The NYC Nomad

Or was cheating, because now I’m in Crown Heights (more on this later).

So I have these rules for this project, all of which are self imposed, making rules seem a bit ridiculous.  Among these rules are only spending a week at a time in each place and staying with people (i.e. not house sitting).  This project / experiment is about meeting people.  Alas, I cheated on both accounts over the past two weeks, when friends and previous hosts Nate and Callie offered their place to me while they honeymooned for 2 weeks.  It was partly strategic as I’ve been at this for 5 months now and it seemed like a good time for a break.  That, and I was having a bit of difficulty finding hosts for one of the weeks.

A couple of weeks staying in Park Slope, alone, and in a real bed made me realize why I have these rules.  I slept more, got used to having a DVR, my own space etc. It was quite nice.  It also made moving difficult on Sunday.

But once I moved, and later that night while at a Caribbean restaurant with my new host in Crown Heights, I understood why I am doing this.  Sitting down with a new person in a new place makes me really happy right now.  The roti (pumpkin, and curry goat) was excellent and Liz told started telling me some things about Crown Heights.  The owner took care to make sure we were happy.  

I’ve also realized that these posts need to be more in the moment, and when things happen.  I should have been writing about the tornado in Park Slope the night it happened and writing becomes a chore when I know I need to catch up. Otherwise, I’m looking back all the time and forget details or even entire evenings (like the Rosh Hashana I was so graciously invited to while I was on the UWS).  I think it’s also more fun for people to follow me around via the blog and actually know where I am while I’m there.

I digress.  You can expect shorter posts, more links to different sources, and maybe even an interview with a neighborhood resident.  I’m no longer leaving the city every weekend so I hope to have more time although I’m mindful that time seems to evaporate in this city.  I’m open to suggestions if you’d like to read anything in particular and if you really miss the hyperlinks (below, so you can click to a website), just let me know.

But back to Park Slope.  Just because I was alone doesn’t mean I wasn’t busy.  

Some highlights:

A peanut butter gelato and chocolate brownie ice cream sandwich at bierkraft (also: serrano ham sandwich and coopers stout)

Iced coffee at gorilla coffee.  The workers didn’t seem much happier which is too bad.  It’s good coffee, but http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/gorilla-coffee-workers-arent-coming-back/

Blue Sky Bakery - amazing.  i said amazing.  muffins.

5th avenue deli - Some delis have amazing sandwiches at all hours of the night. This is one of those delis.

Prospect Park - the carnage from the tornado was incredible.  

A small group of us has started to play football on Sundays in Prpspect Park and watch the games after.  If you are interested, email me at edward.casabian@gmail.com and I’ll get you on the list.

A birthday party at the Dram Shop which is a fun place with shuffleboard and other games.  I even went back on Sunday to watch football, but it gets really crowded. The Gate is less busy but with much smaller TV’s and a bartender that is a Jets fan.

And last but not least, the Grand Army Greenmarket where I picked up some fresh ingredients for a delicious salad.

I’m sure I left some things out but what did I miss in Park Slope?

Email me if you’d like to host!

So I neglected to include a special dinner I had on Upper West Side in my recap of the Upper West Side, but perhaps it was my subconscious because it deserves its own post.  It happened because of Twitter, which I somewhat frequently update. I did so when I arrived to the Upper West Side on a Sunday night.

Lesley, who co-wrote this testimonial, saw that I was going to be in her neighborhood and messaged something to the effect that since I was so close, I should come by for Rosh Hashanah dinner.  I’m certainly not one to turn down a dinner with new and interesting people for an occasion that I’ve never celebrated before.

I think the only thing I knew about Rosh Hashanah was that it marked the Jewish New Year.  I arrived a bit later than everyone else with a staple of every Rosh Hashana dinner, three boxes of assorted Japanese Mochi ice cream balls :) Lesley’s sister and roommate, Jenna was there along with her boyfriend and and a few other friends.  There was excellent wine and we sampled some light, fluffy and delicious Challah bread before we sat down for dinner.  Some of the Jewish specialties we indulged in were matzo ball soup, brisket, and kugel (my personal favorite).  There were also apples dipped in honey to symbolize a sweet new year and some brief prayers said before eating.  The evening ended with some excellent dessert (including mochi) and I really can’t remember the last time I have been that full.  I even entertained with some juggling (there was a video, but I’ve conveniently lost it) and believe I have new hosts for a week in Carroll Gardens (thanks Lily and Lena!).

I really enjoyed my first Rosh Hashanah dinner.  It was a relaxing and memorable evening and I’m quite appreciative to have received an invite. Writing this post makes me realize the uniqueness of my current lifestyle and the fun opportunities and experiences it allows.  I didn’t even know Lesley until I spent a week in Morningside Heights!  I hope I’ll be invited next year even if I’m no longer a nomad.

Stayed

With Ani and Adrena, who kind of came through for me when I needed it.  I’m pretty well booked to December 5th (even have some one booked for the New Year!), but didn’t have anyone for this week.  Fortunately Ani and Adrena are used to having guests and welcomed me with open arms.  I’m not the first person to pass through the Alexandria building in search of a place to sleep.  They are great hosts.  It helps that Ani and Adrena live in on of the nicest places I’ve stayed so far.  They have a pool, hot tub, and gym on the lower level.  Super convenient to the subway (1,2,3) and a Trader Joe’s just opened up.  

Ate

If Ani and Adrena had one of the nicest places, Dovetail was one of the nicest restaurants I’ve been to in a while.  We went for “meatless monday” which happened to be Labor Day.  Between the three of us we had 12 different dishes including dessert.  Everything was quite good, and I love the service at fine restaurants like Dovetail where the waiter accentuates movements and the placing silverware and clearing the table between each course.  Want a nice dinner? Email me to host!

Arte Cafe - Five of us met up here for pasta and wine.  It was pretty good, I think I’d agree with NY Mag on the 3 stars. We did a blind taste test of wines which was rather fun.

Caught Up

On some pop culture with the VMA Awards.  I think it is perhaps my least knowledgeable area.  Adrena has promised to keep me up to date with the bare minimum (right Adrena?).

Swam

I’m not a great swimmer, but I don’t think there is a better workout.  I swam twice, once with Ani before I departed for Park Slope.  I’ve been carrying around my goggles (not sure how that made the cut of things I’d need) from when I used to swim most days in St. Thomas and finally used them.  I also worked out in the weight room.  I think I’d stay in pretty good shape if I lived there.

Completed

The wedding gauntlet, of 3 in 4 weeks.  Nate and Callie got married in the Berkshires.  It was one of the more beautiful weddings I’ve been to and a lot of fun.  I’m also required to say that the nomad stayed with Dan and Abby who are eager to host in Boston!

This is my second time on the UWS, but I still haven’t spent a weekend there.  I might be back sometime in November.

What did I miss?

Email me if you’d like to host!

I do a lot of planning these days and my life centers around lots of questions. Where am I staying next week?  What will my hosts be like?  How will our relationship change (or begin)?  Will there be keys?  What’s the address?  What should I know about the apartment?  The neighborhood?  

Couple the nomadic planning with the fact that I had 3 weddings in four weeks and you’ll understand the title of this blog post.  Everyone plans, and people have to plan more than most in New York City, but sometimes its nice to just let things happen. I made a point of not making plans during the weekend in Alphabet City with the exception of saying goodbye to a special person in my old NY life and hello to a person from my old Caribbean life.  

Here’s why its good not to plan.  I stuck around the apartment for the afternoon being the professional house guest (email me!) that I am to see that Time Warner installed internet between the hours of 2pm and 5pm.  Both of my hosts were out of town/busy that weekend so I obliged.  Time Warner finished up around four and I decided to take a walk. 

I didn’t get very far (across the street) before wandering into the 9th Street Community Garden and Park.  They had a sign like this and I decided to go in.

They have beautiful flowers and beautiful flowers always make me think of my grandmother, whom I am almost certain would read this blog and love it.  She was a true nomad, out of necessity as a child and out of wanderlust as an adult.

She would like these flowers:

And she would smell this flower, which is passion fruit, and then she would tell you how incredible the scent was (she would be right):

She would take it all in, and not worry about the time, which is what I did because I didn’t have any plans.

The visual beauty of the flowers was interrupted by older men playing music. There was no basket for money - they were playing for the sheer joy of playing.

As I continued and walking and the music faded, I saw young children observing a tortoise.

A real garden with peppers.

and tomatoes.  

Ambling along, I happened Puerto Rican crab boil that the members of the garden were preparing.  It looked and smelled delicious.

I hung around watching and listening, and learned a lot about tortoises (they live to 50, have been around since dinosaurs, and can’t swim).  I ultimately was invited and sat down with new friends for traditional Puerto Rican crab and rice.  It was excellent.

Not planning can lead to catastrophe of all kinds of problems (like not having a place to live), but can also lead to whimsical and fun experiences.  So, in concluding my first photo essay on this blog, I’ll use a few signs from the garden to say

and…

like the members at 9th street Community Garden and Park did for me on a Saturday afternoon that turned into a Saturday evening that I will long remember.

Stayed

With Mike and Pete.  Mike is a co-worker at outside.in and shares my feeling of less is more with regard to stuff.  Pete is foreign currency trader by day and an 80’s pop star by night.  Check out his new album here and follow him on Twitter here, and read his blog here. 

Ate

Awesome food, pretty much everywhere I went.  Some highlights:

Esperanto - Brazilian food.  Mike and I went there on Monday night for the prix fixe menu ($20) and half off bottle of wine.  $12 for a halfway decent bottle of wine?  I asked him if I was still in Manhattan.

Barnyard - Mike was a great host and recommended some spots for me while he was away for the weekend.  Barnyard was one of those spots.  An expensive, albeit delicious breakfast sandwich.  I also had turmeric juice which just tastes healthy. 

Kafana - Pete, Mike and I had the nomad sponsored dinner here and it was really great.  INCREDIBLE cow’s milk feta cheese and a great selection of meats.  It’s relatively new, and neither of my hosts had been there, which always makes for a fun outing.  I had never eaten at Serbian restaurant (or had Serbian beer) before.

Wacky Wok - This is the go to take-out spot.  Pick your noodles, pick your vegetables and protein and pick your sauce.  It’s guilt free takeout as the packaging is all eco-friendly.  What’s even nicer is that they are not in your face about how “green” they are.  It’s kind of obvious from the moment you walk in the place.  There is a hippyish guy who runs the shop and like most of Alphabet city, it was just a chill place.

Caracas Arepa Bar - I finally went here after 3 previous unsuccessful attempts. There had always been over an hour long wait so when it was 30 minutes I jumped at the chance.  I am definitely a fan and would go back, but I wouldn’t wait an hour for it.  I’m of the belief that the block on 7th street between 1st and A has the best food in all of Manhattan.  Anyone have a better block?

Also had my first cupcake at Butter Lane.  You pick your cupcake and icing and its pretty fun.  I had Banana with Peanut Butter.

Met

Lots of nice people at the 9th street community garden and park.  I’m writing a whole post about it so stay tuned.  There are an abundance of community gardens in Alphabet city.

Relaxed

I had the apartment mostly to myself over the weekend.  I didn’t leave the neighborhood until Sunday and stayed in Friday and Saturday night.  I hadn’t done that in a long time and it was exactly what I needed.  I enjoyed coffee at 9th street espresso which was described to me as mecca for coffee drinkers.  I also waited for the cable guy on Saturday afternoon and scored my hosts some free cable.  Sound good?  Send me an Email!

Saw

One of the most insane performances I’ve ever seen.  This guy used to play basketball for Villanova.

Here’s a picture:

Bars

Duke’s - Duke’s is a cool spot with a dartboard in the back.  They had to take down their sign because the Duke’s restaurants in NYC were complaining about copyright.  I think that is pretty lame.

B side - It’s a cool spot with a foosball table and cheap beer

Banjo Jim’s - What a bar is supposed to be in my opinion.  Great music and a really fun crowd with $3 Tecates and $4 Dale’s Pale Ale.  Banjo’s is right below where I was staying and I can’t believe I only made it there one night.

Ran

Runners high happens about every 5 years for me, but I had it within 10 minutes of starting my run along the East River.  It was an incredible day and the five fingered shoes might have had something to do with it.  I also returned to the outdoor gym on 6th street where I always seem to meet someone interesting (this time a chef in the Financial District).

If you couldn’t tell from the length of this post, I LOVED Alphabet City!

What did I miss? Email me.

Hoboken, in my opinion, gets a bad rap.  I had one guy tell me if I wrote a book, just make sure I write F*&% Jersey multiple times throughout and I’d be sure to sell a lot of copies.  Most people aren’t so extreme, but when I told people I was living in Hoboken for the week, they seemed less than excited about the prospect. I think people associate Hoboken with the annual St. Patrick’s day fiasco and a bunch of frat guys.  And while some of that is certainly true, there is a lot more than that to Hoboken.  The ability to find that out for myself is one of the things that makes me love this project.  

My hosts did a great job of explaining Hoboken, from getting me to places like Maxwell’s to showing me around the neighborhoods.  But it wasn’t until I did some exploring on a Sunday afternoon, the kind of exploring you do when you know you’ll be a in place for a finite amount of time, that I got a true appreciation for Hoboken.

I almost didn’t leave the house.  I was exhausted from a wedding I had attended in Annapolis. But I guess the beauty of this project, why I love it, is it forces me to get out and explore.  After all, I didn’t know the next time I’d be in Hoboken.  

I grabbed my new camera and decided to take the public bus to a tomato festival I had read about.  In about 15 minutes I was tasting tomatoes over 40 varieties of New Jersey tomatoes, the majority of which I had never heard of.  Farmer Rich, the guy who organizes this annual festival suggested a couple of tomatoes for me to make a cucumber tomato salad.  He also suggested I visit Antique bakery on my way home for a fresh loaf of Italian bread.

I bought my tomatoes and decided to take the longer route back while walking along the waterfront.  It was a gorgeous day.  Perfect, really.

I think this guy thought it wasn’t bad…

And I’m not sure there is a better place to skateboard in the NY area.

And I’m almost positive there isn’t a better place to learn how to dance.

I stopped at one of the many parks and napped for a half hour, picked up my fresh bread on the way home, and had a nice meal with myself to finish off a wonderful week.  I kind of felt like I could stay in Hoboken for a while.  It was Sunday, though, and it was time to move to Alphabet City.

Stayed

With Jenni, a friend from St. Thomas and recent transplant to Hoboken.  Jenni misses the beach.  She’s also a 9 handicap golfer and she’s in the middle of this small picture.

JR is Jenni’s roommate (actually, its the other way around), and is also a recent St. Thomas transplant.  I met him once in St. Thomas but after a week I felt like we were old friends.  Sometimes you have a connection with people by virtue of living in the same place for a while.  St. Thomas is definitely one of those places and the connection goes for both Jenni and JR.  JR also has a dog named Mika.  He is also does the big brother program which I think is pretty cool.  

Jenni and JR are like brother and sister, with the banter to go with it.  It’s pretty entertaining.

Commute

Everyone told me how easy it would be to get to Manhattan from the Path.  And for the most part it was, but the first two days there were some serious delays.  I find New Jersey Transit to be confusing in general, and got on the wrong train trying to go to Hoboken early on in the week.  When I moved from, I took the bus from Port Authority which is just about the least user friendly experience I’ve encountered.  When you buy a ticket you have to know the bus number rather than actually typing in your destination.

Ate

Zafra – Pretty tasty Cuban / Latin spot.  A lot of restaurants in Hoboken are BYOB, where the B not only stands for beer, but also booze.   They’ll mix Sangria, Margheritas, or whatever else you can think of.  Zafra came recommended from a co-worker and on Twitter.  I took JR and Jenni here.

Taco Truck Store – A successful conversion from truck to store.  I was so hungry (and it was so good) I ate most of it before I made it home one night.

Luca Brasi’s – An old school Italian deli.  I think I insulted them when I asked if the Cannolis were made in the store.  They are, and they were pretty awesome.

Haircuts

Haircuts are a big deal in Hoboken.  It’s an upscale affair for the most part, and there is some pretty fierce competition.  I called a lot of places in an effort to get my haircut before a wedding in Annapolis.  It’s not cheap, $40 - $70, although the salons are quick to point out that haircuts come with a drink and you get a free “touch up” in between two haircuts.  Ultimately, I couldn’t get an appointment and instead got a haircut for $12 in Hoboken.

Massage

I was walking home one day, exhausted, and maybe a little tired of the project.  It’s all about re-framing my perspective though.  I walked by a massage place, made sure it was not that kind of massage place, and paid $26 for a 30 minute foot massage.  I left there refreshed, relaxed and ready to do this for another 5 months :)  They didn’t have any yelp reviews, so I wrote one.

Listened

To music at Maxwell’s, an institution in Hoboken that has had acts such as R.E.M., Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and The Strokes.  The wikipedia article is worth a read for some history on the club.  Part of the Boss’ “Glory Days” video was shot here.

Over time, Steve’s booking taste, freewheeling personality and respectful treatment towards musicians made Maxwell’s and Hoboken a looked-forward-to stop on many bands’ tours.^[1][6] By making the blue-collar mile-square city with a rough-and-tumble reputation a cultural gathering place, Maxwell’s was instrumental in sparking Hoboken’s first wave of early 1980s gentrification — the artists and musicians.

Tasted 

Tomatoes at the Hoboken tomato festival.  Farmer Rich picked out some tomatoes for me to make a cucumber and tomato salad.  There were over 40 varieties so I needed the help. I went to Antique bakery for some fresh bread.

Fun Facts

The first officially recorded game of baseball in US history took place in Hoboken in 1846^[25] between Knickerbocker Club and New York Nine at Elysian Fields.

Road Tripped

To Annapolis, for a beautiful wedding.  My friend Jesse and I did a walking tour and I liked this photo at the naval academy of a “plebe” working.  

Check out the rest of my flickr photos here.

Missed

The Ferry Boat commute to Manhattan

What else did I miss in Hoboken?

Email me if you’d like to host!