Air-Kisses and Bye-Byes to Miss Ginger!

Miss Ginger (above, with Dusty Winehouse) was in town for one more night last night, so we met for dinner. I mentioned that former Top Cheftestant Leah Cohen's restaurant was right down the street from my job - and Ginger offered to buy - so we headed over to Centro Vinoteca.

If I recall correctly, I MAY have said some less-than-polite things about Leah Cohen (below) in my Top Chef recaps. Possibly. But I have to give her credit, Centro Vinoteca was great. It was casual yet chic, and upscale without being pretentious. And the food was delicious.

Of particular note were the fantastic Truffled Deviled Eggs. They pretty much ROCKED...

After dinner, we walked over to the High Line and took in the views of the city as the sun set. It was gorgeous and the weather was perfect.

After we left the High Line, we continued walking. And before we knew it we had walked the entire 2 1/2 miles back to midtown! So we said our goodbyes and I headed home. But I can't wait for that crazy biatch to return to NYC - Ginger is truly the life of the party and the perfect dinner and/or Go-Go Bar companion.

Check out Ginger's take on the evening HERE.

The View From High Line Park

Yesterday I posted pictures taken during my first stroll along New York City's fabulous High Line Park. Today I'm sharing pictures of the VIEW from the High Line - which stands two stories above street level. The pics above and below are of the Hudson River - with New Jersey in the background.

The modern building (below) is InterActiveCorp Headquarters (designed by Frank Gehry). The low-rise building on the lower right is the late, lamented Roxy nightclub. If those walls could talk...

Views of the side streets...



Big Mama - the Empire State Building ...


Wildflowers on the High Line, and tenement buildings on the street...

NYC: The High Line

I have blogged before about New York City's High Line Park - which was created by transforming an abandoned elevated train trestle/tracks into a public park. Yesterday was a gorgeous day, and I planned on walking home anyway, so I decided to walk along The High Line for the very first time. So I sashayed my fat ass over the the Meat Packing District, and I ascended the High Line steps...

When I came up into the park, all I could think of was how AMAZING it was. It was so peaceful, so serene - and even though there were people, it didn't seem crowded at all ...

I loved how they kept the tracks (in parts) and used the wildflowers/plants that had sprung up naturally when the train tracks were abandoned ...

A few buildings "straddle" the high line. This is hotelier Andre Balazs' new Standard Hotel...


More pretty wildflowers...

This was one of the coolest parts of the High Line. It was an amphitheater, with the "show" being the city below - which you viewed through huge plate-glass windows ...

It was funny, I was supposed to be walking home (AKA exercising), but the entire High Line is so conducive to sitting and relaxing and taking your time that is was hard not to stop and sit ...

Before I descended the steps at 20th Street, I took one last look ...

I will definitely be back. And if you are ever in New York, you should definitely visit the High Line Park.

Tomorrow I'll share some more pictures ...

The High Line

Many of you commented on my post about NYC's High Line - so here is a follow up. The picture above is an aerial view of the now-opened park - and go HERE for a video of "opening day" from New York Magazine.

NYC's "High Line" Opens

The High Line was an abandoned 1.5 mile section of elevated freight railroad tracks that ran along the west side of Manhattan between 34th Street and Gansevoort Street in the West Village/Meat Packing District. The High Line was built in the early 1930s and freight trains ran along the West Side tracks until 1980. After the last train, the railroad closed up the access points to the elevated structure and abandoned it.

The High Line ran along mostly industrial neighborhoods in the 1980's and early 90's - auto repair shops, warehouses, and meat packing/distributing companies. Therefore, the elevated tracks were pretty much left alone - people dumped trash out of their windows onto it and trees and grass started to grow. Infamous Club Kid killer Michael Alig found a way up to the tracks and threw an "Outlaw Party" one night - until the cops busted it up. But since the High Line was well above the street, most people didn't even think about it...



By the mid 1990s, Manhattan real estate values were skyrocketing and developers were threatening to purchase and demolish the entire structure. Friends of the High Line was founded in 1999 by Joshua David and Robert Hammond, two people who lived in the neighborhood but had never met each other. The Friends of the High Line was formed to advocate for the High Line's preservation and reuse as public open space. The group gained powerful supporters on the West Side and in City Hall, and after a long struggle they were able to achieve their goal of making the High Line a peaceful public space above Manhattan's busy streets. Here is a sketch of the design plan for "the end of the line"...


Personally, I saw the old, rusty High Line almost every Saturday night from 1993 to about 1997 on my way to the Roxy nightclub (which was right beside the tracks). In fact - it is said that the Roxy was closed so an apartment building (which would take advantage of the views of the renovated High Line) could be built in its place. But the Roxy (the graffiti-covered building below) still lays vacant to this day - the apartment building was never built due to the recession.


Yesterday the ribbon was cut for the first section of the High Line Park (Gansevoort to 20th St.) - and today it officially opens to the public. According to Joe.My.God:

During peak periods, access to the facility would be limited to the southernmost entrance at Gansevoort Street and interested visitors would receive wristbands permitting admission to the park at allotted hours. Eventually, Bradley said, a live web link will allow people to check the park’s availability prior to making the trek west. “One of the things that we’re uncertain about is the number of visitors that we’re going to get,” Bradley explained, “so we’re putting in place a plan — which we’re not going to start unless we need to — where we’ll control access to the park.” While Friends of the High Line manages the project, the Parks Department is in charge of providing security.

And, as JMG said, leave it to a park in Manhattan to have a doorman and bouncers. Here are pictures from yesterday's "sneak preview"...





To learn more about the High Line, please go HERE.