February is not typically a fun month, especially in New York, with the dirty slushy snow that will be piled up for weeks and the bitter wind that forces you to break your self-imposed rule of one cab a week. But, alas, there is a saving grace…for I have just discovered that at Clinton St. Bakery Company on the Lower East Side, February is PANCAKE MONTH.
I’ve wanted to go to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum since Katie and I took a tour of the Lower East Side with Jeff from Walks of New York this spring. On that tour, I learned a lot about the history of immigration to the LES and realized that I currently live in an old tenement building.
Sometimes I have an obsessive personality. In 7th grade, it was Beanie Babies. In 9th grade, it was ‘N Sync. So far this month, it has been the New York Magazine Cheap Eats issue. I’m talking OBSESSED. As in, I may have made my own spreadsheet with categories of Borough, ‘Hood, Cuisine, and what the magazine suggested to order there. If you are nice to me, maybe I will share, if you then promise to go to one (or several) of the establishments with me.
When I first moved to Jersey City and later, New York City, I spent many a night on the Lower East Side in crowded dark bars, feeling out of place because I wasn’t wearing heels and my dress actually covered my behind. Nowadays, I prefer the Lower East Side during the day, especially after a recent tour that my sister, Katie, and I took with Jeff from Walks of New York.
I started practicing for Thanksgiving (by expanding the capacity of my stomach) weeks ago, meaning that I’ve had some pretty amazing (and expensive) dinners lately. My training started off at Pig and Khao, former Top Chef contestant Leah Cohen’s Asian (mostly Philippines-inspired) restaurant on the Lower East Side. Kater came with me for the sixth installment of “Global Bites without the Flights.”
I’ve been introduced to many new artists over the last few weeks, including the incredible Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men – you may know their singles “Little Talks” or “Mountain Sounds”. I had been listening to their Pandora station almost exclusively for about a week when a friend got free tickets to their concert so I definitely wanted to go.
Working hard on my 28,
I cannot – will not – finish late, So for my second task, My friend Brad I did ask, Great ideas he did give, For the New York life I want to live
I am from New Jersey. Therefore, the fact that I am a Bruce Springsteen fan will not cause anyone to fall off their chair in surprise. But (hold onto those horses, now), I was not *actually* a fan until a few years ago when I finally allowed myself to listen without covered ears (I’m nothing if not incredibly dramatic).
A few weeks ago, Aubrey and I traveled to the Lower East Side to the New Museum to explore Carsten Höller’s: Experience. We heard about this particular exhibit because of the chatter around a giant slide in the museum. We didn’t know much about it otherwise, but knew that if there was some sort of slide in the museum that people were talking about, we wanted to be on that slide.
This weekend, Nicole, Mendy, and I went to Katz’s Delicatessen. This was my first time eating at the Jewish deli on the Lower East Side which has been in business since 1888. That’s kind of a long time ago. You may also know Katz’s from *that* famous scene in “When Harry Met Sally”, one of the best New York movies of all time.
10 miles behind me 