We Blog

We’ve officially lived in New York City for six months. Not only have we survived, we’ve thrived (corny, yes, but that’s me). So I figured it’s a good time to hand out some midterm grades. Here’s our list of favorites so far:

Food

Meatball Sub: Pizza Plus
Specialty Food Market: Blue Apron
Produce: Fresh Direct
Hot Dog: Willie’s Dawgs (honorable mention: Crif Dog)
Pizza: Grimaldi’s
Cheese Shop: The Cheese Shop, Bierkraft (tie)
Bodega Hero: 12th Street Deli
Breakfast: Magnolia
Lunch Special: Bombay Grill
Early Bird Dinner Special: Agozar
Food From a Street Vendor: Red Hook ballfields
Random Find: Provence en Boite
Gelato: Colson Patisserie
Blueberry Muffin: Cousin John’s bakery
Late-Night Fix: 7th Avenue Donut Shop
Granola: Naidre’s
Health Food: Second Helpings
BBQ: Smoke Joint (honorable mention: Pioneer BBQ)
Pastrami: Katz’s

Drink

Coffee: Gorilla
Espresso: Cafe Sutra
Iced Coffee: Red Horse Cafe
Beer Bar: Blind Tiger
Bar/Lounge: ReBar
Wine Shop: Red, White & Bubbly
Place to Watch the Bears: Pacific Standard!

Other

Laundry: Green Cleaners
Local Garb: Sport Prospect
View of Manhattan Skyline: construction lot in Williamsburg by East River
Wi-Fi Hotspot: Cafe Sutra
Subway Station for a Transfer: Smith-9th St.

On Wednesday Brooklyn got nearly 3.5″ of rain in a little more than an hour. An F2 tornado touched down in Bay Ridge. Mass transit was flooded. When I got up around 10:30am and turned on the news, not a single subway line was running normally. As of that moment, I couldn’t get into the city by train. And information on where service was being restored was hard to come by. Buses were overcrowded and stuck in traffic. Many people walked. Fortunately by the time I went to work around 3, things were better and it took my normal ~30min to commute (although the trains were PACKED and there was no A/C on a 94 degree, humid day).

But it raised some serious concerns. In the worst weather, when we most need sheltered, quick transportation, me and many New Yorkers seem to be out of luck in terms of getting around. It brings to mind last year’s MTA strike, when we heard those horror stories of elderly people walking miles in the freezing cold. Our apartment is about 4-5 miles from work, which is certainly walkable, but not as easy under extreme weather conditions. I heard a lot of city officials say “New Yorkers are resilient,” so I guess I just cross my fingers and hope I’m enough of a New Yorker to deal with it when it happens again.

A note on transportation:

Last week, during my NYC-LA-SD-Catalina-Ensenada-LA-NYC trip, I traveled by:

subway, car service, airplane, car (passenger and driver), cruise ship, tender boat, taxi

Today, running errands in Manhattan, I rode the:

F, 6, 7, W trains.

Stop snickering, I know I’m not that impressive.

It was strange being back in L.A., and while my reflections are all cliche and dull, I want to write them down so I don’t forget.

I understand now why East Coasters associate West Coasters with the beach (“You’re from California? Cool, do you surf?”). Driving around Santa Monica and Venice, everyone looks like they’re going to or from the beach. The style is so casual and laid back, flip flops and sunglasses abound, everyone is super tan and showing as much skin as they can get away with.

Aside from looks, everyone’s driving, there’s nowhere to park, there’s traffic. The houses and shops are all fresh and new looking. They’re SO short, and stuccoed in neutral shades. For the first time, I pegged roofs as the most defining characteristic of L.A. buildings, with their tile and gravel, tapered and flat. I don’t know what a single NYC roof looks like. NYC buildings stand out because of the material they’re made of — shiny metal, red brick. They look worn, tall and pretentious.

But the biggest difference I noticed was the air. California air is cool, brisk and clean feeling. It blows off the ocean with a refreshing burst. The breeze in New York, if you can call it that, is thick and sticky in the summer. Its only cooling effect is to blow the immediate heat off your skin with a warm smack. I’m glad I went to the beach every week that I lived in L.A., that way I can’t look back and feel like I took it completely for granted.

P.S. I’m happy to be back in New York, no really.