How long has it been since I wrote to you about my New York strolls? A while, hasn’t it?. I don’t go as often as I used to, but I still find new corners. Shall l show them to you?
I get up early, jetlag helps. I have to meet Juana at Bryant Park at 9, so since I have time I’m going to explore a coffee shop I saw last night. It’s called Ground Central, the name is a pun due to the proximity of Grand Central. It has a very cool industrial style, and the part that caught my attention is a wall full of books and a Chesterfield. I order a small chocolate and offer them my travel mug (which is huge) and they return it full! … so much for a small hot chocolate (top tip: many coffee shops give discounts when you bring your own mug)
It’s a glorious day and Bryant Park looks beautiful, Juana shows me a new matcha tea chain, this one is right in front of the NYPL, Cha Cha Matcha, I ask them to use my travel mug and guess what, full!
During our long and pleasant chat in the park she tells me about the Drama Bookshop where they only sell scripts and plays. It makes sense, the owner is the creator of the play Hamilton. I go that afternoon and meet Virginia there, it’s prettily decorated and has a cafe.
Next morning I meet Frank and Virginia for breakfast in SoHo and, as always, I leave early to walk through the empty streets. I pass the oldest original NY restaurant opened in 1899, Pete’s Tavern.
I look for a small street of historical interest, Sniffen Court, which on an autumn day looks very romantic.
Do you remember Balthazar’s in 80 Spring St? the legendary French restaurant.
You might know the Puck building, named after a small character that stands on its façade, part of the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Shakespeare.
On a nearby street there is a rather special Housing Works bookstore, their mission? Help HIV New Yorkers with low income or homeless to get jobs, housing, proper medication etc.
When Frank arrives I suggest we have breakfast at Mamam, a very cute French pastry shop with beautiful cups and delicious avocado toast. I have one closer on 44th Street but my favourite is the one in Soho on 239th Street, Centre St.
Three streets away, in Little Italy, Virginia and I see a very popular mural by Tristan Eaton that I’m sure you’ve seen, it’s Audrey Hepburn. It is located on one of the walls of the Caffe Roma, where they have been serving cannolis since 1891.
On the same street is the Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which was one of the settings for The Godfather. The first church of St. Patrick that Catholics built upon their arrival in NY. In the book New York, Edward Rutherford talks about it, it burned down and they rebuilt it, to what it is today.
We arrive at 56 Leonard St where there is a sculpture in the shape of a bean, yes, like the one in Chicago, although this one seems to hold a corner of the skyscraper above it, and has cost a whopping 10 million.
Around Washington Square Park is New York University NYU and some of its little streets look like English mews.
Another rainy morning I meet Virginia, but before I take my usual early walk when the city is deserted, first I return to the café-florist Remi Flower & Coffee on 2nd Av, but this time I do not go to the “original” but a new one they’ve opened recently nearby.
Walking under the rain I enter Greenacre Park, a small oasis that this morning presents a romantic ambience touched by the rain, surrounded by flowers and plants at the foot of its waterfall. A perfect space to retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city.
On the way to the Queensboro Bridge, there is the Trader Joe’s supermarket, the coolest in the city, ¿the reason?, its location on the pillar of the bridge, built by the famous Valencian architect Guastavino, who fled the country to settle and reinvent the Big Apple and where he left a great legacy, surely you remember the Whispering Gallery/Oyster Bar in Grand Central, the Met, Harvard, Yale, Berkeley among others.
To take shelter from the rain and have some tea, Virginia and I go to Lillie’s Victorian Establishment, a cocktail restaurant that opened to honour Lillie, its fabulous furniture was brought from Northern Ireland and every season, spring, Halloween or Christmas spectacular decorations are displayed. The other day I saw a lady reading a book called Lillie Langtry and I thought I recognized the famous Lillie of NY and I was right, we chatted and she told me Lillie was a woman ahead of her time, actress, pretty, lover of the future king of England, always surrounded by princes and princesses, poets, actors, she came to these shores to succeed on Broadway.
I’ll finish this post introducing you to Rizzoli Bookstore, the one that appeared in the film Manhattan by Woody Allen. They call it the most beautiful in New York, and it is indeed very beautiful.
The book that I share today “The Lyons of Fifth Avenue” by Fiona Davis tells us the story of the Lyons family who lived in the NY Public Library in 1913. Laura, the wife, decides to start studying journalism and this leads her to be part of a group of women who are encouraged to use their voice. Suddenly, some valuable books are stolen and she sees how her family is in danger. When Sadie, her granddaughter, begins working in the library as a curator 80 years later, she is confronted with her grandmother’s reputation as an essayist and as another series of thefts take place. Will Sadie clarify what happens and what happened decades ago?
