DUMBO
We took the Subway to the DUMBO neighborhood, which is not related to the elephant, but is Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass. This part of town was very livable, with small shops and grocery stores. It reminded us a lot of Seattle.
We got breakfast at the Yelp recommended DUMBO General Store, a small restaurant that uses organic ingredients grown from either its farm or places nearby. The building seemed to be an old garage and had a very down-to-earth homey feel. The long wooden tables had heavily worn wooden benches, and the chairs were eclectic and all different. Ryan had a breakfast burrito with delicious cheese and Kelly got a breakfast platter with pancakes that were second only to the amazing vanilla-y maple syrup. At FORAGE, a grocery store next door owned by the same man, we tried to buy the syrup. We weren’t sure we had the right one, but it was pure maple syrup, which is never a bad thing.
Brooklyn Bridge
From DUMBO, we were able to gain easy access to the Brooklyn Bridge. It was still early for a Sunday and there were only a few tourists on the Brooklyn side; however there were also ugly scaffolding. A bike lane runs down along half of the wooden walkway, creating a hazard for unaware tourists (and probably great frustration for the bikers).
We stopped at the first pylon, and snapped a few pictures of the superstructure. It is a beautiful bridge, with cathedral like arches and a spider web of cables. A lot more tourists had stepped onto the Manhattan side; however the views were better too. Getting outside of the city is the only way to appreciate its cityscape and overall size.
At the other end of the bridge we walked down to the Woolworth building, where a sign told us the lobby was closed to visitors. (It would have been so much more satisfying if they had quoted Oh Brother Where Art Thou - “And stay out of the Woolworth!”) St. Paul’s Chapel was open. This pre-Revolutionary War church was built in 1766 - the oldest church in Manhattan. It was modeled after St. Martin in the Fields in London, only instead of being painted white; it was made up of locally quarried ruddy brown-colored stones. Alexander Hamilton and George Washington once attended this cozy church, the latter's pew is still on display.
More recently, the church played a big role by housing the rescue workers during 9/11. Some make-shift displays showed how the rescue workers slept, and rested between shifts, and examples of the memorials that were spontaneously created. Once again this was a busy church with a mix of locals, sightseers and those visiting Ground Zero.
Chinatown and Little Italy
North of the Brooklyn Bridge was Chinatown. Both of us having traveled to Asia, it was like a little piece of Hong Kong landed in NYC. All the signs were in Chinese, and most of the people were speaking Chinese. We walked through the “Bloody Angle”, the site of gang wars between the Hip Song and the On Leong Tong gang wars in the 1920’s. Now it sat surprisingly empty and quiet. We had lunch at Great NY Noodletown, a busy little place on Bowery St. With the typical picture menus we selected two entries which came out to about about $10 total.
After lunch, we walked up Mulberry Street, through Little Italy. Only a few blocks long with just a few restaurants, it felt dressed up and in-genuine compared to Chinatown. Stray a block left or right and we were back in Chinatown.
Broadway
We got to the box office of the August Wilson Theatre about an hour early to pick up our will-call tickets. We used our time to share a giant white chocolate and marshmallow covered cupcake from Crumbs, and sipped hot drinks.
When the time came, we took our seats which were 9 rows back, front and center. Really, we couldn’t have gotten a better view. Most of the people sitting around us seemed to be Italian. The “Jersey Boys” were all Italian-Americans, and there were many Italian phrases used in the show. The lady behind us quietly completed the phrases under her breath...“anche questo deve passare.”
Jersey Boys is a musical about the formation, rise, and eventual break-up of the 60’s band, The 4 Seasons. The play was broken up into four parts, each associated with a season, and each narrated by a different member of the band (Tommy DeVito, Bob Gaudio, Nick Massi, and Frankie Valli). The singing was fantastic, and Jarred Spector (who played Frankie Valli) had an awesome voice (maybe even better than the real Frankie). The acting was so natural that it didn’t feel like acting at all.
The set was simple, but did everything it needed to do. Three dropdown LCD screens showed Lichtenstein-like illustrations that went along with the story. During a few scenes, the band played on American Bandstand in front of a TV camera, who’s black & white video showed on these screens live during the performance. One memorable scene was when they performed facing away from the audience, simulating a backstage feel. Flash bulbs and lights simulated the distant “audience, while stage-hands worked “back-stage”.
It was technically a musical but not in a traditional way. Instead, the plot was about the music which was already well-loved and woven in seamlessly. Unlike most musicals, it didn’t feel like reality had been put on hold in order to fit a song in. When they performed the songs, they performed to the audience and reacted to our cheering and clapping as if it were a live concert. “Was that like a f-ing time warp or what?” the actor playing Tommy DeVito said after the show.
Dinner in East Village
We had reservations at Euskara, a Basque restaurant in the East Village. It was quite a few blocks away from the subway station, but we still had plenty of fuel from the giant preshow cupcake. The restaurant/bar was cozy and sleepy on a Sunday night. Basque posters hung on the walls and cave paintings reminiscent of Altamira adorning the ceilings. We ordered three tapas…the bread with olive tapenade and tomatoes were the closest thing to San Sebastian that we have tasted so far.
In the end, we were glad we saved the Broadway show until our last night. It was the highlight of the trip. We left New York the next day feeling like we had seen a lot - and excited to return.
