MBIP is back and I had a nice two weeks off! I got some things done that I’ve been putting off and I managed to squeeze in a quick trip to New York City!
Most of you know that I lived in New York for 19 years, from 1993 to 2012. I made a point of going back to visit and see old friends about once a year until that foul year of 2020 kicked us all in the ass. Outside of some road trips with MBIP Pal and Wheelman, Scott Turley, I’ve pretty much stuck around Peoria for the last two and a half years.
Well, I figured it was about time to get out of Peoria, so with the help of my friend, Sheila Maher and Direct Travel, that’s just what I did. It was a quick trip, just four days, but I managed to squeeze a lot in.
I didn’t want to spend four days taking pictures like a maniac like I usually do for this blog—hey, I was on vacation—but below are some photos from my four day trip to New York City!
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Molly’s Shebeen Pub
I met my friend Edmund my first night in town and we started off at a classic New York bar, Molly’s Shebeen Pub and had one of their delicious cheeseburgers.
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Rolf’s German Restaurant
Next stop was Rolf’s German Restaurant, one of New York’s most unique restaurant’s where it’s Christmas all year round!
As you can see from these pictures, they take this holiday seriously, 365 days a year!
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Paddy Maguire’s Ale House
Our third and final stop of the evening was Paddy Maguire’s Ale House, yet another classic NYC Irish bar!
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Random Wandering Photos
Here’s some random photos I took while wandering around the city.
Of course I had to get a hot dog from Gray’s Papaya on the Upper West Side. This was my neighborhood my first four years in New York and I worked the night shift. This place is open 24 hours so it was always fun to see the crowd here at three or four in the morning!
There’s John’s Pizzeria on Bleecker Street, one of the best pizza parlors in Manhattan in my humble opinion.
Joe’s Pizza is nearby and is often cited as one of the best pizza spots in New York, but I’ve never understood that. The pizza is good, but just average in my once again humble opinion.
There’s the Old Town Bar, which is located close by my apartment when I lived on 16th Street. I went there with my friend Dorothy and we had a fun experience with one of the bartenders in there, which you can read about in the next section!
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Three Bartenders And A Sean
Ece was our bartender at Paddy Maguires and that’s Sean who was seated next to us at the bar.
In the bottom photo is Colleen and Pam from Old Town Bar and the crazy thing is that I brought up the fact that I took pictures in here for my 365 bars blog and Colleen remembered that I had took her photo of she and her boyfriend, Patrick back then!
Below is the photo I took almost thirteen years ago to this date!
Check out this link and scroll down to see the photo I took of Connie and her boyfriend Patrick over thirteen years ago! It was great to see her again and what a fun reunion to have in New York City!
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Closed And/Or Changed Places
One tough thing for me about going back to New York City is seeing so many of my favorite places closed.
Here’s a listing of places that are now gone and/or changed.
Spain Restaurant. This was a great Spanish restaurant off of 13th Street. It was an old school Spanish restaurant and it saddens me to see that it’s now closed.
Sammy’s Noodle Shop. This was an Asian restaurant on 6th Avenue that I used to go to all the time. They had a spicy dish on the menu that you had to argue to the waitresses to serve you. How sad that it’s for sale!
This place used to be an all night deli and it’s the place that I wrote about in this post about my September 11th memories.
This used to be a super cool and cheap bookstore near Bleecker Street.
Bleecker Street Records used to be housed here and now it’s a Verizon store. Ugh!
The Stoned Crow used to be in this space. Now it’s “Pubkey Bar” and I didn’t even want to go in to see what they’ve done to the place.
Desco Vacuum was a business on 14th Street that always cracked me up. It was open the whole time I lived in New York and I always called it, “Disco Vacuum.” Now it’s for sale. Fuck.
The Donut Pub was one of my favorite places on 14th Street and it’s boarded up now. It’s rough going back to New York City and seeing some of this stuff.
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Friends
It was a quick trip, so I didn’t get to see all of my friends in New York, but here’s some photos of the ones I was able to see and catch up with!.
Edmund.
John and Sam.
Sam with his BBQ Socks that Amber and Joe got for him.
Dorothy.
John
Wonderful to see all of you and thanks for taking the time to meet up with me and hang out!
Okay, that’s all the pictures I took. The vacation’s almost over…except we have more photos of a grilled cheese sandwich in New York tomorrow, so stay tuned for that!
See you all tomorrow!
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Related Posts: MBIP: Vacation! And How I Spent My Summer 2018 Summer Vacation.