{"id":5020,"date":"2022-12-30T19:18:54","date_gmt":"2022-12-30T19:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zuschlag.us\/?page_id=5020"},"modified":"2024-08-31T16:34:16","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T16:34:16","slug":"new-york-visit","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/?page_id=5020","title":{"rendered":"New York Visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the round of Christmas parties with friends and neighbors wasn’t enough, we decided to gild the lily by heading off to New York for a few days as well.\u00a0 And with the super convenient Amtrak connection in nearby Culpeper, we just drove a 30 minutes to the train station, parked for free, and hopped on a Manhattan bound train.\u00a0 It was the lap of luxury sitting at our own table and watching the world go by.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d not been to the city since well before the pandemic, so it was great seeing all the Christmas lights and the throngs of happy people enjoying it all \u2013 tripledemic<\/a> be damned.\u00a0\u00a0 Keith and I had planned the trip around three things; 1) catching up with friends; 2) looking at the Metropolitan Museum\u2019s American Rooms; and 3) visiting one of New York\u2019s legendary steakhouses.\u00a0\u00a0 One of these was a huge success and the other two big disappointments.\u00a0\u00a0 The first was Keen\u2019s Steakhouse<\/a>.\u00a0 Supposedly the oldest and best in the city, we were told it was miles better than competitor Peter Lugar. So we booked a table and anticipated the best.\u00a0 Our reservation wasn\u2019t til 9:45 pm that evening, so we spent much of the night traversing the island with Keith\u2019s fellow sommelier Melanie.\u00a0 Luckily she likes to walk, so we worked up a good appetite dashing from Chelsea to Rockefeller Center and everywhere in between (not to be missed \u2013 Bryant Park\u2019s Christmas Market<\/a> and ice rink).\u00a0 Everywhere we went there were crowds of people, and every bar was filled to the brim with Christmas parties and people 4-5 deep at the bar.\u00a0 It was all very festive and everyone was in a great mood, but a bit annoying when even your favorite secret spots (Campbell Apartment<\/a>) are mobbed and there’s no place to sit, but we finally found a nearly empty Karaoke bar for Japanese businessmen that served us some great Japanese whiskey<\/a> and the bartender even gave us a round on the house.\u00a0 Tired and hungry (and a bit overserved drink-wise) we were delighted to enter into the historic steakhouse.\u00a0 It was as packed and festive as anywhere else in the city, but the mood fizzled when we were led up two floors on a narrow staircase to a small room with five other tables.\u00a0 A nice couple from Boston, a table of dude-bros from Jersey, a wildly vulgar family from Denmark, and us.\u00a0 We\u2019d been exiled to tourist Siberia.\u00a0 It would seem our out-of-state phone number required during the online reservation must have slotted us here.\u00a0 Not so bad, as they were all filled with the Christmas spirit and the Danes were amusing to watch as they preened in their New York regalia and pretended they were Gotham insiders.\u00a0\u00a0 We ordered a porterhouse for two and sat back in anticipation.\u00a0 What arrived was a steak alright, but clearly something that had been sitting in the kitchen several floors below and had taken its time getting up four flights of stairs before someone thought to bring it to our table.\u00a0 Cold steak isn\u2019t that bad, but what was supposed to be sizzling fat, was now just greasy tallow.\u00a0\u00a0 A total disappointment.<\/p>\n

The next day was a rainy one, but we had checked the weather before heading up and had dressed accordingly, and indeed had planned to spend the entire day in the Met, touring their recently renovated British rooms and the American Wing\u2019s period rooms.\u00a0 It\u2019s a hefty entrance fee and thus we were absolutely flabbergasted to be told (once we had already paid for our tickets) that there was no coat check available at all and that we\u2019d have to carry our heavy winter coats and umbrellas everywhere we went \u2013 all day.\u00a0 What kind of museum does that?\u00a0 Especially when there were four \u2013 count \u2018em \u2013 four empty coat check rooms clearly visible from where we stood. Thousands of people wandering around lugging huge piles of outerwear.\u00a0 It was insane. Poor tourist youths with backpacks being admonished by the guards that they wear them in front and not on their backs so that they didn\u2019t turn around and sideswipe a work of art with their pack.\u00a0 Why not put those guards on coat rack duty instead?\u00a0 Problem solved.\u00a0 I mean, really!<\/p>\n

After figuring out the very convoluted gallery arrangement we came to the American wing only to find all the period rooms were closed.\u00a0 No reason given.\u00a0 Just closed.\u00a0\u00a0 No entry.\u00a0\u00a0 When queried, the guard nearby could only offer \u201cwell, they were open on Tuesday.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>\u00a0And I had planned the trip specifically to see those rooms.\u00a0 Now how will I ever know how to furnish our new house?\u00a0 I guess I\u2019ll have to content myself by looking at them online (at least I don\u2019t need to lug around my overcoat to do so).\u00a0 The annoyance and disappointment was only partially salved by an excellent lunch at the Museum restaurant<\/a>.\u00a0 Keith had luckily called to make a reservation.\u00a0 In a room with a glass wall overlooking a rainy Central Park we were offered a terrific four course luncheon and a bottle of wine to wash it down.\u00a0 It was a great mood adjuster.\u00a0 And they graciously agreed to take our coats and umbrellas for the rest of the afternoon.\u00a0 But it did underscore a sad truth \u2013 people with money don\u2019t have to suffer the indignities imposed on the rest of us.\u00a0 It\u2019s enough to make me want to become a rich person myself \u2013 or perhaps a socialist revolutionary.<\/p>\n

At any rate, fortified by food and wine, I was able to once again cast a critical eye on the museum.\u00a0 My anger had mellowed, but then slowly gave way to amused bemusement.\u00a0 The museum, like every other institution in this era of diversity, equity, and inclusion, had clearly rushed to incorporate more African and African-American content in its displays.\u00a0 Yet these efforts were all pretty ham-fisted.\u00a0\u00a0 An African wood carved sculpture doesn\u2019t really belong in a gallery devoted to European religious painting, does it?\u00a0\u00a0 Also, what idiot\u2019s idea of appropriateness led them to hang a painting of black boys eating watermelon next to a painting showing John Brown on his way to being hanged?\u00a0 I may have a hometown bias, but give me Washington\u2019s collection of museums and galleries any day.\u00a0 For one, they\u2019re free, and two, they have functioning coat checks.\u00a0 And for an extra added bonus, they often have free concerts<\/a>.\u00a0 Very civilized.<\/p>\n

But all frustration was washed away that evening.\u00a0 I’d told some friends we’d be in the city and would love to catch up in person if they could spare the time.\u00a0 Could we do dinner?\u00a0 \u00a0Someplace cheap, quaint, cozy, and local was the request.\u00a0 “We’d be delighted<\/em>” came the swift reply, and “We’ll take you to a Christmas concert first and then dinner around the corner afterwards<\/em>.”\u00a0 So, a few short hours after the museum debacle found us at the Church of the Ascension’s<\/a> annual Christmas Concert<\/a>.\u00a0 I immediately forgave the City for all its disappointments earlier in the day.\u00a0 The concert was everything you’ve every wished a Christmas choral event to be.\u00a0 A gorgeous nave lit by candlelight, ethereal voices, thundering organ, and well behaved children and adults enjoying every note.\u00a0 Perfection.<\/p>\n

But the evening didn’t end there.\u00a0 For just a block away stood Gene’s Restaurant<\/a>. It was a cold and rainy winter evening, but as we entered the warm glow of this basement dining room, it was a lovely blast of nostalgia that hit us.\u00a0 The bar was right at the narrow entrance and as the barman greeted us and asked what we’d have, it was impossible not to order a martini right then and there.\u00a0 Impossible.<\/p>\n

Gene’s was such a perfect, old school, New York corner restaurant from a time long gone.\u00a0 The platonic ideal of a “regular place” and exactly<\/em> what I had requested.\u00a0 Warm, friendly, cozy-as-hell, and filled with local families and friends out for nice unpretentious evening meal.\u00a0 No sooner than we were seated at our corner round table a waiter plopped down two relish trays of celery, carrots, and radishes as a clue as to what I’d find in the menu. Sure enough, both shrimp cocktail and wedge salads made an appearance.\u00a0 The rest of the night was spent eating old school Italian, reminiscing about our wonderfully miss-spent youth, and washing it all down with carafes of the house red.\u00a0 We closed the place down and walked back through the rainy streets to the hotel.\u00a0 We have the best friends.\u00a0 You really couldn’t have choreographed a more perfect evening.<\/p>\n

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