Staten Island Restaurant Tour, Part XIX: Lakruwana (Stapleton)

The culinary jewel of Bay Street.

Below the Indian subcontinent is a teardrop-shaped island formerly known as Ceylon before it became independent in 1972. That’s Sri Lanka, where an entire restaurant worth of opulent decor was loaded into two shipping containers 15 years ago and sent to Stapleton, the latest stop on the Staten Island Restaurant Tour. Here, just to taunt you, is a slightly out of focus panorama shot of the interior. Don’t worry, better pictures to come.

If you wanna see what it really looks like, go there!

Stapleton, only two stops down from the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, is redolent with history — and it’s not just about the Vanderbilts, whose holdings spread over several island neighborhoods. Notable natives include Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape designer of Central Park and many other urban parks, and John Carrère, the architect behind the New York Public Library’s Fifth Avenue branch with its iconic lions.

Listen to the lion.

Also from Stapleton: the hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan.

Hip-hop is hyphenated, according to Merriam-Webster.

The North Shore tends to stack its neighborhoods like a wedding cake between the Staten Island Expressway bisecting the island east to west and the waterside looking toward Manhattan. That’s Brooklyn to the east, New Jersey to the west, with Newark Liberty International Airport just out of the frame, and also New Jersey (not Manhattan) to the north. “The city” is much farther away, a 40-minute boat ride across the harbor.

Sited on the farm where Cornelius Vanderbuilt grew up and acquired by Manhattan merchant William J. Staples in 1832, Stapleton was incorporated as the village of Edgewater in 1884, only 15 years before Staten Island as a whole was folded into the City of New York along with four other borough/county entities. As the older and more built up part of the borough, it has a generous stock of big Victorian homes as well as more modest houses of about the same vintage.

Hilly terrain.

Stapleton Houses, the local housing project, had just recovered from a prolonged power outage that caused apartments to go unheated in the chilly winter-to-spring weather. No such suffering here in the Historic District in Stapleton Heights.

On St. Paul’s Avenue.

Not all of the North Shore’s houses are that grand but the area is well supplied with sidewalks and magnificent old trees, in contrast with the more recently developed South Shore.

Pedestrian-friendly urban amenities.

German-Americans built long-gone breweries in Stapleton. It once had its own direct ferry link to Manhattan. It even had its own NFL pro football team, the Staples. Both are gone but some extreme-sports facilities offer tenuous links to the neighborhood’s athletic past. Down by the water, here is the 5050 Skate Park.

Adaptive reuse of industrial infrastructure.

Perhaps you’d like to try your luck in the ring at the Sweatbox Boxing Club, a few minutes down Bay Street (slightly out of sequence on this walk, as I momentarily feel the tug between thematic and sequential narratives).

Feelin’ lucky, punk?

The waterfront still includes a naval station that was once to be expanded as part of the Reagan administration’s Strategic Homeport program, though it attracted controversy, was too small for the navy’s needs, and was closed in 1994, though it still serves as the base for New York’s annual Fleet Week. I couldn’t get close enough to for a good shot, but if you squint, you can see the navy ship USS The Sullivans (named for five brothers who died at Guadalcanal) at far right and the Lower Manhattan skyline, including the Freedom Tower, center left in the smog.

With a crane looming over it.

Another marine presence is the NY Fire Department. I didn’t know a fire truck could float! I wouldn’t have minded seeing FDNY swing into action when Hurricane Sandy threw a tanker ashore at the Stapleton waterfront.

Though I guess I was safer at home.

The Stapleton waterside, like points farther south, offers good views of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. I wasn’t the only one out enjoying it. The person whose worldly possessions were in the shopping cart was snoozing in the sun on a nearby bench.

Someone’s stuff.

Bay Street, Stapleton’s main commercial hub, runs parallel to the water. It has a comfortable old-timey smalltown feel.

Almost an urban time capsule, except for the cars.

Stapleton is a graffiti-as-art enriched community, enlivened with splashes of color.

And also to you.

Here is the former Paramount Theater, an Art Deco landmark that went up in 1930 and did its job into the 1980s.

The Paramount and its neighbor, Sandy’s Clearance Center.

If you’re wondering what the Paramount might have looked like back in the day, a graffiti artist on a nearby storefront has imagined it for you, presumably working from a period photo. That tall neon sign, jutting up into the night sky, must have been a magnificent sight. What a feeling it must have given folks on the street. What a disappointment to see it disappear.

Stapleton: full of pleasant surprises that make you wistful.

On the same block, the Bay House Bistro also celebrates the Paramount.

These folks really miss their local moviehouse.

We have arrived at Lakruwana, at the corner of Bay and Broad streets. It is perfectly in tune with the neighborhood.

The building from a different angle.

At upper left, a peaceful presence.

Amid the splendor.

Note the tall wrought-iron chair backs.

Never seen the like.

Looking toward the back.

Toward the restroom.

My assorted appetizers included spring roll, fish cutlet, and two kinds of vegetable cutlet.

With carrot lotus.

My entrée came wrapped in a banana leaf.

Closed with a pin.

Remove the red-headed pin, unfold the banana leaf, and marvel at my fish lamprais. The menu said the Dutch call it lampijst. Visible clockwise from top left are hardboiled egg, another fried fish cutlet ball, eggplant moju, and cashew nut curry.

And that’s not all.

Excavation revealed the fish (I might have chosen shrimp, chicken, beef, pork, lamb, or veg) along with saffron basmati rice and senni sambol (spicy onion). Only one little problem…

A hearty sight on the plate.

…I couldn’t finish it! Here’s the half that didn’t make it onto the plate.

I’ll get back to you.

Sometimes you just gotta admit defeat. Very delicious defeat.

Today’s lunch is tomorrow’s dinner.

Words of wisdom in the restroom. There were several of these. Just a few highlights:

We are what we do.

The mask does not approve:

Yup.

One may not destroy, but one certainly disregards, forgets, or fails to heed timely reminders:

And some people never learn in the first place.

This could be good or bad. I prefer to see it as life-affirming:

Like so many things, lust is what you make of it.

While I was finishing my meal, two women showed up at the front door. One was in a wheelchair. The other asked if her friend could enter through the side door because the front was not wide enough for the chair. Regrettably, the side door was not wide enough either. The owner, standing next to the pottery vessels where the all-you-can-eat weekend brunch is served, kindly brought out a menu for a potential takeout order and patiently explained the options. I will return, not only to enjoy the food, but to be around people who embody the best in their culture.

It was a privilege to witness this act of kindness.

Changing restaurants, but not cuisines, a shout-out to New Asha, according to its owner the oldest Sri Lankan restaurant in the neighborhood, having arrived in 1999.

Therefore 25 years old at the time of my visit.

The chicken curry with dueling cabbage sides was delicious. The cabbage twofer included sweet red and savory yellow variations and the chicken was spiced enough to raise raise a pleasant sweat. The red onion added a pleasant note and more sweat. Red onion is not the best thing to eat before meeting new people but I didn’t kiss anyone on the way home. The dish was just the hot date I needed.

It snuck up on me discreetly.

I actually meant to order the chicken kottu, which includes chopped roti crepes along with egg, scallion, onion, and carrot, spiced to a Sri Lankan fare thee well. I have a soft voice and I guess kottu sounds like curry. No regrets. The curry was awesome, I returned for the kottu, and was glad I did. It’s no accident that Anthony Bourdain loved this place.

Worth a second trip.

I often eat these weekday lunches in near-deserted restaurants. On my first visit my dining companion was a tall Irishman. Asked if he was in town for the just-past St. Patrick’s Day celebration, he said no, he relocated here years ago, “but everyone’s Irish this week.” Since New Asha is located between Stapleton and Tompkinsville, my trip home took me down Victory Boulevard past dramatic terrain with houses on stilts.

Precariously perched.

Tompkinsville is where our story will resume on the next episode of the Staten Island Restaurant Tour. After that I’ll be eating near the ferry landing at St. George, after which the Tour will shift into lower gear as my travel shifts from train to buses. Exciting times ahead. In a good way, I hope.

Previously on the Staten Island Restaurant Tour:

Part I: Angelina’s (Tottenville)

Part II: Fina’s Farmhouse (Arthur Kill)

Part III: Laila (Richmond Valley)

Part IV: Il Forno (Pleasant Plains)

Part V: Breaking Bread (Prince’s Bay)

Part VI: Woodrow Diner (Huguenot)

Part VII: Il Sogno (Annadale)

Part VIII: Riva (Eltingville)

Part IX: Marina Cafe (Great Kills)

Part X: Do Eat (Bay Terrace)

Part XI: Canlon’s (Oakwood Heights)

Part XII: Prince Tea House (New Dorp)

Part XIII: Inca’s Peruvian Grille (Grant City)

Part XIV: Colonnade Diner (Jefferson Avenue)

Part XV: Baci (Dongan Hills)

Part XVI: Chinar on the Island (Old Town)

Part XVII: Cinco de Mayo (Grasmere)

Part XVIII: Phil-Am Kusina (Clifton)

If you’re enjoying the Staten Island Restaurant Tour, please follow my blog by clicking follow next to my name at the top. Then subscribe to get emails on new episodes. You can also subscribe to the SIRT channel on YouTube. See you soon!