By Caitlin Hawke

Here's another great opportunity to dig into Bloomingdale History -- this time a bit more contemporary.  And it is sure to be standing-room only.

​Come out and behold the fruits of our wonderful Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group's planning committee!  See you there.

By Caitlin Hawke

It's time to rev up your engines for September and that means the New York Film Festival, BAM's Next Wave, the UN General Assembly, Fashion Week (omg), and, of course, the W. 104th Street Yard Sale.  And if any of these conflict on your calendar, let me make this easy for you: choose the yard sale.  It wins hands down.  Trust me.

By Caitlin Hawke

Take a wild, throwback ride on the El trains of yore!  Looking at old videos made by the Thomas A. Edison, Inc. (yes, that Edison was a pioneer filmmaker, too), I came upon this vintage footage produced by James Henry White in the Spring 1899 showing the W. 104th Street S-curve in the 9th Avenue Elevated Railway.  It's wonderful in that the cameraman gets into the train and rides the rails.  For more details about the film, see the Library of Congress catalog listing here.  I'm including a second video which is a newsreel.  At the beginning, there's a wonderful shot of St. John the Divine, but it is a long video so you may not want to get into the weeds of it.  Delectable for the train lovers out there.

Our friends at the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group posted a great piece a few years ago about how the El train got to our neck of the woods in 1879.

A Library of Congress map of the El train system dating to 1881 is below.

So, does anything look familiar at all when you take these virtual rides?


Note: If you are receiving this directly to your email, click on the blog post title to go to the webpage and view the video.  The emails don't code videos properly so it won't appear.  Worth clicking through!

​Also, if you like this blog, share it with a friend in the block association's neighborhood.  There are loads of local treasures to come.  Just not enough time to stoke the fires of this blog.  Enjoy!

When I go there, I go all the way, which is to say: Everything bagels.  Another person in my household is all about the Pumpernickel.  It has its place, yes.  But Absolute's Everything has no rival in this city.  Crunchy seeds on the outside, always fresh, and fully enrobing.  Like they couldn't put one more poppy on it. The cincher is its balance of salt to onion -- the main battle of flavors on the crust.  Neither overpowers.  Both adequately represented.  And room for all the other bits.

Once you get past the seeds, you have that feather-light touch of sweetness to the dough. Yum.

And then there is the crux of the matter -- the whole bread part.  Just past the crust's chew -- toothsome and snappy -- you have an interior with a hint of sticky.  This is the holy grail of bagelmongers.  No one who reads this will agree with me, I am sure, but my go-to is their mini-Everything.  I just think the surface-area-to-volume ratio on it makes it all work.  If anything, the regular-sized version is just a shade too big. But nothing approaching those tires that H&H used to peddle.

There's only one competitor nearby and an ode to one particular bagel there will follow shortly.  But for now, let me bask in the absolute glory of everything I know to be right in the world of bagels.  Hit it with a schmear of whitefish salad, probably from Acme, and you got yourself a perfect Sunday in the neighborhood.  And that is what I love about this hyper local eat.