Category: New York

Citi Field – Catch a ballgame in NYC

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Enjoying a New York Mets baseball game at Citi Field is a great way to spend a spring, summer or fall afternoon in New York City.  Here’s some useful information on how to visit this New York landmark, see a game, and maybe keep the party going afterward!

HOME OF THE UNDERDOGS: CITI FIELD

Citi Field exterior view

Citi Field was completed in 2009 as the new home of the New York Mets after the team’s former home, the famous Shea Stadium (home to one of the most historic Beatles’ performances ever) was closed after a good run from 1964 and then demolished.

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Situated right next to the grounds from the World’s Fair (think Men in Black’s spaceships at the end of the first movie), the swanky, newer home for the Mets boasts a high-end food scene (even Shake Shack, hello!) and lower prices than its neighbor to the north.  While the Mets don’t enjoy the same reputation as the Yankees as a consistently winning team, everyone loves a good underdog and although they haven’t clinched a World Series since the 1980’s, the Mets put on a great show for kids of all ages, and have made several MLB Playoffs showings in the past few years.

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A DIY Queens Craft Brewery Tour

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Lots of cities have tour companies offering to take visitors around to visit craft breweries or wineries. However, you don’t need to pay for an expensive tour if you know where to go. There are a bunch of Queens craft breweries you can visit without a costly tour.  All you need is some cash or a credit card for drinks and a love for beer. Ready to taste and toast? Let’s go on my DIY Queens craft brewery tour!

Queens Craft Brewery

A flight of beer at Fifth Hammer Brewing

First things first: Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island are ALL part of New York City. They are 4 of the 5 boroughs (Manhattan is the 5th). New York City is not just Manhattan. Capisce? Any visitor to NYC can take advantage of visiting a Queens craft brewery during their visit. Allons-y!

Plan to do this tour on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Why? Because not all are open every day. I’ve noted below when each Queens craft brewery is closed, for your planning purposes.

Transportation

Some of these craft breweries are walkable distances from others, and some require covering a bit more ground between them. One of the easiest ways to cover short distances in New York City is by Citi Bike. Citi Bike is the local bike share program in NYC (similar to the Boris Bikes in London, etc.). You can buy a day pass or a three-day pass if you are not a local, and enjoy unlimited Citi Bike rides during your trip.

Otherwise, you’ll need about $10 on your MetroCard or an Uber/Lyft/other account to get from stop to stop. Got it? Good.

The best of Queens CRAFT BREWERIES

How to use this map: View the map bigger by clicking the bracket window-looking icon in the upper-right corner, next to your photo/avatar. Save the link to your phone if you’re traveling. Use the layers to toggle between stuff that you’re looking for. I’ve grouped the Layers by breweries and by transportation type, as well as routes between each (biking, walking or driving).

(Updated*: Former Stop #1:) Transmitter Brewing

*Note – As of mid-2019, Transmitter has relocated to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. So, you can’t visit by going on foot from Long Island City, but I wanted to include this info still since it’s a great brewery. The updated location information for Transmitter can be found at the end of this post.*

Queens Craft Brewery Tour

Walking to Transmitter Brewing

Take the 7 train from Manhattan to Vernon-Jackson (the first stop in Queens), then walk to Transmitter Brewing, the first stop on our Queens Craft Brewery tour. Note that you’ll probably think you’ve gone the wrong way. It’s VERY industrial here and can look a bit scary. Alternatively, you can walk on the Pulaski Bridge and take the staircase down where you see the Transmitter sign. The Pulaski Bridge connects Long Island City (Queens) to Greenpoint (Brooklyn) and has dedicated sidewalks and bike lanes, in addition to traffic lanes.

Queens Craft Brewery Tour

Transmitter Brewing from the outside

Transmitter Brewing is a Queens craft brewery known for its large-format bottles (750ml) and its farmhouse-style brews. Its own website touts it as an urban farmhouse brewery – couldn’t have said it better myself!

Queens Craft Brewery TourThe beers are all named according to a system – sort of a binomial nomenclature (nerd alert!).  My favorite is H4, a Harvest sour ale made with Italian plums. They sell by the bottle for tasting on-site and to carry out. You can try some of their options that are for tasting on-site only. I suggest grabbing a bottle or two of the ones that stand out to you, and hang out with your tourmates at a picnic table. Continue reading →

Top 5 Most Overrated NYC Attractions

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After years of taking friends and relatives around the City that Never Sleeps, I’ve been forced more than once to endure the tourist traps that define this great concrete jungle, but no real New Yorker ever tries to visit unless absolutely necessary. Here are my Top 5 Most Overrated NYC Attractions, and a few alternatives to get the same or similar experiences, without overpaying and braving the slack-jawed masses.

5.  Ice Skating at Rockefeller Center

Everyone wants to go ice skating at Rockefeller Center. Beneath the famous Christmas tree and the gaze of Prometheus, 150 skaters at a time can skate around in circles while being gawked at by hordes of tourists.

$25-$32 will get you admission to the rink and $12 will get you rental skates. Ouch.

Rock Center is beautiful and a must-see during the holiday season, especially. In the summer there’s a great outdoor bar and cafe that’s erected over the rink – so it’s a great place to be year-round. But, you don’t need to skate there.

Instead: Go ice skating at Bryant Park or The Rink at Brookfield Place – basically anywhere else.

Bryant Park‘s skating rink is free (yes, FREE!) with skate rentals of $20, and the Winter Village is definitely worth a look. You can store your bags for a fee and pay $28 to skip the line. Just allow plenty of time and you won’t need to do that, though. If you’re visiting, plan to visit during working hours, when the poor folks who live here need to be at work. And know that I’m envious of you!

The Rink at Brookfield Place, in the shadow of the World Trade Center, right by the water and surrounded by fabulous shopping and restaurants, is a great deal at $15 per 90 minute session and a $5 skate rental.  You can even pay a bit extra to take a skating lesson from former U.S. Olympic skaters. How cool is that?

4.  Statue of Liberty

Sure, Lady Liberty is a beaut’ and she celebrates her 125th anniversary this year. But, do you really want to get on a boat with a bunch of other tourists and be held captive, then corralled around the queue to get in, then wait some more, go Continue reading →

Wölffer Estate Wine Stand (The Hamptons)

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We found ourselves at the Wölffer Estate Wine Stand last spring on the way home from tasting some mediocre wines on eastern Long Island.  And yes, most of the wines on Long Island are just that – mediocre. Unless you like sweet white wines and the occasional sweet red. But, the Wölffer Estate actually had some quality bottles that made me second-guess my natural inclination to bash LI wines.

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Look out at the vines while you sip on some wine

Ahh, the Hamptons. New York’s well-heeled elite and the ones who want to be elite flock to the East End of Long Island the second Memorial Day Weekend strikes and the Great Eastern Migration happens beginning Thursday afternoon every summer weekend. While the North Fork’s “having a moment,” as they say, the southern fork – better known as the Hamptons, which is a collection of little towns sprawling for miles and miles – still enjoys a reputation of the place to be for the summer and to enjoy passable wines while people-watching to your heart’s content.

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Bae and I were enjoying the sunshine after a long, cold winter and spring.

Anyway, Wolffer Estate Wine Stand. Continue reading →

Bierocracy – Queens’ Finest New Beer Joint

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Bierocracy
Bierocracy opened last month in Long Island City, one of the fastest-growing neighborhoods in Queens, NY – the most diverse county in the United States. It’s no wonder, then, that the community welcomes the newest addition to the budding LIC food and beverage scene – this German/Bohemian-style beer hall has that “IT” factor that others attempt, but never quite attain. I’m a HUGE fan.

Bierocracy

Inside Bierocracy.

A stone’s throw from the first stop on the 7 Train outside of Manhattan (as in, one stop from Grand Central Terminal), this cozy but cavernous space channels a different continent. It’s hard to believe, when you look around, that it was just built. As a big fan of the bier halls in Munich and Prague, I have to say – it does a pretty good job of transporting you to the Old World, if not when you first walk in, then at your first sip.

Bierocracy

Our table at Bierocracy

Communal seating abounds -the cheerful waitstaff welcome you to sit wherever you like. Pull up a seat at a bench and picnic table in one of the rooms, whether you want to sit on either side of the bar or in the cozier section off to the right. I am not crazy about communal seating generally, but there’s something about a beer hall that just demands it. Ask anyone who’s been to the Hofbrauhaus. Beer is better when shared with strangers.

Bierocracy

It’s not all about the beer – or at least, there’s Something for Everyone at Bierocracy.

Before I get too far, I would be remiss to note that Bierocracy has a full bar, as well as a varied wine list. Although the offerings are mainly (appropriately) Old World vines, there’s the ever-present California cabernet sauvignon to please the crowd. Continue reading →

Yankee Stadium: Catch A Baseball (or Soccer) Game in NYC

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New York City has its fair share of professional sports teams and there’s something for everyone here as a tourist to this great city who wants to catch an iconic team play at one of the NYC stadiums.  There are so many sports arenas in the NYC area: Madison Square Garden (just “the Garden”, to locals), Barclay’s Center, Giants Stadium (now MetLife Stadium), Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, Red Bull Arena, Prudential Center… and a few more all call the New York metropolitan area “home”.

Yankee Stadium at night

Enjoying a New York Yankees baseball game is a great way to spend a spring, summer or fall afternoon in New York City.  For the soccer (football) enthusiast, maybe you want to catch a NYCFC game instead.

Yankee Stadium exterior

This post covers the perhaps most iconic stadium we have here in the City That Never Sleeps: Yankee Stadium. This NYC stadium is home to the Yankees and the New York City Football Club.

However, going to a game can be a really expensive endeavor, and neither NYC stadium is centrally located in Manhattan, so it’s a bit of a trek to go to each. I’d guess that, unless you’re a die-hard sports fan, only one event like this will be part of your NYC trip. So, you’ll have to pick between this or Citi Field.

Going to a baseball or soccer game in New York City is a true hometown experience and I would recommend even folks who do not like sports to go check out a game. The atmosphere, camaraderie, merriment and energy are contagious – you can’t help but have a good time at an NYC stadium.

Here’s a brief rundown of Yankee stadium, how to get to there, what to expect once you’re there, and what it’s all about. Continue reading →