 Photo: Flickr user niznoz
As you probably know by now, the 92nd Street Y is opening a new location downtown at 200 Hudson Street, which will house Makor’s programs for 20s and 30s as well as the Y’s programs for boomers. We thought it would be a good idea to hop on the subway (1, A, C and E trains all stop nearby) and check out the area, so we held a handful of walking tours. Turns out you can learn (and eat) a lot by wandering around. Here’s our report.
Within about a 12-block radius of 200 Hudson, the Y’s new space in Tribeca, are some of the world’s finest chocolate purveyors, including Jacques Torres Chocolate Haven, Kee’s Chocolat (home of the mango green tea truffle), MarieBelle and Vosges (which sees fit to flavor its chocolate with such unlikely ingredients as anise, absinthe, Kalamata olives, fennel and curry + coconut).
Tribeca is also a haven for home cooks and potion-makers! Bell & Bates Natural Food Market is the place to find Prickly Ash Bark, Pennyroyal, Pleurisy Root, Poke Root and Poke Root Powder. And that’s just what’s available in the “P” section.
As for unruly patrons outside Bouley’s Upstairs restaurant? Management told us (only partly tongue-in-cheek) that occasionally they run out of the roast chicken, leaving poultry-bereft patrons clamoring in the streets.
Tribeca also has a great selection of wine stores, where—if you talk to the knowledgeable personnel—you can learn that French wines are always labeled by region, not by grape varietals, as American and Australian wines are.
The foodie element is relatively new to the area, but real estate speculation goes back a couple hundred years. In 1797, Duane Park (a tiny triangle at Duane and Hudson) became the first public space acquired by the City specifically for use as a public park, when Trinity Church sold it to the city for $5. Today, the tiny patch of green is apparently worth about $150 million. Speaking of real estate, you can read about the booming population filling those new condos here.
 Not far from Duane Park, also on Duane Street, was the city’s first hospital, where in 1788, mobs of citizens went on the rampage, outraged about grave-robbing medical students who dug up cadavers in the city’s cemeteries. After that, only corpses resulting from murder, arson and burglary were fair game for use as cadavers. Speaking of graves and corpses… the exterior of the fire station in the movie Ghostbusters is actually Hook and Ladder #8 on N. Moore Street (right).
On White Street, a few blocks to the east, you can still see some of the area’s historic cast-iron buildings. Nestled among them is the striking, award-winning building of the Synagogue for the Arts, where the Y has presented a number of programs while our new space at 200 Hudson is being built.
If you’re interested in exploring Tribeca with us, we will be offering walking tours again this fall for food lovers and history buffs.
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