New York at Christmastime – Day 5 – 12/30/19

I won’t sugar-coat this part… waking up today was a little rough after all the late rounds of beer last night. I wasn’t sick really, just… I was tired and after a shower there was nothing more in the world I wanted than a Starbucks coffee. Luckily, there was one just down off the lobby. I told Abby I’d be back soon and grabbed a drink and water for us both.

Abby slept in a bit more after I got back, and then as she got ready to go, I reflected on the trip. We’d been all over town it seemed, seen some touristy locations and reveled in some local dives too. It had been a very fulfilling trip, and by the end of the day hopefully one of my best trips in New York so far. Today we’d spend time in Brooklyn, as well as the Tenement Museum and finding some small, fun things to do along the way. This last day was our longest/biggest day with the most planned, and no stops back at the hotel until evening On the whole, however, it may end up seeming easier because the rain was pouring down outside the window. We wouldn’t be walking a lot that day.

 

 

We had a plan though, and as it was a pretty rainy day we elected to take the subway the nearly three-miles to the Tenement museum. It was my second trip on the subway if you consider round-trips one single trip, and we even had to switch trains this time! We made it without issue, though, but with only a few moments to spare before our tour.

The Tenement Museum is a museum in New York that preserves the day -to-day life and stories of some of the immigrants that lived in tenement housing in the early 1900’s (and a bit before/after). Founded in the 1980’s, a building on Orchard Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan was discovered to have been almost perfectly-preserved after being boarded up for a nearly 50 years (after being condemned due to changes in fire code…) leading to the idea of a museum focusing on that period of time in America, and how the largely-immigrant population that called the building home lived day-to-day.

 

 

Abby and I had been told this was one of the “must see” museums from a few local friends, and knowing that more than just one person was encouraging the same stop we signed up for the “Shop Tour” which focuses on how the shops in the bottom two floors of the building were run. Our tour began in a saloon that also housed the main staircase for the building… meaning that anyone staying in the building had to first walk into and through the bar to get to their place of residence… not a bad idea for a way to create a captive market! Plus… the owner of the bar lived in the back-half, so he didn’t have much of a commute!

 

 

I won’t spoil the tour here for you, if you’d like all the juicy details I’d encourage you to go to the museum yourself! That said, I do feel compelled to state that I felt like certain parts of the tour were very contrived. Historic records like death records and court filings were the starting point for the museum, and a story was then built up around it. Not having all the details, much was either assumed or fabricated, and while the museum is always upfront and honest about what they didn’t know for sure I also felt there were very specific agendas that worked their way into the stories to help the overall narrative and also appeal to the political times that surrounded our visit.

 

All in all, I would encourage a visit to the museum but you should go with an open mind. I’m still not sure I “enjoyed” the tour we took, but I also feel like it was informative and it didn’t feel like a waste of time… so overall I’m in the middle. I wouldn’t skip it if the opportunity came up to take another tour, so I suppose that is a good thing!

 

After the museum, we were both hungry and knew we’d be having Polish/Ukrainian food for lunch with Rachel and Sara but… that was almost an hour away on the subway. Instead, we walked to a famous knish place in New York: Yonah Shimmel Knish Bakery.

 

 

Now, I’ve never had a knish before, and having no idea what it was excited me. I’ll eat just about anything (see my Tokyo posts if you don’t believe me), and a place that had been open since 1910 must be doing something right, right? Right. So, I had my first-ever knish, which is essentially what I would call a soft whipped potato cloud stored in breading and baked. Okay, it’s a bit thicker than that but… not really. They’re not exactly dense they’re just… perfect, perfect potatoes.

 

 

 

You can customize your knish as well, everything from spinach to mushrooms, and they’re very good with some mustard (which the bakery had on every table). We enjoyed one each, though these were way more than the “light snack” we’d had in mind, and then as the rain began coming down harder every minute we walked back a few blocks and boarded the subway to Brooklyn, on our way to yet more food but something we’d both been looking forward to: borscht.

You see… I figured I’d go for two firsts in one day. When Rachel and Sara had mentioned getting borscht soup, I admitted I’d never had it. My family was never big on soups growing up and I had no idea what to expect but again was happy to try anything I’d never had before. We got on the train, changed trains once after crossing the river, and then made our way to Krolewskie Jadlo.

 

 

 

We met Rachel and Sara just outside of the train station, and walked the few blocks over to a nice little restaurant with two sets of armor guarding the doors. Inside, we sat down and were promptly served way too much food after ordering a mixed plate of borscht soup and a sample-platter of everything from pierogis (with which I am very familiar) to sausage (Kielbasa). The food was amazing, and it turns out that even with the soup being sort of a pink color due to the beets I would eat borscht soup again and all the time when it’s cold outside. I loved it!

 

 

 

We spent some time visiting, talking about everything from the times when Rachel and I were roommates to how things are now and working at Brooklyn Brewery, our next stop of the day. After some time to digest and take it easy, we refused dessert and headed down toward the brewery where Rachel works.

 

 

Brooklyn Brewery began as a home-brew hobby in the 1980’s and has continued to expand since then to one of the largest breweries in New York and an extremely large distributor overseas in places like Tokyo. I hadn’t heard of them specifically before talking to Rachel, but each weekend they’re setting record numbers of patrons at their tasting room at the brewery… and their sour beers (which were my favorite) are just one of the reasons why!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rachel had gotten us special access to a VIP area (which I really appreciated!), but we ended up finding a free couch and relaxing while waiting for the tour to start. Rachel helped us try beer after beer and I fell in love with the pink one in the picture, a sour raspberry beer. We also go to attend a VIP tour, and after another group of attendees cancelled it ended up being our own, private tour! It was a lot of fun!

We learned all about the brewing process (actually we sort of skipped this part by saying we’d been on brewery tours before), but learned about Brooklyn Brewery’s history and overseas channels, and an interesting tasting method I’d encourage you to go see at the brewery itself. It’s pretty effective! Ask for Rachel, she gives the best tours!

 

 

Afterward, while Abby and I enjoyed a few free drinks also thanks to Rachel, we planned the rest of our night. It was our last night in New York, and you can’t go to New York and not get pizza. Rachel suggested Paulie Gee’s slice shop, and it was close to the subway we’d taken into town. The only problem was the wind was picking up, it was still raining, and it was cold.

 

 

By the time we’d figured out which direction to walk (Abby still blames me for some walking in the wrong direction)… we were already cold. We made a beeline for pizza, but it was a rough walk. The wind kept pulling Abby’s umbrella inside-out… and the rain kept coming down. We made it to Paulie Gee’s, shivering, ate some good NY pizza, caught the train back to the hotel, did some packing… and got ready to wrap up our trip in New York.

The next morning isn’t worth its own blog post… we headed to La Guardia in what I can only say was a “true” New York cab. The cabbie flew through traffic, cut off people and muttered under his breath about it being too slow. We got to the newly-renovated terminal for United, enjoyed the new-ish United club and food (they have an egg bar with all the fixin’s for loaded scrambled eggs!), and a few hours later we were landing in Denver… and wrapping up our trip.

 

 

Honestly I hope we travel together again. Abby and I seem to travel at around the same speed and while I think we’re still figuring it all out overall I think our travel is compatible. Even with Jen… there were days when we’d disagree and she’d want to keep walking around town and all I wanted to do is find a drink and relax at a bar somewhere. When Jen couldn’t pick a restaurant, we walked all over Cape Town while we disagreed on place after place until we ended up right back near the hotel where I wanted to go in the first place. There are always compromises when you travel with someone else… but you do it because they enhance the trip. Abby definitely enhances a trip, I had a really good time traveling with her, and hope for many more trips together.

 

Thank you again for sticking with Free Range Hobo, there’s a lot more to come from Brad and from others as the blog evolves and as travel buddies flit in and out of the trips and planning. There are so many more places to visit!