Fresh from the dishwasher......
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Madison Square Park.......
A few weeks ago my wife and I met a friend for lunch at Métrazur located on the East Balcony of Grand Central Terminal. The view of Main Concourse from either balcony is stunning. Lunch is well priced, the portions are normal and the service very good. Before lunch had we made a visit to Grand Central Market and the Dinning Concourse. For more information click on the link below.
From there we took the 6 train to Madison Square Park.
From there we took the 6 train to Madison Square Park.
From the website.....
“The area known as Madison Square Park has existed as an urban public space since 1686. Named for James Madison, fourth President of the United States, Madison Square was formally opened as a public park in 1847. Soon after the creation of New York City's first Department of Public Parks in 1870, the square was re-landscaped by William Grant with Ignatz Pilat, the department's chief landscape architect and a former assistant to Frederick Law Olmsted in the design of Central Park. The park incorporated both formal and pastoral elements with well-defined walkways and open lawns similar to the park plan we know today.
Today, Madison Square Park is at the heart of a revitalized business district, bordered by office buildings, retail establishments and restaurants. The restoration of the park has also spurred new residential development, welcoming a new generation of young park users.”
Above:William Henry Seward, Sr. (May 16, 1801 – October 10, 1872) was the 12th Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. He was also an outspoken opponent of the spread of slavery in the years leading up to the American Civil War. As Johnson's Secretary of State, he engineered the purchase of Alaska from Russia in an act that was ridiculed at the time as "Seward's Folly."
What was once a drug and homeless area is now........
A tiny 6.5 acre well manicured jewel in the shadow of the
Flatiron Building at the end of Madison Avenue.......
From the website......
"Madison Square Park is located in the Flatiron District, between Fifth and Madison Avenues and 23rd and 26th Streets, just 8 blocks south of the Empire State Building. To get there by subway, take the R, W or 6 train to 23rd Street. On weekends only you can also take the N train to 23rd street."
User friendly......
With a lovely center lawn used in the summer for......
Madison Square Music:
Oval Lawn Series on Wednesday Nights.......
Oval Lawn Series on Wednesday Nights.......
A good place to people watch.......
A children’s play area and programs.......
A dog run........
And home to the original Shake Shack.....
Good burger, yes. Worth the hour plus wait at this location, no. Go to the Upper West Side location across the street from the Natural History Museum. At the park there is always a line, even in a recent blizzard.
My fav…cheese burger topped with a cheese stuffed, breaded deep fried Portobello. Cheese top fries and a beer….…
It stops my heart……
Check out the webcam of the line........
Above, as viewed from the line....
Below from Madison Avenue...
The main reason we went was to view.....
Antony Gormley' Event Horizon
View the following pictures and you can understand why
people are calling 911 and the police hate the instlation.......
Please click the links.....
Sorry, a rear view. He is on the Madison Avenue sidwalk.......
The Flatiron Building....
If you look closely through the leaves.....
Jump!!!!!
Monday, April 19, 2010
West 10th Street In Bloom.............
The other day I took a walk down West Tenth between
Sixth and Fifth Avenue in the West Village NYC..
Oh my…………
For some "West 10th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues is the most beautiful block in New York City."
I just might agree.
West 10th Street was once named Amos Street, after Charles Christopher Amos, a developer who also gave his name to Charles and Christopher streets.
At 51-55 once stood the Studio Building where artists Winslow Homer, Frederic Church and Albert Bierstadt, among others once worked.
Emma Lazarus (July 22, 1849 – November 19, 1887) was an American poet born in New York City.
She is best known for "The New Colossus", a sonnet written in 1883; its final lines were engraved on a bronze plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in 1912.
She is known as an important forerunner of the Zionist movement. She argued for the creation of a Jewish homeland thirteen years before Herzl began to use the term Zionism
Mark Twain lived here in 1900-1901
This 1856 Gothic Revival townhouse is reportedly haunted by ghosts of more than 22 people who lived and/or died here.
Joel Steinberg lived here when he was convicted of first-degree manslaughter in the murder of six-year old Lisa Steinberg,
Located on Fifth Avenue between West Eleventh and West Tenth Streets…..
On MacDougal Street over looking Washington Square Park…..
Might be prefabricated.....
Patchin Place.....Located off West Tenth across Sixth Avenue….
Once home to writers and intellectuals....
ee cummings (#4 Patchin Place) lived here for 40 years;.....
John Reed, Djuna Barnes, Marlon Brando and Theodore Dreiser also resided on Patchin Place.
John Reed, Djuna Barnes, Marlon Brando and Theodore Dreiser also resided on Patchin Place.
Jefferson Market Court House.....
The 100 foot tall tower was once a fire alert look out. It has served as a library since 1967.
Located at West Tenth and Sixth Avenue…
On Sixth Avenue near West Tenth.....
The four buildings in this cul-de-sac were built in 1852 as second-class boarding houses for waiters (primarily Basque) working at the nearby Brevoort House hotel.
Playwright Eugene O'Neill once lived here.
I Had A Slice Today.......
One of things that amazes me about walking tours is the diversity of the walkers. On my last tour NYC Pizza Walk the walkers included a couple from Palo Alto CA, one from Scotland, another from San Diego, one from the UK and a family from Michigan. Now this is a pizza tour, not Broadway, “Ground Zero”, The West Village, but pizza. Most found the tour on Trip Advisor.
The tour sells out daily. It is a very good fun tour.
Best $35.00 I have spent in a long time and might go again at that price.
Would like to take his Pizza Bus Tour......
Oh, you even get a “pizza survival kit”…..
Our tour started across the street from the Spring Street stop on the 6 line.
I was to learn this was significant.
I have always liked this neighborhood/NoLita (north of little Italy). It is between SoHo (South of Houston) and Little Italy. It was once (ten years ago) grimy, unsafe and run down. Now major retailers are moving in. Rents, for now are lower then SoHo. The above “island” was once an asphalt mess. I commend who ever had the brilliant idea to turn wasted space into “miniparks”. They are in every neighborhood........
I digress, 30 years or more ago I was in midtown Manhattan with friends and asked for a restaurant recommendation: Spring Street Natural Foods in SoHo. Who, what, and where, we took a cab to a very dark neighborhood, SoHo. The meal was wonderful. Then they were located at Spring and West Broadway/SoHo Central but have since moved to the corner of Spring and Lafayette....
Gatsby’s, is located between Lafayette and Mulberry Streets on Spring Street. Our tour started here. It was the originally location of Lombardi’s Grocery Store, which became America’s first pizzeria. Lombardi’s opened in 1897. Originally they baked left over scraps of dough, topped them and sold them as “tomato pie”. But with the construction of the 6 subway line, the vibrations created by the trains cracked the cool fired oven. City code would not allow a replacement and they were forced to find a new home with an existing oven.
From here we walked down Mulbeery into little Italy.
The beginning of Little Italy.
The lamp posts are tricolor also.....
We stopped at the corner of Mulbeery and Grand Streets to visit Alleva America’s oldest mozzarella and Italian specially store The cheese is hand made on premise. They make 4000 pounds a day.
Not much of Little Italy is left but their are few hold outs.
We stoped Lombardi's now located at the corner of Spring and Mott Streets for our first tasting.
The coal fired brick oven. Not the date.
The fire box is on the right as you face the oven.
On the right the oven heats to over 1100̊, the left to over 750̊
Scott the Pizza Guy holding a classic Margarita pizza topped with pepperoni and onions. Legend has that in 1889 a Naples baker created a pizza in honour of the Queen Margherita, Queen of Italy who was visiting to the city. He designed the pizza around colours of the Italian flag, tomatoes for the red, basil for the green and Mozzarella for the white.
Lombardi’s uses fresh uncooked canned tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella. Fresh basil is added after the pie is cooked.
The original original Ray’s pizzeria at 27 Prince St.
Scott holding one of many original Ray's pizza menues.
One is located in Hazlet, NJ
They are all famous or the original Rays.........
The one in Hazlet is New York Style Famous Ray's Pizza......
Located in Fort Green Brooklyn.......
You have to love it......
Bari Manufacturing and Restaurant Supply in the Bowery.They make pizza ovens on premise.
A gas fired brick pizza oven in front of another supply house.....
Interesting, another restaurant supply house.....
Bleecker Street in the East Village....
Bleecker Street was named by the Bleecker family. The street ran through the family farm. In 1808, Anthony Bleecker and his wife deeded the city a major portion of the land on which Bleecker Street sits.
Bleecker Street connects Abingdon Square, at the intersection of Eighth Avenue and Hudson Street in the West Village, to the Bowery in the East Village. We walked almost the full length. Our next 2 stops were in the West Village.
The Bayard-Condict Building, located at 65 Bleecker Street, is the only work of architect Louis Sullivan in New York City. The building was built in association with architect Lyndon P. Smith between 1897 and 1899 in the Chicago School style.
It took three times as long as the Empire State Building.
Joe’s serves classic NYC pizza. Cooked in a gas fire oven at a lower temperature than Lombardi’s. It is topped with canned sauce first and then aged shredded mozzarella.
It is crisper then Lombardi's and oily......
They basically sell slices to go but their a few tables but…..
Joe's is located across the street from Father Demo Park.......
It is a lovely spot to have a slice and people watch.......
In the shadow of Our Lady of Pompeii Church......
Last stop John's at 278 Bleeker........
They are an off shoot of Lombardi's.......
Their pie is topped with shredded cheese first and then the sauce.....
My last stop........
I needed a beer..........
Why name an ale house Blind Tiger? The term originated in the 1800’s, when blue laws restricted the sale of alcohol. Bar owners charged a cover to see a blind tiger, or some other imaginary attraction, while providing “complimentary” alcohol. Most blind tigers were dives, serving little more than beer, liquor, and imaginary creatures. This blind tiger has great bar food and almost any beer you might want. The exterior is panelled with wood from an old barn. Their wings looked deadly and were huge as was the serving…………
Too bad I had 3 slices of pizza…..
Across the street from the Blind Tiger and next to John's is Fish....
Great take out window or side walk place to enjoy their Red White and Blue Special....
Six oysters with a choice of red wine, white wine or Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer.....
On a previous visit I had the beer.....
More on Bleeker Street in another post..........
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