A View of the Empire State Building from DUMBO, and Cuisine Notes from the Memorial Day Weekend

Walking along Front Street and crossing the intersection at Washington Street, an area between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge on the Brooklyn side of the East River, the Empire State Building makes a cameo appearance under the Manhattan Bridge's supporting arches. Several people stopped to take pictures, because the way the building can be seen through the bridge is rather perfect.

Cuisine Notes from the Memorial Day Weekend

After peering in the Telectroscope at the Fulton Ferry Landing, the colonel* and I wandered around DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) in search of lunch. Finding the line too long for us at the famous Grimaldi's Pizza (restaurant website), we opted to stroll until we found something we liked. We found Front Street Pizza (Menu Pages website) quite to our liking, each ordering a slice and splitting a smaller pizza roll with spinach and mozzarella.

Because the weekend coincided with my birthday, I gave myself carte blanche to buy a bag of dark chocolate-covered cornflakes at Jacques Torres Chocolate (store website), 66 Water Street, and eat some of them before lunch. I'm grown up now and can do stuff like that.

On Saturday night, we had planned to eat at the Fake Orchid (440 E. 9th) in the East Village, but it was closed for the Memorial Day weekend. So we decided to try the Itzocan Café at 438 East 9th Street next door. We split a guacamole appetizer and a fish special. The fish was very good, sitting on top of a nest of tasty peas and asparagus. The restaurant is small, and the decor is nice, especially with the pictures of Frida on the wall. Don't think this is a typical Tex-Mex joint, though, even with the show of Frida love. It's more Mexican-French, and the prices are accordingly higher, but they're not insane. (For the completely different Tosc-Mex experience in the East Village, see the post on Matilda.)

Image: The Empire State Building, in cameo, as seen from DUMBO. May 25, 2008.
* The colonel is from Kentucky and was given that honorary title by an act of the commonwealth of his state.

Coming up: 500 miles of New York City shoreline, and what to do about it.