We started off our day by having a small bite at Le Quotidian. We would be having dinner before the show, and this place is close to their hotel. It had snowed the night before, so there was a bit of snow on the ground. This is the most snow I have seen in NYC this winter. In fact, there has been more snow in southern California than I have seen in the entire season in New York.
We went for some more retail therapy, but this time in Tribeca. Since it was a drizzly day, some of us thought we needed to purchase hats, so hats we wore. I am not sure at this point if we looked like gangsters or Canadian Mounted Police.
We stopped at St. Paul’s Chapel, a church we had visited during our original trip in 2002. It was built in 1766, where George Washington went to pray after taking the oath of office for the Presidency of the United States and where President James Monroe’s funeral mass was held. When first built, the church was surrounded by farmland; today it is visited by more than one million people annually. Most noteworthy, however, is that this small church remained standing after the 9/11 attacks, across the street from the two towers. In fact, it was used as a sanctuary for firefighters and police during the devastation. The headstones in front of the Church are so old that it’s not possible to make out the names inscribed on them.
The next stop was Greenwich Village to get a feel for the neighborhood. We walked in front of 82 Bank Street, where Jeanette and I both have a sneaky suspicion our fathers went for at least one night after arriving at Ellis Island. If you recall from an earlier blog post, this is the location of Valentin Aguirre’s boarding house. From there, we walked to “Carrie Bradshaw’s” home.
Our next stop ended up being quite the find: Hudson Grace. It is a store that Kathie and I found in Montecito, California, a few years ago. It contains great gift ideas, and I ran across the book “Walk With Me New York” by Susan Kaufman. Susan has taken beautiful shots of this great city, and I am familiar with her because I also follow her on Instagram here (thanks to Anna Marie). I thought it was a must that the “Vermont 6” have a copy of this book. What a great way to remember history and capture NYC’s beauty.
As luck would have it, we managed to run into the perfect place for drinks: Dante’s. This is a bar and restaurant located in Greenwich Village that opened in 1915; it is now registered as a NYC landmark. It was rather busy, especially for a Tuesday afternoon, though live music included a pianist and a singer belting out hits from the 1940s. We all commented just how lucky we were to have stumbled into this place.
We wanted to get to our restaurant, Keens Steakhouse, early so we could enjoy a leisurely meal before the show “A Beautiful Noise.”
“Keens,” which was opened in 1885 by Albert Keen, is the second oldest steakhouse in New York City. The food is delicious, and the ambiance is incredibly comfortable; however, Keens stands out because of its collection of over 50,000 clay pipes. The tradition of keeping the pipes at the restaurant stemmed from England. During the 17th Century, travelers would keep their clay pipes at their favorite inn. Why? The thin pipe would be too fragile to be carried in a bag of any sort. The membership roster of the Pipe Club at Keens contained over 90,000 names, including Teddy Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, Will Rogers, Albert Einstein, and General Douglas MacArthur. You can see pipes on the ceiling in the photo.
Cecile’s friend ended up taking an extra ticket to the show, so Cecile decided to leave a bit earlier for the theatre to meet her; we walked. When we left the restaurant, Cecile was still waiting for her car, so we all started walking. Jeanette, Patricia, Cecile, and I got to the theatre and wondered where Kathie and Gracie were. Within seconds, Kathie called to tell us they had lost Cecile and were looking for her. I assured her that Cecile was with us and to head over to the theatre. As curtain call was approaching, I walked in with Cecile and her friend since the tickets were on my phone. I went out again and proceeded to take in Jeanette and Patricia. Now the show was starting, and the person at the door told me I needed to either go in else get locked out for 15 minutes. I told them I was waiting for two more, but they insisted I go in. I stood in the back of the theatre until Kathie and Gracie arrived. They were taken to a front row near the stage as I was escorted to our seats…in the back of the theatre. Does that sound fair to anyone? Certainly not to me. Ha! Fortunately, “A Beautiful Noise,” based on Neil Diamond’s life story, was a great show, regardless of where I sat.
As if we hadn’t had enough for one day, we made one more stop after the show: The Dead Rabbit. I have already written about this interesting spot, so I will just add it was the perfect way to end our day. Here’s a little insight: