NYC Ferry Restaurant Tour, Part XIII: Blend on the Water (East River Route to Hunters Point South)
The best way to see Manhattan is to get out of it. And the Hunters Point South ferry stop on the East River Route is the best way I’ve found yet to view the skyline from the east — and I’ve already found several other good ones along the Brooklyn (and now Queens) side of the East River. But let me state up front that if you’re heading for Blend on the Water, today’s featured restaurant, the Long Island City ferry stop on the Astoria Route is closer, as you can see in the red dots on the map below.
But these blogs are as much about getting to know the neighborhoods as much as they are about eating well. The LIC Ferry Landing is just too convenient — Blend is practically right on top of it! If you opt for convenience, you’ll miss some of the most swoon-inducing views of Manhattan ever. So let’s start at the Hunters Point South stop and save the LIC stop for dining farther north in Long Island City, a huge postindustrial wonderland to eat my way through. Let me warn you that it’ll be awhile before we get to the food. Today’s trip started at Wall Street Pier 11 on the Bay Hopper, whose acquaintance I may not have made before.
Tantalizing dirty-window shots of the Empire State Building (left) and Chrysler Building (a sliver at far right) were a taste of better things to come.
We approached Hunters Point South, the northernmost ferry landing on the East River Route. The only stops on this route where I haven’t stepped off the boat have been Brooklyn Navy Yard (waiting for a friend who wants to take the tour with me) and East 34th Street in Manhattan (which would be a done deal before the day was out).
Many times have I seen the crew lowering the gangplank but never have I gotten such a good action shot. A gangplank isn’t always the prop for a seafaring execution (“walking the gangplank”) but I took special pleasure in decapitating the ugly towers in the background, motivated as I am by the politics of envy.
As the crew ushered us off the boat, I could already tell that the ferry stop, in Hunters Park South Park, was a prime shooting location for the Chrysler Building, whose peerless Art Deco spire was proudly scraping the sky at right.
What I had not anticipated was just what a superb “I love New York” vantage point this was: for the Empire State Building, center left; the Chrysler Building, center right; and the United Nations, right.
If you’re viewing this on a phone, perhaps a little creative photo editing will get you in a bit closer.
Looking north, toward the Queensborough Bridge, as it was called at the time of my birth. It is now the Edward I. Koch Queensborough Bridge, an example of New York’s penchant for renaming things without quite letting go of the old name. Ed Koch was a Greenwich Village congressman and later mayor who presided over one of the most corrupt eras in the city’s history. Keep reading for the plot twist.
Here’s the pano shot of the waterfront by the ferry. Hope you don’t mind if I tell two stories at once. It keeps an old man amused… Koch was both a popular mayor and, actually, a pretty honest and decent one, presiding over the end of the city’s scary 1970s fiscal crisis. But the city government was saddled during his reign with the Board of Estimate, an unfathomably corrupt civic nightmare finally declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Under Mayor David Dinkins, the city adopted a new charter that did away with it.
Good riddance, said good-government types. Later Ed got himself a bridge. He lived to see it rededicated in his name two years before his death. It passes over Roosevelt Island (I’ll get to that in a future episode) en route from Long Island City to East 61st Street in Manhattan.
And now we are four. From left to right: Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, United Nations, and Citigroup Center — that white wedge partly concealed by another building. Formerly the CitiCorp Tower (designed by Hugh Stubbins and various associates, 1977), it was mildly controversial in its time. The black object in front of it, looming larger due to a closer point in perspective, the Trump World Tower (Costas Kondylis, 1999–2001), one of several light-sucking behemoths lining the river.
I worry that I’m not getting enough of my opinions into this blog. I hope you’re not disappointed. I zoomed in, to the best of the Samsung A14’s ability, for beauty shots of my babes, starting with the Empire State Building (Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, 1930–31). The H-shaped thing squatting in front of it is The Copper (SHoP Architects, 2014–16), a pair of linked residential buildings in Manhattan’s Murray Hill. Why they are joined I can’t tell you. Perhaps the left one is under the weather, bent over, about to heave a six-pack or two into the river, and the right one is propping it up.
Digitally zooming into the Chrysler Building soothed the savage beast in me. Built in 1930, it was designed by William Van Alen, and commissioned by auto magnate Walter Chrysler (though as an investment, not a corporate HQ). To the right of it is the MetLife (formerly Pan Am) Building, squatting over Grand Central Terminal. Designed by Richard Roth, Walter Gropius, and Pietro Belluschi and built in 1962, it still looks odd, though harmless, every time I pass it on Park Avenue on the way to the Metro North train.
I guess you might argue that the Manhattan skyline is a glorious evocation of the ambitions of humankind. Or at least, men.
But I can’t help thinking that humankind, or men, once had better taste. With the MetLife Building still visible at left, here is a closeup of what most folks think of as the United Nations Building, though it is actually the UN Secretariat Building. Built in 1949, it was designed by an all-star team headed by Wallace K. Harrison, assisted by architects from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, the Soviet Union, Sweden, the UK, and Uruguay — including the Swiss Brutalist egomaniac Le Corbusier, who took all the credit. However, the building certainly shows the influence of the other architects, notably in the way its distinctive turquoise reflective sheath softens its blocky form — unlike the dingy and badly aging concrete-faced blocks elsewhere in Corb’s portfolio, which make you want to crawl away and die.
Next to the ferry landing, with its pleasant bench-style waterside seating, was this striking structure. And a bunch of umbrellas. Could this be the ultimate riverside dining spot?
As the place is designed for outdoor dining, and the weather was turning crisp on this November day, no. But Frank Ottomanelli’s is a nice place to grab a snack en route to your hot date with East River vistas. Perhaps I’ll return for an Otto Cheeseburger when outdoor-dining weather resumes.
Heading south from the ferry terminal…
…and turning south along the East River…
…with its picturesquely rocky shore, just beyond the unpleasantly phallic towers of Waterside Plaza — suggesting that starchitects have issues with their masculinity — what is this tasteful obelisk of hope rising to touch the sky? Zoom, can I get some help with this?
Yes, it is the Freedom Tower (David Childs of Skidmore, Owens and Merrill, 2014), a building I will never cease to love. My first visit in the year of its 10th anniversary was the subject of a Subway Tour blog. Hunters Point South is not the ideal viewing locale for a building in Lower Manhattan, yet this symbol of hope and recovery makes its presence felt, for those discerning enough to seek it out from way up here.
A rotting pier served as a perch for seagulls. They can be fierce, and might even snatch your lunch out of your hands at the beach, but I still prefer them to the pigeons who defecate all over my local subway plaza. And on my air conditioner.
We’re just out here together, enjoying the day. If any of these gulls would like to feast on some tasty pigeon meat — I’ve eaten squab, and let me tell you, with the right Indian spices it’s delicious — I am prepared to offer them full access to my air conditioner. Plus an aperitif and a digestif, while Telemann’s Tafelmusik (Table Music) plays on the good system. Nothing is too good for my avian hit squad.
As Hunters Point South Park shades into Hunters Point South Extension Park, public art takes an unorthodox but oddly humble and comforting form. This is Nobuho Nagasawa’s Luminescence (2018), “a symbolic tribute to the lunar influence on the East River’s tidal rhythms.” By day, these “moons” reflect sunlight.
By night, however, “the phase of each moon is revealed in sparkling blue points of light that emit a soft glow.” Overhead view courtesy of the Westwood Gallery. See more photos and info.
At the water’s edge, a family was making memories. Light and camera conspired to capture them in silhouette. Are memories phantoms? Or are they as real as our day-to-day tactile existence? Would the picture be emailed to a doting grandma, and used as a memory prompt in years to come?
I’ve found pleasure and beauty in lots of places not designed for it. But here’s a remarkable structure designed especially for uplifting city views, right around the vaguely defined place where Hunters Point South Park turns into Hunters Point South Extension Park.
It juts out aggressively over the shore. I nearly walked under it, then stood and thought about the missed opportunity. Life is so full of those.
It is quite long. But I couldn’t resist. I backtracked and headed up the riverbank to find the starting point.
I could see the ESB and the CB and the UN from here, too, though not unobstructed. It was nice, though, to see the ESB freed from the sweaty embrace of the H-shaped Copper.
It was quite a long walk to the end!
But the walk was pleasant and there were many spots to sit, and enjoy numerous vantage points, aimed at different angles.
This is my city, for better or worse. Mostly better, is how I feel, on a day like this, in a place like this.
Perhaps the crucial distinction was that I was not in Manhattan, but viewing it. In a peaceful place, a little removed from the craziness of it, but more able to appreciate the elegance of it.
I could even forgive the gravity-defying towers below for their yin/yang antics. I live in a building that went up at the outset of World War I. I wonder what it will be like to live in one of these vaunting 21st-century buildings in the 22nd century? Can’t say, but I’ll bet it’ll still be nice to sit here by the East River and watch what happens next.
As the walkway through Hunters Point South Extension Park curved around the little peninsula at the south end, the view diminished. But fortified by eye candy and (relatively) fresh air, I was still suffused with well-being.
A last look back the way I came.
Pano tried to sum it up.
Time for a proper walk through, not just alongside, the neighborhood.
A bit of the view was still available, though reality pressed in.
As I moved away from the water, more of the old Hunters Point asserted itself.
The old and the new coexisted on Vernon Boulevard, the neighborhood’s most prominent north-south commercial artery.
An Indian restaurant rubbed shoulders with a Slovak-Czech variety store, bricks mingled with shingles.
Vernon Boulevard intersects with another major commercial street, Jackson Avenue, at the first 7 train station from Manhattan into Queens. You can find out more about that, and the street art, and a chicken parm sandwich, in an episode of the Subway Tour.
A Long Island City medley: big rig, boxing gym, tenement apartments, hustle, bustle. (Hunters Point is a part of the larger entity of LIC, which also includes Dutch Kills to the north.)
A railroad track glimpsed through a chain-link fence alongside new high-rises spoke of the area’s industrial past and gentrifying present.
This is a Sunoco station. Also PS1, no longer a public school, but the Queens outpost of the Museum of Modern Art. Upcoming episode planned around the nearby Court Square subway station and the fabulous Court Diner.
The Long Island City Post Office (1928), like many of its contemporary kin, was built under the supervision of James A. Wetmore. It is in the Colonial Revival style.
Memories of the Chrysler Building. I walked here thinking, if I lived here, I could see it every time I go out to the supermarket.
While I usually resist using photos shot into the sun, this house uses a shingling pattern I haven’t seen elsewhere in NYC (though I’ll bet there are other samples in Brooklyn and Staten Island).
A variety of shingles. Have you had the shingles vaccine? I’ve had both shots, and judging from the experience of acquaintances who have had shingles — it makes you quite miserable for a long time — it was worth the trouble.
Empire Iron Works. Real men work here. Not starchitects.
Red brick and redder trim. I like it!
Dudes who design ugly black glass towers are not man enough to work at Long Island City Ice.
Fragile, by Alex Face, painted this very year. He is celebrating his 20th year as a street artist. Find him on Facebook.
A mural called Unity, by Carla Torres. She is better known for her commission to decorate the tunnels in the 191st Street Broadway Local station in Manhattan’s Washington Heights. Find her on Instagram.
Detail of the above, with a little inescapable pano bending.
While an image search found art similar to this arboreal mural, with the distinctive trees, I was not able to track down the artist. Please drop me a line if you have any clues.
We’re a little closer to the Ed Koch Queensborough Bridge now.
And we’ve arrived at Blend on the Water! If you’re here for the restaurant-review snippet, thanks for having the patience of a saint.
This is an A-rated restaurant (by the health department). They have standards here. That includes no plain white T-shirts. I never wear them because they get dingy in a hurry. I think of them more as underwear, though I have other Ts in every color of the rainbow. Plus camouflage.
As I swung by the bar, the place made a great first impression. Spacious, clean, tastefully decorated.
Lighting was subdued, depending on natural light from tall wraparound windows. At night the low golden electric light must give this place a lovely feeling.
The menu is Latin style. These are called Mazorca Croquettes: sweet corn with cholula aioli, sprinkled with cotija cheese.
It was delicious, the kernels bursting with juice in my mouth. I haven’t had corn prepared with this much care and seasoning before. While not the most nutrious veg, and therefore not a staple in my kitchen, I can see how more creativity might make it worth exploring further. As a treat.
Finger food can be messy, so it was time to hit the restroom for a quick hand wash. As I approached, I saw some art at left and a splash of pink at right.
I don’t run a mugshot of myself with these blogs and I know some of you may feel it’s hard to get to know me. So here’s a bathroom selfie. I am, in fact, a visitor from outer space. I have come to eat in your restaurants and explore your neighborhoods.
On the way back to my table, I got a different perspective on Blend’s water view. What you’re looking at is the Long Island City ferry stop on the Queens side of the East River.
My table featured a view of the Koch-Queensborough Bridge. Oh, and the food came. The camera had a hard time mediating between the bright window and dark table. As I edited the image, I opted to preserve the view.
I had the Bistec de Pollo: a lime-marinaged chicken “steak.”
The grande dame of thin-cut chicken breast hid a small cup of kidney beans, mound of white rice, and sweet fried plantains under its ample skirts.
When the phone-cam wasn’t blinded by sunny light — our eyes deal with contrasting areas of bright and dark more adroitly than a cheap digital gadget — the chicken’s colorful seasoning popped a little more once I got the window out of the frame.
But even with a confused camera, this was still a satisfying meal.
And I was huuuungry from all that Manhattan eye candy and obsessive phonephotography.
Done. Thanks, Blend, for a fine meal with friendly and welcoming service.
Having shot my pix and eaten my fill, I could have walked back down the length of Hunters Point South and taken the boat back to “the city,” as outer-borough folks call it, from the same-named ferry stop. But the Long Island City Ferry Landing was right there. I decided not to be fussy about starting and ending in the same place. In my Staten Island lunch expeditions, I’ve often arrived at one train station and left from another. Better for walking and exploring.
I treated myself to a goofy art shot of the ferry landing…
…admired Mayor Koch’s bridge upriver…
…accidentally took a picture of my foot…
…and boarded the boat. A bit tired, though full and happy, I did not spot the name of this particular ferry.
In this unretouched shot of The Copper — mentioned above as the monster squatting on the city shore, obscuring the view of the Empire State Building — the evening light infused its reflective black glass with soft, almost Impressionist color. Suddenly it harmonized, if only for a moment.
I left Manhattan at Wall Street Pier 11 and entered Hunters Point at the Hunters Point South Ferry Landing. But I left Queens at the Long Island City Ferry Landing and entered Manhattan at the East 34th Street Ferry Landing. With the exception of the big Wall Street ferry hub, I’ve never used any of these stops before. A day of firsts, one after another.
I hadn’t read the name of the ferry as I boarded, but from a distance, just before it departed, I saw it: UNITY. It made me think of the Carla Torres Unity mural I’d seen a couple of hours earlier. Yes, another first; maybe someday all these boats will seem like old friends.
On the way home, as I walked up East 34th Street toward the subway, I realized it was the perfect vantage point to view the Empire State Building — which I’d spent the day admiring from a distance. I’ve been there recently with Nurse Troy, knocking an item off my bucket list. It’s great to live in a cool city. But it’s also great to have cool friends.
More on that in a future episode. For now, we end as we began — with an uncropped version of the top shot.
Previously on the NYC Ferry Restaurant Tour:
Part I: The Wharf (Rockaway Route to Rockaway Park)
Part II: Kimo’s Kitchen (Rockaway Route to Rockaway Beach)
Part III: Big John’s (Rockaway Route to Sunset Park)
Part IV: Salty Dog (South Brooklyn Route to Bay Ridge)
Part V: Crown Cafe (Statue City Cruises to Liberty Island)
Part VI: Pizza Yard (Governors Island Ferry)
Part VII: Lobster Pound (South Brooklyn Route to Red Hook)
Part VIII: Boutros (Atlantic Avenue Route)
Part IX: Celestine (East River Route to DUMBO)
Part X: Diner (East River Route to South Williamsburg)
Part XI: Le Crocodile (East River Route to North Williamsburg)
Part XII: Karczma (East River Route to Greenpoint)
If you’re enjoying the NYC Ferry Restaurant Tour, please follow my blog by clicking follow next to my name at the top. Then subscribe to get emails on new episodes. Also don’t miss my Staten Island Restaurant Tour blogs and ebooks and the new NYC Subway Restaurant Tour blogs. See you soon!
