Winter is Coming

I have spent a lot of time walking around lower Manhattan this past week. The streets are not as busy but there is still a beat on the street that still feels good. Winter is coming and COVID is beginning to rage again. Stores and restaurants continue to shut permanently. Things will change, new spots will open, rents will go down and over time everything will look like itself but different.

One of the last bastions of grit in Manhattan is the lower east side not far from the entrance of the Manhattan Bridge. Nicknamed Dimes Square. There is Dime’s on on side and their grocery store on the other. Emily and I walked down there for lunch. Delicious vegetarian offerings. We had the black rice salad made of a variety of different vegetables with a ginger ponzu sauce on the side to pour over and mix up. The other is the power bowl made of black beans, black rice, avocado, pumpkin seeds and a spicy sauce. I also loved my fennel ginger lemonade.

Dimes grocery store is a version of well curated products and some fresh product.

On the other side of the square, a few stores down from the Dimes restaurant is Cervos. Grocery meets sandwich shop and natural wines, sherrys and amaros. I would love a Cervos in the west village. We all need a Cervos in our neighborhood.

Walking through each neighborhood is the only way to really get a feeling for what is happening in the city. The weather is refreshing but you can feel that winter is coming. COVID is rearing its ugly head just like it did last March. I am hoping that our supply chain has got better. I am hoping that people wear masks. I am hoping that the places that have survived the epidemic will hang in there a few more months. When the winter thaws, flowers crop up and I am truly looking forward to seeing where we all end up.

The vaccine is coming and not soon enough.