#88 Hurry, Closing Soon!
Come on another weekend hustle through Manhattan
I am rushing this post out so the time sensitive information contained here might reach some lucky person who needs it. I just returned from another blitz weekend in New York City, where my daughter lives. If you picture a pleasant stroll through central park and a beer at the local pub, think again. My husband planned the weekend around two plays and one museum exhibit closing soon. Our three-day weekend was carefully timed and planned to do all three and try the best local restaurants we could find. You may get exhausted from just reading about it.
We drove from our suburban Virginia home to Union Station in DC and parked our car in the garage. We hopped on an Amtrak train and arrived in the Big Apple by about 1:30 pm. My husband located a promising place to have a refreshment while we waited for the time that we could check into our hotel. We walked to BXL Zoute where the offering was more than a dozen Belgian beers on draft, served in the correctly labelled glassware. Of course, they offer Belgian style fries, mussels, and other snacks.
We enjoyed our choice of brews, and our daughter was able to break away from her office right across the street. We got great and attentive service while the place was mostly empty. I tried the Tripel Carmelite and it did not disappoint. Our weekend in Manhattan was getting off to an excellent start. We hopped on an uptown subway train and arrived at our base of operations, the Warwick Hotel. The hotel was filled with European and South American tourists babbling in French and Spanish.
I have mentioned that travelers who join the Journeys affinity club can get fantastic room rates for a hotel with a great midtown location. Folks can easily walk to Broadway shows or the Radio City Music Hall that is just down the street. Waiting for elevators can slow you down and must be expected. The rooms are large and comfortable.
We planned to have a bite before our evening show. We walked over to Pure Thai Cookhouse on 9th Avenue where we, of course, had a reservation. The place was packed with diners enjoying their freshly made noodle and stir fry creations. From their website:
“PURE Thai Cookhouse is a genuine Thai shophouse-style restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen that features homemade noodles from a prized family recipe. PURE specializes in signature dishes you would find from the many vendors and shophouses from the farmlands of Phayao, in the North to the floating markets of Ratchaburi in Central Thailand, to the oceans and fishing villages of Krabi in the South.”
The service was quick and efficient. The food was plentiful and delicious. We were filled up and ready to walk a short distance to the Bernard B Jacobs Theatre to see the soon closing production of Parade. The New York Times called it a “Pageant of Love and Anti-Semitism.” There’s a can’t miss premise. Jason Robert Brown’s musical recounts the story the 1915 anti-Semitic lynching of transplanted New Yorker, Leo Frank, after being framed for the murder of young girl who worked in his Marietta, Georgia factory.
Parade Marquee photo by Joan Naidorf
The revival, that closes soon, stars the very popular and talented Ben Platt and young co-star Micaela Diamond. The play goes in to some dark places and I will admit that, I missed a lot of the messages due to not being able to understand the words of the surrounding cast that are mostly sung. One theme of the young couples’ love and devotion to each other, shines bright through their musical numbers. I found the medium of a musical to be an unusual choice to explore racism, antisemitism, mob justice and the culture of the South, but I may be in the minority here. The audience loved it and I suspect, mainly due to the talent and star-power of Ben Platt.
The weather was pleasant for us to walk back to our hotel. After an ill-advised turn through Times Square, we crossed over to the Avenue of the Americas. I have rarely seen Times Square so packed with street performers and gawking tourists. New York City tourism is definitely back. Families were out in droves with their young children.
On Saturday, we made our way back crosstown to Chelsea so that we could meet our daughter at La Bergamote, just a few blocks from her apartment. The pastry case there was kind of amazing (chocolate mousse mice!!) We got a table right away and enjoyed the French-style brunch menu. It’s a nice morning choice if you happen to be in the neighborhood.
Just For Us Marquee photo by Joan Naidorf
From there, we trained up to Times Square and walked over to our next show, Just For Us, with young comedian Alex Edelman. The Broadway run at the Hudson Theatre lasts only two more weeks and I highly recommend hurrying to see it. Edelman grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home in the Boston area and has honed a self-deprecating and hilarious depiction of his young life. The New York Times says,
“The one-man show covers a lot of thematic territory, but it is built around Edelman’s seemingly unlikely (and perhaps unwise) decision to drop in on a meeting of white nationalists gathered in Queens.”
Yes, you read that correctly. In his quirky (and neurodivergent) sort of way, Edelman walks round and round the stage waving his arms about and bringing the audience into belly-laughs over the various subplots in his script. He does not just stand on the stage holding a mic. This is a full-body, multi-character depiction in a one-man show. The ninety-minute show is certainly, not for everyone. But as they say, if you know, you know.
We had ample rest time before the next reservation on our whirl-wind weekend. We took another downtown train to 23rd street to meet our daughter at Shukette, literally across the street from her apartment. Recently identified as one of the top 100 in NYC in one of those lists, it surpassed expectations. From their website:
“Before bringing Shukette to life, chef/partner Ayesha Nurdjaja earned a devoted following for her vibrant Eastern Mediterranean fare at Shuka in SoHo.”
We watched Ayesha in action as she would put the finishing touches on all the dishes that came off the line of hard-working chefs. Features from Morocco, Lebanon, Syria, and Israel highlight the menu of mostly small plates, breads, and dips. “The Mic Drop” Tahini soft serve dessert defies description and is utterly delightful. One must set a reminder to make a reservation a month in advance. That effort is so very worth it and I can’t wait to go back.
Offerings from Shukette photo by Joan Naidorf
I waddled back to Midtown and fell into a food-induced coma. You might not think that our weekend could get any more Jewish, but you would be wrong. We had reserved tickets to see Through the Saga of the Sassoon Family at the Jewish Museum on 5th Avenue. From the museum press release:
“The Sassoons, an exhibition that reveals the fascinating story of a remarkable Jewish family, highlighting their pioneering role in trade, art collecting, architectural patronage, and civic engagement from the early 19th century through World War II.
Over 120 works—paintings, Chinese art, illuminated manuscripts, and Judaica—amassed by Sassoon family members and borrowed from numerous private and public collections will be on view. Highlights include Hebrew manuscripts from as early as the 12th century, many lavishly decorated; Chinese art and ivory carvings; rare Jewish ceremonial art; and Western masterpieces including paintings by Thomas Gainsborough and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and magnificent portraits by John Singer Sargent of various Sassoon family members. The Sassoons will explore themes such as discrimination, diaspora, colonialism, global trade, and war that not only shaped the history of the family but continue to define our world today.”
OK, the family happened to trade in opium, along with textiles, but it was legal then. The works exhibited are of the caliber only seen at the Met or the National Gallery. The silver filagree Torah case was stunning. The exhibit only runs through August 13, 2023, so if this interests you, check out the website and hop on over. The Jewish Museum is several blocks north of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and overlooks Central Park. The gift shop has some pretty cool stuff too. From there, we walked across the park to another icon of Jewish New York, the deli called Barney Greengrass (also on the top 100 list!). If you like smoked fish, in particular, this is the place. The waitress always offers a steaming hot plate of potato latkes that are hard to resist. Its like Hannukah in August.
Latkes at Barney Greengrass photo by Joan Naidorf
We wrapped it up with some rest time before we hopped back on the Amtrak train to DC. For the whole weekend, we only took one taxi and walked between five and seven miles per day. If anyone needs me, I’ll be resting. ZZZZZZZ
