Famous Ankles

In other parts of the City, 8th Street is simply…8th Street.  But when you get to the Lower East Side it becomes St. Mark’s Place, named after the Episcopal Church located on 2nd Avenue (but actually up at 10th Street or so).  I’ve wandered St. Mark’s Place a few times, but nothing of any consequence…until I went to Alphabet City.  When I did that, I discovered that the street is about as funky and retro a place as you’ll find in NYC.  Actually, when I realized that the street is really only three blocks long, I kind of shook my head in shame knowing that I had only previously been on St. Mark’s between 2nd Avenue and 3rd Avenue.

Offhand, the street doesn’t look particularly special in any way.

But the crowd is very youthful and the stores are very…interesting.  Below is the St. Mark’s Theater sign.  I don’t think they spent a fortune on it.

Others show a more artistic and funky flair.

I wonder if there’s any particular reason that two of the most visually interesting places are both located below street level?  One of the great mysteries…

I did like this little vegetarian restaurant (at least visually as I didn’t try it).  It seems to be a bit small to be called “Whole Earth Vegetarian Kitchen.”  And it’s second name?  “Whole Earth Bakery and Kitchen”.  Having two relatively long names for the little place, plus the great slogan of “Simple food for complex times” is a hoot.

-H

This entry was posted on March 1, 2008 at 4:55 pm and is filed under Greenwich Village, LES, Manhattan, Wanderings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.