Halloween

The Brooklyn Heights flower boxes needed some Jack o lanterns this year. Click on the photos. Can you guess who carved which pumpkin? (hint I probably should have carved a big P;-)) Don't worry, I used fake candles so I don't burn the building down.









In other scary news, candy canes and menorah candles have already mixes with plastic pumpkins and witch hats at CVS. I saw Christmas trees at Kmart. Even the Broadway-Nassau church lady was singing Christmas hymns. Oh my goodness!

Martha

Be still my heart, Martha Stewart was at the Brooklyn Flea(market) this weekend!

Brokelyn blog has a big story

If only I had known she was in the neighborhood I would have loaned her my kitchen;-)

Commuters

A man in dress, a smoker with cigarette hanging out of his mouth and a giraffe walk into the subway...

No, that's not the start of a joke, it's who I rode to 14th street with tonight.

It was a riot to watch people's reaction to the giraffe as the doors opened at each stop. Made everyone smile. Geoffrey had a lovely bow around his neck and was going to be a gift for someone. Lucky someone!

Of course I took a "pretend to be stretching and take a photo" shot.

Luke's Lobster

Squished between another favorite restaurant of mine, Caracas Arepas Bar, is Luke's Lobster, maker of the $14 all meat lobster roll. I paid a visit recently and was quite impressed. The roll was buttery, the meat was amazing, tender and very sweet. The mayo wasn't mixed with the meat but rather spread on the inside of the roll. Wasn't sure how I'd feel about that but it was fine. Best of all, NO CELERY!!! Yes, they do give a sprinkle of celery salt, which was an awesome addition, but you don't have to worry about any crunch ruining a bite.

Luke's also has a neat start-up story. Luke grew up in Maine and his dad owns a seafood processing plant. When Luke moved to NYC for a job in finance, he was faced with the standard $25+ lobster roll in the city. Knowing that he could do better, he has teamed up with his dad to open Luke's Lobster


So how does it compare? Ed's Lobster Bar is double the cost. In Ed's favor though, their pickles and fries really combine with the roll for a whole meal. You can get chips and Maine sodas at Luke's but I felt like something was missing when I finished my roll. But come on, for a $14 all meat lobster roll you can't go wrong with Luke's. A great edition to the Lower East Side!!

South Side!

I've waited three years to take a tour of the south side/not renovated part of Ellis Island. AND YESTERDAY IT HAPPENED!

Matt and his sister Sue joined me for the tour organized as part of the Open House New York weekend.

The closed part of the island (technically called islands 2 and 3) contains the hospital, power plant and staff buildings. We weren't able to go into the main part of the hospital, which is the building you can see from the museum. But we were able to see the newly renovated ferry terminal, and unrenovated staff building and isolation wards. Very cool! It was amazing and heartbreaking to think about the immigrants who sailed for weeks and were then unable, at least temporarily, to continue their journey.


Staff house














long breezeways and later enclosed hallways connected isolation wards. But in the next photo you can also see that the hallways curved in parts because of the belief that it was harder for germs to travel around corners.





















the view of hope from one of the isolation wards
















I just liked that this said 'rubbish'




























notice the tiled walls and floor. Initially rooms didn't have tile but one of the medical advancements of the time was the discovery that it was easier to sanitize rooms if they used tile






























the hood of the oven in the kitchen. There were multiple kitchens on the various islands again in an effort to prevent the spread of disease.

Farmers Market in Fall

Sigh, if I could spent every day at the Union Square farmers market I think I would live in NYC forever!

I headed into Manhattan earlier this morning and fell in love with the market all over again. Heirloom tomatoes are still bountiful and rainbows of chard and carrots are plentiful. Marvelously, pumpkins, apples, gourds and grapes and have also arrived.

I got a great deal on some mums ("Brunette Barbies") for the flower boxes, Mars and Marquis grapes and Macoun and Honey Crisp apples. YUM!

One of the coolest sights was a Grammercy Tavern employee pushing a giant wheel barrel filled with goodies for the restaurant. Too bad I didn't hop in!

Exciting day today...Matt, his sister and I are off to take a tour of the closed/not renovated part of Ellis Island. The tour is part of Open House NYC, a weekend of free tours in the city.