Luger burgers rule!

'was a rainy dreary day yesterday (Tuesday). We should have been in our musty, dusty, rusty cellar, packing and junking. But Lee and Lex called. Would we like to spend the day in the "city?" Why not? So we picked them up and avoided the Belt Parkway which was in its usual condition: standstill. Instead we headed up Coney Island Avenue, my preferred route to Manhattan nowadays. It's more interesting anyway with what has become of Brooklyn: so incredibly polyglot with more nationalities than you can even keep track of - all mixed together on this spinal route that runs from the ocean north to Prospect Park.

Aesthetically, Coney Island Avenue is one of the ugliest streets in creation, devoid of trees to soften and cool it. The signage on the stores, in an attempt to outdo each other is garish and over the top (that's another idea for a photo essay to come). It used to be the Brooklyn headquarters of anything automotive: parts stores, tires shops, repair garages, gas stations - and it still has a load of these. But now, with new ethnicities moving into the adjacent neighborhoods that it traverses, it has all kinds of wild and crazy stores and establishments that are unfamiliar to older, native Brooklynites. That's New York for you - always changing itself as one group moves in and another out. Now there are Turkish restaurants galore, Afghan kabob shops, Pakistani curry houses, jewelry stores with garish gold pieces ostentatiously displayed in the windows, Halal butchers, Jewish orthodox butchers, glatt kosher pizzerias and sushi restaurants, Islamic mosques and schools, Jewish temples and schools, and on and on.

Our destination was Manhattan for a little lunch somewhere nice but as we got on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, an idea germinated. Stacey mentioned Peter Luger and the rest of us immediately agreed with her. Peter Luger, established in 1887, is in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and is considered by many as one of the best steakhouses in New York. But few people realize that, for lunch only, they serve one of the city's greatest hamburgers as well. And it's a bargain at $6.95! You gotta try it.


Stacey, Alexis and Lee - waiting to be seated at Peter Luger's in Williamsburg.

We ordered the burgers with their great steak-fries (just a silly dollar more) and their famous tomato and onion salad, which is nothing more than giant slices of wonderful tomato alternating with giant slices of sweet onion - on top of which you slather their widely-recognized Peter Luger Steak Sauce (which is really salad dressing - you'd never actually put that on a steak). Stacey and I ordered cold beer on tap to wash it down. Molto bene!


Alexis and Lee peruse the menu.


Stacey and me at Peter Luger's steakhouse.


Lee - after his Luger Burger. Note the reflection of the fabulous Williamsburg (now HSBC) bank building on Broadway in Brooklyn.

We left Luger and took the Williamsburg Bridge into Manhattan. We stopped at the Gulf Coast Cafe to show Bob's new restaurant to Lee and Alexis. Bob is getting married this weekend and Josh, who happened to be there when we arrived, is throwing him a bachelor's party this Friday night.

We finally found a parking spot in Soho, stopped for coffee at Once Upon A Tart, a cute cafe on Sullivan Street and then walked briefly down Prince Street, admiring this very lovely neighborhood. I noted that we wouldn't mind an apartment there but we've been priced out of the market.


An old Italian gentleman sitting in front of Once Upon A Tart. This neighborhood, once a working class Italian enclave, is now one of the highest rent districts in the city. Some of the former residents remain, but only a few.


Alexis, Lee and Stacey walking on Prince Street in Soho.

It was raining on and off so walking was not an option. We hit the car and the road back to Brooklyn. This was a lovely day spent with my brother and sister-in-law, something we didn't do very often when Lee and I worked at Mayfair together. When I was off he was on and vice versa. Retirement has provided a new opportunity to share some fun time together. In fact, in August, the four of us are flying to Florida to celebrate my aunt and uncle's 89th and 90th birthday party. It's one of the only times that we've gone away together. That's the retired life!