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New York walking journal, neighborhood guides, maps, lists of affordable hotels, and art reviews with entertaining commentary on the cultural life of the city.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'cuisine'
A Cultural Guide to West 57th Street: A Walk and a Map
It began in 1891 with the opening of Carnegie Hall, the symbol of music world success that Andrew Carnegie paid people to construct on 7th Avenue between West 57th and West 56th Streets. A year later, the Art Students League moved into the new Americ...
Old New York Gets a New Amsterdam Market
Are there really vineyards on Long Island? Yes. Where did the cocoa in the chocolate come from? Ecuador. What is in the Halve Maen pie? Mincemeat. Where can I normally buy this cheese? At Fairway. You really make handmade corn tortillas? Yes. Such we...
A Visit to Astoria, Then & Now: The Marx Brothers at Paramount Pictures and Notes on Contemporary Attractions
The Marx Brothers at Paramount PicturesIn 1929, in the wake of their stage successes, the Marx Brothers signed a five film deal with Paramount Pictures. During their stage run in Animal Crackers at the Forty Fourth Street Theatre, the Marx Brothers t...
Moveable Feasts in the City: New York Food Trucks and Carts
My lunch yesterday consisted of one pollo asada taco, small but tasty, and for dessert, a mini-wafelini. The taco consisted of chopped grilled chicken with a dash of pico de gallo and a creamy avocado sauce served on a couple of soft corn tortillas. ...
Jazz & Culinary Notes: Pianists, Guitarists, Saxophones and Cupcakes, All Close to Home
Some of you may have noted infrequent postings of late, but my excuse was that I was attempting to take a vacation. I didn't plan an ordinary holiday - the kind that requires packing a suitcase and going somewhere, but I did feel a need to be less bu...
WOTBA New York Events Calendar: Rainy Day Slacker Edition Monday, May 4 - Monday, May 11, 2009
This week appears to be one of those weeks that highlight change and transition, a tentative time between before and after. Nothing seems settled. Students at local universities and colleges are studying for finals, with commencement and graduation c...
A Three-Mile Walk Through Fort Greene and Clinton Hill
I set out on Tuesday afternoon just to view the Tree Huggers Project on Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn (previous post), but the attractive architecture and street life kept me going much farther. As I mentioned in the last post, I started out near downtow...
Madison Square Park: When the Cold Weather Offers Advantages
From January 2009I took this picture at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday at Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, and yes, while the day was nicer, weather-wise, than other days this week, you will notice the lack of a line at the popular hamburger stand. Cold we...
More on Chester Arthur's Curry-Loving Neighborhood, and A Map
Following up on yesterday's post about President Chester A. Arthur, I wanted to spell out some of the attractions of the neighborhood in the form of a walk. There's not a specific itinerary, just a map. I recommend knocking around this part of south ...
Chester A. Arthur's Neighborhood, and A Hint of Vindaloo Masala
While walking through the northern section of Madison Square Park, you may have encountered the striking statue of Chester A. Arthur (1830-1886), the 21st President. The VP in James Garfield's administration, Arthur assumed office upon the tragic dea...
The Strolling Year in Review 2008: Favorite Cafes, Restaurants, Bars, and Bakeries
I often think I don't eat out much, but when I look over a list like this, I realize it's completely untrue. What follows is an eclectic set of restaurants, bars, cafes, and bakeries that I frequent. Modest and reliable places dominate this list, tho...
A Walk for a New York Christmas: Part I. Clement Clarke Moore's Chelsea
In 1822, wealthy New York scholar and poet Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863), a resident of the Chelsea neighborhood, wrote the most famous Christmas poem of all time, "A Visit From St. Nicholas," known widely as "Twas the Night Before Christmas." The...
Looking Back on Thanksgiving Week: Jones Street, Papabubble, New Museum, Star Trek Art, and More
Thanksgiving Week began for me on Monday when the sun came out after several days of rainy weather. Recovering from a cold and a sore knee, the result of wearing the wrong pair of glasses, misunderstanding the distance from the street to the sidewalk...
Selected List of Events for NYC Thanksgiving Week and Beyond: Balloon Inflation, Sondheim, Cindy Sherman, Zabar's, and more
Here's my To-Do list (and one Not-To-Do, I'll let you guess) for the upcoming holiday week in the big city. While I eagerly await the feast with friends and family on Thursday, I'm compiling here a list of city entertainments in and around the festiv...
Coping with Anxiety and Crisis: A Selected List of Fine Chocolate Stores in New York
It's Chocolate Week in New York, and chocolate fans in town may enjoy the Chocolate Show at Pier 94.Fears of recession, concerns about the state of the world, worries about job prospects, and anxieties about the future dominate the news headlines the...
Exploring the East 70s between Park Avenue and 3rd Avenue
Many people explore the Upper East Side by walking through the east 70s closest to the park, near Fifth and Madison, but try venturing through the area east of Park Avenue. Lexington Avenue, along with 3rd Avenue, features a greater mix of stores and...
Upper West Side: Cafe Lalo for Lunch, and a Stop at Tip Top Shoes
It's hard to know how to react to this financial crisis, but I definitely needed to get out of the apartment today, meet a friend for lunch and then pal around and look at architecture, streetlife, and some shoes. Maybe this is what we do in New York...
The Changing Village, and the New Economy of Vintage Clothing and Donuts
When I'm not out pacing New York streets for the themed walks on this website, I routinely walk closer to home in and around the area south of Washington Square Park. It's remarkable how things are changing now along LaGuardia Place, Thompson, Sulliv...
Weekend Frivolities: The New York Balcony Vegetable Garden
So, maybe this isn't such a frivolity at all. Now that lean times could be coming, urban dwellers looking to stretch the domestic dollar may want to consider a balcony vegetable garden, provided they have some sort of balcony or terrace. I've decide...
10 New Books of Interest for the New York State of Mind: On Modernism, Landmarks, the Brooklyn Genius, Pancakes, Pre-Punk History, and more
• New York Dolls: Photographs by Bob Gruen (Hardcover)by Bob Gruen (Photographer), Legs McNeil (Commentary), Morrissey (Afterword)Abrams Image. September 1, 2008.The New York Dolls paved the way for many of the Punk, Glam and New Wavers in the cit...
The New York Trattoria
From New Album 9/4/08 10:01 PMThe New York version of the trattoria, an informal rustic dining establishment, seems inviting these days. In the last month, the usual conversation about where to eat for dinner has been happily resolved with the decisi...
Homage to Pâte à Choux: French Pastry South of 14th Street
I need a little break from New York of 1900, the subject of many recent posts, as I've been deep into research and buried under antiquarian books. So my thoughts naturally turn to pastry. The walking excursions into the École des Beaux-Arts and the ...
Walking the Union Square Greenmarket
One of the contradictions that seem to be inherent in the life of New York is the fact that while the city is in the midst of a building boom, it's also becoming greener. While construction cranes loom menacingly over the many residential towers now ...
