Eric and Dee Dee's Trip to NYC: Day 3

By day three Dee Dee and I were getting tired after seeing many of the major sites within the first few days…and seeing a show on Broadway. We decided to soak up the boroughs of New York City.

Greenwich Village
From the Grand Central Station we took the subway to Bleeker Street, which is the heart of Greenwich. In short, this area is really cool and has a unique neighborhood feel. The area reminded me of the Fillmore in SF or Melrose in LA. It’s got great vinyl record stores, book stores, and unique food shops. Plan to take the subway here and just meander around.

Lower East Side/Orchard St
We jumped on the subway at Bleeker and took it to the Lower East Side stop and walked along Orchard Street. There is a great ice cream shop in the area called ZoZo’s (on Orchard) that serves gelato. Any of the flavors or great..but they are known for the mint. Just up the street is the famous Delancy Street Flea Market that happens every Sunday for the past 100 years. The area is fairly run down and the markets sell luggage, bags, leather goods, cheap t-shirts..and tourists junk. The old buildings show resemblence of the old neighborhood which consisted of the Jewish settlement in the Garment District and the early tenaments where emigrants first lived after they arrived in America. It’s worth a few hours to just walk through the area.

Little Italy and Chinatown
Continue walking up Canal and you will move out of the Garment District and into Little Italy and Chinatown. Wow. Each street showed signs of New York, but each area felt very ethnic in flavor. Each area had signs written in the native language. Little Italy is great for its restaurants and bars. Plan to be in the area for lunch or dinner. Chinatown is great for cheap bag and watch shopping…or “knock off shopping.” Each of the shops carry close to the same items…but each store is slightly different in how much they are willing to negotiate. Because the Feds are cracking down on counterfeits, you will have to ask the shop keeper to see the Coach or Gucci bags…which they have on display in a back room behind hidden doors. This is seriously the truth. Dee Dee wanted to buy a Coach knock off and we were lead back through secret doors, down hallways and into tiny basement rooms where the goods were on display. I felt like we were buying drugs. The bag she bought was roughly $35…and we were only successful in talking the vendor down by $10 from the others in the area…so judge for your self if it’s worth haggling ..but to Dee Dee and I, that’s half the fun. Plan to spend at least 3 hours milling through this area…it’s a great NYC experience

SoHo
Moving out of Chinatown down Orchard brings you into SoHo. SoHo is where it’s at as far as cutting edge design, style and clothing. All the major retailers are here. We found a great store called Yellow Rat Bastard. It will hit the West Coast soon. There are also a lot of great art galleries here that are like small museums showing the latest trends in art. Most of the galleries are willing to spend time telling people about the artist and about the work on the walls. Just keep walking until an art piece catches your eye and go in. We stopped off at a Dean and DeLuca in the area, a high-end grocery store chain in Manhattan and got desert and coffee. Be sure to walk through one these grocery stores…you will be amazed by what you see…it’s pretty cool.

Carnegie Deli
By the time we worked our way through SoHo it was 4:00pm and we were hungry. We ventured down to the subway and went to the Carnegie Deli. The ambiance is very “deli” but felt geared to tourists. Check out the reviews on Yelp for further detail. There is a deli style counter to order to-go food and the sit down restaurant. The deli is world famous and is know for it’s corn beef or pastrami sandwiches. Imagine a pile of meat about 6’ high on two pieces of rye bread..and you’ve got the famous sandwich. Dee Dee and I split the corned beef sandwich. which was a good idea. Order the macaroni or potato salad too…those are pretty tasty. We learned from the people sitting next to us that Carnegie is also known for their cheesecake…so we tried a piece with strawberries on top…and it was GREAT.

New York City Jazz
New York has several really great jazz clubs. I opted that we go to Charlie Parker’s club, Birdland. This club has great history and many of the top jazz musicians of the past and present have played here. I recommend making reservations at least a month before you go to ensure you get a table. Typically shows start at 9:00pm and 11:00pm. I recommend the 11:00pm show for the band has had a chance to warm up a bit from the 9:00pm show.

Chico O’Farrel played that night and they are a hot Latin band…so it paid to have a table. We got lucky and were seated in the front row of tables…where we were required to order the two drink minimum. Order the beer…it’s the cheapest. Dee Dee really enjoyed the show…even as someone just getting into jazz. The club is really cool inside…and the stage is close to any table in the house. We were sweated on by the saxophone player from our table in the front row. This club (or The Blue Note) is a MUST go when in NYC.