The Big Apple

This post is actually coming to you from an apartment building in Chicago where we currently are residing but we'll turn back the clock a few days to when we left Connecticut.

After a good nights sleep at the Critchlow/Stabers residence, we packed up again and headed for NYC. Before doing so though, we made a lunch stop in Rye, New York at the office of soon-to-be world reknown fashion designer and close freind of El, June Webers. I will let Ellie expand more on the clothing side but I must say it was pretty cool to see the beginnings of a small business that is no doubt going to be very successful. There is clearly a determination and talent there to some day have those offices in downtown New York, London and beyond.


From Rye we got back on good old I-95 and headed for the city. I don't know how many people reading this have ever driven into New York from the north, or really from any direction, but it is an experience. For those of you under the age of 30, I'd say the closest I can compare it to is the video game Super Mario Cart, set on Very Difficult. Cabs, repair trucks, tractor trailers, cement mixers, yuppies in SUVs and even mafia limos are all swerving in and out of each lane on a highway that never stays straight for more than 100 yards. It almost feels like the first test that New York puts its new residences through: If you can make it into the city alive, then you probably have the where-with-all to survive here for at least 3 months. Anyway, we made it down to the upper east side alive. This was the the sign that greeted us on the way in, you can click on any picture to make it bigger.





And now, the second test: Parking. At this point its like the city has said: Good, you've displayed the mental quickness and coordination to get here, now we will test your patience. Now you must circle block after block looking for some sap who has decided he'd FINALLY like to move his car. All the while, you're going past these little parking garages with a guy in a funny tux standing under a sign that reads something along the lines of "Only 45 bucks to park overnight."

To make long story short though, we circled the block for a good hour and fifteen minutes and finally located a space. It took a spot from Ellie and probably 20 forwards/reverses, but we finally got into a tiny space on E 80th St. The only hitch was we'd have to get up the next morning to move the car before 9 because of "street sweeping." Whatever.

So we were finally in the Big Apple. After settling our stuff at June's apartment, where she very graciously let us stay, we headed downtown for dinner at Landmarc. Instead of heading all the way to Tribeca, we got off in SoHo and walked around for a bit. You can never get a grasp for the impressiveness of downtown New York until you are actually standing under its buildings and walking through its streets. Its really indescribable. Also, there is just a "feel" about it. When you walk down Broadway or Wall Street, you just know that you are in one of the great cities of modern civilization. Again, indescribable, but if you've been there you're probably nodding your head and if not, you think I'm crazy, but just trust me. Go there sometime. Its awesome.

You can't go to New York without a celebrity experience. Ours was a pretty weak one but before we met everyone at Landmarc, El and I grabbed a drink at Odeon just up the street. (Great bar by the way, its the kind of place where if you lived there, you'd meet each night with friends for a beer or two) We were enjoying our cocktails as the lady next to us conversed with the bartender. Mid conversation, her cell phone rang, she apologized to the bartender and walked outside to take the call. A few minutes later she returned and the bartender gave her one of those "who was that?" looks (they must have known each other) and she said, "That was my good friend Stevie Wonder. He was just calling to chat about a new song...." I couldn't hear her from there. Yes, a weak celebrity story, but it was still kinda cool.

So for those of you that know Josh Levin, I seriously recommend visiting him in New York and having dinner at Landmarc where he has just been promoted to GM. I can't really review a restaurant as well as my friend Ellie but I will say that it was one of the best steaks I've ever had. I don't eat red meat very often but just walking to our table, I saw steaks on just about everybody's plate so something good was going on. The also serve cotton candy for dessert which was sweet.

Our dinner party was made up of a mixed crowd: Josh, his new fiance Jamie, Nordic Neil, my brother Brett, his girlfriend Tess, El's friends from college Teri Ann and Jessica, Ellie and Caleb. It was good times all around. Josh was able to set us up with some sweet appetizers, the coolest being bone marrow from a cow. I'd never seen or heard of such a dish so when the waiter set down a plate of sectioned femurs, I was definitly intrigued. Of course Neil attacked it like a wild animal so I had to try a little bit. Good stuff. Here is the dinner crew:







After paying bargain prices for dinner due to Josh's GM discount, we headed out for some after dinner drinks, albeit with a slightly diminished crew as folks had to work the next day (it was Wednesday night). Now, you'd think, being in NYC and all, we'd head for the kind of place with a one word name like "Plush" or "Aristocracy", where you sit on felt couches and drink martinis out of crystal stemware. Nope. We went down the street to The Patriot. This is the kind of place that would make any man happy. It must have been started by the same guy who runs Sligo's in Somerville: one dollar PBRs, a jukebox dominated by classic rock, darts and keg taps that hadn't been cleaned in 15 years (okay, that didn't make me happy). We spent the balance of the evening hanging out at The Patriot, playing the legendary game Fingers and listening to Johnny Cash. Again, good times....


Neil and I lock arms for a sip of PBR. Could God himself have created a finer beer?





The next morning (Thursday, 9-20), we got up to move the car before nine so we could let the city of New York clean their streets. Recounting the two and a half hours of my life from that point would only make me stressed out so lets just say that when 11:30 rolled around, we hadn't found a spot so we had to plug the car in a damn garage. Not exactly how we envisioned spending the morning but I guess we're going for real authentic New York experiences. One note: I did see the "street cleaning" on one street. This consisted of a old decrepid man pushing a broom down the curb. I'm sure there were real street sweepers somewhere but this was pretty disheartening.





For lunch we headed for Wall Street to meet my brother, Brett. I must say that its been quite an adjustment for me to see the man walking around all day in a suit and talking about the corporate transactions of AIG. This is the same kid I used to wrestle with in the basement and once convinced to drink rotten milk, right? Life moves on... Anyway, we went down to Fulton Market, had some subs and sat out on the docks to enjoy the sun.

Here is a picture of the crazy marketing scheme developed by the Naked Fruit drink company. They were faking a picket line protesting artificial fruit in drinks and acting like crazy people. Eitherway, we got free drinks out of it which was sweet eventhough I wanted to spray them with a firehose. Below that is a picture of Brett's building, the tall one in the back.








From there we said goodbye to Brett so he could finish his work day and headed over to Ground Zero. I'd never been there before and must say it was pretty breathtaking. The footprint left by the Twin Towers is HUGE. Imagining what transpired during 9-11 on this site was a pretty moving experience. The thought of the amount of rubble, dust, debris, etc that filled this area only 6 years ago is enough to make you shudder. I know I've talked about New York and then said its "indescribable" before but this is another instance. If you get the opportunity to, check it out. It will change the way you think about September 11th.







We headed uptown from there, made El's requisit stop at Crate and Barrel and finallywe both ended up at Central Park to take a nap. I'd say one of the most underrated (and underutilized) activities of all time is the outdoor, day time nap. Granted, this is something that's hard for one with a regular, 9-5 job to pull off, but grabbing 20 minutes of shut eye out in the open sun to recharge you for the second half of the day is just downright awesome. Feeling fully rested, El and I went back to the apartment to get ready for our evenings. She was doing a girls night and I was doing a brother night with the plan to meet up later.







I grabbed the subway down to Wall Street to meet up with Brett again. For the next couple of hours Brett and I hung out in Brooklyn at his apartment and had dinner at a pretty good Mexican restaurant. Good bro times. Here is his apartment, very nice....






Fast forward to the Luna Lounge where we all met back up for drinks later on that evening. Other than the 7 dollars for a beer, this was a pretty sweet joint: outdoors, buckets of beer, good looking people and right in the middle of the city (Union Square). Here is the full crew that made it. We basically took over the right corner of the patio. From left to right: Neil, Josh, Tess, Brett, Chris, Tom, Ben, Paul, Catherine, a guy, Terri Ann (hidden), El, me and Jeff.











The night concluded with goodbyes and an extra beer at an Irish pub down the street with me, El, Josh, Neil and Jeff. Gotta end the night on a good note with cheep Irish beer. Anyway, this is getting cut short as we need to begin the day here in Chicago. El is going to try to post later with her fill in on NYC, seeing friends, etc.


Hope everyone is well.