4. Brooklyn to Staten Island to Queens to Manhattan. 12/23/21

We checked out of our lovely room at 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge and headed to Staten Island to visit my parents graves and place the traditional rocks on the monuments to indicate that we had visited. My whole extended family is buried there in Staten Island. Why Staten Island? – I have no idea, but I suppose land was cheap there about a century ago and they decided to purchase plots there. My parents, grandparents, great aunts and uncles, and uncle and many cousins are buried there. I suppose it is the last generation to do that since I and subsequent generations will likely be cremated and if not, definitely not buried in Staten Island. Actually, visiting this Jewish cemetery is sort of a history lesson in NY Jewish history. Originally, the cemetery was the place for Eastern European Jews to be buried and more recently there is a large influx of Russian Jews who brought very different traditions to the site – including photo-engraved images of the person buried—something European Jews would never do.

From there, since we were on a mission, we went to Queens to the Catholic cemetery where Mike’s mother is buried. Calvary is huge and the last time we went we couldn’t even find the grave,. But this time, Mike had done his homework and we located the space. And while my parent’s cemetery has faced vandalism and other acts of antisemitism, Mike’s mother’s cemetery is quite pristine and home to many deceased NY politicians as well as gangsters. The differential between the wealthy and the poor is obvious with very large monuments that almost blend into the distant skyline of New York City and others (like Mike’s mother) who are have very very modest monuments and are even buried in stacked fashion (something I had never heard of before knowing Mike.

From Queens we set out for Manhattan – to The Beekman – where we will stay for about four or five days. The Beekman is an amazing landmark building from 1883 (built the same year as the Brooklyn Bridge). The Beekman (not to be confused with the Beekman Towers which is located in midtown, is situated in the financial district, close to City Hall. It was one of the first skyscrapers built in Manhattan and has an open atrium that goes up the full 10 floors and a pyramid-shaped skylight at the top. An adjacent building was constructed in 1890. Originally, the building housed law offices and other professional activities and it was known as Temple Court. The building eventually became run-down and closed for several decades until a developer refurbished the grand spaces and turned it into a hotel around 2015.  It’s truly a grand old building with fantastic public spaces. The hotel rooms are small but fine and every time you leave your room you’re facing these incredible spaces.

We had “welcome” cocktail in the Temple Bar on the ground floor and then headed to Lavagna in what I guess is considered wither the East Village or Alphabet City. It’s one of my favorite restaurants in NY – small (seats only about 40 people), great Italian food, and the owner knows and remembers everyone. Indeed Mike was quite impressed when he remembered that I was living in California and told me that just the other day someone sat at the same table we had and that person was from Santa Rosa! He’s a real kick – came from Greece and went to UCLA (and studied “everything” as he describes it—changing his major many many times, eventually graduating with a degree in European history. But he wound up in NY and 22 years ago he opened the restaurant. We discussed the impact of Covid on the restaurant and he said business had recovered but now is down 70%. But, he exclaimed that he is a survivor and the restaurant will be here when I’m next in NY!  After a great meal including octopus carpaccio, fedelini pasta in a light spicy tomato sauce, pork with seared chard, and a panna cotta, we taxied back to the Beekman, our home for the next four or five days. 

For those of you who asked… we feel safe and are being extremely careful. That said, we plan to cancel our tickets to various Broadway shows (Thoughts of a Colored Man, Lehman Trilogy, and Skeleton Crew)—not because we are afraid to go to a theater, but because we made the decision to leave NY early due to the overarching concern that Covid in NY is getting worse. So we have now booked flights to return home early – we have two reservations: one to return on December 28 and one to return on January 1, We’ll assess everything on the 25^th and make a final decision. We will not go north to see my brother (Covid cases are rising there and everything is shutting down.) We will drive to visit our godchildren in Westchester on Christmas Day. Most of what we have planned for the coming days is outdoors, except for dining and we will go to a few museums, but it’s easy to socially distance there and crowds are small and ALL vaccinated. We will avoid the subway. 

We’ll let you know what we decide once we know.

All the best.

Fern