Eating & Drinking Our Way through NYC (Day Three)

We did not have a lot of plans for our third days especially during the daytime. While I was hungry and waiting for my friend to wake up, I was browsing UberEats and saw Katz Delicatessen on the app. I ended up looking it up and saw that it was not too far away. Technically when I was looking at it through the app, I thought it was like a 12 minute walk away but it ended up being like a 19 minute walk…

Katz Delicatessen

205 E Houston St, New York, NY 10002

My friend agreed so off we went and while I was expecting a long line when we got there, the reality was there was no one in line though there were people at the counters (probably because it was a Monday morning?). Basically, when you walk in they give every person that enters a ticket (not sure about kids) and you have to give the ticket back when you leave. So even if you did not order anything you have to hold on to the ticket otherwise they will charge you $50 when you are leaving. I think this is because you pay when you are leaving and maybe people have tried to get out of paying and they’re normally busy so it might be hard to keep track of?

Anyways, when you get there, there are different sections for different things. We were there for just a sandwich so we went to one of the multiple sandwich counters. Normally you probably wait to be called over to an open counter but since it was not that busy that morning, we went straight to a counter. There you let the person know what you want and if you are dining in or taking to go. When we were walking over we saw some tables outside so we took ours to go and ate out there.

While you are waiting, the staff member also gives you a few pieces of the meat to try so you will know if you like it or not I guess. I think he gave us maybe three or four small slices of the pastrami we ordered. It was melt-in-your-mouth good. We ordered one pastrami sandwich with mustard to share (and it was plenty) and it comes with a variety of pickles as well. When the food is ready, you give the staff member your ticket and he staples your order to it. If you are paying in cash, you pay by the exit. If you are paying with card (which we did), you go further back to the café area and pay there. When exiting, there is someone who will collect everyone’s tickets.

After Katz, we made our way to the metro station to go to the Vessel.

The Vessel

20 Hudson Yards, New York, NY 10001

So the Vessel itself is not actually open anymore. It used to be you could actually climb the Vessel but due to multiple suicides it is now closed though you can of course go and see it. They even tried to make it a rule that you could not go on the Vessel by yourself but had to be there in a group of at least two people to dissuade those wanting to commit suicide by jumping off it but then a teenager still did so when visiting with his family and since then it’s been closed. However it is still a very interesting structure to see and is also a starting point for the High Line.

Since it was closed, we mostly just took some picture and then headed over to the High Line.

The High Line

The High Line is an elevated public park that was created on a former New York Central Railroad. When we went you could enter without a reservation. But I know in previous months you needed a timed reservation for weekends after 12:00 PM so if you plan to go it does not hurt to check if anything has changed.

It’s a really nice walk through the buildings of Manhattan with a lot of greenery. There were even still some flowers in bloom. It starts from the area of the Vessel and goes down just past Little Island to the Whitney Museum. Since we were also planning to visit Little Island, we left the High Line around there. However, there are staircases all along the path for you to exit and by the High Line exit, there is an elevator.

As I mentioned, we left the High Line to visit Little Island.

Little Island

Pier 55, Manhattan, New York

Little Island is another public park at Pier 55 on the Hudson River. It is right above the water on a very interesting looking platform and even has a small amphitheater. Similar to the High Line, no timed reservations were required when we visited but I have looked on previous occasions and they had also required it during weekends after 12:00 PM. It may be a seasonal thing where it is required in the summer and spring but not the fall and winter.

It is not an overly large park but it is very interesting and has great views along the Hudson River. There are also bathrooms on the island and they are very well maintained. There are two bridges/walkways on and off the island so you could enter on one and exit the other.

After leaving Little Island, we were originally going to go to the Whitney Museum of American Art. However, after three hours in the MoMA the previous day and seeing how tall the Whitney was, we decided we did not need that much more art. Instead we just walked along the Hudson River, passing by all the various piers and little parks. There is actually a very nice walking path and separate biking path along the Hudson.

We walked all the way down to World Trade Center where we saw the memorial pools and the Oculus (a shopping mail/subway station). There was also a 9/11 memorial museum but we missed out on the free Monday tickets.

Instead we continued walking and went over to the Brooklyn Bridge which you can actually walk on. We already walked probably 10 miles that day so we only walked to about where the water starts and then headed back to the hotel to rest our feet.

We originally thought the place we reserved for happy hour that day was really close to the hotel but we later discovered it was closer to a 30 minute walk. We were both pretty tired from all the walking that day but made quick work of the walk to the restaurant Pineapple Club while cursing our poor planning.

The Pineapple Club

509 E 6th St, New York, NY 10009

The reason we chose the Pineapple Club was because of the cute interior and the happy hour prices. The place was surprisingly large inside with two floors. It was also pretty empty since it was 5 PM on a Monday. In hindsight, we really did not need to make a reservation.

Since we still had an actual dinner reservation later, we only ordered two rounds of drinks and a dozen oysters and fries. On Mondays, some of the rum-based drinks are only $10 and the dozen oysters were $16 and the fries were $5. My friend ordered a pineapple old fashioned and a frozen pina colada while I ordered the Bartender’s choice for both rounds. I loved both of my drinks, they were super refreshing but I have no idea what I drank because our waitress never actually said. Also, they were different. At least now I know I can place my trust in the bartender there!

We had some time after happy hour so we walked around a bit before we headed over to our dinner reservation in Little Italy at Gelso & Grand.

Gelso & Grand

The restaurant was very busy both inside and outside. We chose to sit inside and the one thing we did not really love was how close the tables were to each other. Those seated on the inner side had difficulty getting in and out. The food though was delicious and fairly typical Italian fare.

We ordered the truffle arancini as our appetizer since it consisted of like three types of mushrooms and I LOVE mushrooms. It really did have good mushroom flavor. We also got the bone marrow bruschetta which was different than the pictures on Yelp. On Yelp they showed crostini with the bone marrow on it already but ours was separate and you put it together yourself which is probably better. For my entrée, I ordered the vongole and my friend had the pistachio pesto. For dessert we had the Basque cheesecake. Sadly on the menu the cheesecake was described with a lemon-blueberry sauce but ours came with a cherry sauce. I much prefer lemon-blueberry to cherry.

We did not bother with drinks since we just came from happy hour and were still planning to go to the Garret Coctelería for drinks.

The Garret Coctelería

349 Broome St, New York, NY 10013

I saw this place on a list of things to do for Halloween. I think it is a pop-up for the Day of the Dead. The bar itself was nicely decorated and they had indoor seating and two outdoor seating areas. We ended up only getting one round and an order of guacamole and chips since we had already drank and ate quite a bit before this. The cocktail menu was pretty fruit and vegetable heavy. I ordered the abrete sesamo (mezcal, tomatillo, poblano, cucumber, lime, coconut, chamoy smoked salt sesame) and my friend ordered the juanny appleseed (bouquet of herb infused pisco, chai, lime, apple juice, salted honey, peruvian spice blend). The drinks were pretty good for such weird combinations.

Suffice to say after all the walking, eating and drinking, we were pretty tired and turned in not long after getting back to the hotel. I think my Apple Watch showed we walked about 13 miles but I swear it felt like more…

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