Local Expert
Steve Mirsky
Outside of my well worn daily routine, I consider every place I visit to be a travel experience. Whether it's hunting down the best Turkish coffee a few subway stops away or taking you inside the…
Outside of my well worn daily routine, I consider every place I visit to be a travel experience. Whether it's hunting down the best Turkish coffee a few subway stops away or taking you inside the shimmering Skyscaper Museum next to Battery Park, I enjoy sharing the journey as much as the destination itself.
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Want to see how a real life robber baron from the early 20th century lived? Look no further than the Frick Collection where Henry Clay Frick lavished his immense fortune on priceless works of art, cramming them into his sprawling neo-Classical mansion on E 70th St. overlooking Central Park. Built in 1913 by the same architects who designed the New York Public Library main branch in midtown, galleries showcase paintings spanning the Renaissance, an impressive collection of 18th century French furniture, Oriental tapestries, small bronzes, and works ranging from Degas, Goya, El Greco, Van Dyck, Renoir and Whistler. Since becoming a museum in the 1930s, many of the rooms are still arranged the way Henry Clay Frick wanted them. Instead of a typical museum layout defined by collections categorized by date and style, The Frick makes you feel as if you're stepping into a wealthy home graced by the magic of an interior designer whose main focus is decorative harmony and thematic content....along with an unlimited budget. Take note of Edouard Manet's "The Bullfight" near the entrance and Garden Court, the property's lush courtyard reverberating with gently splashing fountains. And here's a tip: If you find $15 a bit pricey, wait until Sunday when admission is "pay-as-you-wish" between 11am and 1pm.
Even before stepping through the door of Grandaisy Bakery on 73 Sullivan St., it helps to know that head baker, Cristóbal Julio Guarchaj, as a boy in Guatemala watched how his father, a baker, milled wheat using using large rotating stones powered by wind and water to pulverize the grain into flour. As he grew older, he mastered treadle, the intricate Mayan craft of fabric weaving. Why the history lesson you ask? Because Guarchaj's acquired skills and nationality are both an anomaly as well as perfectly reflected in the baked goods lining the racks in this warm glass cube fronted shop. The intricacy and complex interplay of flavors belie the fact that like other crafts, baking benefits from cross disciplinary influences. And the results? Deliciously Italian! At the age of eighteen as a recent emigre to the U.S., Guarchaj firmly established his own baking legacy with a signature line of brioche and seven-grain breads. Not only is this a community bakery loaded with artisanal breads and pastry made in small batches using local seasonal ingredients, you can eat a full meal here! My favorite offerings include their long tubular filone "big loaf" bread coated in wheat bran. Its dark baked crust gives it a burnt appearance but the taste is anything but. What a flavorful contrast to its moist interior! My favorite pizzas are the Bianca con Pecorino made with their crisp bianca dough (unbleached wheat flour and breadcrumbs) with 13 month aged Sardinian pecorino cheese folded in. The Finochio is smothered with fresh fennel, brushed with olive oil, and baked to perfection. For dessert, try their Pasticcine tart, raised layers of puff pastry spread with frangipane and then topped with a caramel-colored poached pear infused with vanilla and quince. Or dunk some Ossi di Morti, a delicate crunchy and crisp biscotti puffed with meringue and sugared almonds, into your coffee. Mangia!
Exploring the West Indian restaurants and markets along Nostrand and Flatbush Avenues is like taking a mini vacation to the Caribbean without having to venture further than Brooklyn. This is a world of rotis, pones, macaroni pie, cou-cou and mounds of tropical produce. Concentrated roughly in a square mile bounded by Empire Boulevard, Nostrand Avenue, Cortelyou Road and Flatbush Avenue, just take the B or Q subway line to Prospect Park and head south on Flatbush for your excursion.
Head to Culpepper's, a take-out at 1082 Nostrand Ave. where you can pick up a Barbadian (or Bajan) consisting of Cou-cou, chunks of cornmeal in a soupy tomato and onion sauce topped with fried flying fish fillets. Peppa's, a tiny Jamaican jerk joint at 738 Flatbush Ave. serves up a mean $5 portion of roti: an Indian-style flatbread wrapped burrito-style around generous portions of potatoes, chickpeas, and curried goat.
A Grenadian Restaurant, De Island at 1199 Nostrand, serves up yard fowl, scrawnier albeit natural and hormone free chicken with more tasty dark meat accompanied by ground food, a variety of starchy root vegetables. Browse carefully further down Nostrand and you'll find Haitian cuisine at La Déesse featuring pintade, a guinea hen with traditional Haitian black rice. With a bakery seemingly on every block, you'll have plenty of choices for dessert. I recommend Errol's at 661 Flatbush boasting a broad selection of bread pudding, cassava pones, and callalloo rolls, soft bread filled with a thin spinach-like layer of its namesake vegetable. Wash it down with a drink made from hibiscus or fresh biting ginger beer.
Beyond food, tons of shops sell Caribbean music and clothing where bargaining is expected. Or stop by the stalls at the Flatbush Caton Market and patronize the small local artisans, direct-from-the-islands fruit and vegetable purveyors for that special home cooked meal. Better yet, head over to nearby Prospect Park, check out the Botanical Garden, lounge on a bench and give your belly a rest.
Five miles north of Midtown overlooking the East River's fast moving swirling eddies, historic Gracie Mansion has gone through many lives first starting out as a country estate built in 1799 by Archibald Gracie, a prosperous New York merchant. It then became an ice-cream parlor, first home of the Museum of the City of New York, and most famously, a residence for some of New York's mayors beginning with LaGuardia and ending with Giuliani. Situated on 11 acres that are now a part of Carl Schurz Park, this ornate yellow showpiece is now "The People's House" open for tours by appointment on Wednesdays at 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM. And thanks to an extensive 2002 renovation, it's definitely work taking the 45-minute guided narration of this extensive time capsule lit with a staggering collection of chandeliers, whale-oil fixtures, and an early gasolier (gas lamp). First-floor reception rooms feature federalist architecture and 19th century décor while the spacious upstairs bedrooms overlook Hellgate, which surprisingly means "beautiful view" when translated from Dutch. Since faux finishes were common in early American design, imitation yet highly impressive marble covers the downstairs floors. The library's tall double-paned windows slide into the walls providing access to a wide wraparound porch. Be on the lookout for panes of glass etched with the names "Caroline" and "Mom", inscriptions from Caroline Giuliani and her mother, Donna Hanover, then Mrs. Rudy Giuliani.
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Candle 79
154 East 79th Street, New York, NY,...
Candle 79 is a warmly elegant escape in the heart of Manhattan's Upper East Side. A duplex with floor to ceiling windows not far from the Metropolitan Museum of Art offers superior alternatives to institution cafeteria food with attentive service and some of the best organic vegan cuisine in NYC. Don't miss their Seitan (wheat gluten) Picatta served with mouth watering lemon-caper sauce, velvety creamed spinach, lavishly prepared oyster mushrooms and perfectly carmelized shallot mashed potatoes. Or try a side of polenta (boiled cornmeal) fries. Truly to die for!
Their local ingredients come from as many as 10 small farms throughout the metropolitan area. Entrees are complemented by a wide selection of organic and biodynamic juices, wines, beers, and innovative sake cocktails. Desserts include tart yet sweet peach and cherry parfaits with granola and port reductions. Even after the tables are cleared, food waste isn't merely thrown out but composted.
Hey summer isn’t over yet....so all the hot weather treats are still in! It’s still safe to wear shorts, flip flops, and take your time with your favorite frozen yogurt. That’s right, I didn’t say ice cream cone because Red Mango is in town! They keep it simple at first with 2 flavors: either green tea (as flavorful as the liquid variety) or a real creamy vanilla. After that, your topping options expand exponentially. You can either take the high road with healthy fresh blueberries, raspberries, bear naked granola, mochi (sweet rice cake), red beans, or sliced almonds. Alternatively take the more instantly gratifying decadent path with Ghirardelli dark mini chocolate chips, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa or Fruity Pebbles, crushed graham crackers, or Oreo pieces. So what sets this place on 182 Bleeker St. apart from the many other "fro yo" competitors in NYC? For one, the location... a huge back garden area to sit and bask in that Indian summer sunshine. Heat lamps stand at the ready for those chillier evenings. Secondly, Red Mango is touted as being the original purveyors of the frozen yogurt craze that began in Korea before being imported to the U.S.. Another plus includes the fact that their fat free yogurt is made from scratch using live cultures. To buck their tendency toward smaller servings, I recommend going for the medium which has a ton more yogurt and consequently more surface area for toppings. For the total Asian experience, green tea and either mochi or red beans on top hits the spot!