The circumnavigation of Manhattan.
September 29th, 2007 | by Scott Jennings |Here’s the driving report for Saturday, September 29th, 2007:
Today was finally the day for heading down to Red Hook, Brooklyn, for the locally-famous Central/South American food stands that occupy the Red Hook ball fields. It’s the top-rated restaurant on Yelp, edging out the Michelin three star Jean-Georges, so my expectations were pretty high.
I got my act together around 11 this morning, and joined by roommates Nick Faber and Dave Siegel, headed to the 1 train up to my car. (Dave asked if he could be picked up from the apartment once I retrieved the car, but I shut that down with, “what am I, fuckin’ Carmel?”) I called ahead to the garage to let them know I’d be by in about fifteen minutes for my car, and that gave me a raging hard-on.
The three of us hopped into the I Drive A Dodge Stratus (which was waiting for us at the entrance to the garage) and set course for 190th and Ft. Washington to pick up our Jason representation for the day in the form of Dave’s friend Jason. From there, back down to 181st to Amsterdam to the Harlem River Drive to the FDR Drive to the Brooklyn Bridge to the BQE to Hamilton Ave to Clinton St. Driving time: about 25 minutes. Plenty of street parking.
The Red Hook ball fields did not disappoint. Awesome pupusas, the best ceviche I’ve ever had, and a tall glass of horchata for my boy Austin. Dave and Jason had some roasted corn with crema de queso that looked incredible, but that’ll have to wait for next time. From there, Dave led a walking tour of Red Hook that took us down the two gentrified blocks of the neighborhood to a pier with a great view of the harbor and the Statue of Liberty and Governor’s Island and Lower Manhattan. Then we detoured to DeFonte’s, a sandwich shop that Dave can’t shutup about, and picked up a roast beef and eggplant hero for later. Back to the car, and goodbye to Red Hook.
Nick and Dave needed to go to the UCB studios on 30th between 6th and 7th, so I took surface streets to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, where I got to use my E-ZPass for the first time, then up the West Side to 30th. Driving time: about 20 minutes. Once I dropped them off, Jason and I headed down 30th (where I yelled out my car window at Erik Tanouye, who conceded the round immediately) looped up 6th Ave back around 31st St to hit the West Side Highway again, but it turns out that’s an approach to the Lincoln Tunnel. Fail. We sat in a little traffic, hit the highway, got into another little snarl, then had smooth sailing back up the island. Dropped Jason off, doubled back to park the car in the garage. Driving time: another 40 minutes.
A very successful drive. Until next time, happy motoring!
