D = 3D

As the world’s gone crazy for Avatar in 3D, I thought this week I’d try New York in 3D:

1) D = Diner
2) D = Dumbo
3) D = Doughnuts

My wonderful friends Greg and Sian were in town this weekend so “D” became a group expedition, so much fun.

First stop, Diner. The idea was to find a classic, old diner in New York to line our tummies with an old fashioned, hearty American breakfast before walking over the Brooklyn Bridge to Dumbo (best walk in town) in -9C weather. First thought was Moondance, it opened in the 1930s and was the scene in Friends where Monica worked for a while to earn some cash, the one where she had to wear the fake boobs. Due to its Soho location and rising rent it sadly had to shut down in 2007. Next stop Cheyenne Diner, opened in the early 1940s, on 11th Avenue, formerly known as Death Avenue because until the late 1930s a railroad ran down the centre probably ploughing into those who’d had a few too many pancakes at the diner and were a little slow moving across the street. This one sadly popped its clogs in 2008.

So, we found Remedy Diner, by brothers Peter and Anastasios Giannopoulos who worked in their father’s 45-year-old Upper West Side diner, 3 Stars, before opening up this place. Good old nostalgia with homebaked pies and the hugest plates of delicious breakfast fodder you could ever imagine. What I loved the most was the amuse bouche of fresh fruit with biscuits and gravy. To explain to my non-American friends, this was soft dough bready-biscuits with a thick white sauce, made from cooked pork sausage, white flour and milk, flavored with black pepper. Not very appetising.
Stuffed to the gills and many mugs of coffee later we get our sausages to go and head off through Chinatown to the Brooklyn Bridge. Chinatown provided some interesting and very disturbing scenes, including fresh fish being hauled out of tanks, thrown intro plastic bags, weighed, bought and freshly killed. Let’s say fish was firmly taken off our menu for the rest of the day.

Over the Bridge we go to DUMBO (again for my non-American friends this stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), love it here, great views and great old warehouse buildings. We stopped in to the newish Dumbo General Store to refuel on hot chocolate and Pinot Noir, good place, lovely friendly people.
Our third D was going to be Dough in Dumbo at the institution Grimaldi’s, serving coal-fired brick oven pizza just like it was cooked in the first pizzeria in America around 1905. However, at -9C, with a one hour wait OUTSIDE with arctic winds whipping up off the Hudson we decided it was a bit chilly on the willy and better saved for summer. So the grand finale D morphed into the NYPD’s fave….doughnuts.

Donut Pub is the oldest stand-alone mom and pop shop left in the City serving real doughnuts. It’s been going for 45 years and 2 years ago a Dunkin Donuts literally moved in next door, there was a wave of fear in the neighbourhood that it would go the way of the diners, but no! Donut Pub is going strong and I can see why. OMG they’re good. Light and crispy, a mere whisp of sweet sugariness. We went for the most popular Boston Crème – amazing vanilla crème, Sugar Jelly, ie: old school sugar and strawberry jam and the Honey Dip as we’d heard the restaurant won “Best Glazed Goodness in New York” in 2006 for the latter. At 3 bucks for 3 they’re a fabulous sweet treat and after telling myself repeatedly that I can’t stop by the legendary Manalo Blahnik sale this week, Donut Pub satisfied my sugar and bargain craving all in one go.

D = Delicious.

ps: a special thanks to Greg and Sian this week for a legendary laughter filled weekend and your dedication to the “D” cause. Love you lots xx