Let's Visit the Alamo

 

Welcome to the Alamo

Yes, there's an Alamo in New York City and you're looking at it. This is the Alamo aka the East Village Cube at Astor Place. This is one of my favorite sculptures, eighteen hundred pounds of steel that revolves. It's the work of Tony Rosenthal and was first installed in 1967 as a temporary installation. Because of community enthusiasm, it became permanent, and is still there almost 60 years later.  

This wasn't my plan for the day, but once I moved to do the errands on my list, I decided it was too nice a day -- no rain and very little humidity -- to be inside doing errands. And with a sudden pivot I found myself at Astor Place. I found the coffee kiosk and a seat under one of the umbrellas, and I settled in to enjoy an iced coffee. 

The cafe at Astor Place and source of my iced coffee today

Thank you all for the birthday wishes. I'm definitely not someone who is sad about getting older. I'm delighted to be getting older. It's a privilege that many won't have and even with the aches and pains, it's the best adventure I can have. 

I promised a birthday post and I'm not quite there yet for a long post. My thoughts on turning 76 are just beginning to emerge. There is one idea that has started to emerge. I need to keep trying new things. I'm not sure what those new things are, but I've started to see how easy it is to get into the same schedule every week. I love having activities to do every week and seeing friends at those places. I love traditions that are part of every season and holiday, but I think it's time to find a new activity (or two) and a new tradition (or two). As I learned decades ago in Girl Scouts, "Make new friends and keep the old. One is silver and the other's gold." 

As ever, thanks for visiting and keep cool.

  

V Is for Veselka

Most of my A to Z blog friends are done, but I've gotten behind and it's a dash to the finish tomorrow. Get ready for a flurry of blog posts from Manhattan and Brooklyn as we come to Z in our search for the best coffee in New York City. 

V brings us back to the East Village -- also the site of City of Saints -- for a visit to the Ukrainian restaurant, Veselka. The East Village has had a fascinating history and has been home to Little Germany, Yiddish Theatre and the Beat movement. It also experienced significant Ukrainian immigration after World War II. Veselka, founded in 1954, is one of the last of the many Ukrainian restaurants that were found in this neighborhood. 

Truth in blogging, I didn't come here for the coffee. It is a great place for breakfast -- I need to come back later in the day and try some of the other Ukrainian specialties -- and the coffee is fine, but it's not a coffee site. I had an enjoyable breakfast and had a good time exploring the streets in the area -- lots of fun new stores.

 

I'm a pierogi fan and have been thinking about what I would enter in this contest, but haven't come up with anything yet. What would you put together if you designed your own pierogi?

On my way to Veselka I passed St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery,  the oldest site of continuous religious practice in New York City. It goes back to 1660, when Peter Stuyvesant, Governor of New Amsterdam purchased land for a farm and built a family chapel here. Throughout the centuries the church has been at the center of writing and theater in the neighborhood. There is still artistic activity in the East Village, but there is a lot of it has gone to other neighborhoods. One of them is Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Through no special planning that is our next stop on the coffee express.

So much coffee and so little time! Let's keep sipping.
 

G Is for Greenwich Village...The One to Beat

The inspiration for this year's theme for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge came during a conversation on Tenth Street in Greenwich Village. The Wikipedia link I was about to share said that this area wasn't part of the Village and was more rightly part of the Lower East Side. But I, and just about everyone I know considers East Tenth Street and Fourth Avenue, where the Manhattan location for City of Saints Coffee Roasters is located, the East Village, including City of Saints. Enough geography, let's get on to coffee.
 

Though the outside is very plain, the décor is not. If it were feasible and wouldn't require most of my retirement savings, this is what I'd like my kitchen to look like. 

 



A small, but well curated, selection of refreshments, including bread from Bien Cuite (not pictured). 

 



The coffee, about as good tasting as iced coffee can be.

 

 I know I may find better in my travels around New York City, but this is the coffee to beat. The beans -- locally roasted in Bushwick, Brooklyn -- are from the Misty Valley in Ethiopia. The flavor has a fruity taste -- not unlike in good wines -- and the official description is "blueberry, vanilla and hibiscus." I need a return visit to sample the hot coffee and other enjoy other coffee beans. Without a doubt, this is an A, and an extremely pleasant place to read the newspaper and drink coffee.    

 



This mural is the view from the window of City of Saints.

 

I'm back a little later tonight to do "H. I'm not by habit a daily blogger and this is tough for me. Real life keeps getting in the way. But with my post for "H" I'm caught up for the A to Z Challenge and I can start the week properly tomorrow with "I." The selection for "I" may be a contender -- the reviews are good -- and I'm eager to sample iced coffee there.

 

So much coffee, so little time... As ever, thanks for visiting!