Planning wasn’t exactly my strong point over the past few weeks. I went from 83rd and 1st to Bensonhurst, Brooklyn and then back to 89th and 1st. Alas, moving can be interesting, if not exactly fun, and it was an interesting to contrast the two neighborhoods. Contrast is what I’ll do below – if you want to read more detail about my stay in Bensonhurst, read the post here.
Hosts
I lived in a basement studio with 23 year old Deanna in Bensonhurst.
I lived on the 25th Floor of an Upper East side building with my friend Rob and his roommates, Charlie and Laura (a couple) and their dog Ollie. We’re all in our late 20’s with the exception of Ollie (he’s about 8 months old). Charlie and Laura didn’t know about my project when I arrived. Rob had simply told them “a buddy was coming to stay for a week.” Here’s a picture of the dudes hanging out just before I left.
And here is a flickr set of some shots from the roof.
Commute
In Bensonhurst, I traveled about 1 hour and 15 minutes from the 20th avenue stop to 23rd street on the N train. You are pretty much guaranteed to have a seat getting on at the 20th avenue stop.
From Yorkville, I traveled about 30 minutes and took the 6 train from 86th to 23rd Street. You are pretty much guaranteed NOT to have a seat at the 86th street stop, at least at 8:30 in the morning.
Food
Bensonhurst is about Italian food historically, and Asian food more recently.
Yorkville, like most of Manhattan, has a lot of options. I think the best options are Sushi although I didn’t have any this trip. Rob and I went to Nina’s Argentinian Italian one freezing night when proximity was the most important attribute of the restaurant. We weren’t disappointed, though. Half off bottles of wine on Monday night and a pretty excellent goat cheese ravioli. The Empanadas were just okay. We (except for Ollie) all went to Fetch for brunch the day I left. A friend had recommended the straight up buttermilk pancake and it did not disappoint. Not even a little bit. It’s the best pancake I have had in NYC.
Bars
I didn’t go to a bar in Bensonhurst, but I want to go back for live music at the Knights of Columbus.
I went to Biddy’s, Auction House, and Southern hospitality on the UES. These three bars are a study in contrast. Biddy’s = classic dive; Auction = classic speakeasy; Southern Hospitality = classic Upper East Side bar
Out of Nabe Activities
Swing Dancing in Midwood
Art Gallery Opening at Milk Studios for Travis Rice and Asymbol Gallery. Charlie is from Jackson Hole, and grew up with who is said to be the best snowboarder in the world. I got to meet this guy. The film That’s it, That’s all got me pretty excited to go to Park City. It’s shot with a Cineflex camera, the same camera used to film Planet Earth and also used in military operations. You might not want to watch this video if you sit at a desk all day.
2 Great Weeks. 2 Very Different Neighborhoods.
Next stop was the East Village for a quick stay before I escaped to Park City, Utah for a long weekend.
I now write from Tribeca (a new neighborhood) and I have other new nabes including Riverdale, Fort Greene, and Red Hook are booked on the calendar.
Interested in hosting? Email me!
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