NYC 2016: Central Park and the Met

 On Friday, we decided to visit Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It was a little misty that day, so we dressed appropriately.  An art museum is an excellent choice for a moist day.

 The mist became a little heavier for a moment, so up went the hood!

 A view of central Manhattan from Central Park.

 Another shot of the same view.

 Turning the camera a little right.

 A close-up. There are many more photos of Central Park in Appendix B.

 Here are a few examples of displays at the Met.

 There were entire wings of things I have never seen in other museums - they had some very interesting and unique topics that are well worth a trip to the Met, even if you've been to other fine museums such as the Louvre.

 Central and South American art was also well represented.

African and Polynesian art had spectacular displays.

There is so much to see here we only covered the first floor during this visit.  For a few more examples of what we saw (but still only a fraction of what we laid eyes on!) please see Appendix C.

NYC 2016: Tenement Museum

 We also signed up for tours of the Tenement Museum on Sunday.  (A word to tourists:  subway trains don't run as often on weekends!  We were almost late!)

The building, at 97 Orchard Street, was built in 1863 by Louis Glockner, a Prussian immigrant, with four apartments on each floor.  It was used continuously for renters until 1935, when housing laws changed and it became too expensive to upgrade the building.  So the apartments were shuttered or used for storage but the downstairs businesses remained open.

From 1935 until 1988, these apartment remained largely unused and untouched.  In 1988, the building was purchased for the museum in order to preserve this part of New York City's past.

 There are four different tours that can be purchased - we bought two.  We did the Hard Times tour (recommended) and the Irish Outsiders tour (good to be paired with Hard Times, if you're doing two tours).

Each tour followed the history of two families that had actually lived in the tenement, including tours of their restored homes.

The tour also goes through unrestored parts of the building.  In some rooms, they have found up to 30 layers of paint.

NYC 2016: Where We Ate

With respect to the places we ate in NYC, which ones would we recommend?

1st Place (tie):  Don Antonio

This place had awesome food!  The Margherita pizza with salami was so good we came back and had it a second night!  The wines, salads, and deserts were all excellent also.  One memorable desert:  fried pizza dough with Nutella drizzled over it.  Fabulous!

 1st Place (tie): Gallagher's Steak House

This place came highly recommended from a friend, and they were right!  The steak, the atmosphere, the drinks, and the bar (which we visited on a separate night) were all spectacular.

 I would say their filet minon is one of the best I've ever had.

 Third Place: Russian Vodka Room / Piano Bar

We didn't actually eat a complete dinner here, but judging from the hot borscht and the strawberries we had here, dinner has to be fabulous!

 The back side of the bar area.

There was a piano playing and every 10 minutes or so, a very loud singer would burst into Russian song (think Pavarotti style).  It was so beautifully done that people would encircle him with cell phones, recording the performance.

 Here is the strawberry desert we had.  Fantastic!

 And the hot borscht.  Sorry I didn't think to take a photo before we started, I wasn't anticipating it being as fantastic as it was.

 Fourth Place: TSQ Brasserie

We ate a lunch here and really enjoyed it - I had the pastrami sandwich and my wife had the chicken sandwich.  It was very good, so we also ate breakfast there the next day.  It too was good.

I think we were the only Americans in the place both times.

 Fifth Place: John's of Bleecker Street

This place has a sterling reputation and they make you wait out front for an open table, sort of Soup Nazi style.

There is also a recommendation on the door from Jack Black.  And this place was also recommended by a friend of ours.

 Our expectations were exceedingly high, and while the pizza was great we were a bit let down.

 The bottom of the pizza was fairly burned, which I affected our impression of the place.  Maybe its not normally that way I don't know, but I have to say Don Antonio's pizza was much better.  We still enjoyed the pizza greatly.

 The service was also just okay, so I'm not sure we'll make the effort to come back.  If we are in the area sure we eat there again.  But it does no better than fifth place on my list.

 Sixth Place: Dizzy's Jazz Club

We had a light dinner here since we were seeing the late set and had already had a light snack beforehand.

 My wife had a salad with chicken in it that was quite good.  I can't even remember what I had.   Apparently it didn't leave a lasting impression with me.

 Seventh Place: Jazz Standard / Smoke

The Jazz Standard club serve dinner made by the accompanying Smoke restaurant which specializes in BBQ.  I had the BBQ chicken which was great.  We'd eat here again for sure.

 Eighth Place: Wolfnights

We ate lunch here after going to the Tenement Museum, and it had some very unique wraps on the menu.  We each tried one and really liked it.  On top of that, the staff was very friendly and fun.  We'd eat lunch here again in a heartbeat if we were in the area.  Not sure it is much of a dinner place.

This photo, by the way, isn't of Wolfnights.  I was sitting in Wolfnights when I took the photo.  Several people walked by and were taking photos of that painting which intrigued me, so I took a photo of them taking photos.  Never did figure out why it was so picturesque.

Not Rated: Bouchon

We ate lunch here one day.  It wasn't really that impressive.  The bread was very hard and seating extremely limited.

I am sitting in Bouchon when I took this photo looking out the windows.  That is Rockefeller Center in the background.


BOTTOM LINE: I would say you should go out of your way to eat at Gallagher's, Don Antonio, or the Russian Vodka Room.  The other places:  if you're in the area eat there.  But I wouldn't travel just to eat there.

NYC 2016: Lennon Sites

Having visited many Beatles sites in Liverpool a few years back, we decided we had to continue that theme by visiting The Dakota while in NYC.  It is sort of like Ground Zero for Beatles fans.  Luckily our Big Bus tour went right by it, where we discovered it was covered in scaffolding right now!  Here is a peek at a corner that escaped the scaffolding.

 Also, the entrance corridor for residents.  If I'm not mistaken, this is the corridor where John Lennon died.

 And the rest of the building, covered in scaffolding.  Grrr!  We had planned on coming back to take photos out front, but skipped that after discovering the scaffolding.

 However, we lucked out in that the Big Bus tour guide mentioned that Lennon hung out at Smith's Bar, which was a couple of blocks from our hotel!  So we scampered on over.   Here is my wife having her mid-afternoon wine at Smith's.  Aren't vacations grand?

 Me at the same bar, same time.  Excuse me, miss...is this seat taken?

 I discovered on my cell phone that the reason John Lennon likely hung out at Smith's was that he and Yoko recorded the "Double Fantasy" album a block or so away at the Hit Factory on 48th Street.   So we finished our drink and scampered on over to 48th Street...

 Approaching the building...

 The Hit Factory was on the 6th floor of this building.  Another music company resides there now.

My wife with the building in the background.

 Looking down the block while standing out front.

This arts school is a few doors down.  I wonder if this influenced John's choice of a recording studio, as this building reminded me a lot of the performing arts school that John attended in Liverpool.

NYC 2016: Jazz Clubs, Plays, and Bars

Here are a few fun nightspots that we visited.

Dizzy's Jazz Club

Sitting on a high floor at Columbus Circle overlooking Central Park, this jazz club was fabulous!

 We saw the 9:30 show of the Julliard Jazz Orchestra which was great.

 Another band, Sammy Miller and the Congregation Big Band, started at 11:30 and they were fabulous!

 We also saw the Kenny Barron Trio at the Jazz Standard.  This too was a fantastic venue with a fantastic band.  The standout here was Johnathan Blake the drummer who did an absolutely astounding drum solo.  This man is going places!

Kenny Barron (piano) and Kiyoshi Kitagawa (drums) were also fantastic.

 We saw Peter Bernstein at the Village Vanguard, a venue with a great reputation.  My only complaint is that we were packed like sardines in there.  it was shoulder to shoulder!  But Peter was great and I enjoyed his between-song banter also.

 On the recommendation of a friend we stopped into the Fat Cat jazz club late one night.  We actually kind of stumbled into it looking for something to do, but once we were inside it dawned on me it was recommended to us.  It is basically a bar with a huge game room and a jazz band playing on one side of the room.  It sounds strange, but it really worked!

 Look at the smiles of the folks in these photos.

 A very fun night.

 My wife heading back to the room after the Fat Cat club, well after midnight.

 We also saw a play while in NYC - that's a must during a visit!  We saw "A Long Day's Journey Into Night" by Eugene O'Neill.  It was enjoyable, but LONG...3 hours and 45 minutes!  On the plus side, it starred Jessica Lange and we could bring glasses of wine back to our seat.  Those two things helped considerably!

 And I can't talk about the nightlife without mentioning the Russian Vodka Room / Piano Lounge.  This place is awesome.  The Pavarotti style Russian singing really lit up the place, and we stayed much longer than we planned.  We even tried to go back another night but the place was so packed we couldn't even get in the door - and this was on a Monday night...late!

 We encountered this scene after midnight one night.

 Another place we had a blast is called the Blue Bar.  We were actually heading to the place next door, but the Blue Bar looked so fun we changed plans and went in.  We were glad we did.  That bar is stunning!

 We each had three drinks and made friends with two young women about to graduate from Columbia University in nursing.  It was a fun conversation.

One warning:  drinks are expensive here!  Those six drinks were $130.

 On the way to the Jazz Standard, we encountered this.

 This is the Orthodox Serbian Cathedral of Saint Sava, constructed 1850-1855.

 Fire devastated this building on May 1, 2016.  Just days before we walked by.

 The parishioners had spent $4M repairing the church during the prior decade.  It is a very sad site today.

 I've seen photos taken before the fire - it was spectacular.  They are still deciding where to go from here.

 Walking back to the subway after being at the Jazz Standard, we stumbled across this view of the Empire State Building.  Awesome!

On a recommendation, we also went to Hurley's Bar.  It was very large, but not really our style.  The sports channels were blaring in the background.  We don't mind sports on the displays, but we'd prefer to hear music in the background.   So we left.

Finally, we had a couple of drinks at Smith's one afternoon.  It was a great place - nice rock music playing, reasonably priced drinks, and what appeared to be good bar food though we didn't have any.  Another great place to visit.