Hail, the conquering pizza: Lombardi’s Pizza!

Posted October 28, 2007 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Food, LES, Little Italy

You’ve read my ramblings about the disappearance of Little Italy.  You’ve seen my flat out statements that Little Italy is only parts of Mulberry Street.

The problem with flat out statements like that is that there are going to be exceptions.  And Lombardi’s is no small exception.

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As you can see from the street sign:  at the corner of Spring St. and Mott St.  That’s old Little Italy.  And there are a couple of other places in the immediate area.  But, Lombardi’s is the key.

When you think Lombardi, you may remember the old Green Bay Packers coach.  But this Lombardi is much older and has something that Vince didn’t.

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Okay, both Lombardi’s have plaques, but this Lombardi is the FIRST PIZZERIA IN AMERICA!!!!!!! That’s worthy of applause. How could I have gotten through school without pizza?

I’ve eaten here.  It’s okay pizza in the restaurant.  They have one gimmick not followed by most NYC pizzerias:  they serve entire pizzas only.  Most places, you buy pizza by the slice (which I’ve come to love).  When I got my Lombardi’s pizza, I enjoyed it, but didn’t want to proclaim it “the best pizza on the planet”.  I took the remaining slices home and later ate them cold.  (Yeah, I like cold pizza.)

It is simply the most outstandingly magnificent cold pizza ever made by the hands of man.

Enough said.

-H

Comments: 2 Comments

Bombs at the NYC Mexican Consulate

Posted October 27, 2007 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Events, Manhattan, Mid-town

I took some time off and spent part of Friday wandering through the wilds of Chelsea (forthcoming posts) and decided to walk home from there.

I was walking on 39th Street toward Madison Avenue when I noticed that the crowd at the corner was a little odd.  They just were standing there.  No one crossed the street and I noted that they seemed overwhelmingly Hispanic.  My instincts said something was up and I looked across Madison and saw that there was police tape up blocking off 39th Street from eastward traffic.  I crossed and found another crowd (nothing huge by any means) and spotted a CBS cameraman doing some filming.  I took some quick photos, knowing something had happened/was going to happen.

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I noticed a double-line of yellow tape and noted that everything was pretty low-key.  As I was standing next to the cameraman, and he looked rather bored, I asked what was going on.  He said that there had been a bomb.  I said, “You mean a bomb threat?”  He answered, “No, a bomb.”

That’s a real wake-up call as you can probably imagine.  It turns out (well, it’s still ongoing) that someone early in the morning had thrown two gernades, or gernade-type devices, into the Mexican Consulate.  As this was nearly 11am, the event had been going on for hours with me blissfully unawares.

You could see the consulate from the block entry point.

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I knew nothing about when the bombing had occurred, so I was a little surprised that it was so sedate.  I waited around for a few minutes and captured some crowd shots.

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I then went over to 38th and cut over to Park Avenue and got there in time to see the NY CSI unit pulling away.

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When I saw that, I knew that it must have taken place a long time before.  So I wandered on home.

This sort of thing happened nearly two years ago at the British Consulate up in the 50s and Third Avenue.   Thankfully, it’s been minor stuff at night.

-H

Comments: 1 Comment

Ankling West 72nd Street

Posted October 26, 2007 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Broadway, Manhattan, Wanderings

For me, West 72nd Street is Manhattan.  It’s absurd, but whenever I try to picture Manhattan into a single sort of place, this is the street for me.

I used to live in the area, and I would walk down parts of 72nd Street twice a day (to/from the subway).

And, although it’s only been 2 years since I’ve moved, it’s changing.  Mostly subtle, but it’s emblematic of Manhattan that there’s a continuous creative destruction in process.

At the far east part of W. 72nd is the Dakota.  One of my favorite buildings just because of its architecture.  I’ve posted about it before.  I’ve never been in it and never expect to be.

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As I’ve commented before, I find the window air conditioners on such a hyper-expensive building to be amusing more than anything else.

Further down the street is one of those views that are so typical of the Upper West Side.

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As you get to Broadway, you run into Verdi Square where the subway station is.  The square is created when Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue intersect.

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And once you get to West End Avenue you’re nearly at the Hudson River.  Looking back toward Broadway is a view I’ve seen hundreds of times and that I really like. (Sorry that the shade is so intense on the sunny day that I took the picture.)

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If you look closely, you’ll see the water tanks on some of the older buildings.  The newer ones have them, too.  They’re just better hidden.

-H

Comments: 1 Comment

5th Avenue at night

Posted October 25, 2007 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings

I was out one evening and took a few pictures along 5th Avenue (or is it “Fifth Avenue”, I never know when to use one or the other).

I was up about 50th and wandered around Rockefeller Center a bit.

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Just across the way is St. Patrick’s Catholic Church.  It is awesome in the evening.

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The front doors are also impressive.  Here’s a full shot of the door followed by a closeup of one of the panels.  (Each of the door’s panels is different.)

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The above panel is for St. Isaac Jogues, the first priest to come to Manhattan.  His journeys from Manhattan in the early 1600’s took him all the way to Lake Superior and he apparently even had some dealings with the Sioux tribe.  Amazing.  He was martyred after a long series of trials and tortures that he survived, even returning to Europe and then coming back to America, only to be killed by the Iroquois only a couple of hundred miles from New York City.

-H

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Stiles Farmers Market

Posted October 24, 2007 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Food, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, Wanderings

This farmers market is a little different than most of the ones I mention in my wanderings.

I’d seen it before, even walked through it once long ago when I first wandered Hell’s Kitchen.  Stiles is located at the corner of 41st Street and 9th Avenue.

It’s not like they typical market:  it’s semi-permanent.

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Yeah, it’s  pretty much just a tent.  A nice tent.  But it is a tent.

When I wandered in the other day, I was struck by the quality of the produce and the low price.

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In fact, it struck me more as a grocery store than a tent. But it is a tent.

I generally don’t like the quality of produce in NYC.  You have to pay some pretty good money for marginal stuff from a small selection.  To find a good selection, and it can be found, you have to do a lot of hunting and pay for it.  Here was stuff and selection that was pretty good (although not up to suburban grocery standards like my favorite, Publix).  I gathered up a bunch and escaped for way less than $10.  That’s astonishing for me.

I’m heading back soon.

-H

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