31 May 2023: Brooklyn

This was always going to be a big day. Our Brooklyn day. We set out into the subway, headed for Soho, Little Italy and Chinatown. And then we walked. And walked. We had heard about Eileen’s Cheesecake shop, it’s meant to be one of the original and best for cheesecakes (obviously). So we headed in there to buy a couple to have for morning tea.

Little Italy and Chinatown weren’t too far from there and so we headed in that direction. Interesting areas, but probably better to head down there at night for dinner. Little Italy looks like it would come alive. I had read that Little Italy is really now in Brooklyn and that this original one is a bit touristy. We did stop at one of the restaurants for an espresso though (and because this is the best way to use the restrooms LOL).

Chinatown was a bit smelly to be honest, and the one place in NYC where almost everyone was in a mask – so I was happy to not spend long there. It was full of gaudy gold shops and loaded with souvenir traps. There is so much MAGA stuff out there – I did think the bobbly headed Trumps seemed appropriate though. Wobbly, engorged and empty.

Onto the subway again headed for Broad Street, which is back in the financial district and close to the place we’d catch the ferry across to Brooklyn. We popped out of the station at the Stock Exchange, so I jumped in for a photo with the Fearless Girl statue. She had been moved down here rather than in front of the bull (the bull’s artist wanted it moved because he thought it “exploited his work for commercial purposes and altered the perception of the bull”. Pfft. Thanks Google).

We walked down past Domenico’s which claims to be the place that eggs benedict originated amongst other delicacies and on to a little park to eat our cheesecakes. It was the Queen Elizabeth II September 11th garden. It was created to symbolise the friendship and common causes between the US and the Commonwealth people. After 9/11, it was expanded to include dedications for Commonwealth victims. It was a lovely piece of greenery amongst all the concrete. Having said that, NYC excels at little green spaces scattered everywhere.

We sat and ate our cheesecakes, accompanied by a few sparrows who are obviously used to picking up crumbs that humans leave behind. Bold little things. The cheesecake was nice, but not mind-blowing, which is what I had hoped for. It was a nice break to say the least. Tally ho! On to the ferry stop.

The ferry across to Brooklyn at Pier 11 was only $4.00 and was a nice and easy trip. We got a little confused about where to purchase tickets but there was a guy there directing people (it wasn’t crowded at all) who pointed us in the right direction, and said he thought my sunglasses were cool (so I liked him). We didn’t have to wait long for the ferry to arrive and jumped on and sat on the open air section at the back of the boat. The trip across was quick and I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to look at where we had come from or where we were going to. Both Views were pretty good. The ferry pulled up right next to the Brooklyn Bridge.

There was a pretty park to wander through to get to the other side of the bridge which is where that postcard picture stuff view is all about. It wasn’t particularly busy but it looked as though it was pretty much tourists only. We took SO many photos. Looking at the Brooklyn Bridge with Manhattan behind it, and looking the other way at the Manhattan Bridge. I don’t think a trip to NYC would be complete without heading over to this area. The carousel that I’ve seen in lots of movies is also here – it just happened to be playing ‘Waltzing Matilda’ at the time. Go figure!

We walked towards the Manhattan Bridge into the ‘Pebble Beach’ area, it’s really called “DUMBO” for ‘down under the Manhattan overpass’. This is THE spot for the perfect photo. THE spot. Except for the day we were there. There was a barge, with cranes and rocks and a whole heap of messiness sitting in the middle of the shot. Oh well. It was definitely a pebble beach, although I’m not sure I’d really want to swim in the Hudson. We sat there for a bit to take in the view and were astounded at the loudness of the trains crossing over the Manhattan Bridge. They were so very loud!

We walked up to a spot that has become Instagram famous. Washington & Water Street. Take a look at the photos and you’ll recognise it. Solid old brick building with a perfect shot of the Manhattan Bridge in between. We joined the throngs and took our own insta pic. It was late lunch time and it was starting to get pretty busy. Early morning would be your best bet if you wanted that perfect shot with no one else around.

A little further down the road we stumbled onto John Fluevog’s shoe shop. I couldn’t help but go in and have a wander around. If you’re into hand made, cool and funk, very original shoes, Fluevogs is the place to go. They told me that they have a store in Melbourne now – but he started up in the 70s in NYC, so this was the real deal. I left without buying any shoes.

We went to the ‘Time Out Markets’ to grab a late-ish lunch but the rooftop area was full. I took a photo and we headed back to street level. We walked past a seafood place with a happy hour sign. It called to us as the happy hour had just begun. Seamore’s sustainable seafood. We had some baja fish soft tacos and helped ourselves to two drinks each from the happy hour menu. I may have already said it previously, but it bears repeating: New York knows how to do cocktails!

We stumbled out of there into the chocolate shop next door – Jaques Torres. This was another Vlogger recommendation. We had trouble deciding which chocolates we’d like to try. We made the hard decisions and headed out with a very prettily wrapped box of 12. Then we wandered, and wandered and wandered some more. We went back past the ferry stop and walked along the boardwalk. The view is just so iconic that it’s pinch yourself kind of stuff to think you’re actually there, looking at it. The Statue of Liberty was off in the distance, people were playing soccer in the park, the sun was beating (really beating) down on us and sheesh, there we were – we were in NYC. (Yes, I was a little gobsmacked, still). Further down was an area that you could hire kayaks and a little past that, one of the docks had been turned into basketball courts. There were lots of courts and lots of people playing.

We headed up (well, under really) the Brooklyn Queens expressway and into the streets of Brooklyn itself. We saw lots of the really beautiful and obviously very expensive brownstones. Most of them were five storeys, if you included the sub street basement like apartments. They all had the little steps leading up to them, again, it looked straight out of a movie set. The back of many of these places looked out over the boulevard and so they had that amazing view. I cannot imagine how much the real estate value would be.

A bit more of a wander along the promenade saw us land at Harriet’s Rooftop Bar where we planned to spend some time sipping and watching the sun set. They gave us a table in the corner, which looked out at the city and the Brooklyn Bridge. What a place to have a cocktail! I promptly sent photos to my friends! We had edamame and lychee cocktails and a ladies room with the best view ever. The sun set behind the skyscrapers and we watched all the pinks and oranges appear.

A few drinks generally means ‘I’m hungry’ and we were both also pretty exhausted from all the walking. We left Harriet’s and headed over to Juliana’s pizza place. Another recommendation – I’d say it was a good one. We passed a police officer on the way, leaning up against his car eating an icecream – he nicely obliged for a photo, hiding his icecream behind him.

Juliana’s was busy busy. We joined the line to get in, and because there was only two of us, the wait wasn’t long. Everyone else seemed to be in groups of 4 and 6 people. This was a no-fuss restaurant. Very plain, very simple, very busy and very noisy. No romantic dinners here as you couldn’t really hear each other. We ordered a classic margherita pizza and it wasn’t long before it was delivered. It was great. We’ve been spoiled by our good wood-fired oven pizzas over here, this was an equivalent. Nice and crispy on the base and a good, solid tomato sauce. A most enjoyable meal after some full on walking.

We went back to the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge to take a good, long look at the city all lit up. It really is spectacular. It is “all that”. But we were exhausted and a bit cold, so we rang an Uber and headed back to our NYC home.


Have a look at the many, many iconic photos of both buildings and cocktails here.