My last day with Judy and Julie was Saturday, and we spent it, by and large, in my ‘hood. I met them at the Monet’s Garden Exhibit (the same one I took Anna Marie to). Unbeknownst to me, Judy has an interest in art as her son is an artist, so this was a perfect little excursion. This exhibit, as I’ve mentioned in other blog posts, ends with a 360-degree journey to not only experience Monet’s paintings but also to get a glimpse at the trials and tribulations he faced throughout his lifetime.
I suggested they experience Fraunces Tavern after the exhibit, which required a walk in front of the NY Stock Exchange and, in turn, provided an even better feel for my neighborhood. Of course, just walking into Fraunce’s is nostalgic since it truly does feel like a step back in time by a couple of hundred years. And, the food at Fraunces? Delicious as always.
After lunch, we spent a considerable amount of time in the museum upstairs, three floors worth.
It was a rather cold and windy day, but we managed to walk around the financial district, stumbling across a place I had not heard of and just minutes away: The Elevated Acre. This is an urban plaza with seating, trees and plants, and a view of the East River and Brooklyn. It is a rooftop accessible not only to people who work in the area but to anyone. The background in the photos is the view from this quint area; the first bridge in the photo below is the Brooklyn Bridge, and the next bridge over is the Manhattan Bridge.
We continued our walk and found ourselves in front of an establishment I had only recently discovered: Harry’s. It caught my eye because years ago I had gone many times to Harry’s Bar in Century City. Even though the name wasn’t exact, the look, the ambiance, everything about it felt like the same place. In order to investigate this, we did what we had to do: have a drink and talk to the bartender. I wouldn’t say he was the friendliest bartender I have ever spoken to. In fact, he wasn’t at all. He did, however, tell us that the man sitting at the end of the bar had actually opened this restaurant. After a bit of research, I didn’t believe our “friend,” the bartender, was accurate. This establishment was founded in 1972 by Harry Poulakakos and his wife, Adrienne. Poulakakos also opened two more locations, one in the Woolworth Building, and the other in the American Stock Exchange.
Located in the basement of India House, a landmark at 1 Hanover Square in New York City, Harry’s was where powerful “Wall Streeters” would gather. In the 1980s, Harry’s would serve an average of 800 lunches and several hundred dinners each day. The restaurant had a neon ticker board in the bar, and some of the bigger brokerages had private lines connected to a line of telephones hanging on the wall. When his wife, Adrienne, died in 2003, Harry closed down. He said he didn’t have the heart to run it without her. Today it is run by Peter Poulakakos, Harry and Adrienne’s son. A Georgetown graduate, Peter has several establishments, which include Ulysses, Adrienne’s Pizza, and Le District. Maybe the guy at the end of the bar was Peter, after all. Hmmm! I need to go back.
We stopped “home” to freshen up before dinner at Cecconi’s in Brooklyn. Our original plan was to walk the bridge; however, it was brutally cold with the wind chill factor. I now know what this means.
My only comment about dinner, although delicious, was my disappointment that we were not given a table by the window. Of course, I could not let it go. After saying something to our waiter several times, he told us the two available tables were reserved: one for a celebrity, the other for his bodyguard. Once they were seated, we could not stop looking. Unfortunately, it was no one we knew, and to add insult to injury, it was not anyone we cared about once we learned who it was. His name? I don’t know, but he’s a big gun in the wrestling world, apparently worth billions. So, what’s the big deal? I just wanted my guests to have the view I so love. That’s okay. It was still a wonderful evening with great conversation.