A Trip to Dumbo

When TD and I moved off of Jane Street, our former neighbor Ted Burrows said to me, "It's fun to move -- you make new friends!" And he was right. In the building that we moved into on 15th Street lived a couple April and Matt, and we became friends before they left the building to move to DUMBO, the cool neighborhood in Brooklyn Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. You remember April -- she became a buddy of my niece Jane's and we ran into her on Fifth Avenue. TD and I have kept in touch with April and Matt, and visited them last night.

The shot above is the the view out of their living room of the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan beyond -- also spectacular at night.
Here are Matt, April and TD enjoying the view.


We had a plan to walk up to Vinegar Hill and go to a new restaurant there, Vinegar Hill House. Vinegar Hill is a street of nineteenth century store fronts that have been left virtually untouched. The restaurant is a hip hangout and has garnered good reviews for its food so we were all looking forward to it. On the way up to Vinegar Hill we passed the Manhattan Bridge.


We stepped into the popular one room restaurant which was packed. Luckily we immediately commandeered a table for four. I loved the decor -- boho hippie chic, rough country luxe. Antiques, plants, paint peeling on the walls, filament Edison light bulbs, that sort of thing.


Orchids in little ceramic pots, votive candles, and water in glass bottles.


Food was good. Service was not. Boo! There is nothing worse in a restaurant then feeling that you have been forgotten about because you're kind of trapped there at your table and social convention dictates that you can't stand up and wave your arms around and go, "Hello! I ordered a cocktail 40 minutes ago!"

So. They need to work on that.

April said, "Let's go to our apartment and have dessert." Back we went down the hill.


Out of her pantry April pulled:
Grapes
Strawberries
Shortbread cranberry cookies
Japanese chocolate sticks
White chocolate
Japanese chocolates with grapes inside
Ice cream sandwiches

I said, at our house you'd be lucky to find a Peppridge Farm cookie.
We had a glass of red wine. It was grand.