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Published: March 26th 2007
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Orchard Street
Just imagine what this was like back in the push cart days! Bargains still abound! My sister and I traveled via Amtrak to New York City from Albany for two nights (three full days). This was mostly a girlie girl trip, exploring neighborhoods, visiting museums, and shopping (especially funky bargain shopping).
Day One
Taxi from Penn Station to 57th to leave off the luggage at our lovely and graciously loaned "pied a terre" with a Central Park view. We cabbed to the Neue Galerie, a Louis XIII-style mansion at Fifth Avenue and 86th Street with the wonderful painting of Adlele Bloch Bauer by Gustav Klimt and an exceptional show “Van Gogh and Expressionism.” We were thrilled with this museum. Great museum shop. Nice looking restaurant with a grand piano and occasional concerts. The Neue was new to us and a real highlight.
Walked back to Madison and took a bus ($1.00 senior rate - coins or metro card only) to the Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd St., specifically to see: Robert Moses and the Modern City: Remaking the Metropolis. Robert Moses, what a conundrum! His infrastructure projects - bridges, roads, Lincoln Center, parks (including Central Park) were heroic; but they came sadly at the expense of
Cafe Charbon
I wish I took a picture of the interior as it is charming. We loved having brunch at the Orchard Street cafe/grocery/bar! Very cool - we sat in the window as young New York careerists passed with their weeks groceries and laundry. The eggs benedict / florentine were wonderful the hollandaise was just right! historic buildings, and more importantly had a tragic affect on the people who lived in the neighborhoods leveled by his projects. Oh for some balance! It’s a success/failure story; complicated and controversial and well told through City Museum of NY’s exhibit. There's a nice museum shop, and we picked up lunch here in the museum.
Bussed down 5th Ave. to The Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Street. Beautiful mansion - a bit like Isabelle Stuart Gardner in Boston. Incredible collection. Beautiful atrium/courtyard. We plan to come back at Christmas when the seasonal plantings are especially grand. We used free info speakers that not only worked and were user friendly; but also had great information.
Walked to Barney’s and headed for Fred’s on the 9th floor where we sat at the bar and had a glass of wine. We walked to where we were staying on W. 57th. We took a cab to the Majestic theatre and enjoyed The Drowsy Chaperone, which was a light and spoofy musical “within a play.” The interesting parts were the staging when a typical apartment would become the setting for an old style musical. It was ok; but there are better shows on
Broadway! After the show we took an elevator to The View, but were too tired to endure the line so we walked up 7th toward “home.”
TILT, TILT, we erred - every trip has at least one mistake; here's ours! We went into the Russian Tea Room 150 West 57th St. for a snack after the show. We should have bolted after spying a clump of hair on a napkin! But we endured moldy bread (discovered when the piece was almost totally eaten), a haughty hostess - asking for reservations when the place was hardly occupied - and very over priced snacks. All too bad, as we were excited that The Russian Tea Room had re-opened and it is handsome - in it’s gaudy over the top way - but we can only recommend one thing - two words - stay away!
Day Two
Walked to MoMA on W. 53rd and especially enjoyed the two floors of modern art, a special exhibit of David Smith’s sculpture (he worked out of a studio/blacksmith shop in Bolton Landing until his death in 1965), and the sculpture garden. This was a great way to continue the Van Gogh (Starry Night
is here) and Klimt themes of the previous day. The collection is enormous, and the building is a wonder. The names just keep on going - Cezanne, Gauguin, Picasso, Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Roy Lichtenstein and on and on! GREAT shop - especially for educational toys and superbly designed everyday items. We didn’t care for the “audio” tour at MoMA as much as the one at the Frick; but we LOVED eaves dropping as a very hip looking male teacher accompanied a group of pre-school/primary school aged children and their parents on a tour. He was a consummate educator - they were full of questions and answers (everyone raised their hand).
Noticed that the fairly new American Folk Art Museum, almost next to Modern Art, had a café. We had a nice lunch (BLP's were on the menu "P" was for pears. We visited a fascinating MartÃn RamÃrez exhibit, and enjoyed the rest of the collection. A kindly docent educated us (me anyway who knew not) about Ramirez, a self taught artist who created nearly 300 drawings while confined to a state mental hospital in northern California. The work is mind boggling. The shop at American Folk Art Museum is wonderful.
Full to the brim of museums; we headed down 5th to St. Patrick’s, Sak’s (where we sampled some anti aging treatments), and Rockefeller Plaza. Christie’s Auction House (our favorite bathroom stop in midtown) had a nice collection of art glass and American furniture (including some Stickley pieces. We walked home via Ave. of the America’s. We had planned to have a light supper at La Bonne Soupe, but noticed Tuscan Tai, a comfy looking restaurant a few doors down from the 56th St. entrance to our weekend residence. It was wonderful - especially the swimming duck and Siam rolls - my sister said, “You can always tell a good city restaurant if there are bikes locked to the trees outside.” This little gem had several bikes chained outside was so “neighborhoodie” there were even strollers parked in the tight aisle.
Day Three
We take the subway down to Delancy St. and walk over to Orchard St. where the street is closed to traffic to accommodate all manner of clothing stores and stands. Everything is on sale; most everything is open for negotiation. “What if we buy two?” asks my savvy shopping sister. It’s fun and funky. We find Chabon, a nice French café / grocery store / bar-restaurant, and have yummy eggs benedict, orange juice and wonderful coffee. We venture into dark little shops and emerge with $5 wool knit skirts that we swear are just like the $800 numbers we drooled over at St. John’s on 5th Ave. the day before. Little known fact (to me, anyway). Here on the lower east side is the "pickle district!" Near the corner of Essex and Ludlow streets, we saw lines of people and an aproned worker dishing out something - actually, I thought it was a sidewalk gelato stand. Wrong! We had come upon Guss' Pickles, a famous pickles vendor! We also found throngs of people picking out Passover and Easter treats in Economy Candy in the same neighborhood. Vintage clothing stores abound; but are on the pricy side (considering what we find in our local consignment stores, Salvation Army, and City Missions). We walked through Chinatown, which was brimming with people on this first weekend of spring, and cross into Little Italy, which seem like it is being absorbed by Chinatown. We stopped into Da Nico on Mulberry St. fgot a window table and sipped Chianti, shared hot antipasti, and ended with fantastic espresso. We headed for the subway uptown. On the way, we pass right by the gelato and Italian pastry shops such will power! We picked up our luggage at the apartment and take a taxi to Penn Station just in time for the Amtrak 5:45 to take us back to Albany. This was really fun - will be back in NY for Jersey Boys on Broadway in May. NEED our frequent NY fixes and great sister weekends!
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liliram
liliram
Love this girlie girlie trip!
I have not been to NYC since 2005 and I've been forever planning to spend at least a week there doing what you girls did. Thanks. I should really go. Soon I hope.