New York City (January 2018)
We spent one
night in the city mid-week in late January 2018. We were in town for an
appointment at MSKCC, and we decided to make the most of our visit. We stayed
at the Hampton Inn Financial District/Downtown. We visited the nearby bar Dead
Rabbit for drinks, followed by dinner at Fraunces Tavern. We had been to
Fraunces Tavern for drinks in August of 2017, but at that time, we did not realize
how expansive the establishment is, offering many different dining venues, so
our return trip allowed us to sample some food and another of their dining
areas. Although the weather was a bit breezy, it was a rare warm January for
walking around. Following our appointment the next day, we ate lunch at
Scallywags, a rare decent restaurant near Port Authority. On this visit, we
took bus transportation home, and we missed the return bus home by about 7
minutes, so we wanted to stay in the Midtown East area to await the next one.
It was barely after 10:00 am, and almost no establishments are open that early.
We first stopped at the Holland Bar, which was a bit scary; fortunately, it does
not serve food, so we walked a few doors down and felt fortunate to find
Scallywags. A quick trip, but we tried to have some fun despite our main reason
for being in the ci
Hotels:
- Hampton Inn Manhattan Downtown/Financial District Link to my review
Restaurants:
- Dead Rabbit Link to my review
- Fraunces Tavern Link to my review
- Scallywags Link to my review
New York City: Scallywags (January 2018)
An Oasis near Port Authority Bus Terminal
My spouse and I
visited Scallywags for lunch on a Wednesday afternoon in late January 2018. The
pub is open daily from 10:00 am until 4:00 am. We found this bar in Hell’s Kitchen/Midtown
West because we had two hours to wait for our bus to depart the nearby Port
Authority Bus Terminal, and many other establishments in the area did not open
until 11:30 am or later.
A “scallywag” is
a scamp or rascal, although we are not sure what that name has to do with the
bar/restaurant. A long J-shaped bar and adjacent high-top tables occupy the
front of the space, with the main dining area located toward the back and up a
few steps. Large TVs spaced throughout the venue ensure that you can watch your
favorite sporting event (including “football” [soccer], of course!), and some
nights feature live music.
Scallywags serves
Irish and American food. We enjoyed a few rounds of drinks (beers and Bloody Mary’s)
along with our tasty sandwiches, one grilled cheese with bacon and one corned
beef with cole slaw, both accompanied by side orders of fries.
Scallywags is a
valid dining and drinking option near Port Authority, and we will keep it in
mind if a future need presents itself.
New York City: Dead Rabbit (January 2018)
Enjoy a Drink at the World’s Best Cocktail Bar
My spouse and I
visited the Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog for drinks on a Tuesday evening in
late January 2018. The pub is open daily from 11:00 am until 4:00 am. Live
music, DJs, and special event nights (with deals on oysters, pot pies, and
prime rib roast) are offered on certain evenings. The Dead Rabbit has held the
honor of being one of the world’s best bars for several years running, even
being named number 1 in 2016! It hold other awards including “World's Best
Cocktail Menu”, “Best American Cocktail Bar”, and “International Bartender of
the Year”. The owners of Dead Rabbit also operate Manhattan’s BlackTail
(with a Cuban bar Prohibition theme).
The “Dead Rabbits” was the name of a
reputed Irish American criminal street gang in Lower Manhattan in the 1850s.
The group was so called because they supposedly carried a dead rabbit on a spear
and were said to throw a dead rabbit in the middle of a fight before it began.
The Dead Rabbits were sometimes called the "Mulberry Street Boys" because of the street where they
operated in the Five Points area. For more than a decade, "Dead Rabbit”
became the standard phrase by which city residents described any scandalously
riotous individual or group.
Today, the Dead Rabbit is a modern Irish bar with a young
hip staff that serves great cocktails, amazing whiskey, and good food. It offers
several places to drink and dine. An informal long and narrow ground-floor pub/taproom
is cozy and comfortable. The second floor houses the more exclusive main
drinking/dining parlor, while the top floor offers a private function room that
hold about 60 people. Old photographs, sports memorabilia, and
some Civil War mementos decorate the walls.
We only visited the street-level taproom for a round of
cocktails before moving on to a nearby restaurant for dinner, but next time, we
plan to stay longer and request a table upstairs.
New York City: Hampton Inn Manhattan/Downtown Financial District (January 2018)
My spouse and I
stayed at the Hampton Inn Financial District/Downtown for one night on a
Tuesday evening in late January 2018. We made our reservation using the Hilton
website. We checked in online the day prior to our stay, and we received keys
to the same room that we selected during the process. Unfortunately, there were
no upgrades available despite our Diamond HHonors membership.
The Hampton Inn
Manhattan/Downtown-Financial District is located in Lower Manhattan near Wall
Street, the Staten Island Ferry, Governor’s Island Ferry, and Battery Park, so
it would be an ideal location from which to visit touristy sites (like the
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island) or a good base from which to do business. A
large 24-hour Essen food emporium is located opposite the hotel’s main
entrance; it offers grocery items, breakfast food, deli sandwiches, baked goods,
and several self-serve bars (with cold salads, Chinese food, various soups,
many other hot foods); it has a lower level where you can dine in, or
alternatively, you can take out food, beverages (including alcohol like wine
and beer), and supplies. Restaurants and bars located within a block or two include
the Dead Rabbit, Ulysses, Stone Street Tavern, The Growler, and Luke’s Lobster,
as well as a Duane Reade pharmacy. Sister hotel the Doubletree Financial
District is also nearby.
Hotel amenities include a complimentary breakfast buffet (standard Hampton
Inn fare like coffee, juices, fruit, bagels and pastries, cold cereals,
oatmeal, scrambled eggs, breakfast meat, and make-your-own waffles).
Alternatively on weekdays, you can pick up a grab-and-go brown bag breakfast,
which includes a bottle of water, apple, muffin/pastry, and breakfast bar. A
24-hour pantry offers food and drink items for purchase, including
single-serving bottles of wine. A complimentary tea and coffee bar is offered
opposite the pantry. A fitness center and business center are onsite, and Wi-Fi
is free throughout the hotel. Valet parking is available for $55 plus tax per
night for a standard-size vehicle. Public spaces at this hotel include the
lobby breakfast area (which offers a long communal high-top table, some
free-standing tables, and other tables that share one side of a padded banquette),
and a tiny seating area that offers two club chairs and a small cocktail table
in a sort of makeshift lounge area. A television is available in the breakfast
area.
The hotel offers
king or queen bed rooms, in addition to a few king studio suites (which have
either a king or two queen beds, a sleeper sofa, and a refreshment center with bar
sink, refrigerator, and microwave). Some queen rooms offer an outdoor
terrace/deck. Our room was on the top/eighth floor, which necessitated using
one of the two main hotel elevators to travel to the seventh floor, then
disembarking and riding a separate single elevator to the eighth floor. Our
queen room was a bit cozy for two people, with room for only one nightstand on
the far side of the bed because of the narrow width of the room. Our room
contained a small hanging closet (with luggage rack, safe, iron, and ironing
board), a small low chest of drawers that held the flat-screen TV, and a small
table (which was too small to be used as a working desk, although it contained
a rolling chair) that held the coffee maker and the ice bucket. Our room did
not have a refrigerator.
We enjoyed our
stay at the Hampton Inn Manhattan/Downtown-Financial District, but we would probably
choose a larger room with a king-size bed next time, even though that would
mean sacrificing the outdoor terrace.
Philadelphia: Mummers Fancy Brigades Family Show (January 2018)
My spouse and I attended the Mummers Fancy Brigade Family Show on a Monday
morning (New Year’s Day) in January 2018. We purchased our tickets online ahead
of time for about $20 per person, but we saw walk-up guests buying tickets on
the day of. (We assume that the second show later in the day was more crowded
or possibly sold out, because it was when the actual judging occurred, whereas
our earlier show was more of a dress rehearsal>) Our tickets arrived in the US
mail without any instructions on where to report, other than to the Convention
Center. (Note that the Convention Center is huge, spanning several city blocks,
and not all entrances were usable for this particular show, so we walked
somewhat unproductively along the perimeter of the facility until we found a
door that opened.)
This show takes place in a huge warehouse space with temporary bleachers
holding seats for viewers. Additional seats are available on the floor closer
to the “action”; however, these seats are all at the same elevation, so if you
are in a more rear row and you are vertically challenged, you may have
difficulty seeing. We had a hard time locating our seats: although each section
of the bleachers seemed to contain a directional sign, the placards really
marked sponsor lounge areas rather than patron seating sections. Also, we
arrived to the show about 20 minutes late, and we feel that other viewers moved
to our seats, which were located at the end of a row. In addition, the
temperatures were quite cold the day that we visited, and the bleacher seats do
not allow for anywhere to store large coats and other cold-weather gear. The
ushers were not able to direct us to our seats; instead, they directed us to
the floor area where no one was sitting.
The Mummers Parade is held
each New Year's Day in Philadelphia, believed to be the oldest folk festival in
the United States. A “mummer” is defined as “an actor in a traditional masked
mime, especially of a type associated with Christmas and popular in England in
the 18th and early 19th centuries.”
Local clubs (usually called "New Years Associations") compete in
one of four categories (comics, fancies, string bands, or fancy brigades). They
prepare elaborate costumes, performance routines, and moveable scenery, which
take months to complete, in their clubhouses in South Philadelphia.
The parade traces back to mid-17th-century roots, blending elements from
Swedish, Finnish, Irish, English, German, and other European heritages. Swedes
and Finns, the first European colonists in the Philadelphia area, brought the
custom of visiting neighbors on "Second Day Christmas" (December 26)
with them to Tinicum. This was soon extended through New Year's Day with
costumed celebrants loudly parading through the city. They appointed a
"speech director", who performed a special dance with a traditional
rhyme in exchange for food and ale. It sometimes included shooting firearms on
New Year's Day as well as the Pennsylvania German custom of
"belsnickling," where adults in disguise questioned children about
their behavior during the previous year.
Unable to suppress the sometimes riotous customs, the city government began
to require participants to join organized groups with designated leaders who
had to apply for permits and were responsible for their group’s actions. The
earliest documented club, the Chain Gang, formed in 1840, and Golden Crown
first marched in 1876 with cross-town rivals Silver Crown forming soon after.
By 1900, these groups formed part of an organized, city-sanctioned parade with
cash prizes for the best performances. The parade usually marches on either
Broad Street or Market Street. In 1997, the Fancy Brigades were moved to the Pennsylvania
Convention Center, allowing for larger sets, but limiting audience size. In
2011, the Fancy Brigades returned to the parade.
Each year, thousands of people participate in the parade, many wearing
elaborate costumes costing tens of thousands of dollars to make and weighing
well over 100 pounds. The categories of Mummers are described below:
Comics are clowns in colorful outfits, often with multi-level umbrellas who
dance to recordings such as "Golden Slippers". The comics typically
start the parade. Themes often gently parody current events and traditional
life. Prizes are awarded for floats, groups, brigades, couples, original
costume, original character, and juvenile. Wench brigades, an offshoot of
comics, pride themselves on continuing traditions such as the
dress-and-bloomers "suits", painted faces, decorated umbrellas, and
live brass bands to accompany the brigade. Wench brigades were originally men
dressed as women, although now sometimes include women, too. The fancy division
members strut with some small floats in elaborate costumes to music provided by
a live band. String bands provide elaborate performances using their
unamplified strings, reeds, and percussion, and featuring banjos, saxophones
(alto, tenor, baritone and bass), accordions, double basses, drums,
glockenspiels, and violins in musical arrangements tied to a theme presented by
the captain, beautiful costumes, and props (some people call them “floats”).
String-band performances are now the most elaborate of the parade, outdone only
by the fancy brigades’ indoor performances.
The fancy brigades, the largest category with the largest crews, march the
southernmost portion of the parade route, before heading to the convention
center for a ticketed show and judging. Over time, as props grew larger, more
cumbersome, and more vulnerable to wind, rain, and snow, the Brigade show was
moved indoors.
Fancy brigades clubs include 2nd Street Shooters, Avenuers, Cahills, Clevemore,
Downtowners, Golden Crown, Jokers, Satin Slippers, Saturnalian, Spartans, Shooting
Stars, and South Philly Vikings.
We were really bowled over by the short less-than-five minute skits that
each troupe presented. This show was so impressive; we were completely astonished
by the elaborate costumes, intricate sets, talented performers, and well-chosen
music. This was our first visit to the show, but it will not be our last!
NOTE: These are NOT my personal photos. Attribution and acknowledgement is given to LRamer from phl.com and others as noted and copyrighted. 
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