Category Archives: New York

November 28, 2010 · 3:08 pm

Greetings from Watermill (NY)

It’s beautiful out here this time of year and a little less crowded. But there is still lots of traffic in the Hamptons and turning left on two-lane Highway 27 still requires lots of time and patience. As a good Midwesterner, I try to practice random acts of kindness by letting other cars that want to turn into the lane, with the hope that they will do the same for me.  Alas, that hasn’t panned out.

I did find out that the Carvel we used to go to to get my son’s b’day cake has closed. (the one in Southampton) but not to worry, we went to the one in Bridgehampton. Also found that the bookstore (Book Hampton) in Southampton has shrunk, sadly, but the one in Sag Harbor is hanging in there. Hard to leave this mansion we’re staying at – it is the most spectacular house I’ve ever stayed in. Or seen.

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November 27, 2010 · 3:26 pm

MOMA on Black Friday

The cavernous lobby of the Museum of Modern Art was almost as full of people as the streets lining Fifth Avenue in midtown NYC yesterday, the day after Thanksgiving, and my husband seemed to disappear into the coat check room, amidst a long line but once we finally got squared away and into the galleries the crowd thinned a little and we were able to enjoy the Kitchen Design Exhibit and the Women Photographers/New Photographers show.  My brother came through again soon after I texted “Need good, quick, reasonably priced restaurant near MOMA for lunch?” He suggested La Bonne Soupe a block north on 55th street between 5th and 6th and we weren’t the only people who knew about this little place. It was packed at 2:45 p.m. Guess everyone got a late start yesterday. Good food – not just soup but salads, omelettes, sandwiches. I shared a very good Salad Nicoise. The guys had great Croque Monseurs and Madames (a Monseur with a fried egg atop.) Good fries and bread. Chocolate mousse looked amazing but withstood the temptation.

We rented a car at Enterprise – so far so good – and drove in light traffic (amen) to Watermill on the eastern tip of Long Island in about 1.5 hours. Must remember next time to take the Long Island Expressway from the Northern – we missed that and had a brief detour. Staying at a huge mansion – no joke, a friend of my relatives who have their own mansion – in East Hampton. Only one problem – the heat in our room is faltering. It was 65 when we arrived. In the middle of the night I felt really cold – the thermostat read 45. We realized after turning on the light that the wind had blown the door to the outdoor balcony overlooking the bay open. Lots of cold air. Oh well. Keeps us humble.

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November 26, 2010 · 1:49 am

Thanksgiving in NYC – avoiding the parade

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has become more of a headache than fun – too many people, too hard to make it to my cousin’s annual parade viewing party at her apartment on the parade route. But today, things went better than expected getting from the East Side to the West Side in the morning. My friend C. and I waited until 10 a.m. and walked across the park to find the parade winding up just passing past 72nd street so there was no crossing Central Park West there. A policeman told us we’d have to walk all the way up to 84th to cross, meanwhile our party was on 74th. We ended walking to 77th where the parade had just passed through and we not only got across the street but managed to walk quickly to 74th. Lots of people but everyone was orderly and there were  no big tie-ups or unseemliness. For future reference: the parade starts on the Upper West Side at 9 a.m. and lasts until about 10:30. We crossed soon after.

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November 25, 2010 · 4:55 am

NYC – new museum, pre-parade craziness and Keith Richards

Went to the New Museum today to see the Last Newspaper exhibit. Strange but worth a visit. Also went to Cafe Habana for lunch – good chicken mole, even if not cuban. major celeb siting tonight at Scaletta Restaurant at 77th and columbus Ave. Keith Richards was sitting with a huge family group, lots of kids. bizarre.

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November 17, 2010 · 10:54 pm

NYC museums – open on Monday?

I often have a free day in NYC on a Monday and want to go to a museum but not all are open that day. Just checked for this month’s trip and there’s good news and bad. Museum of Modern Art – open on Monday! New Museum in the Bowery – not so new. not open on Monday.

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October 27, 2010 · 10:25 pm

New York on the cheap

As if.

well everything’s relative and I guess that means New York’s version of cheap is Des Moines’ version of not-so-cheap but that said, the NYT had some suggestions for people visiting the Big City on a Tight Budget:

– The Jane – 113 Jane Street (a very sweet street in the West Village that my cousin used to live on)…”50-square-foot cabins” for $99 a night (that’s a single withe shared bath)…www.thejanenyc.com

– The Hotel Chelsea, studio and shared bath for $99…if it was good enough for Sid and Nancy it may be okay for you.

– MOMA is free on Friday nights. Otherwise it’s $25 as I recall painfully.

– for other free events look in the listings of Time Out NY and New York magazine also FreeNYC.net and ClubFReeTime.com

– a seven-day unlimited ride metrocard $27. soon to be $29.

 

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October 25, 2010 · 7:44 pm

MOMA at Thanksgiving

Most Thanksgivings we visit relatives in New York City and I have one or two day to explore the city, which usually involves picking one museum to visit. This year’s winner? MOMA – which I haven’t visited for several years. Several exhibits have caught my attention that I”m eager to see – CounterSpace: Design and the Modern Kitchen (through March 14) and Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photograph (through March 21).

First runner-up (and a museum I hope to visit) is the New Museum downtown on the Bowery, which has an exhibit an old newspaperwoman can’t resist entitled “The Last Newspaper.”

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June 23, 2010 · 11:30 pm

“affordable” NYC hotels – sort of

We’re talking “affordable boutique” hotels in NYC – and the NYTimes ran a list of them last Sunday. Except that they didn’t seem all that affordable, were in sometimes undesireable locations, and several seemed quite claustrophobic and/or sterile. All this for $159 to $269.  The one that sounded most appealing is Eventi in Chelsea ($249 right now; $399 starting next fall – hardly “affordable”).

But after an unpleasant experience at a trendy affordable boutique hotel in San Fransisco – which despite its trendy art and toiletries felt like an insufficiently tarted-up  hotel for transients with still-tiny rooms and still-narrow halls  – I’d prefer for my money an affordable non-boutique hotel –  with less “style,” and more space and comfort.

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April 15, 2010 · 10:50 pm

Healthy Deli?

Yes, it seems like a contradiction in terms – healthy deli – but apparently some Jewish delicatessens are making a stab at providing more healthful food – some even going so far as to ban salami. (Say it’s not so.) A story in the NYTimes about this featured several delis I’ve been at or near recently, including Kenny & Zuke’s, a deli we visited for breakfast last month in Portland. Apparently the thing to have there is the specially-made pastrami – we came close. We ordered a corned beef sandwich which we happily shared – it was huge – in the Denver airport during our trip home.

The story also mentioned Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor which we visited last summer – who knew they made their own cream cheese although I wasn’t surprised they made their own rye bread. (I think we were supposed to have pastrami there too – again, we had the corned beef. Noticing a trend here?)

And earlier this month, we were on the lower East Side of Manhattan, standing outside of Katz’ s deli debating whether to join a long, albeit fast-moving, line at Saturday  lunchtime. We decided not – and I guess this is good since the article seemed to single out old-school delis like Katz’s as, of course, serving stuff that’s not good for us (even if it tastes good.)

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April 5, 2010 · 3:26 am

downtown manhattan and brooklyn

A gorgeous spring day lured us downtown to ramble around Soho, Nolita, Little Italy, Lower East Side, Chinatown – that mishmash of interesting neighborhoods that bump up against east other downtown. We stopped at Russ and Daughters on E. Houston to pick up rugalach and babka for Sunday brunch; wandered along Orchard Street south of Delancy past the Tenement Museum, which was doing a brisk biz, then to Prince Street where we ate a terrific lunch at Cafe Habana – not the sit down place but the one with a counter and a few tables. Place was packed for good reason – as we suspected (we’d never heard of the place) and soon discovered. Delicious cuban sandwiches, spicy sautéed spinach, corn on the cob doused with some parmesan-like cheese, spices and lime; homemade lemonade.

At night, the big event was my brother’s wedding in Park Slope at the lovely old Montauk Club. Wonderful event, of course, but my new sister-in-law made it extra special with all kinds of thoughtful touches  including framed photos for each guest with the bride and/or groom. We danced until they kicked us out and a lot of us ended up at a nearby bar on Flatbush Ave. – Sharlene’s. We didn’t get back to our borrowed digs on the upper east side until 2:30 a.m.

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