Once again we woke up quite early. I did a little journaling at the desk with the window looking out over the parking lot and watched the sun rise. Since we were in the city that never sleeps we checked out quite early. The staff was a little rude to Kuniko as she checked out, but I guess you get what you pay for. Outside I called an Uber and we took a short trip into Queens to the closest subway station at Jackson Heights/Roosevelt.
While driving there we spent some time driving under the elevated tracks, and the whole look of the thing reminded me of scenes from so many movies. I wanted to take a few photos but when the driver stopped across from the station it looked like the kind of area you shouldn’t hang out for too long. Instead we rolled our suitcase inside to catch the subway.
Luckily New York MTA has a credit card touch ticket system that has a weekly limit – it made things stress-free in terms of payment. Since I was a rookie I tried pulling my suitcase through the gate turnstile – not impossible but incredibly awkward. Later we learned that there is a special gate for luggage and wheelchairs – like I said, I was a rookie…
We caught the E line train all the way to the Financial District and got out at the World Trade Center station. From there it was a very short walk through empty streets to our hotel, called Cloud One. Our plan was to just drop off our suitcase, but as luck would have it they had an empty room available so we were able to check in and get into our room at 7 am. Nice!
The room was very nice, the location was central, and it turned out to be a great homebase for the rest of our stay in Manhattan. After dropping off our stuff we headed out on the town, still really early on Saturday morning.
We started off by walking south to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. The streets in this area were a little dirty – maybe the street cleaners hadn’t made it there yet. We passed a few statues of Miffy and Hello Kitty – was there a Japanese company here? At the ferry terminal we waited just a little bit for the next ferry, and took a free ride across to Staten Island. That gave us a closer look at the Statue of Liberty – something that was on Kuniko’s priority list. The last time I was in New York Brian Haven and I settled for a view of the statue from Battery Park, so it was nice to see it a little closer.
At Staten Island we debarked and quickly re-boarded and then took the return trip back to Manhattan. There were more tourists on this leg, including a big group of chubby Chinese tourists taking selfies – they looked like they were having so much fun! The ferry wasn’t crowded on either leg – there was plenty of room.
Getting a little hungry we took the subway from Whitehall St. South Ferry across to Brooklyn and changed at Jay St. Metro Tech, and then on to 2nd Avenue station in the East Village to hit Katz’s Delicatessen. This was something that is impossible to get in Japan – a NY Jewish deli with monster pastrami sandwiches. The system was interesting – we received a couple of blue tickets when we entered, and then lined up in front of one of the four “cutters” that were making sandwiches. We told the guy what we wanted, and watched him cut the meat and assemble the dishes. He gave us a little free sample while we waited – nice touch!
Our cutter was right down to business but other guys were enjoying talking with the customers – so if you were in one of those lines it might take longer to get your food. We ended up getting one large pastrami sandwich, a half sandwich of beef brisket, a bowl of matzo ball soup, and then a couple of whole pickles along with a lemonade (for Kuniko) and a beer for me. I paid the bill at another station, and the guy tried to fit in another job while I waited for him to tear off my receipt from the machine. I reached over to tear it off myself, and he told me to slow down and relax – I told him that I had a hot sandwich and a hungry wife waiting for me.
The pastrami was really delicious – nice and moist and easy to really chow down. The brisket had an excellent crust on the outside, but a little too dry for us on the inside. We used lots of brown mustard too – it was a great complement to the meats.
The vibe of the place was good – it is a pretty famous place and after we sat down the lines got pretty long. It pays to eat early! At a table nearby was a group of Japanese guys, some of them seemed like they work for Kawasaki. Not my Kawasaki, but it was good that word was getting around. We buckled down and managed to finish (almost) everything, and then turned in our blue tickets as we left (for some reason).
The rest of the morning we did some general sightseeing – One Freedom Tower, the 9/11 memorial pools, the New York Stock Exchange and Wall Street, Trinity Church, and a unique octopus sculpture called “The Arms of Friendship”. Then we went back to the room to take a little break.
While resting in the room I discovered that right next to our hotel was Eataly – a food hall that I had heard great things about. We decided to go check it out, and wow – it was awesome. It is the kind of place that would make us fat and bankrupt if it was close to our house. Cheese, bread, cooking tools, wine, a bar, gelato – they had everything. We went for a little gelato and they were great. Kuniko had a fruit blend of passion fruit, blood orange and one other. I had “Croccantino Allamarena” which was made of sweet milk, sour cherries and chocolate bits. Mind-blowing!
We walked a few streets down to a gourmet market called Jubilee, scoring a lot of water and yogurt for the room. It was nice to be so close to so many shops that carry goods that we are interested in. We carried our groceries back to the hotel and got hydrated, and then decided to take a nap until dinner time and rest our legs a bit.
In the evening I ironed my (only) nice shirt and managed to wake up Kuniko and then we went out to have an anniversary dinner at Manhatta, an upscale place on the 60th floor just a few blocks from our hotel.
On the ground floor there was an entranceway and a check-in desk with three people. Once they had my name they saw that it was our anniversary, and chit-chatted a little with us about that. Then they escorted us to the express elevator which whisked (yes, whisked) us to the 60th floor. Staff were there to greet us and take us to our table. The whole floor had windows from floor to ceiling all the way around, so there was plenty to gawk at. They led us past a stylish bar and then past an open kitchen with a big squad of cooks cooking seriously.
On our table there was an anniversary card, designed like it was a matchbook. Kuniko tried to explain it to me and I was completely confused about what she was trying to say – “Match! Match!” The table wasn’t next to the window (we didn’t have any connections) but we were close enough to enjoy the views and the service was great. Our server was really more of a chief of staff – she had a guy trailing her and learning the ropes – and she did a great job with making sure we had a great meal. She often used the word “amazing”, and when she said it her eyes got big and we ended up doing the same thing to each other the rest of the trip. Near us some tech bros sat around the table (for a long time after they finished), an Instagrammer took photos of herself with the skyline behind, while waiters patiently waited for her to finish.
So we started off with cocktails – I had a “Brooklyn”, which was a variation on a Manhattan and Kuniko had “East River” which included “shark” as an ingredient. Luckily it was a gummy shark – cute touch. And the meal:
First we started with an amuse bouche tart with salmon roe and tomato. We shared all our courses. First was trout with a tomato granita, and also a smoked burrata with strawberry and cucumber. Second course was corn and truffle tortellini, and scallops with tomatoes and a vibrant smoky yellow cream sauce in the middle. Third course was sea bass and a breast of duck with an anise sauce that came with a small “shot” of chateaubriand – it was amazing. We didn’t order dessert but they brought some anyway – a white hockey puck of ricotta cheese around an Earl Grey tea cake. Also there were various small bites – a jelly, a macaroon, and chocolates. We liked all the dishes – great flavors and combinations of textures. Exactly our kind of cuisine!
After we walked around the restaurant a little bit, to see the views from the other sides and take a few pictures. Eventually we went back down the elevator and hit the town. From the restaurant we headed southeast, towards the Brooklyn Bridge. As we walked Kuniko suddenly needed a restroom – finding a clean public toilet can be a challenge – but two doormen in a random building let us use one for guests, and they saved her life.
Farther along we found Tin House – a collection of cool shops and restaurants alongside the East River. There was some kind of live music event nearby, and plenty of people were walking around and enjoying the slightly cooler evening. There were great views of the bridge and Brooklyn beyond – it was a really nice spot. We walked around the area for quite a bit, enjoying the city at night, and as we were thinking about heading back Kuniko suddenly needed a restroom again. Luckily we were passing a wine bar that we had seen earlier so we popped in.
The place was called ZiZi wine bar. We perused the menu and it was focused on mostly Mediterranean wines including wines from Lebanon which I don’t have much experience with. I had a red, Kuniko had a dry Lambrusco, and we shared a baked Brie. They were playing old 80s music, and the proprietor was a beautiful woman who looked like she should be an actress or something.
Finally we wrapped up our Manhattan evening and headed back to the hotel. We have big plans for the rest of our visit here.
