WHEN I’M NOT WRITING COPY, I LIKE TO WRITE ABOUT THE PLACES I STUMBLE UPON IN NY…
Another Place In Time- St. Patricks Cathedral
There is always pleasure to be experienced when you’re immersed in a certain environment or sensibility and you are struck with something completely antipodal. When you’re walking down 5th Ave in New York City and are imposed upon by St Patrick’s Cathedral you can experience this pleasure like a breath of fresh air. Aesthetically it is unlike anything you will see in New York or even the United States. Across from Rockefeller Center and adjacent to chain named clothing stores this Neo-Gothic structure is quite literally from another place and time. It was completed in 1878, well after New Amsterdam became New York, yet it’s architecture retains an ancient quality that makes it feel much older. When compared to its immediate surroundings, it’s a time machine in the middle of modernity. A must see for any New Yorker, whether you’re born and bred or just passing through.
It is not Italy, it is not Spain. There are no artifacts from famous painters or sculptors. It’s New York, and St Patrick’s first impresses you not with its antiquity, but with its ability to transport. In a city where you can barely hear yourself think, this a place where you can hear a pin drop, a throat clear, or a camera click. The architecture inside is equally as amazing and detailed as the outside. It smells comforting; like rich wood, stale dust, and lengthy wickers burning catholic spices.
Your eyes follow the elegant pillars to the arches where you’ll inevitably marvel at the windows. Who can spot the royal blues, deadly reds, and rich yellows in the stained glass and say they know the story that each one tells? Although they’re rarely understood against the skin colored marble that holds them in place, their beauty, especially on a bright day, is undeniable. No matter what your creed, or even if you have no creed at all, it is pleasing to the eye and somehow to the heart. A place like this is special because when you consider all the exquisite, painstaking manpower that goes into building such a structure you can at least appreciate that no one built it for themselves.
Many people say that walking out of St. Patrick’s and back out onto the streets of Midtown Manhattan is a surreal experience. To go from such a place of effortless tranquility into what sometimes feels like the birthplace of chaos is alarming. St Patrick’s really is a different place altogether. So, if you need to feel revitalized, spiritually or otherwise, St Patrick’s will always be there as an urban oasis made of stone and glass rather than trees – a jagged masterpiece among the cold smooth stones that so famously scrape the Manhattan sky. So, if you want to hear your footsteps echo in the middle of the loudest city in the world, St Patrick’s is the place you have to visit first.
A Brave New World- One World Trade
When you’re approaching the new World Trade Center you may feel, at first, like you’re just on a giant construction site. Look above and you see cranes and scaffolding. Makeshift signs sloppily point you towards the 9/11 memorial in a choppy maze formation. When you look again towards the sky, it’s hard to imagine where the Twin Towers blocked out the blue before that fateful September morning in 2001. It’s hard to imagine this as a place of pure chaos. It doesn’t seem like the same place that you saw engulfed in smoke and panic on the news. That must have been another city, another New York somewhere far away. It’s hard really, to remember. After all it’s been 14 years since the 9/11 attacks. How many suns have risen and set over an incomplete Manhattan sky? How many planes have own over without so much as a prolonged glance from the masses scurrying below? Yet, something that has always been said of 9/11 is “Never Forget.” And this will be hard to do once you visit the new World Trade Center and the 9/11 memorial.
Once you navigate your way to the actual World Trade Center the first thing you notice will be One World Trade Center – The Freedom Tower. It’s a stunning building with clean edges and modern architecture that makes it truly look like a building of the future. It stands at 1776 feet tall and is the tallest of the WTC complex. The other buildings that are being constructed around it are also impressive. Together one can imagine all the completed buildings looking as if they were conceived for some kind of science fiction scene of a utopian future. Someplace where religion doesn’t exist and the planes always land on time.
As you walk around the grounds it doesn’t seem like a graveyard. It’s beautiful. It’s bustling. Thee floor is clean and the cops are handsome. The waterfalls that line the perimeters of the old twin towers are sobering, and the pure water being sucked from the four walls and into a dark hole in the middle seems ominous and heavy. Still there’s a peace around this place that is undeniable. Everyone is a little quieter when struck with such an opportunity to reflect. The WTC is so important to see because it represents not only the strength of the American spirit, but of the human spirit. It’s not just an architectural beauty, it’s not even just a glass phoenix that epitomizes rising from both literal and figurative ashes. It’s a testament to how tall you can rise even after you’ve been knocked with hate to rubble and dust.
“Never Forget.” That phrase looms like a gloomy pendulum over the American dream. Never forget the horror that came so suddenly, never forget the lives that were lost. Yet this new WTC is more than the tragedy it was born from. It is 104-stories of rooms that are ready to be occupied by the best minds of our future, to thrive in business, and to accomplish projects that now only seem like dreams. The World Trade Center is a must-see, not only because of the beauty to be marveled, or the loss to be remembered, it’s a must-see because to be there is to be part of the future. It’s the new center of the world.
Joe from New York- Joe’s Pizza
What does it mean to be a true New Yorker? Depending on who you ask, the qualifications may be more and more stringent, but one infallible litmus test to determine ones “New York-ness” is their palette for pizza.
There are lots of different kinds of pizza available in New York. You can find authentic Neapolitan pizza with pools of watery mozzarella that you eat with your fork and knife. You can find novelty pizzas with truffle oil and infused basil or some other kind of expensive gourmet twist. There is also, of course, the bargain pizza, which seems to be complimented best by a glassy eye and a heavy buzz. But if the Neapolitan Pizza is the immigrant, the gourmet pizza the socialite, and the dollar slice the bridge and tunnel wanna-be, then a slice from Joe’s pizza is the Native New Yorker.
Like many New Yorkers, their roots are Italian. Pino “Joe” Pozzouli emigrated from Naples in the mid 1950’s and opened Joe’s Pizza in Greenwich Village in 1975. But Joe’s Pizza is definitely more New York that Napoli, and one major reason is because it’s a slice joint. There are no utensils at Joe’s Pizza. There isn’t even anywhere to sit. The store is tiny, mostly taken over by weathered stainless steel. Dark green Formica and dusty neon lights give the place an air of charming semi-antiquity. It’s a setting that feels simultaneously nostalgic and timeless. One could imagine it fitting perfectly in an episode of The Sopranos 20 years ago as well as an episode of Masters of None today. In classic New York style, they rush you in and out of the place as if there’s a fire. You should pay attention to when it’s your turn, and avoid looks of dumb confusion, as these will be met with a loud scolding from behind the counter with aggressive hand gestures to match.
Now let’s talk about the pizza. The process is simple – you step up, you grab the slice that they give you, you fold it in half, and you go to town. It’s an understatement to say that the pizza is really good. The crust is the perfect density with just the right amount of chewiness and crunch. The sauce to cheese ratio is damn near perfect. It’s not to greasy, it’s not too dry. At the end of your slice you fold up your oily paper plate in satisfied silence. These guys know how to make a pizza. Joe’s Pizza has all the trappings that are needed to make a great pizza establishment. It’s got the authenticity, the legacy, the longevity and it’s sure as hell got the product. One can imagine polishing off 3 or maybe even 4 of these pristine slices and thinking, with a greasy mouth and uncomfortably full stomach… “Worth it”.