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Weekend in NY - Bronx Delis and Encores
May. 14th, 2018 02:52 pmI went up to New York for the weekend. The Save the Deli group on Facebook was having a "meat-up" to try the last two kosher delis in the Bronx (as well as other events on Long Island). I had originally considered staying for the Sunday lunch, but I’m so far behind on things at home that decided I should take an earlier train. I also saw that it was a weekend with an Encores production at City Center, so that made it easy to decide what to do on Saturday night. For convenience, I used Marriott points to stay at the Residence Inn at Broadway and 54th. Aside from my usual hotel rants (why oh why do they hide the light switches? And does anybody really need 9 pillows?), it was perfectly acceptable. The sound proofing was above average. And the location was ideal for my purposes.
NYPL: I didn’t have any particular plans for Saturday morning. It was raining, so I decided against a stroll around Central Park. Instead, I walked down to 42nd Street and visited my touchstones – the Chrysler Building (the most beautiful skyscraper on the planet) and the New York Public Library. I should note that there is a lot of scaffolding up around the Salmon Tower Building, making hard to see the bas reliefs from across 42nd Street.
I didn’t have a huge amount of time, so decided not to spend it in the microforms room (which has some items of genealogical interest). Instead, I went up to the third floor and looked at the McGraw Rotunda, the Rose Main Reading Room, and the Salomon Room (where I noted that nobody ever taught the Astors how to sit on a chair.) I also noted Lego reproductions of Patience and Fortitude (the library lions). And I did a brief browse through the library shop, but did not buy anything.
Loeser’s Deli: It was more complicated getting to Loeser’s than it would normally be, since the 1 Train wasn’t running north of 137th Street. I had to switch to the A Train at 59th Street, take it to the end at 207th Street, and then use a shuttle bus to 231st Street.. It was easy enough, but annoying.
Anyway, there were 8 of us at Loeser’s and the owner came out to greet us. I tasted a little bit of a kasha knish one of the other people ordered. It tasted fine, but the ratio of filling to crust was very skewed towards filling. I decided to order a combination sandwich – tongue, bologna, cole slaw, Russian dressing. I added a little mustard as well. It was okay, but not a lot of meat for the price. Given that their sign says "where a sandwich is a meal," I found that surprising. I ate only half the sandwich, because I wanted to save room for the next place. It took a long time to get them to wrap up the other half.
The skimpy sandwiches appeared to be the case for the sandwiches other people ordered. Customers cannot see pastrami coming through the rye here. I should also note that the cole slaw that came on the side was terrible. It was cut fine and had little flavor. What was on the sandwich worked okay, but I really like bigger shreds and a vinegary dressing. There were also two thin slices of pickles, which looked anemic but actually tasted pretty good.
Liebman’s: Three of us continued on to Liebman’s, which is about 0.6 miles away, according to google maps. What that doesn’t account for is elevation, and it was a steep walk. Still, we survived the hike. The atmosphere (like the neighborhood) was definitely more upscale, though the chairs and tables looked like every diner on Sunrise Highway on Long Island. (There’s something about an aqua vinyl booth…) There was a much more extensive menu. I opted for a chopped liver platter. This consisted of two absurdly large scoops of chopped liver, a scoop each of potato salad and cole slaw, a pile of cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onions, and a stack of rye bread. The presentation was quite fancy. I’m sure they could do a chopped liver swan for a bar mitzvah or wedding.
I ate about 2/3 of one of the scoops of liver and some of the potato salad and cole slaw. All of it was very good. The cole slaw was so much better than Loeser’s! I also had one slice of pickle, which was fine. They were much faster than Loeser’s at wrapping up the leftovers, too. Liebman’s was the definite winner of the Bronx deli outing. But, frankly, there is no real reason to schlep to the Bronx as long as the 2nd Avenue Deli still exists in Manhattan.
Getting back to midtown involved taking a bus to the A Train to Columbus Circle. I had plenty of time to stick my leftovers in the refrigerator, change my clothes, and check email and facebook before going to the theatre.
Encores – Me and My Girl: It was a short walk over to City Center to see the Encores production of Me and My Girl. This was not as old a musical as most Encores productions, since they were using the 1984 (London) / 1986 (Broadway) version, not the original 1937 one. Interestingly, there is a production being done right now by 42nd Street Moon in San Francisco.
Anyway, the plot is a pretty thin one. Bill Snibson is revealed to be the new Earl of Hareford, but has to unlearn his Cockney ways and play the part. That gets in the way of his romance with Sally Smith – especially as the rapacious Lady Jaqueline Carstone is determined to marry the Hareford fortune. All of this is an excuse for lively music hall style songs (written by Noel Gay) and old (but funny) lines. For example, Maria (the duchess and Bill’s aunt) says, "when I’m down in the dumps, I buy a new hat" and Bill says, "oh, that’s where you get them." Not exactly surprising or original, but stuff like that still gets a good laugh.
As for the songs, I was fairly sure I would get earwormed by "The Lambeth Walk," which closes Act 1. Actually, the title song is just as sticky. And then there is "Leaning on a Lamp-Post," and the Gilbert and Sullivan inspired "The Family Solicitor."
Christian Borle played Bill, which is the sort of over-the-top role he seems to be getting known for. (He won a Tony as Shakespeare in Something Rotten and an earlier one as Black Stache in Peter and the Starcatcher.} He’s clearly very talented and it would be interesting to see him in a role with more emotional depth. Lisa O’Hare, who played Lady Jaqueline, was also typecast, as that role was similar to her performance as Sibella in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Other notable performances included Laura Michelle Kelly as Sally, Mark Evans as the Honorable Gerald Bolingbroke (Lady Jaqueline’s love interest), and Don Stephenson as Mr. Parchester, the family solicitor. Simon Jones also had a smallish role and I was astonished at how old he has gotten. (I checked and he is 67, which is not really all that much older than I am.) While Encores productions are nominally concert versions, I did not notice any of the performers carrying scripts and, while the sets are somewhat scaled down, they are not completely minimalistic. This can stand up to any fully staged musical, particularly given the quality of the singing and dancing.
All in all, this was a lot of fun. Back at the hotel, I ate some of my leftover chopped liver for a late supper and collapsed.
Getting Home: The train home was fine and included eating the rest of my leftovers for lunch. didn’t run into any significant metro delays, either. I ran out to the supermarket to get the Sunday Post and a few groceries. (Strawberries and sour cream for supper to counteract the meatiness of the weekend.) I finished reading the Sunday Post, but, oops, that was last Sunday’s! I don’t even want to think about how much stuff I have to do at home, sigh. Still, it was an excellent weekend.
NYPL: I didn’t have any particular plans for Saturday morning. It was raining, so I decided against a stroll around Central Park. Instead, I walked down to 42nd Street and visited my touchstones – the Chrysler Building (the most beautiful skyscraper on the planet) and the New York Public Library. I should note that there is a lot of scaffolding up around the Salmon Tower Building, making hard to see the bas reliefs from across 42nd Street.
I didn’t have a huge amount of time, so decided not to spend it in the microforms room (which has some items of genealogical interest). Instead, I went up to the third floor and looked at the McGraw Rotunda, the Rose Main Reading Room, and the Salomon Room (where I noted that nobody ever taught the Astors how to sit on a chair.) I also noted Lego reproductions of Patience and Fortitude (the library lions). And I did a brief browse through the library shop, but did not buy anything.
Loeser’s Deli: It was more complicated getting to Loeser’s than it would normally be, since the 1 Train wasn’t running north of 137th Street. I had to switch to the A Train at 59th Street, take it to the end at 207th Street, and then use a shuttle bus to 231st Street.. It was easy enough, but annoying.
Anyway, there were 8 of us at Loeser’s and the owner came out to greet us. I tasted a little bit of a kasha knish one of the other people ordered. It tasted fine, but the ratio of filling to crust was very skewed towards filling. I decided to order a combination sandwich – tongue, bologna, cole slaw, Russian dressing. I added a little mustard as well. It was okay, but not a lot of meat for the price. Given that their sign says "where a sandwich is a meal," I found that surprising. I ate only half the sandwich, because I wanted to save room for the next place. It took a long time to get them to wrap up the other half.
The skimpy sandwiches appeared to be the case for the sandwiches other people ordered. Customers cannot see pastrami coming through the rye here. I should also note that the cole slaw that came on the side was terrible. It was cut fine and had little flavor. What was on the sandwich worked okay, but I really like bigger shreds and a vinegary dressing. There were also two thin slices of pickles, which looked anemic but actually tasted pretty good.
Liebman’s: Three of us continued on to Liebman’s, which is about 0.6 miles away, according to google maps. What that doesn’t account for is elevation, and it was a steep walk. Still, we survived the hike. The atmosphere (like the neighborhood) was definitely more upscale, though the chairs and tables looked like every diner on Sunrise Highway on Long Island. (There’s something about an aqua vinyl booth…) There was a much more extensive menu. I opted for a chopped liver platter. This consisted of two absurdly large scoops of chopped liver, a scoop each of potato salad and cole slaw, a pile of cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onions, and a stack of rye bread. The presentation was quite fancy. I’m sure they could do a chopped liver swan for a bar mitzvah or wedding.
I ate about 2/3 of one of the scoops of liver and some of the potato salad and cole slaw. All of it was very good. The cole slaw was so much better than Loeser’s! I also had one slice of pickle, which was fine. They were much faster than Loeser’s at wrapping up the leftovers, too. Liebman’s was the definite winner of the Bronx deli outing. But, frankly, there is no real reason to schlep to the Bronx as long as the 2nd Avenue Deli still exists in Manhattan.
Getting back to midtown involved taking a bus to the A Train to Columbus Circle. I had plenty of time to stick my leftovers in the refrigerator, change my clothes, and check email and facebook before going to the theatre.
Encores – Me and My Girl: It was a short walk over to City Center to see the Encores production of Me and My Girl. This was not as old a musical as most Encores productions, since they were using the 1984 (London) / 1986 (Broadway) version, not the original 1937 one. Interestingly, there is a production being done right now by 42nd Street Moon in San Francisco.
Anyway, the plot is a pretty thin one. Bill Snibson is revealed to be the new Earl of Hareford, but has to unlearn his Cockney ways and play the part. That gets in the way of his romance with Sally Smith – especially as the rapacious Lady Jaqueline Carstone is determined to marry the Hareford fortune. All of this is an excuse for lively music hall style songs (written by Noel Gay) and old (but funny) lines. For example, Maria (the duchess and Bill’s aunt) says, "when I’m down in the dumps, I buy a new hat" and Bill says, "oh, that’s where you get them." Not exactly surprising or original, but stuff like that still gets a good laugh.
As for the songs, I was fairly sure I would get earwormed by "The Lambeth Walk," which closes Act 1. Actually, the title song is just as sticky. And then there is "Leaning on a Lamp-Post," and the Gilbert and Sullivan inspired "The Family Solicitor."
Christian Borle played Bill, which is the sort of over-the-top role he seems to be getting known for. (He won a Tony as Shakespeare in Something Rotten and an earlier one as Black Stache in Peter and the Starcatcher.} He’s clearly very talented and it would be interesting to see him in a role with more emotional depth. Lisa O’Hare, who played Lady Jaqueline, was also typecast, as that role was similar to her performance as Sibella in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Other notable performances included Laura Michelle Kelly as Sally, Mark Evans as the Honorable Gerald Bolingbroke (Lady Jaqueline’s love interest), and Don Stephenson as Mr. Parchester, the family solicitor. Simon Jones also had a smallish role and I was astonished at how old he has gotten. (I checked and he is 67, which is not really all that much older than I am.) While Encores productions are nominally concert versions, I did not notice any of the performers carrying scripts and, while the sets are somewhat scaled down, they are not completely minimalistic. This can stand up to any fully staged musical, particularly given the quality of the singing and dancing.
All in all, this was a lot of fun. Back at the hotel, I ate some of my leftover chopped liver for a late supper and collapsed.
Getting Home: The train home was fine and included eating the rest of my leftovers for lunch. didn’t run into any significant metro delays, either. I ran out to the supermarket to get the Sunday Post and a few groceries. (Strawberries and sour cream for supper to counteract the meatiness of the weekend.) I finished reading the Sunday Post, but, oops, that was last Sunday’s! I don’t even want to think about how much stuff I have to do at home, sigh. Still, it was an excellent weekend.
