The New York City Traveler

Does horseback riding in NYC merely conjure up images of mounties navigating the streets? Turn your quaint notions of enjoying the beauty of New York City’s parks via horseback into reality!  Starting at $30 per hour in most locations, you have several options:  In Bronx’s Pelham Bay Park, trot over to the Bronx Equestrian Center and take your steed on some long trail rides including a winding bridle path with beautiful vistas of marshland and woods.  Miles of trails wind through over 1000 acres in verdant Van Cortlandt Park’s Riverdale Equestrian Centre. Just take the 1 or 9 subway to …read more

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When you need a reasonably priced smooth cup of coffee, look no further than Oren’s Daily Roast. This place successfully combines the cup-a-joe convenience with coffee house quality and conscience. One thing you’ll notice upon walking in one of their shops is that pictures of farmers along with their bean crops prominently plaster the walls. You should know that these aren’t just feel good decorations. Rather than merely affixing the "Fair Trade" label to their coffee, founder Oren Bloostein has personally traveled to Central and South America and Africa selecting coffee farmers he wants to work with. He purchases directly …read more

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Wards Island Bridge, within view from atop Carl Shurz Park and the Gracie Mansion grounds, can be reached by taking a moderate stroll down the East River Esplanade along FDR Drive. Its bluish-green arched stateliness can’t be missed spanning the Harlem River complimenting vistas of the Triborough suspension bridge and Hellgate Bridge, whose abutments are firmly planted on the island’s eastern shores. Open to pedestrians only, this vertical-lift steel bridge was built in 1951 connecting the Upper East Side to the park’s stadium, psychiatric hospitals, and ball fields. First built in 1807 with private funds as a wooden drawbridge leading …read more

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Want to see how a real life robber baron from the early 20th century lived? Look no further than the Frick Collection where Henry Clay Frick lavished his immense fortune on priceless works of art, cramming them into his sprawling neo-Classical mansion on E 70th St. overlooking Central Park. Built in 1913 by the same architects who designed the New York Public Library main branch in midtown, galleries showcase paintings spanning the Renaissance, an impressive collection of 18th century French furniture, Oriental tapestries, small bronzes, and works ranging from Degas, Goya, El Greco, Van Dyck, Renoir and Whistler. Since becoming …read more

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Even before stepping through the door of Grandaisy Bakery on 73 Sullivan St., it helps to know that head baker, Cristóbal Julio Guarchaj, as a boy in Guatemala watched how his father, a baker, milled wheat using using large rotating stones powered by wind and water to pulverize the grain into flour. As he grew older, he mastered treadle, the intricate Mayan craft of fabric weaving. Why the history lesson you ask? Because Guarchaj’s acquired skills and nationality are both an anomaly as well as perfectly reflected in the baked goods lining the racks in this warm glass cube fronted …read more

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Mark some time off on your calendars this Columbus Day weekend, October 10 – 12, 2008 ’cause the New York City Wine and Food Festival will be smokin’ and sizzling throughout NYC. Centered around Chelsea Market in Manhattan’s Meat Packing District, this four-day gourmet extravaganza kicks-off Friday evening with Meatpacking Uncorked, a neighborhood block party brimming with samples from local restaurants like renown Craftsteak and Adour. On Saturday and Sunday, sample delicacies along with wines, spirits, and live entertainment at the Grand Tasting on Pier 54. In addition to cooking demonstrations, wine seminars, book signings, abundant opportunities to meet celebrity …read more

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Exploring the West Indian restaurants and markets along Nostrand and Flatbush Avenues is like taking a mini vacation to the Caribbean without having to venture further than Brooklyn. This is a world of rotis, pones, macaroni pie, cou-cou and mounds of tropical produce. Concentrated roughly in a square mile bounded by Empire Boulevard, Nostrand Avenue, Cortelyou Road and Flatbush Avenue, just take the B or Q subway line to Prospect Park and head south on Flatbush for your excursion.
Head to Culpepper’s, a take-out at 1082 Nostrand Ave. where you can pick up a Barbadian (or Bajan) consisting of Cou-cou, …read more

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Five miles north of Midtown overlooking the East River’s fast moving swirling eddies, historic Gracie Mansion has gone through many lives first starting out as a country estate built in 1799 by Archibald Gracie, a prosperous New York merchant. It then became an ice-cream parlor, first home of the Museum of the City of New York, and most famously, a residence for some of New York’s mayors beginning with LaGuardia and ending with Giuliani. Situated on 11 acres that are now a part of Carl Schurz Park, this ornate yellow showpiece is now "The People’s House" open for tours by …read more

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Long before MTV, multi-media artists combined musical concepts with visuals. The 1960s and early 70’s marked a nation high on the Apollo launch and promises of limitless technological innovations. Artists depicted this exuberance using newly available portable video equipment to capture the "here and now" presenting it in a futuristic backdrop. Musicians found themselves at the forefront of this interdisciplinary experimentation. Looking At Music, an exhibit on the second floor of MOMA gives some good examples like Yoko Ono’s 1968 slow motion (51 min.) montage of John Lennon’s face and David Bowie’s abstract Space Oddity from 1972. Recorded and released …read more

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After more than a decade in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg, Galapagos Art Space couldn’t afford the rent in its prime North 6th St. location so it moved to over to DUMBO (Down Under The Manhattan Bridge Underpass).  This new location and lower rent will allow them to focus on nurturing budding artists rather than hosting profit generating club-style parties.  Right around the corner from St. Ann’s Warehouse, on the corner Water and Main Streets, the 2 story space features a mezzanine, reflecting pool and larger stage.  More art-centric events are planned including theater, dance, performance art, cinema, puppetry, lectures, literary events, and …read more

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