New York City

When is a Deli not a Deli, and a Bakery not a Bakery?

October 17, 2024

We had originally planned to go to Ashville for a month to do some hiking, experience the fall foliage, and work from somewhere new, but Hurricane Helene changed all that.  Our Airbnb hosts were super gracious in offering a refund and we had to plan a new location.  Stephen's mom suggested NYC, and we thought that was a good idea.  NYC recently passed a law outlawing short term rentals, though, so it was a bit hard to find a place.  We had one place in Park Slope that was about to work out and then the current guests decided to extend their stay.  We ended up booking a two bedroom place in outer Crown Heights.  The space has nice light, a view of midtown Manhattan from the master bedroom, and it's only a 10-15 minute walk to the A or 4 lines that run express into Manhattan.  With that said, there isn't much around here and we need to travel at least 6-8 subway stops to get to the heart of the active part of Brooklyn.  Williamsburg is practically another country.

We do have a pretty good grocery store about 3 blocks from our flat.  It represents all of the different communities in our neighborhood well and all of the varied foods and tastes that come with it.... Jamaican, Dominican, Haitian, African-American, Puerto Rican, Salvadoran.  The layout of the store was strange, too, as many items were repeated in different aisles if they were used by multiple cultures, even though the signs didn't label an aisle as particular to an ethnicity.

We got pretty much everything we needed for our first grocery run there, other than fresh bread.  We figured there had to be a bakery baking fresh bread somewhere in the neighborhood.  We're in Crown Heights;  there has to be a Jewish deli somewhere nearby to get a loaf of rye bread.  There are all kinds of placed called "Deli" and "Bakery" on signs on the commercial streets so Stephen offered to go out again while Eli worked after we dropped the groceries at our flat.   Additionally, he wanted to check out a local gym to get a membership for the month. 

Blink fitness is a chain with a big footprint in the city, and it's unbelievably inexpensive for what Stephen thought he would have to pay in NYC.  An initiation fee of 20 bucks plus $22  for a month of access.  The machines are well kept, and the crowd seems really respectful of the gym (replacing freeweights in the right spots, disinfecting touchpoints).  There aren't any classes, though, so no Zumba for Stephen.

After securing his membership, he ventured out to check out the local "delis" and "bakeries" to find a loaf of fresh bread.  He stopped in at a few "delis."  Deli in this neighborhood is more like a corner convenience store like 7-11.  They will have convenience store items, hot food, and cold cuts, but no fresh bread other than hoagie rolls behind the counter.  The Jamaican bakeries are mostly patties, and he did find one bakery that sold a loaf, but it was a loaf of fresh baked..... white bread like Wonderbread.  We texted our Airbnb host to see if she an any recommendations, and she had one that was one stop down further on the subway.

Stephen headed there and landed smack dab in the middle of the hasidic Jewish neighborhood on the first day of Sukkot.  It was interesting to see the activity on the street and the amount of Hebrew being spoken (vs. Yiddish which was what Stephen would have expected).  When he arrived at the bakery, it was closed.  It wasn't clear if the bakery was Jewish, but that would seem likely.  He looked at his Google Map and saw another bakery just a few short blocks away so figured that he'd check that one out.  If it was closed too, he would just give up and get bread another day.

On his way there, he passed some sort of outdoor festival for Sukkot, complete with special paramedic trucks especially for the hasidic community.  On his way, some people from Chabad Lubavich asked him if he was Jewish and if he wanted to celebrate Sukkot today.  He quickly moved on.  When he got to the bakery, it too was closed, but there was a Kosher certification in the window so it made sense.  At this point Stephen was frustrated and done with trying to find bread to make our sandwiches for lunch, so on his way home he stopped at a Jamaican takeout and got the best curry goat we've ever had (for $18 bucks... things in NYC are expensive).

Do You Want to Shake my Lulav?

October 18, 2024

After working, we headed out to Coney Island, one of the iconic spots in NYC that we had never been to yet.  On our way, we got accosted by another Chabad Lubavicher who first asked if we were Jewish, and then, we kid you not, asked if we "wanted to shake his lulav."  We had never quite been propositioned that way before and had a chuckle about it as we walked on to the subway station.  We're not quite sure if he understood with a wink and a nod what he was saying or if he was just that clueless.

It probably took just as long to get to Coney Island from our part of Brooklyn as it would have from Manhattan, but it was good to see.  It was pretty dead when we arrived in the late afternoon on a Friday, but we thought it might be more busy on a Saturday/Sunday or later on at night.  We got some shots of historic and pop-culture items (Eli needed a reminder of the film that referenced Zoltar), had a Nathan's hotdog, and then headed back to downtown Brooklyn to walk along the waterfront.  We got some shots of the Brooklyn Bridge and appreciated it more after learning of its history from watching The Gilded Age.  We headed back to our flat to quickly change and then headed back to the Downtown/Park Slope area for dinner.

We went to Ghenet... not the best and not the worst Ethiopian we'd had.  On our way back to our flat, we stopped in at a local pub that our Airbnb hosts recommended that was walking distance from our flat as opposed to having to take the subway.  The joint was pretty dead and not very interesting... it was just a simple bar without much ambiance.  It was interesting, though, for us to watch the AL championship game going on on a Spanish language station and reading the closed captions in Spanish.  We learned a whole bunch of new words and anglicisims that we hadn't ever heard before.

Bread and Beer

October 19, 2024

We rode the Subway to the Grand Army station at the edge of Prospect Park for the weekly best Brooklyn farmer's market.  There were a fair amount of varied stalls and we picked up some veggies, fresh goat cheese, and our elusive bread loaf.  From there we headed to the Target in downtown Brooklyn.  As well stocked and as large (for NYC) as the kitchen is in our place, it was missing some essentials.  We figured it was easier to just go ahead a purchase them than to try to make due and work around (see our knife journey in London).  For dinner, Eli used some of our bounty from the farmers market to make a really amazing tomato and goat cheese tart.

For our entertainment, as we were in a relaxed mood, we decided to head to a local Brooklyn craft brewery.  We started out at Threes Brewing, but when we arrived they were closed... not because of Sukkot, but because someone had bought out the entire venue for a wedding party.  We decided to head to a smaller local brewery called Strong Rope.  On our way between the two, we remarked about how the skunky smell of weed was hard to avoid basically everywhere we've been in NYC this visit.  The last time we were here, the new marijuana law had just passed but distribution hadn't really been happening yet.  Now it's literally everywhere.  Fresh air is less than 30% of our time.

We both did a five beer flight for $28.  We thought the beers were interesting, but none really blew us away.  While we were at the brew pub we started checking out zillow to see what kind of prices apartments were going for in the area.  We found a few condos we fell in love with, but as much as we'd probably like it, moving to NYC full time is not in our future.

Eli's Facebook post from the brew pub attracted a lot of attention and it looks like a few different friends we haven't seen in a while are going to be in town while we're here; hopefully we'll be able to connect.

The Breakup Restaurant

October 20, 2024

Before anyone gets too concerned, this is not a reference to us...  Apparently this restaurant, Pomodoro Roso,  where we met our friend, Adam, at tonight was featured in the breakup episode of Seinfeld.  We arrived a bit early and walked around Columbus Ave.  The street is closed on Sundays a few months every year.  Even in the Upper West Side, we were still unable to escape the weed stench (although we were probably closer to a 60% clean air ratio here).  It was great to see Adam and to catch up, and all three of our dishes were excellent.  Eli had a great seafood pasta, Stephen's was a special Sunday brown sauce with meatballs, sausage, and braised beef.  It wasn't too expensive, even for NYC; we managed to get out of there, the three of us, for $220 including a nice bottle of wine.