vip in the city

On the block

My block association hosted a wine and cheese reception at Maya Schaper Cheese and Antiques on West 69th Street. (For those of you who know: no, technically, this isn’t my block, but close enough.) The first time I passed by this quaint-looking shop, cheese and antiques did strike me as an unnatural combination (unlike my combo bar/laundromat idea: “Buds and Suds”– hey, it could still work!), but most of the antiques do seem to be food-related items, so perhaps not so strange a pairing.

The shop, though, is best recognized as the exterior stand-in for Meg Ryan’s children’s bookstore in 1998’s You’ve Got Mail — an association proudly displayed on a movie poster at the front cash register wall.

Nora Ephron’s gauzy film was a valentine to this part of town (and to America Online) – as much a love story about the neighborhood as it was about the characters. The movie website even offers an interactive tour of some of the actual Upper West Side locations featured in the movie: the café where Meg Ryan arranges to meet Tom Hanks, Gray’s Papaya (also rhapsodized about in the Matthew Perry-Salma Hayek romantic comedy Fools Rush In ), H&H bagels, Zabar’s – even one of my favorite local warm-weather spots, the W. 79th St. Boat Basin Café.

Maya herself hosted the evening, which was a rare opportunity to meet a few of my neighbors on the block. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been, but I was surprised to find that most of the guests that night were quite a bit older than I, having lived on the block, in a couple of cases, for decades. Still, the attendees as a whole were welcoming and pretty sociable – granted, a self-selecting group – and seemed very willing to expound upon bits of the block’s storied history, and even to gossip about one of my own building’s more notable residents.

Maya’s shop is also a stop on the Location Tour’s “New York TV and Movie Sites” tour — and was seen briefly during the final season Sex and the City “To Market, To Market” episode. In a scene culled from a hundred nightmares, before a storefront of cheese and antiques, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) randomly encounters her ex-fiancé Aidan (John Corbett)… and his newborn son. Awkward amiability ensues.

Time Out‘s 2006 listing of the best residential blocks in New York City was based on a combination of factors: aesthetics, nearby amenities, the “green factor” (trees, parks, waterfront access); noise and traffic; proximity to public transportation; a wild card “New York–ocity” factor; and affordability (certainly relative), as defined by median sale and rental prices in the immediate vicinity. No, my particular block didn’t quite make the TONY cut — boo! — but we’ve got our eye on you, West 78th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues (#10) and West 72nd Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue (#29).

Stand clear of the closing doors

At the New York Transit Museum tonight for the opening reception of “Collages by Chris Pelletiere,” touted as “the first complete presentation of this series of subway collages” by this painter, illustrator, and cartoonist. The works on display were inspired by charcoal sketches made in 2003 during the artist’s commute from his home in New Jersey to his job at the Museum of Modern Art.

I’d been to the museum annex gallery a few times but never to the main site in Brooklyn Heights. How fitting that a museum dedicated to the history of the city’s rail transportation would be housed in a decommissioned (but still operational) subway station at the corner of Boerum Place and Schermerhorn Street. The Court Street station was opened in 1936 as part of the Independent Subway (IND) as the western terminus of the the Court Street Shuttle service to the (still operational) Hoyt-Schermerhorn Street station, just three blocks away. Plans to extend the line beyond Court Street – as a potential route to the new Second Avenue Subway – were abandoned, due to budget constraints. Because of low passenger use and the ready availability of several nearby alternate stations, the Court Street station was officially closed to passengers on June 1, 1946. For the next three decades, the station was used for training, supply storage, and commercial film shoots before becoming the permanent site of the New York Transit Museum in 1976.

After perusing the collages on display, I turned to the century’s worth of memorabilia housed at the museum collection, among them a fascinating display of antique turnstiles devices used by the MTA through the years.

And down the stairs, the highlight: a vintage collection of subway and elevated train cars, refurbished by New York City Transit’s Division of Car Equipment — two entire tracks full, all open for exploration. Very cool!

I learned that several of the cars are even operational, and are sent out for special “Nostalgia Train Rides” throughout the year. Trips planned for the summer include “Summer Celebration at Rockaway Park” (Sunday, July 22), “Coney Island Caper” (Sunday, August 12) and “IND Anniversary September Special: A Day on the A” (Saturday, Sept 8). I have got to sign up for one of these.

The unusually brief hours of museum operation make a weekday visit all but impossible, save for these special after-hour events. The museum is, however, open on weekends, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, during which a return visit is in order, if only for the trains.

More Red Hook

What a great place for a walk!

The Red Hook Fairway Market is housed inside a beautifully restored pre-Civil War era warehouse on the waterfront at the end of Van Brunt Street.  Above the market, the building is used as office space for businesses and local non-profits, artist work space and luxury residential units.  Fairway arrived in Red Hook in May 2006 to much fanfare and enormous crowds.  This afternoon, strolling through the clean, spacious aisles, along the well-stocked displays and colorful chalkboards touting store specials — such a stark contrast with the cramped, combativeness of the Upper West Side location — I could not help but be a little envious.

A view of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (and a few ducks) from the red-brick Beard Street Warehouse at 499 Van Brunt Street, which now houses over 40 businesses, including the offices for the New York Water Taxi (which maintains a dock just outside the Fairway), a glass-blowing studio and gallery, the Brooklyn Waterfront Artist’s Coalition (Red Hook’s premier art venue, and the largest artist-run, not-for-profit art organization in Brooklyn), and the set and costume designers for Blue Man Group.

More walking, along the Beard Street pier, on streets scattered with bars, restaurants, galleries and shops, including Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pie, touted endlessly on the Food Network.

Our group’s numbers dwindled as the gentrified streets gave way to warehouses and desolate looking stretches until we reached the Red Hook Container Terminal, which sprawls along 80 acres of waterfront.  The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey leases the terminal in part to American Stevedoring.

We wound past a couple of community gardens, crossing paths at the BQE with the 5 Boro Bike Tour.

And nearly four hours after we first met, our final stop: the stark contrast of the stately brownstone rowhouses of the Carroll Gardens Historic District — once considered part of Red Hook.

We broke away from the group as they made their way to the subway station, to explore the annual Court Street Fair, sponsored by the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation (GCCDC).  By summer’s end I’m usually in full-grip of street fair fatigue, but on this brilliantly sunny spring day, I was happy to wander among the stalls, taking in everything from the curious (not a tube sock or mozzarepa stand in sight!) to the unconscionable ($4 for 6 zeppole?!)

Lunch at the newest Carroll Gardens location of Mexican mini-chain Mezcal’s, after which we made a dessert of some more reasonably priced (but still messy) zeppole from one of the Court Street pizzerias.