Thus far I’ve been a fair-weather visitor in New York, and I wanted to see what New York is like in the middle of January.
Turns out it’s pretty nice. For the past couple years New York has seen mild winters, and the day I spent wandering Central Park marked 700 days since the city’s last meaningful snow accumulation (which was February 13, 2022). It was 40 degrees and sunny, definitely colder than Los Angeles, but not by much. I had to unzip my coat because it was too warm.
And the park was wonderful as ever. I noticed the grass was still green, and they’d drained all the water out of the Bethesda Fountain.
The park also had ice rescue ladders installed by the ponds, which I’d never seen before.
Wandering through the neighborhoods on my way to meet Alyssa for brunch.
Candle 79 is back! They are Candle Cafe now, located on 28th Street instead of 79th Street, and they still have their chocolate peanut butter dessert (although it looks slightly different than it used to). And the French toast was excellent, I’ve been missing it ever since.
After brunch Alyssa and I headed for Eataly via Ana Maria Hernando’s Madison Square Park art installation called “To Let the Sky Know / Dejar que el cielo sepa.” It’s clouds made of tulle, which is a fabric traditionally used to conceal (think voluminous skirts or a wedding veil). So with this art piece, Hernando is “daylighting a fabric that has often been engaged to guard aspects of gender.” It was a delightful spot of color in an otherwise winter-toned area.
We also visited Rizzoli Bookstore and Fishs Eddy.
Maybe it’s because it was a holiday weekend, but the winter temps didn’t seem to thin the crowds.
The temperature dropped the next morning though. It was 24 degrees when I left for the airport (with a stop at Tompkins Square Bagels on the way). The day after I left, the snowless streak was broken with an accumulation of about two inches of snow. It’d been 701 days total.
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