centric bar in Greenpoint, Brooklyn that was one of the highlights of our trip. The bar is owned by a guy from Copenhagen, Denmark, who contracts out the brewing of his own beers under the label Evil Twin Brewing. The bar also carries a wider selection of craft beers from other breweries.
We visited Tørst around 3pm on a Monday. It was very peaceful with only a few other customers, so we were able to relax and enjoy a few beers, and chat with the bartender Ryan who was very helpful and knowledgeable about beer.
Josie inside Tørst, still a good photo despite the backlighting, I think!
Me at the bar in Tørst.
The sleek, uniform beer taps at Tørst. All the taps are numbered, and the beers are listed above in erasable marker on the mirror.
All beers at Tørst are served in these wine-type stemmed glasses. Most come in three quantities, 5oz, 8oz and 14oz. The small size is great because then you can try and compare a number of different beers. The bartender also did an impromptu tasting, passing around small glasses of some beers for us and the other people at the bar to taste and smell.
A scan of our beer menu from Tørst, for those who care about those sorts of things. I stuck to the dark side with stouts and porters, trying #20, #21 and a Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout they’d swapped in for the #16 shown here. Josie mixed it up more with #3, a grape-based beer, as well as #4, a saison, and #10. All were excellent.
The food at Tørst was also great. Josie had this sandwich that had pickled onion and tomato relish and various other ingredients that I can’t recall. We also shared a delicious smoked trout app.
Some cool random post-industrial urbany stuff in Brooklyn.
The Rough Trade record store in Williamsburg. A few years ago I probably would have gone in and spent a lot of money, but now I didn’t bother because I likely wouldn’t have known any of the bands.
We visited the East River State Park in Williamsburg, which has a great view of the Manhattan skyline across the East River.
The East River State Park seems quite new, with a lot of facilities for different sports.
A man was walking this very cute dog named Scotty who visited us several times as we wandered the East River State Park.
This is the Maison Premiere in Williamsburg, which calls itself an “Oyster House and Cocktail Den”. It cultivates a vibe inspired by old French cafes and New Orleans bars. The staff dress up all old-tymey in white shirts, black ties, with impeccable slicked haircuts. Only their tattoos give away their modern hipster idenities.
I would find all this intolerable if they weren’t doing it so well, with amazing attention to detail on the drinks and decor.
A view of the bartenders at work behind the u-shaped bar at Maison Premier. You can see us reflected in the mirror.
I ordered an absinthe, since I’ve never tried it before, in part because it was banned in North America for decades. After pouring my drink, the bartender placed it under this special device for 5 or 10 minutes, during which ice water slowly dripped down into the liquor through a sugar cube balanced on a special spoon. On its own it would be undrinkable at 65% ABV. As the water dripped into the liquor, it turned from clear to cloudy.
After the sugar drip prep show, I finally got my absinthe, which has a mild licorice and herb flavour, reminiscent of ouzo or sambuca but more complex and less harsh. They had about a dozen types of absinthe on the menu, so I asked for a “typical” example since I’ve never had it before. The bartender suggested this French brand Vieux Pontarlier and gave me the bottle to check out. Now I see that Esquire Magazine called this brand “as good as it gets” in its review of absinthe brands, so I guess my bartender knew his stuff.
Josie ordered this fancy mint Julep called the Mont Granier. It was made with gin, chartreuse, some bitters, and nutmeg, in a pewter cup with tons of mint and big round scoop of slow-melting ice.
This was an old potbelly stove behind us at the Maison Premiere bar.
The oyster guy hard at work on the other side of the bar at Maison Premiere, as seen through a small window in the divider. In the background is the back patio, a nice green oasis.
A vending machine in Williamsburg that sells cycling paraphernalia. Interesting, but I’m not sure I’d put my money into it.
The base of the Williamsburg Bridge on the Brooklyn side.
A building on Bedford Ave in Williamsburg that reminded me of an Edward Hopper painting.
Some of the nice older architecture around Little Italy and Chinatown.
The flurry of busy morning unloading action along Kenmare Street near our hotel. There are still a number of auto repair shops and vegetable warehouses along the strip which apparently require copious deliveries early every morning.