Travel Tales

The Big Apple for Grandkids

When will YOU show your children New York?

The free ride on the Staten Island Ferry offers this panoramic view of NYC and it's bridges.

America's biggest town is also the friendliest

By Walter & Pat Brooks

Taking Amtrak from Providence is the only sensible way to visit "the city" with kids. Especially since the sparkling new train goes along the shoreline during much of the 3-hour trip.

Marina brought her crayons but couldn't keep her eyes off the scenery. The kids were busy every minute.

The first stop in town was the top of the Empire State Building where a worker suspended in space outside the 86th floor was a shock, but...

...a bigger shock came a minute later when this friendly NYPD 'copter hovered for a minute a few feet away.

That afternoon we hopped on the NYC Ducks for a splash-down in the Hudson River, and the $350 fine for honking made the ride peaceful.

The Empire hotel mini suite was perfect for all four of us

The Center Cut steakhouse in The Empire hotel was  nonpareil. Eight-year old Marina fell in love with foie gras after her first-ever bite, and Will said his steak was "better than my daddy's."
The Central Park Zoo had just opened it's rare Snow Leopard exhibit, and we walked to it from the hotel'

Our double-decker bus tour happened to pass the famous Apollo theater in Harlem a few hours after Michael died.

We dined al fresco outside the Museum of Natural History after visiting dinosaurs and primitive man.

We used the Grey Line Double decker buses to get all over Manhattan.

The free Staten Island Ferry is in The Battery at the southern tip of the island and offers views of the Statue of Liberty as a French catamaran sailed past.

Marina went crazy for her fun-food dinner including crispy calamari at The Rooftop in the Empire Hotel.
And to say Will approved of his Rooftop Sliders may be the understatement of the age. He even had them cold the next morning for breakfast.

Our second hotel was The Marcel at Gramercy on East 23rd Street with it's amazing 'inoteca restaurant.

Viewing the city from high, atop a double decker is far more fun than at street level. Here a painter lugs his latest masterpiece through Greenwich Village.

We visited my old coffeehouse, Rafio's, which is now a Chinese restaurant on Bleeker Street in The Village.

We discovered a great wine bar & trattoria called Cello on 53rd. street where one block had 20 restaurants.

After dinner, we were all in bed, when Will asked to go for a final, night time ride through Times Square.

On our last morning we took in "The Top of the Rock" and saw where we stood at the Empire State Building.

And looked down on St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Pat took us all on the subway to the NYC Seaport.

Four hundred years ago this September 11th, English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into what is today called New York Harbor. Three hundred and fifty years later, Pat and I moved there and started a coffeehouse.

Forget about your enmity towards the Yankees - they're in The Bronx, not Manhattan, and we're back in New York to explore America's wildest island with our grandkids.

Manhattan is only two-and-a-half miles wide by twelve-and-a-half miles long, less than 23 square miles with 1,634,795 residents.

It's one of America's richest counties with a median annual income of over $100,000 and has over 70,000 people living in each of those square miles.

That's one quarter the size of Martha's Vineyard which has 171 people per square mile making NYC 415 times as densely populated.

New York City will shock the average New Englander who is used to the cool indifference of his neighbors.

New Yorkers are REALLY friendly.

Only because my wife and I once lived in Greenwich Village and owned a coffeehouse there, did we ask any New Yorker we bumped into for directions of help.

Their friendliness will discombobulate you.

As when Pat insisted on showing our grand kids the NY subway, and then insisted we go to the first car so they could look out the front door window. She found a six-foot, twenty something black guy leaning on the front window with his eyes closed listening to his I-pod.

Pat simply tapped the dude on his shoulder and asked if he would move so the kids could look out. He smiled and said, "glad to, ma'am."

Try that on the Boston Metro.

Day One

We hopped on the 9:05 Amtrak at the easy-to-reach Providence RI station. The train was on time, and the ride a joy.

The cars are spotless, and even the food is good.

The four of us hunkered down in the dining car for the whole 3-hour trip, which if booked in advance, was $40 for adults and $20 for kids each way.

Arriving at Penn Station around noon we took a cab to our boutique hotel, The Empire Hotel, next to Lincoln Center and Central Park. The ride costs $8 plus tip. Four on the subway would have cost $9.

The hotel was lovely and a great location for doing mid and up-town.

When we asked for a cot for one of the kids, they up-graded us to a Living Room suite which was huge, had a living room area with a couch big enough for one child, and free internet.

After dumping our luggage, we jumped back in a cab (with four people it's no more expensive than the subway of a bus) and were at the Empire State Building by 2PM.

Pat and I lived here for five years and never went to the top, but today we're tourists, and it was breathtaking!

There are two observation floors, one inside and one out.

We did both, and the photos on the right show the surprises which awaited us. Our guide said she had never seen an NYPD helicopter come that close or hover that long before.

The 86th floor Observatory is at 1,050 feet above the street has both a glass-enclosed area, which is heated in winter and cooled in summer, and spacious outdoor promenades on all four sides of the building.

High powered binoculars are available on the promenades for the convenience of visitors at a minimal cost.

The higher 102nd Floor Observatory tickets are only sold upon arrival at the Empire State Building at a cost of $15.00 in addition to regular admission tickets, but is well worth the added cost.

On to the Duck Boats

Most people would think this was enough for the first day, but Pat had reservations in the late afternoon for the NYC Duck Boats.

We hopped on a Duck in Times Squire and after silently chugging through Manhattan (the fine for honking here is $350), we ended in the Hudson River about where that US Air jet landed recently.

The tour passed the Aircraft Carrier Intrepid which has just reopened after extensive refurbishing.

A great steakhouse for dinner

Around five we returned to the historic Empire Hotel which underwent a compete redesign in the past year, and the 413 rooms and suites now reflect the elegance of the Lincoln Center a few steps away.

Like so many nightly performances at the neighboring Lincoln Center, the hotel's well-reviewed steakhouse,  Center Cut, offers cuisine which interprets the classics for a modern audience.

The restaurant's namesake is its extensive assortment of succulent "center cuts" of meat and fish, plus a selection of "Modern Classics" restores familiar, yet almost forgotten names like Steak Oscar, Steak Diane and Steak Rossini to their former grandeur.

It's classic fare with a contemporary conscience - the beef is naturally and humanely raised (vegetarian-fed and hormone and antibiotic free), the fowl is free-range and the seafood is sustainable. 

The food and service was impeccable. Grandson Will said his Brandt Beef Tenderloin steak was the best he's had in his eleven years, and eight-year old granddaughter Marina fell in love with her first Foie Gras.

Day two: Snow Leopards, Double decker buses Staten Island Ferry and museums

 The Empire Hotel was a half block from Lincoln Center and a pleasant walk through Central Park to it's zoo which just opened its famous Snow Leopard exhibit.

It's really quite amazing that this city has a zoo in its midst, as well as another in The Bronx.

The Central Park Zoo has dozens of equally exciting exhibits for children.

We next headed to mid-town for our Grey Line Double-decker Bus. This may be Pat's best idea yet - a three-day pass allowed us to hop on or off at dozens of locations all over Manhattan.

Double decker buses are the best sightseeing value. The guides are informative, and entertaining. This company has been doing this for over eighty years. Every guide we had over the five days was either a native Manhattanite or a longtime resident of The City. Many added personal touches to an insightful high-rise ride, even for jaded travelers like ourselves who have lived here.

Remember Ben Stiller's movie, "A Night at the Museum"? Well our first "hop off" was at that world famous and mammoth home of mammoths, the American Museum of Natural History on Central Park West. It would take a year to do this glorious museum justice, so we visited the mammoths, dinosaurs and early human life areas and will return for more.

But lunch beckons.

Again, Pat decided to expand the minds of these young world travelers who may be a tad jaded from all that Steak Oscar and foie gras.

She introduced them to Sabrett's New York sidewalk hot dog stands.

To my eternal distress, one of my grand children (I withhold her name to protect the guilty) puts ketchup on her hot dogs instead of NY mustard, sauerkraut or chili and onions.

After a couple each, we hopped back on the double-decker and headed for Harlem as crowds gathered at the Apollo Theater to honor Michael Jackson.

We ended the uptown loop, and changed buses at no cost to the downtown loop through Greenwich Village, Little Italy, Chinatown, the World Trade center memorial. We  hopped off at Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan for a free ferryboat ride to Staten Island and back.

The twenty-minute trip passes the Statue of Liberty and offers spectacular views of the city like the one at the top of this tale.

Dinner at The Rooftop

The The Empire Rooftop Bar & Lounge is located on the 12th floor of the Empire Hotel and offers views of Lincoln Center, Broadway and Manhattan's Upper West Side. It can be accessed from the outer lobby, and is obviously very popular since it was jammed every night during our visit.

The food is what you expect in a posh singles bar in a major city, but the prices are surprisingly modest.

The four of us each had Kobe Sliders, two 4oz Angus burgers smothered in gingered BBQ sauce, $16, Crispy Calamari flash roasted Serrano pepper rouille, $13 and Crispy Rock Shrimp Tempura, with sweet chili dipping sauce, $15. See the menu here.

The sliders and calamari were so good the kids insisted on taking a doggy-bag and eating them cold the next morning for breakfast in bed.

Day three: A new hotel & walking tours

To make visiting the lower half of Manhattan easier, on our third and fourth night, we moved to the Marcel at Gramercy on East 23rd. Street in Chelsea just above The Village.

The Marcel at Gramercy reopened in early 2008 following an extensive transformation.  Its location in historic Gramercy Park place it within arm's reach of the hip neighborhoods of the East Village and Lower East Side, Madison and Fifth Avenue shopping, Baruch College, the Empire State and Flatiron buildings, and Union Square. Midtown, Soho, Greenwich Village and Chelsea areas are just a short walk away.

The hotel is small and lovely. Its 135 guestrooms have custom designed beds with Frette linens and down comforters, LCD flat screen TVs, IPod docking stations, marble bathrooms with rainfall showerheads and Lather amenities.

Great restaurant on the first floor
The Marcel at Gramercy is home to a superb new restaurant called 'inoteca which features classic Northern Italian cuisine with a modern flare and an extensive (actually Herculean) wine selection.  

The restaurant and wine bar is located on our ground floor at the corner of the avenue and is open daily until 3 am for lunch and dinner. It also offers in-room dining.

'inoteca - "Ino" means small in Italian - and although there's no specific cicchetti menu at 'inoteca, you can pick among a wide variety of small dishes.

There are salads, cured meats, bruschette, sandwiches, small hot plates and fried delights to keep you sated. On nice days, the rustic décor spills out onto the street with café tables flanking opened floor-to-ceiling windows.

The hotel has a European breakfast buffet available daily on the 10th floor from 7:00 to 10:30am for a small surcharge, with complimentary morning newspaper & coffee served 10am to 10pm.

Today we spent lots of time hoping off and back on the bus to spend time in as many parts of Manhattan as time will allow.

Of course that meant walking through Chinatown which is the cities largest neighborhood. Some say it's now almost a third of the borough.

And it should be called "Asiatown" because every nation and people of the Far East is represented here today.

A Greenwich Village walk was necessary to pay homage to Pat and my youth which was spent running our own coffeehouse on Bleeker Street between Sullivan and Thompson across from the Village Gate.

Today it's a Chinese restaurant, naturally, and "the village" moved south and east years ago for most.

Soho was next with it's trendy shops, but even Soho has given way to Tribeca (Triangle Below Canal Street) further south.

Canal Street can take up a morning with stop at Orchard Street and a stroll across the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn at the street's east end.

Little Italy is nearly gone, moved to the suburbs along with its residents.

A street of restaurants

On our third night we discovered a brand new wine bar and trattoria on East 53rd Street.

The Cello Wine Bar is tiny in every respect save its menu and friendliness. Chef Marco Scanzello works wonders in a kitchen smaller than a broom closet, and host-owner Anthony Montecello is an experienced restaurateur who knows how to fill a niche.

Cello is one of twenty restaurants on this one, short city block. Anthony himself owns another one on the 2nd Avenue corner.

I loved the pizza Baldiceri smoked mozzarella. prosciutto. roasted red peppers. parmegiano reggiano, $14, and the list of nine panini were all $12, and the twice-toasted bruschette dessert was memorable.

The website isn't ready yet, so we offer the address, 229 E. 53rd Street, between 2nd & 3rd Avenue, telephone (917) 475-1131.

Day Four; The Rock, the Subway & The Rivers

I should mention that each day's lunch was more Sabrett's hot dogs, but today's al fresco feast was separated by a quick trip to the Rockefeller Center for a ride to the "Top of The Rock", a ride on the New York subways and a Water Taxi tour around Manhattan island.

A dozen blocks further uptown than The Empire State Building, Top of the Rock did offer whole new vistas including looks directly down at St. Patrick's Cathedral which my grandson reminded us all was formed like a cross by it apse and nave.

Apparently sidewalk food wasn't Pat's only "down market" education for her grand children. She made us all tramp to the subway entrance at Rockefeller Center for a ride on three different subways to get to our last event at The Seaport and our final ride on the Water Taxi.

The Water Taxi is the best way to see New York from the sea. On Saturdays and Sundays the boats provide regular service between 10 stops at the city's hottest neighborhoods and attractions. Water Taxis are fast and fun, so you'll see more sights in less time and enjoy a stress-free, breezy ride out on the Hudson and East Rivers.

Below is a scene from that ride from the Brooklyn shore looking east at Manhattan with a replica of Henry Hudson's ship and a Water taxi under the Manhattan Bridge with the Brooklyn Bridge beyond.