Last Saturday in Manhattan, for eight glorious hours, hundreds of thousands of people biked, scooted, ran, strolled, and/or just chilled in the middle of some of the city's grandest boulevards, thanks to this year's greatly expanded Summer Streets program, which now runs from the Brooklyn Bridge all the way up and across to Dyckman Street in Inwood. That's nearly 15 miles of blissfully vehicle-free roadway, and holy shit did New Yorkers come out to play.
It was a great day filled with happy people having a nice time, totally worth the $60 I racked up in Citi Bike e-bike charges, especially since my nephew Pablo and I made two crucial pit stops uptown at two of my all-time favorite restaurants: the Elsa La Reina del Chicharron in Inwood, and the Elsa La Reina del Chicharron in Washington Heights.
I hadn't been to either of these Elsa outposts in way too many years—in addition to the two in Manhattan, there are also Elsas in Teaneck, NJ, and in Fordham, the Bronx. But as far as I could tell, almost nothing has changed in the interim.
Both still serve up heaping platters of delicious, homemade Dominican food in classic steam-table fashion. Both still offer limited seating, and all orders are plated and packed for takeout (nearby parks, like Fort Tryon in Inwood and High Gate in the Heights, offer fine picnic opportunities for non-locals). Most importantly, both still make a strong case for the claim outside on the awning: Here indeed resides "el mejor chicharrón en el mundo."