At that point, we needed breakfast. Our pick this morning was the oldest family owned diner, ahem, "Luncheonette" since 1925. The grandson of the original owner, John Philis, was there, and the last booth at the back was waiting for us.
I loved the individual coat hooks at each booth. The place's last update was 1948.
My coffee came from a 1948 urn. Both orange juice and lemonade ordered here is not squeezed until you order it. All their bread comes from the bakery nearby, that's been baking since 1916. They've used the same brand of ice cream in their malts and shakes since opening, Bassetts Super Premium, founded in 1861.
We were a bit late for the breakfast crowd and the place thinned out pretty quickly.
We ordered the XL orange juice to split and it came in a giant coke glass. It was right about this time that I glanced up in the nearly empty diner (just a couple in the booth behind us at that point) to see three people coming in, shedding coats, and hats, . . . and glasses.
I kicked Marci a bit too hard when I realized that Sir Paul McCartney was sitting down in the booth in the corner behind us. As Marci was holding littleLin, I realized the his wife was giving me the death stare like I might be paparazzi.
Bye Paul, enjoy your breakfast!
We enjoyed the walk through the Upper East Side, through Lenox Hill, by all the buildings with the doormen, over to Central Park for our morning constitutional. These places, the most expensive in Manhattan, should you wish to buy into the building, require a substantial vettings process. Please be advised you will be paying 100% of the sales price in cash and, depending on the co-op, also be required to have liquid funds up to 3x the purchase price at closing. The upper east side has less public transportation -- one main line compared to the West side's two. That's because quite a lot of these people don't ever use public transportation.
#11 E. 79th Street (remember, the lower the number, the closer to the park)
It was very close by the Sinclair House, which is #2 E. 79th Street, a mansion completed in 1898 and looking for all the world like it was originally a church.
Sinclair, he of Sinclair Oil, and the building I mentioned a post or two back down in the Wall Street district, was disgraced in the Teapot Dome scandal. He bought it from the Metropolitan Museum who had been left the home and the art collection from the original owner, Isaac Fletcher. The sale of house created the Fletcher Fund to acquire additional prints and drawings for the collection. Sinclair sold it to Augustus and Anne van Horne Stuyvesant in 1930 who sold it to the Ukrainian Institute of America in 1955 and still occupy the premises.
I did love the bird's nest perched on Atlas' globe.
And from there, it was just a crosswalk between us and the Park.
After visiting Alice, we took in The Ramble
The Upper West side in panorama. Belvedere Castle behind the trees on the right, is heavily scaffolded and under serious restoration.
Out of the Ramble, we wandered through the Shakespeare Garden
Along the Great Lawn
and finally made our way up to the Reservoir
Remember, this is at 86th street. We've come 26 blocks from the southern edge of the park and there is still another 24 blocks to explore!
That will have to wait for another trip.
We cut out of the park and over to the West Side to catch the subway and a short walk to 112th for lunch at Tom's Diner . . . er, Restaurant
it's best known as the exterior of Seinfeld's diner, Monk's
But this is what it reminds me of
I am waiting at the counter for the man to pour the coffee...
our waiter was a good sport
fun fact, it appears we were sitting in the same place as Suzanne...
As we were lingering over my pie and coffee, Marci asked, "what have we not done?"
And the answer was: just Fraunces Tavern.
So we hopped back on the #1 and headed to the very end of the line, back down to the South Ferry. The #1 runs the length of Manhattan on the west side, from way up on 242nd street down to the Staten Island Ferry. We were really only riding less than half the line. It was still 22 stops, including the newly reopened in October Cortlandt stop at the World Trade Center.
Up next: the only museum we visited this time!
0 comments:
Post a Comment