Summer in New York

It is summer in New York City. It's 85 degrees and humid and your shirt is sticking to your back and you're just enveloped by humanity. You've just gotten off the train at Penn Station with a few hours to kill and don't want to spend a lot of money. What do you do? Just stick with me kid, you'll go far.

New York Public Library

Idea 1: Go to the library. The New York Public Library (5th Ave. & 42nd St.) is an enormous and stunningly beautiful building with soaring ceilings in the third floor reading room and murals of the history of the written word in that entranceway.  You'll also find a Gutenberg Bible there, and a surprising amount of paintings for a library. Head downstairs to the children's area to see the stuffed animals that inspired A.A. Milne to author Winnie-the-Pooh.




The main floor has rotating and FREE exhibitions of historical merit; when I visited there was a history of lunch in New York on display. Amongst the many rooms discussing hot dog carts was a diner jukebox that played food-based music!

Much respect for the inclusion of Spinal Tap. I can't make this image vertical for some reason :(

Grand Central Station is a few blocks east of here. It's a must if you've never been: at least go to see the bustle or look up at the constellations drawn on the ceiling, complete with lightbulbs as stars.  It might make one wonder if they change the lightbulbs with jetpacks.

Flatiron building (Broadway&Fifth)

Idea 2: Madison Square Park is 15 short blocks south of the Library if you're up for a little walk. Go down Fifth Avenue and you'll see the Flatiron Building, one of New York's oldest skyscrapers, come into view. It's notable for its triangular shape created by the surrounding streets, and some funny reason that Ted Mosby never gets to explain in a certain episode of How I Met Your Mother.

Madison Square park is also the original residence of a phenomenon known as Shake Shack. Beginning from a simple hot dog cart with constant long lines in 2001, the Shack eventually won a bid to be a permanent fixture there. Once upon a time, you had to go to New York to eat at a Shake Shack. Now you can sample their fare in Massachusetts, as far west as Texas, or overseas in Dubai and even at any of their four (yes, four!) stores in Istanbul, Turkey! It begs the question whether they can maintain the quality they are known for as a smaller outfit now that they have gone global and public (NYSE: SHAK).

And the lines are LOOOOOONG. See here for what I found right when it opened on a weekday:

Shake Shack line, 11AM (right at opening)

The reason these lines are so long is the food is great.  Note that this is not health food so you might want to go on a diet for like a week after you consume this. The burger has an authentic classic taste with some unknown excellence to it that I couldn't quite figure out... maybe it was just the alfresco dining in the shade of some trees adding to my happiness at that moment. Or it could be secret spices, who knows? Or maybe it was the fact you can have a beer in the park with your burger? Brooklyn Brewery is really good at making beer and their custom offering to the Shack paired great! There was lots of flavor to the ShackMeister ale but it was not overpowering to the burger.

Burger, Concrete, and a Brooklyn Brewery beer.

And we finish with a concrete: The Shack Attack is a rich and creamy custard densely packed with all kinds of delectable chocolatelyness. Don't you dare share it with anyone because you'll be fighting over bites. Perfect to cool you down on a hot day! And now you will definitely need to walk to your next destination so you only gain 8 pounds instead of 10.

Idea 3: (Note this is not a cheap option.) Go to a baseball game! The Yankees and Mets both recently got new stadia and what's better than a ballgame on a summer evening? I haven't been to the New Yankee Stadium, but I do hear it is a terrible exercise in parting you from your money.

Citi Field, Flushing, Queens, New York

I can vouch for how great they made the fan experience of Citi Field, the new home of the Mets.  It's a brick beauty reminiscent of Ebbets Field from the outside and the front lobby, right down to the chandeliers they chose.  And the green seats are an homage to those of the Polo Grounds, the first home of the Metropolitans. It is a beautiful park with not a bad seat in the place.  There's even a Shake Shack in right field! (Go before the game or you'll miss at least an inning.) And unlike Yankee fans, the Mets fans are not spoiled assholes. There, I said it... Let's go Mets!