Day Three. 12/22/21. Brooklyn

December 22, 2021

We celebrated Mike’s birthday last night at Sofreh – a wonderful Persian restaurant (only about two years old, I think). It’s small, fairly casual, with amazing food… and has deservedly, received many early awards. We started with flatbread with feta herbs and walnuts as well as a dish of acorn squash with whipped feta, frisee, pumpkin seeds and pomegranate that was spectacular. Actually we preceded all of this with wonderful drinks and a complementary plate of nuts, pomegranates, and sweet crackers to honor the Persian holiday that is similar to our solstice although they refer to it as “the longest night” as opposed to our sense of the shortest day. Anyway we followed with basmati rice with dill, leek, cilantro and some other herbs along with braised lamb shank, butter beans, dill and lime. For dessert we chose a yummy cinnamon rice pudding. 

Today, we headed to Cobble Hill for breakfast on Smith Street and then walked the neighborhood to see some amazing narrow streets with fascinating housing developed in the late 1800s. One group of row houses were built as worker housing and is now selling for about 2 million dollars! We strolled Court Street and Smith, as well as Baltic and Warren streets and then headed to Industrial  City located in an area that used to house real manufacturing and was adjacent to piers where ships would come to transport the goods; now it is a collection of offices, artist and craftsman boutiques, and outlet stores for well-known design furniture and other goods.

Then we headed to the Brooklyn Museum. We saw the Andy Warhol show which was quite interesting as it explored Warhol’s connection to religion as well as sexuality. We strolled the museum separately and met up at the end. I also spent some time at the room dedicated to Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, which I’ve seen before but was impressed yet again.

From there, we headed to the Botanical Gardens to see “Lightscape” – a winter nighttime transformation of the gardens through light and sound. They’ve set it up as a one-way, one mile walk so that you enter on Washington Street and exit on Eastern Parkway.. The installation meanders throughout the large area of the gardens with not just lights but symphonies of sound and illumination. In one field (probably the size of a football field) lights literally “move” and “float” and change colors as they cross the ground as if to emphasize the music playing in that area. Ever-changing, it was pretty mesmerizing. 

By the way it’s been sunny with highs in the 40s and at night pretty cold with temperatures in the low 30s. Following the light show we walked to our car and by then we were pretty cold and bundled up with hats, gloves, and down coats. Inside the warm car, we headed to 5^th Avenue on the edge of Park Slope to eat at Miriam, a local place with great Mediterranean food. We had ossobuco, brussel sprouts, spanakopita, and a desert comprised of shredded baklava, pistachios and roasted labneh – all topped with homemade pistachio ice cream. Now we are back at the hotel—feeling exhausted from walking 7 miles in the cold and stuffed with all this great food. We move across the river tomorrow to spend four nights in lower Manhattan. 

Stay safe –

Fern