Each year my family and I make a summertime trip to New York City to attend the Origami USA convention, which is held at the Fashion Institute of Technology. For three days, my wife, son and daughter will fold paper, participate in origami workshops and wander through the exhibition galleries displaying the most masterful manipulations in the country. Me? I have no patience with paper, so I walk the city streets like a beatnik in search of weird poetry and a java buzz.
Watching the hundreds of attendees is utterly fascinating: fingers moving like knitting needles as they bend and crease paper into shapes, ranging from basic designs (a sailboat, a crane), to stunning complexity (Gandalf the White with staff in hand riding his majestic steed, a polyhedron, a delicate double-helix). With just a simple piece of paper, the convention attendees prove there’s nothing in this world that’s truly one-dimensional.
My role as the only non-folder in the family is to play concierge; arranging our lodging, meals, entertainment and transportation—all while hitting the city for said solo wandering of my own.
AKA Times Square
Instead of smooshing the four of us into a small hotel room, or bunking with most of the other attendees in the sticky Institute dorms across from the convention, this year, I splurge on lodging.
The AKA Times Square is a long-term housing option, meaning, you usually can’t stay for a night or two. It’s for relocating executives, or a person who is visiting the city for an extended period of time.
However, AKA offers a few special weekend packages that rival even the top hotels. Thus, trading room service and the gift shop for this kind of comfort was a no-brainer.
The result is a spread-out-and-relax place in which to lodge; a sleek and contemporary abode that’s fully furnished, and even includes a full kitchen so you can save money (if you’re so inclined) by preparing some of the meals yourself. Next time around, we’re sure to again “stay AKA.”
Shake Shack
Our favorite of these reliable burger joints is the one in Madison Square Park—the people-watching possibilities while standing in line for an hour actually makes the wait worth it—however, the one in Times Square will always do in a pinch.
One key to the success of SS is its use of meat purveyor Pat Lafrieda’s proprietary beef blend—brisket and chuck combined by a unique mixing technique that “feathers” the beef, creating a light, macerated touch, bite after bite. Another key is in the name—the shakes (and concretes) there rock.
Meanwhile, I could be the only human on the planet to have ever passed on Shake Shack by sneaking in a falafel-stuffed pita (with all the veggie-crunchy fixin’s) from Moaz Vegetarian a few doors down. Nearby diners scarfing burgers eyed me suspiciously like a heathen who had brought a graven idol into their sacred temple. But I didn’t care. It’s NYC so I’d be indulging on other bad-for-me delights soon enough.
Caution: Watch out for Falling Chandelier
As we walked across 44th Street by the various theaters and their respective show posters, my wife and I stopped in front of the old Majestic Theatre and gazed upon an oh-so familiar marquis out front. “How can it be we’ve never seen The Phantom of the Opera?” she asked. And it was true; the more we thought about it, the more we realized it was all so ridiculous. “I will not leave this Earth saying I’ve never seen the longest-running show on Broadway. Let’s go!”
So we walked up to the box office and scored four second row mezzanine level seats. (Don’t let anyone tell you there’s no way to get good seats last-minute on Broadway.)
The performance was fantastic; probably the best Broadway show we’ve ever seen.
Tip: When securing tickets try for “the mezz.” It offers the best vantage point, especially, for that big, dramatic drop of the chandelier right before Intermission.
Saju Bistro
While the family did their folding thing, I romped through Midtown on a quest to prove that not all of the restaurants there are big, bland and touristy. I was indeed correct after soon discovering Saju Bistro on West 44th Street.
Saju reminds me of Balthazar in Soho, except it is much more intimate and a true Parisian-style restaurant (not an overhyped faux-French one). With its glowing sconces and candelabras, vintage liquor posters and wall mirrors luring me in, I soon realized that I was in for a fine, relaxing experience.
Sitting barside with a bowl of smoky duck confit salad, a goblet of Chimay ale and a book, I pretended I was a young Hemingway sitting in a quaint St. Germaine café.
Of course, a guy in a dirty Elmo costume and a guitar-playing, bleached-blond dude in cowboy boots and underwear were posing for photos with tourists just one block away. After all, Times Square will always be Times Square.
Waldy’s Wood-Fired Pizza & Penne
Pinpointing Manhattan’s top place for pizza is like trying to deem the best Broadway show; you might like The Lion King, but she’s more into Jersey Boys. Pizza-wise, my family loves Waldy’s and we make it our default every time we visit the Big Apple.
Forget that its location on 6th Ave by 27th is one of the blander spots in the city. Waldy’s does a wood-fired, thinner-crust Neapolitan pizza as good as, if not better than, anybody else in town. It’s worth the cab ride. They deliver, too.
9/11 Memorial
We ended this trip on a somber note by visiting the 9/11 Memorial. Tickets are obtained online via a one dollar per person donation.
My feelings about this site are so mixed and so full of emotions, it’s hard to express in print. On the one hand, I found the actual Ground Zero memorial to be utterly moving and painfully saddening; the twin fountains graduating deeply into the earth with the names of the lost etched along their sides was an apt, moving tribute.
However starting us out in a “museum” with its timeline of events above, and a plethora of FDNY caps, coffee mugs, 9/11 key chains and other assorted tchotchkes for sale throughout, detracted greatly from the import of it all.
The final crease is made, the convention ended, the car was packed and we headed for home. The good news is nice weather prevailed, I got in several satisfying jogs through Central Park (so I didn’t gain any weight on this trip) and my family had fun creating origami but no one suffered any paper cuts. The bad news we’ll have to wait a year to do it all over again.
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