We always plan a few things (sometimes more) for our summer week in the city, but many times it’s the unplanned adventures or little finds along the way that make it special. This year fell to form with a mix of both making for a great trip.
It started with our initial stop: Cafe Reggio, home of the nation’s first Espresso machine and our headquarters in the Village each year. We had great food and coffee, as always, but the special sauce this time was owner Fabrizio Cavallacci regaling the few of us in the cafe that time of afternoon with stories of how he came to be owner and proprietor of the cafe.
His parents, his father Italian and his mother German, lived in Brooklyn, but traveled to Italy for his birth. By the time he was a year old, they realized they needed to live closer to his father’s work (a stone-cutter) and so they moved to the Village and his mother discovered a small cafe. Original owner Domenico Parisi, who had opened it in 1927 buying the first espresso machine in America (it’s still there). The year was 1955 and Domenico, no longer young, told Fabrizio’s mother he would sell it for $10,000.
His mother asked to run the shop for a few days and realized that the menu, featuring only cookies and coffee drinks (they sold the first cappuccino in America), produced about $100 per day. She bought it and the family moved into the apartment above the shop and she began expanding the menu. She died in 1970 and Fabrizio took over operations at age 15 and has operated it since, now owning the building.
The space is rich with art and furniture dating back hundreds of years and it has been featured in scenes from Shaft to The Godfather. David Bowie had a reserved spot. We’d spoken to Fabrizio before, but what prompted this awesome story-telling is beyond me, but it was a great, unplanned New York City moment.
We also had not planned on a museum visit, which is unusual for us, but at the last minute, we decided to walk from the Village to the Guggenheim (a 4.7 mile walk) and back again, doing a few things along the way. The Guggenheim, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright design is its own attraction, looking nothing like anything else found in New York City, with art displayed along a massive circular ramp to the top.
The temporary exhibition featured Jenny Holzer’s word installation called “Light Line.” Word projected across the entire spiral with smaller pieces (some still massive) along the way. The cumulative impact delivered a series of emotional gut-punches. The permanent collection has grown from the original pieces owned by Guggenheim, to include over 8,000 works ranging from early Picassos to Van Gogh and Degas.
We had tickets for the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along featuring Daniel Radcliffe. Nominated for seven Tony Awards, it won for Best Revival of a Musical, Best Orchestrations for Jonathan Groff, and Featured Actor in a Musical for Daniel Radcliffe. Honestly, we thought the first half was ok and the second half superb from the opening song.
The next day we explored lower Manhattan and Trinity Church (she’d never been inside), visited the Museum of the American Indian, and dined at The Dead Rabbit (thanks for the recommendation, Laura!) and all were great, but the gems we found along the way.
The Rally Museum caught our attention billed as a coffee shop, but with a dinosaur head (a real one) in the window. Inside were extremely expensive cars, baseball cards, art, and other collectibles. Similar to buying shares of a company, investors buy shares in items they feel will appreciate. As it does, the value of their stock rises. It was described as a place where people who know a lot about a particular thing, but can’t afford the whole thing, can own a part. Makes sense, right?
We also noticed a rather old looking building before we reached Trinity Church and investigated. It turned out to be St. Paul’s Chapel, built as a suburban outpost of Trinity in 1766. Since the original Trinity burned in 1776, St. Paul’s is older than the more famous structure a few blocks to the south. Bucket brigades saved St. Pauls. It was here that George Washington worshipped and came to pray after his inauguration. More recently, the twin towers were destroyed immediately behind the chapel and for months it served as ground central for first responders and then workers searching the site.
We spent a day in Chelsea, which turned out to be a mostly planned day with brunch at Jack’s Wife Frieda, a morning at the Chelsea Market (where I ran into the ladies from New2Knox!), a heavy snack at the Chelsea Hotel, and a visit to the Jazz Record Center (thanks again, Laura!). The Record Center is located on the eighth floor of a building on 26th Street in Chelsea and you have to know it is there. Nothing marks the spot where you asked to be buzzed up to the center which features all manner of records, posters, t-shirts, and more. I had two albums and a t-shirt shipped home from this great place.
We ended our day in Chelsea at Madison Square Garden where we enjoyed Billy Joel’s penultimate show of his residency there. He started the once-a-month shows in 2014 and the last will be next month. His voice and playing have not failed the 75-year-old singer and the sold-out show (they all sell out) proved to be a two-and-a-half hour crowd pleaser. He brought his daughters (the young ones) up on stage and was joined by Trey Anastasio (best known for his work with Phish) for several songs.
With tips of the hat to Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones, the star of the show remained the amazing catalog Joel has assembled. He did virtually all the hits and some that weren’t as big, as well as recent material. The highlight for me was “New York State of Mind,” which at the hands on life-long New Yorker, in Madison Square Garden was about as New York as it gets. For Urban Daughter the highlight was “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” which spoke more to her generation. We walked back to the Village where she crashed and I ended the night at the fabulous midnight jam (which starts at 1 AM, so New York) at Smalls Jazz Club.
We had a beautiful lazy Sunday reading over brunch and then spending most of the day in Washington Square. We ended the night at the Cafe Wha?, the venerable institution that has hosted the likes of “Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, the Velvet Underground, Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys, Kool & the Gang, Peter, Paul and Mary, Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Joan Rivers, Bill Cosby, and Richard Pryor.” It was a perfect spot to see Crystal Ship, a Doors cover band which originated in the seventies with current lead singer Eddie Racci looking and completely sounding like Jim Morrison. It was a blast and listening to the video later, there was no way to not simply hear The Doors.
Our last night in the city, we had a wonderful early dinner at Monte’s before enjoying a great show by seventeen time Grammy nominee, pianist Fred Hersch. The Village Vanguard opened in 1935 by Max Gordon and, incredibly he operated it until his death in 1989. It was taken over by his widow, Lorraine, who opened it back up after being closed for one day. She operated it until her death in 2018 at age 95. Their daughter now manages the institution which has seen every legendary jazz musician, as well as many other great artists. It was a perfect way to end our New York City residency.
I have one more installation in the series. We always have a theme to our summer trip and this year it was independent bookstores. So, I’ll end with that in the next couple or three days.