New York

Brunch at The Dutch

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Some photos from the weekend before Christmas taken with instagram.

I met Sarah and her sister, Alyson, in SoHo for brunch on a chilly morning last Sunday, perhaps the only time I’ve ever seen the streets there empty.  Priceless.

We went to The Dutch, the new restaurant by the same chef at Locanda Verde, Andrew Carmellini.  We ordered the pastry board to share, which came with a curry sugar donut, apple cheddar scone and a banana nut muffin.

Sarah had the fried chicken with coleslaw and honey biscuits.  I had the eggs with chorizo and hominy grits and Alyson had the cornmeal flapjacks with blueberries.

We had to wait for the bloody marys (in NY, alcohol isn’t served until noon on Sunday) but it was worth it.

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Happy Holidays!

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Some photos from the past few weeks taken with instagram…

Bryant Park Christmas tree
Santa as Christmas tree vendor
Choir singing at South St. Seaport
Metropolitan Opera
Santa display in Soho storefront window

Guggenheim Museum, New York

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I went to the Guggenheim Museum a few weekends ago.  I loved the art collection here but the most memorable part was the building itself.

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1943, it wasn’t completed until after Wright’s death in 1959.  I liked the compactness of the building, which makes seeing the works on view manageable in one afternoon.

Ascending and descending the helical ramp is the only way to appreciate this modern interior space.

Bryant Park

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When you want to get away from the city but can’t, you go to Central Park.  You can find a spot there that makes you forget you live in New York.  But, if you want an oasis right in the middle of skyscrapers and the busy streets of midtown Manhattan, you go to Bryant Park.

Located next to the New York Public Library building, this park is one of my favorites in the city.  It packs a lot in a small space.  You can listen to music, watch movies, play petanque, ping pong and chess, and learn how to knit!  It has fencing, juggling, tai chi, and yoga. It has free wifi, a restaurant, a sandwich and coffee kiosk, by Tom Colicchio no less, and a….

…carousel!  While these are all great reasons to love this park, its pièce de résistance is that it’s built on books.  Bryant Park sits on top of underground storage stacks containing several million books!

Flatiron District

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Several years ago, my good friend, Majella, told me what her mother used to tell her, “be a tourist in your hometown.”  When she finally came to town over the 4th of July weekend, we played tourist in New York. We walked all over Manhattan, including the Flatiron district.  This area along with Gramercy Park just east of here and Union Square to the south are nice places to wander around in downtown Manhattan, especially on a summer evening. This is a view of the MetLife Clock Tower soaring above Madison Square park.

The Flatiron building is one of my favorite buildings in New York.  I like the triangular shape of this renaissance revival style (according to the AIA guide to New York City) building, which was completed in 1903.

Central Park in July

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After going to a Matisse exhibit at the Jewish Museum in the Upper East Side, my friend, Majella, and I walked across the park one Sunday afternoon in July.  This picture was taken on the east side of the reservoir with the view of the Upper West Side skyline.

At the western side of the park, this is a view of Turtle Pond and the Upper East Side from the Belvedere Castle.

After brunch at Sarabeths Central Park West a few weeks later, I took a picture of The Pond across the street from the restaurant. If you are a J.D. Salinger fan, you might be interested in this piece of trivia;  The Pond is featured in The Catcher in the Rye.

Brooklyn Bridge

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I finally  had a chance to cross the Brooklyn Bridge, something that I had wanted to do ever since I moved here over a year ago.

When it was completed in 1883, it was the largest suspension bridge and the first to be made of steel.

A woman, Emily Warren Roebling, oversaw the completion of the construction, after her father-in-law, John Roebling–the original designer of the bridge–died and then her husband, Washington Roebling, who took over as chief engineer, could not continue his father’s work after becoming partly paralyzed due to decompression sickness, which he acquired while working on the bridge.

The view of the Manhattan Bridge from the Brooklyn side.

The view from the bridge is amazing!  You can see Governor’s Island and the Statue of Liberty from the bridge.