Lower East Side #9 – The Proximity to Brooklyn

18 Oct

 

The Brooklyn Bridge, Photo: tlc.howstuffworks.com

 

The eternal battle: Manhattan versus Brooklyn.  Which is hipper, more current, has a better quality of life and better food?  Since I’ve lived in New York, it’s been Manhattan for me, with only a few visits to the other side of the East River.

But now, unbeknownst to me at the time that I moved to the Lower East Side, I am two stops from Brooklyn on the F train.  Also, unbeknownst to me, is the benefit this happenstance.

Example #1 – The Brooklyn Book Festival – Even on a dreary, rainy Sunday in September, this festival drew tens of thousands of book lovers, including me, to downtown Brooklyn.  The line-up of authors and panels was impressive and informative.  My thrills included, Siri Hustvedt, T Cooper, Stewart O’Nan, Kate Christensen, Sam Lipsyte, Rakesh Satyel, and Monique Truong.  Three hours of brilliant conversation – all for 15 minutes, each way.  Time spent?  Minimal.  Value gained?  Priceless.

Example #2 – The Brooklyn Flea Market – I went on an insanely beautiful Saturday morning, which meant the outdoor location in Fort Greene (as opposed to indoors at One Hanson on Sunday).  There are over 150 vendors of vintage clothing, boots, and shoes, jewelry, rugs, furniture, you name it.  And, yes, there are some fantastic food vendors should you get a bit peckish during your visit.  (Who knew that a piece of Whole Wheat Spelt Nut bread with a smear of butter could taste so good?  The folks from Brooklyn based SCRATCHbread, clearly.  And you’ll also find fish tacos, and pizza, and burgers…)  I had no intention of buying anything.  Silly.  I left the Flea Market with two trade paperbacks ($5) and a fantastic vintage dress ($30).  And, I’ll be back.  To shop and eat …  I found a few restaurants on Dekalb Avenue that have my name on them.

Example #3 - The Brooklyn Academy of Music.  I ventured across the river to BAM even before I moved to the Lower East Side.  The Harvey Theatre is a fantastic space.  I saw Patrick Stewart inhabit Macbeth, and Ibsen’s The Cherry Orchard, as part of The Bridge Project.  It’s closer now, so I’ll be going again soon.

I may be a Lower Manhattan gal, but I definitely appreciate what Brooklyn has to offer, and there’s a lot.

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Lower East Side #8 – 10th Annual NYC International Pickle Day

11 Oct

 

Lower East Side Visitor Center

 

Are you old enough, or enough of a movie-buff, to remember the film, Crossing Delancey?  The one with Amy Irving and Peter Riegert, where book lover Isabelle Grossman (Irving) meets and falls in lust with the cool downtown author rather than her matchmaker’s choice, Sam Posner (Riegert) who happens to own a pickle shop on Essex Street, south of Delancey.  She ends up with the pickle-maker, but not until she’s suffered through a long, played-out drama (of course, there wouldn’t be a movie unless she did).

It wasn’t until I moved to the Lower East Side, and saw the Essex Street storefront of The Pickle Guys – yes, south of Delancey – that I began to understand the movie.  Not from the perspective of the 1980′s, but still …  the Lower East Side and pickles, there’s a history here.  And you can learn about that history by visiting the virtual NY Food Museum’s Pickle Wing which tells you more than you could have ever thought it possible to know about the pickle, including its detailed evolution and time line.

 

Alan Kaufman, Owner of the Pickle Guys

 

There is a fine art to authentic pickle-making, and pickling anything, if truth be told.  Like the breweries and delis, the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century, the pickle shops of the Lower East Side were owned and operated by immigrants, who brought Old World techniques to the preparation of food and beverages.  While many of these traditions have been abandoned in favor of industrial methods, processed food, and large corporations, recently there’s been a food revolution of a sorts, whereby old school methods of food production are being reclaimed, revitalizing lost food trades and industries, in the process.   And pickled products are becoming big business, via small, artisinal vendors, once again.  Just look at Brooklyn Brine Co., owned and operated by three 20- and 30-somethings.  As The New York Observer put it:

Formerly the province of grandmothers, and, in New York, the Lower East Side, pickling is experiencing a youthful Renaissance. Jars of various vegetables in liquid are now ubiquitous at greenmarkets and flea markets, in kitchen stores, at butcher shops, sandwich shops and Williams Sonoma. It’s not just earnest, entrepreneurial young outfits like Brooklyn Brine but a resurgence of pickles on restaurant menus all over the city and a rash of amateur canners stuffing farmers’ market booty into Ball jars in their own cramped kitchens, consulting recipes on Epicurious.com or books like Eugenia Bone’s recent Well-Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal Foods.

 

Photo: The Atlantic, "Where Pickles Change by the Season"

 

If, thus far you’ve missed the rebirth of the pickle, your opportunity to get in-the-know has arrived.  This coming Sunday, October 17, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., is The Tenth Annual New York City International Pickle Day.  The festival will be held, appropriately, in the Lower East Side parking lot on Broome Street (between Essex and Ludlow), as well as on Broome Street (between Orchard and Ludlow).  The Pickle Guys will be there, as will Brooklyn Brine, and a few dozen other vendors.

Mark it on your  calendar.  It’s bound to be a salty, delicious, fun time.

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Lower East Side #7 – The Doughnut Plant

6 Oct

Outside the Doughnut Plant New York City

I have managed to delay this particular post for as long as I possibly could, afraid that once I’d gone there, there would be no going back.  I was right.  There’s a reason for the queue snaking out the door of The Doughnut Plant every Saturday and Sunday.  This is a Lower East Side institution.

Daily Specials

In 1994, Mark Israel began making doughnuts in the converted basement of a Lower East Side tenement, using his grandfather, Herman’s, recipe.  Mark would bake all night and, in the morning, he would ride his bicycle, delivering the doughnuts  to the likes of Dean & Deluca and Balducci’s.  Eventually, he developed his own techniques for doughnut making and had the brilliant idea to add fresh roasted nuts and fresh seasonal fruits to his glazes.  After a trip to Mexico in 1999, he added Mexican churros to his offering.  In 2000, the 379 Grand Street location (at Norfolk) was opened.

Mark Israel is a Hit

The Doughnut Plant serves two kinds of doughnuts: yeast and cake.  I’ve been told that the cake is a bit heavier, and it’s also a bit smaller.  I opted for the Toasted Almond yeast doughnut.   It was huge and it was delicious: the dough was had a nice consistency – substantial without being heavy – and the glaze was seriously flavorful, filled with almond pieces, and sweet, but not too sweet.  When I go back, I’ll give the cake version a try.  I am hoping for orange … I’m certain that I’ve smelled the aroma of orange, flowing strategically out of the plant vent, and onto the sidewalk, as I pass by.

Toasted Almond Yeast Doughnut

And there’s good news for those not wanting to venture quite so far downtown.  A second location of the Doughnut Plant just opened in the Chelsea Hotel.  Check out their review in The New York Times.

You can also get your fix at Dean & Deluca, Zabars, Citarella, Joes Art of Coffee, Orens Daily Roast, and Agata & Valentina.

Indulge!

In the doughnut queue

A rack of yeast doughnuts

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“The Social Network” – Yes, It Really Is That Good

4 Oct

Image: ScreenCrave.com

Whip-smart dialogue, fast pacing, fantastic performances, a fictional account of a true story – one that examines the nature of friendship, trust, class, entrepreneurship, ambition – all of the necessary ingredients for a can’t-take-our-eyes-away-from-the-screen film.

Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) wrote the screenplay and David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and soon, the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) directed.  They have created a mesmerizing tale of the birth of the company that did nothing short of change the way a half a billion people communicate and develop virtual relationships.  You know you’re watching a monumental event, even if it is fiction, and even if it is recent history, and the story, ongoing.

The cast is uniformly excellent:  Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg is beyond convincing; Andrew Garfield, as Zuckerberg’s best friend at Harvard, Eduardo Saverin, gives us a glimpse of what we can expect when he assumes the role of Spiderman; Rooney Mara, in what is a small role as Zuckerberg’s Harvard girlfriend, has our attention now that she is slated to take the role of Lisbeth Salander in Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; and Justin Timberlake is a revelation (at least to me) as Napster founder, Sean Parker.

After seeing the movie, which I had been reminded was fiction by several reviewers, I was curious to know what was true and what was fabricated (or as close as you can get to these two poles), and I remembered that there was an article somewhere that claimed to get to the heart of the matter.  And I found it.  So, after you’ve seen the movie, read David Kirkpatrick’s Daily Beast piece, “What’s True in the Facebook Movie.”   Kirkpatrick is the author of The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World. While researching the book, he interviewed Mark Zuckerberg, as well as the Facebook co-founders, Zuckerberg’s friends, and a number of executives; and he studied all of the documents to which he was able to gain access.   Fascinating.

If you’ve not yet seen the movie, get yourself to your nearest cinema.  It’s one that’s worth the price of admission.

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A Few London Theater Picks for Fall

30 Sep
Old Vic, night

Image via Wikipedia

My London theater alerts and emails have been picking up of late, and I thought it was time to consolidate the most promising of the pack into a new post.  Here’s what’s on (or soon to be on) in the West End, and beyond.  That, and the now very affordable airfares to London courtesy of Continental Airlines.  Oh, and there’s the amazing Gauguin exhibition Tate Modern.  Definitely book tickets in advance, if you plan to go.  It opens today and runs through January 16, 2011 … as if you needed another reason to make the trip across the pond.  But, back to the main event, here’s what’s on:

Based on the Screenplay by David Mamet, story by David Mamet and Jonathan Katz, House of Games is running at the Almeida Theatre through November 6, 2010.  “This is a confidence game, not because you give me your confidence, but because I give you mine.” Next up is Ibsen’s The Master Builder, starring Gemma Arterton and Stephen Dillane.  The run is scheduled for November 12, 2010 through January 8, 2011.  And if you’re not familiar with the Almeida, it, like the Donmar Warehouse (see below), is an intimate theater (read: very small with limited seating).  Tickets are likely selling quickly, so if you’re interested, book early.

Stephen Sondheim’s musical, Passion, playing at the Donmar Warehouse.  Hailed “A masterpiece,” by the Daily Telegraph, and “A triumph,” by The Guardian, the limited run ends November 27, 2010.  It will be followed by William Shakespeare’s King Lear, December 3, 2010 through February 5, 2011.

Noel Coward’s Design For Living, running at The Old Vic Theatre through November 27, 2010.   “Coward comedy returns in style with a brilliant cast … three remarkable central performances … stellar acting.” — The Evening Standard .  To be followed by Georges Feydeau’s A Flea in Her Ear, beginning December 4, 2010.  “Starring Tom Hollander and Lisa Dillon, A Flea In Her Ear is a comedy of errors set against a backdrop of jealousy, misunderstandings and confrontation.”

Ghost Stories, staged at the Duke of York’s Theatre and booking through February 19, 2011.  This is an extended run and here’s why: ” ‘Ghost Stories’ is an immaculately crafted evening of entertainment, not a highbrow work for the ages. Play the game and you’ll have a scream.” — TimeOut London

Flashdance: The Musical at the Shaftesbury Theatre.  If you loved the movie, you’ll no doubt go for the musical, 27 years in the making.  It opens on September 27, 2010 and runs through February 26, 2011.

Martin Sherman’s new play based on material from the book, Nemesis, by Peter Evans, Onassis, opens today at the Novello Theatre.  Per TimeOut London, ” ‘Onassis’ is a savage account of the final years of Aristotle Onassis (Lindsay), the wealthy Greek businessman who wooed both Jackie Kennedy (Lydia Leonard) and Maria Callas (Anna Francolini).”  The play runs through February 5, 2011.

And, if you’re the true plan-ahead type, advance tickets are on sale for Ghost: The Musical which opens in June 2011.  You can save 5 GBP by ordering tickets by October 31, 2010.

For all things theatre, including the long-running musicals, visit LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Enjoy!

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Lower East Side #6 – The Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement

21 Sep

Abrons Arts Center

I love the theater, plays and musicals, Broadway and Off Broadway, you name it.  When I moved to the Lower East Side, I assumed that my closest fix would be the Public Theater on Lafayette Street.  At the time I didn’t realize that, in fact, there is a theater less than a five-minute walk from my apartment, at the Henry Street Settlement‘s Abrons Arts Center.  I know now.   As their website explains:

The Abrons Arts Center brings innovative artistic excellence to Manhattan’s Lower East Side through diverse, cutting-edge performances; exhibitions; residencies; classes and workshops for all ages; and arts-in-education programming at public schools.

There are classes for adults – dance (ballet, ballroom, belly, modern), music, theater, and visual arts – and for children of all ages – tap, salsa, and krumping for teens (who knew?), flamenco, children’s ceramics, digital photography, and musical theater, and even Broadway Babies and Creative Dance Movement for toddlers.  This is just a sampling of what’s available.  The complete list of Classes & Workshops can be found here.

Classes at the Abrons Arts Center

As for the much-anticipated theater aspect, last Friday night I made my first visit.  I saw one of the final performances of Christina Masciotti’s new play, Vision Disturbance.  I had intended to see the two-hander from the moment I walked by the center and saw the sign positioned out front.  And then I read Ben Brantley’s review in the Times and David Cote’s review in TimeOut New York, and I new I had to go.  The play lived up to the reviews; it was insightful and moving, operating on multiple levels through witty, razor-sharp dialogue and monologue, and simple staging.  The performances of the two leads, Linda Mancini as Mondo and Jay Smith as Dr. Hull, were funny and heartbreaking.  Everything you want in 80 minutes of sustained disbelief.

Joey Arias at the Abrons Arts Center

There is an impressive schedule of events between now and the end of the year, including a couple of plays, as well as musical and dance performances.  Next up for me?  Joey Arias in Concert which I am attending with with good friends who’ll finally make the trek to my “neck of the woods.”

Can’t wait.

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Lower East Side #5 – bloodline nyc: objects for the home and life

15 Sep

bloodline nyc

A beautiful Saturday – all sun and blue sky – a long walk, and another Lower East Side find.  This time it’s a lovely little shop carrying “objects for the home and life.”  It’s called bloodline nyc.  And, if you’re looking for a wedding gift, or housewarming present, or perhaps a little something special for yourself, then this is the place for you.

Artfully displayed in the compact space, you’ll find Danish modern furniture, Turkish towels, Scottish scarves, exquisite vintage glassware and ceramics, and interesting antiques oddities, presented alongside sleek canvas totes, the softest cashmere hats, and fragrant French soaps.

There are two proprietors, Marie Roldan and Peggy Usamanont.  I’ve been to bloodline twice, and both times  I met up Marie.  In addition to her in-depth knowledge of every item in the shop, she is wealth of information when it comes to all things Lower-East-Side, especially where to eat.  When  you visit, make sure it ask for her picks.

“bloodline”: it matters not which race, color, creed or our financial situation we are born into – we all have a bloodline – and, it tells of the generational trip an item makes before it gets to the store.

Happy shopping!

Vintage Dishware

Vintage Glassware

Scottish scarves and canvas totes

Assorted vintage items

Savon de Marseille soaps

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