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our most favorite things about the place we do live in
St Mark's Bookshop Tompkins Square Park -- bet A and B, 7th and 10th Sts.
Old Devil Moon -- 511 E. 12th Street
Best of Brooklyn
Brooklyn Academy of Music Fall Cafe -- Smith and Union, Carroll Gardens
Email: davidr@lifeingotham.com Next Update: 20 May Site design by Jad Mintun
New in town? In a rut? Looking for new ideas, new diversions? It's funny, really --
so often, we forget how much we're just not seeing, how much we're ignoring,
whole neighborhoods, places that don't even pop up on the radar screen.
Hopefully, within this mini-guide to living in New York, you'll find something
useful, something interesting, something different. Or, maybe you'll just be
reminded of an old favorite that you've been neglecting lately.
Best of the East Village
This heavily air-conditioned, super sterile bookstore is a welcome
break from the chaos of the wreckage that used to be one of the
hottest destinations in the city. Grab a David Lynch bio or a Coen
Brothers script and read for hours.
For summer people-watching, this one beats all. The energy of hundreds
of people engaged in activities ranging from pick-up b-ball, playing on the
swings, cleaning up after their dogs or sprawling out half-naked on a bench
can be overwhelming, but also incredibly energizing. You can feel it in
the air -- this is New York.
Southern cooking, New York waitresses. Kitsch rules -- christmas lights,
gold colored brick walls, tacky yard sale paintings and big booths are the
setting for some fabulous homestyle dinners. As David Lynch could have
"written an epic poem" about the pie in Twin Peaks, so could I -- the subject,
Old Devil Moon's baked mac n' cheese. It's pies are no slouch either -- go
for the Chocolate Pecan if they have it. This isn't fine dining, it's feel-good
food. Go for the Moonrise Special -- three courses for $9.95 between 4-7:30.
Catfish, brisket, super sweet barbeque sauce (which i'm a sucker for) and
chicken are all good choices.
We were going, a friend and I, to see a Kurt Weill play early on this summer
at BAM, in the neighborhood which we do live in. No dice. "Been sold out for
months," said the kind and helpful individual at the box office." Testament
to the popularity, and the need for a place like this, out here in darkest
Brooklyn. Poor us, we don't live in Manhattan! I think not. Who ever thought
that the words "Brooklyn" and "embarassment of riches" would ever be found
anywhere close together? Well, believe it.
I've said it before, and i'll say it again. Here in the Fall Cafe, we have the
closest thing to a real, honest to God coffeehouse that New York has
ever seen. It would probably