Day 5: (why no one goes to) Brooklyn

Day 5:   (Why no one goes to) Brooklyn

Weather:  It’s not because of the weather

Pics:   It’s not because it isn’t photogenic

No fitness center today, no Grape Nuts in the room. THB and DB pay homage to the bread master at the Sullivan Street Bakery (SSB). If you’ve ever wanted to make your own terrific bread at home, buy Jim Lahey’s  My Bread and start with his basic sourdough. If you ever want to visit one of the top 10 bakeries (THB has been to 7) in America, stroll along 47^th Street between 10^th and 11^th and order anything (or like THB: almost everything).

Some of you have heard this story: THB and DB visited the Berkshire Mountain Bakery (near Hudson; well, we actually went out of our way to get there, and it is another in the top 10) and it was extremely humid so we sat in the car and ate our purchases with the a/c running. After the first few tastes, THB got out of the car, went back in and bought another round. When he got back to the car, DB told him drive away before he went in for a third time. Turns out that Berkshire Mountain also makes the pizza dough for the local pizzerias, including the one THB and DB ate at in Hudson. Worth a detour of some distance.

SSB did not need a/c, it was nice and cool, a perfect weather day. THB bought olive stecca (sort of a soft bread in “stick” form), some pastry slit open and filled with mango/soft cheese, a small dark bake sourdough loaf, two different kinds of rolls, a chocolate almond croissant and two coffees (caffeine, no de-caf).  After a while, THB got up and bought 6 more of the raisin rolls. DB strongly suggested it was time to head to Brooklyn (we’re too far from the Berkshires). How much did all this cost? Cheaper than one might think, because they didn’t have THB’s size in the t-shirts for sale (same same at Berkshire Bakery all those years ago). Around….$25.

Now, why doesn’t anyone go to Brooklyn?

Reason No. 1: The subway system is so convoluted, the system is undergoing construction, expresses are now locals on different lines (hmmm…made sense once it happened to us) that even the locals have no idea which train to take, which stations to transfer at, and where to get off.  Maybe it was the caffeine and sugar, because THB thought we could’ve walked there faster. The subway ride is cheap! $2.25 per person.

Finally, we reach the subway stop for the Brooklyn Flea Market. Several locals later, THB and DB land at the flea market (fortunaley about 35% food stands) and meet up with a local jeweler, Jennifer, that a friend’s daughter used to work for…Jennifer gives us walking directions to the Brooklyn Museum and mentions something about a service car.

Reason No 2: It is hard to get around Brooklyn because it is huge and the art stuff is spread all over and there aren’t many taxis.

THB and DB walk a little over a mile to the museum, not all that interesting a walk except that …

Reason No. 3 there appears to be a lot of construction going on at all the major intersections, including right in front of the museum.

THB and DB tour the museum and see part of a great exhibit (also at the Oakland Museum; you Bay Area locals need to go): Question Bridge. It was created (in a collaboration) by Bayete Ross Smilth (THB and DB met him in Charlotte when he was doing an internship there and own a book of his photographs; he was also on Work of Art last season, one of the better reality shows if you like art), and the premise is that many black males are asked questions we all want to have asked and a) are too embarrassed and b) don’t know this many black males (unless we’re black) to ask these questions of.

http://questionbridge.com/

Reason No. 4: Even the people that work at the Brooklyn Museum don’t know what street it’s on.

Reason No. 5: You have to use a service car to get from the museum to Dumbo. $19 for about a 3-4 mile ride, and a stereotypical old-style Brooklyn driver.

Reason No. 6: Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, near the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge and reputedly one of the best pizza places in NY, has a line outside of 40 people waiting and a sign that says you have to wait in the line even to get a pizza to-go.

Reason No 7: Lunch at Almar: salad with dressing so far on the side it is still in the kitchen, lentil soup, Portobello panini, limonata, $35, no credit cards. No real service, long lines at the bathroom, and at least no waiting outside.

Tour the local galleries, most not too interesting. One gallery does have an interesting exhibit: a huge installation by a Japanese artist (we meet her) that is a cross between flea markets from India and Japan. Another features a guy doing ballpakrs. The entire exhibit: slats painted green and white and sawhorses. More like a Habitat for Humanity site than a ballpark.

Great pumpkin sandwich cookie, $1.75

Now, the reason to go to Brooklyn: walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan on a gorgeous day.

Reason No 8: Thousands of people are walking towards Brooklyn on a gorgeous day, and at the same time there are a number of bikers going in both directions right alongside the hordes walking. Dangerous and a feeling of swimming upstream.

Subway up from City Hall, learning once again that the expresses are locals and there may not be any expresses, and the trains are coming in on different platforms than expected (this Is not a reason to not go to Brooklyn…or is it?).

Dinner at a small bistro, Le Parisien, around the corner from the hotel. Mussels and frites (DB), roasted chicken and mashed potatoes (THB), shared salad and profiteroles drowning in thick dark chocolate sauce, three glasses of wine, $105.

Walk to the theater for Death of a Salesman with Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The play is dated and yet the themes of delusions and family dynamics are still very real. We’re in a box on the side with slightly obstructed views for THB (DB can lean out and see the far stage left stuff). Overall, above average and of course nowhere near as transcending as Venus in Fur.

Traffic of all types, people and cars, practically at a standstill in the mob scene at Times Square. Turns out there had been a serious traffic accident a few blocks south earlier in the evening. About 5 minutes from the hotel, it starts to pour. DB has a raincoat. THB gets soaked.