Thursday, April 23, 2009

At the new Yankee Stadium

As I mentioned, I had a free ticket to the Yankees game Tuesday night, which gave me the opportunity to walk around the new stadium, shop, eat and mingle with friends (if I had any with me). Oh. And perhaps watch some baseball. (For the record, I didn't shop or eat. But I did have a few beers. And checked out the Yankees-A's.)

First thing, of course: The place is a palace. You've read about all the amenities. In fact, you've probably already read too much about the new Yankee Stadium. That's the thing: Between the hype and the backlash (cost overruns, city's shady role in the construction, etc.), it's nearly impossible to actually just come here and watch the game.

Anyway, it doesn't seem as if any expense was spared, except for maybe chintzy seat cup holders. So, despite ample amounts of Yankee history everywhere ....



... (not to mention the location), the new stadium feels like suburbia. Where the parents can let the kids run around sitter-free while they bask in the glow of the food court. For me, it seemed like a vacation: Some resort that was kind of fun, but I miss home. And it doesn't help that the stadium feels a little cold and manufactured, though I'm sure things will improve with age.



So here's a quick tour, which begins with Derek Jeter channeling Paul Bunyon next to the Hard Rock Cafe...



Now to the other first thing: The food choices. Sushi and ramen, which made me feel as if I was right back on St. Mark's!



There's popcorn....



...and, oddly, pears. Danjou and Bartlett. Two for $3.



...white tablecloth restaurants...



...lots of meat...



...and well-displayed sandwiches.



There are also many lounges to have food and watch the game on a flat-screen TV. Though not any ol' schlub can walk in: You need the tickets that also give you the right for access to, say, the Jim Beam Lounge. I did not have the right tickets, but the guy working the door was friendly and said that I was welcome inside. Really, they guy working the door was friendly.





Also, the Jumbotron big screen thing in center field is as high-def as they come.



As the season progresses, I'm sure there will be more interesting things to say about the player who's up to bat.



Meanwhile, only at the $1.5 billion stadium does a penny cost $1.01.



Eventually the novelty of the stadium will wear off, and people will turn their attention to the game again.



I've talked with several Yankees fans who said they'd never set foot in the new stadium. I'm sure people said that about the renovations that neutered Yankee Stadium in the mid-1970s. I understand that point of view. I think I'd go again. See how it feels in a few months. Maybe even without a free ticket.



If you want to know more about how people felt when the stadium reopened in 1976, check out the April 26, 1976, issue of Sports Illustrated and the article by Robert Lipsyte titled "A Diamond in the Ashes."

Meanwhile, across 161st Street....

The old stadium sits empty... looking a little derelict...







... waiting to be torn down...







... while the new trophy wife gets all the attention.



Of course lifelong Yankees fans/NY residents talk about how Yankee Stadium hasn't been the same since the renovations of 1973-1975. As Maury Allen wrote in Baseball Digest when Yankee Stadum reopenend 1976:

"It was a building of stone and steel, that old Yankee Stadium, a massive monument to excellence in the middle of The Bronx, a structure of love and life and legend.

It is gone now, the old replaced by the new, the low fence in right where Babe Ruth set records and Roger Maris broke them, the vastness of DiMaggio's center field country, the hanging facade from the roof that Mantle would crush one day, the bullpen fence jumped by Joe Page, the dugout where Casey sat, the soft dirt around home plate where Lou Gehrig stood and thousands cheered.

Now it is of the past. Only the memories remain, the awe and the shock, the pride and the wonder, when a young man walked up through that tunnel and saw those seats, that size, that history surround him."


To be fair, I'm sure a kid will have that same sense of awe walking into the new stadium today.

A quick word on the cup holders at the new Yankee Stadium

They don't work all that well.... at least the ones in the cheaper ($20!) 400-level seats... When I arrived at my seat Tuesday night, the ground was wet...which was a little odd given that the seats were covered by the roof. Anyway, the guys next to me were drinking beer. They seemed decent enough. Like, not the type to dump beer on each other. Anyway, I put my full beer ($10 for 20 ounces of Miller Lite — plus the souvenir cup!; or, 12-ounce drafts were available for $6) in the cup holder in front of me.

And now I figured it out.



The cup holders are at a slight angle. And by placing a full beer in the holder, the first, oh, four ounces will slowly start trickling onto the ground. "We did the same thing," the guys next to me said. At these prices, they said it would be like throwing away gold. Or something.



To combat this, you need to buy the 16-ounce plastic bottles of beer for $9. Or just hold your cup until your taken a few swallows.

Off Target



And the ad almost covered the Anarchy symbol...at St. Mark's and Avenue A.

Where you can hang out with the actor who did the voice in five episodes of "Captain Planet and the Planeteers" today and tomorrow

Yes! Of course we mean Jeff Goldblum! You can maybe pretty much find him anywhere from Avenue B to D on Seventh Street and Eighth Street ... when "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" comes to the neighborhood...




And look at the movie credits listed behind Goldblum's name...."Captain Planet and the Planeteers"? "Mad Dog Time"? Someone is trying to be funny...

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Freddy Sez inside Yankee Stadium



After being denied entrance to the new Yankee Stadium on Sunday, Freddy Sez was back in the ballpark (or mallpark, to some) last night. (Something about this story seems a little premeditated for my taste...) Oh, I was there too at the game -- received a free ticket (A $20 Grandstand jobbie) from a friend.

May take a moment to collect my thoughts on the experience at the new stadium. It was just a little... weird. Like your parents moving from your ramshackle childhood home into a new cushy retirement condo. And everyone who works there is super friendly. "May I help you?" "Hi, are you guys having fun?" "Thanks for coming! Have a good night!"

P.S.

Here's a photo of the first pitch at 7:05 p.m.



The 400 Section (the $20 seats) where I was sitting was nearly full...

The signs at the Olympic Restaurant

Truth is, I saw the telltale neon signs appear on the windows a few weeks back at what is arguably my favortite restaurant around, the Olympic at Delancey and Essex on the LES. I didn't have the nerve to take an upclose look.



I always figured this corner was doomed in the new Blue LES... so, farewell to the Jade Fountain, which has been around since 1920...



...and the Olympic. With its little lunch counter and surprisingly comfortable stools.





Well, I finally decided to check it out this past week. Read the "Closing. Thank you to our customers" sign upclose. And what did I find on that orange sign?

News of expanded hours! Now open 24 hours Thursday through Saturday!

Heh. Well. Serves me right, Mr. Doomsday. So I went in and had the eggs, bacon, toast, home fries, juice and coffee -- $6 as always.

Per usual, the EMT guys were there. They sit down to eat inside the Olympic, but always get the food served in to-go containers -- in case they get a call during their meal. Never have seen that happen since I've been going there. (I figure the first time I need a paramedic -- perhaps from eating so many eggs-and-bacon meals from the Olympic -- the EMTs will arrive with food from the Olympic...)

Maybe another day I'll write more about the Olympic. Meanwhile, if you do go, check out the restrooms up the stairs in the back....

On the edge

You probably saw the news accounts yesterday about the Mercedes SUV that plunged three stories from the parking garage at 12th Street and University Place. According to reports, the attendant accidentally threw the SUV into reverse by mistake. Amazingly enough, no one was killed — or seriously injured.

As the Post noted

The massive SUV catapulted through the sixth-floor window landing in a tangle on a roof between the two buildings.

"There's a f- - -ing car in my back yard," Frank Schwartz said. "I heard a guy yell earlier, but I thought it was just my crazy neighbors partying, and I just ignored it.

"That's what happens when you live in New York.
"


Uh-huh. True.

Still, have you ever looked up at the parking garage on Ninth Street between Third Avenue and Second Avenue?



Please be careful — and walk on the other side of the street.

To your Earth Day



In Tompkins Square Park. And please clean up after your pet.

Hate to see the holidays come to an end



April 20 on East Ninth Street. Or maybe someone simply forgot they had a Christmas tree left up in their apartment.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition



The former home of the Marx Brothers in danger of demo (Living with Legends)

Sabotage at the Aqueduct? (New York Observer)

Analyzing "Manhattan" (Patell and Waterman's History of New York)

Carnage at the P&G (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Ken has photos from better days at the P&G (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

What's doing in Murray Hill? (Esquared)

The Bowery/Delancey billboard goes black (BoweryBoogie)

Happy No. 62 Iggy (Hunter-Gatherer and Stupefaction)

EV/LES streetscenes (Flaming Pablum)

Tagging along on Snuggie Saturday (Daily Intel)

Jeremiah had news yesterday of the new tenant at Extra Place.

Meanwhile! From Metropolitan Diary yesterday in the Times:

Dear Diary:

Recently I was on my way to a job interview in the East Village, a neighborhood I don’t know well. I had a hard time finding the address I was looking for, even with directions I had printed out from the Internet.

The short street, Extra Place, was not marked, and since the tiny shop wasn’t open yet, there was no sign of any kind that I was in the right place. In a panic, I hurried up to a police car stopped at the next intersection and asked where “Extra Place” was.

The officers immediately went to work. One consulted his mobile phone to verify the address; one pulled out a map from a large bunch stuck between the two seats. To my confusion, that officer also handed me a handful of tissues.

“Are you on your way to an interview?” he asked. “You’re going to need this; you have lipstick all over your teeth.”

He swiveled the passenger-side mirror so I could get a look at myself and make the necessary touch up. The two then directed me to the right location and with a quick thank you, I jogged off down the block.

I didn’t get the job, but I did get a good story about New York City officers going above and beyond the call of duty.

Deleted Craigslist ad of the day: "This location is similar to east village, lots of artists and musicians and city people that are willing to spend!"

Spotted on Craigslist. Unfortunately, the ad has been removed...But not before ....

lucrative resteraunt on orchard st lower east side w/ achol license!! (Lower East Side) $7000
this restaurant is about 2100sq ft and has everything that you need to start making money on this busy high foot traffic location of lower east side!! 5 mins walk to the F, J, M, Z trains on Essex station 1 stop into williamsburg brooklyn. back yard seatings are available!! fryer, hood, prep are (in basement), built in fridge and ice machines ready and usable!!. there is definitely money to be made in this restaurant and absolutely great location!! This location is similar to east village, lots of artists and musicians and city people that are willing to spend! Wine and Beer License 100% transferable to new owner!!!! please note that no alcohol licenses are given out in this area anymore, so just the alcohol license alone is worth a lot of money!! and it is included in key money $15,000. You have to see it to believe it!! Lease is negotiable, asking rent is 7000/month. Everything is negotiable!


Feel free to guess the location.

Meanwhile! Holiday lights on Orchard Street...from last November.

Noted


"Freddy 'Sez' Schuman, the one-eyed, cookware-clanking octogenarian who's been an unofficial pinstripe mascot for 22 seasons, was forced to panhandle for tickets at the new Yankee Stadium over the weekend." (New York Post)

Taking another look at East Seventh Street

There's no shortage of turnover on the stretch of Seventh Street near Avenue A. Here's an update since the last time...

A small-plates place called Cure opened last week at was was briefly going to be the East Village Pie Lounge (which was briefly the Italian cafe Affettati...)



The space that briefly housed the Chocolate Bar is still for rent.



The Tiny Living store is closing...





The space next to Butter Lane Cupcakes is still for lease...



The former kiddie hair salon/boutique Locks 'n' Lads that closed in January is now an upscale clothing boutique called Red...



P.S.
During the renovation of Red, this fine-looking dummy was put out in the trash. Was curious if anyone took it...



P.S.S.

Two other storefronts — former boutiques — are available on the block...Including:

Nails to be done at old Blue space

The former fancy dress shoppe Blue on Avenue A next to Lucy's is a prime chunk of EV real estate...and it ...



...will be the new home to Top A Nails, the salon that's now on A between Ninth Street and 10th Street.

Soon to be on the road again

Spotted this past weekend on East Third Street at First Avenue.



Topshop posters are far too easy to deface

On Third Avenue at 14th Street...



On East Seventh Street at First Avenue...

Rejected names included: The Asset Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility Cafe

Speaking of Maiden Lane (and who does, really?), the Hotel Reserve opened last December...and now the hotel has a new restaurant with a name equally as sexxxy... a name that makes you just want to ...




...think of large bureaucracies, prisons, central banking systems... Federal Cafe? Does the Board of Governors appoint the chef?

Heh.