Staten Island Restaurant Tour, Part XXXVI: Blue (Snug Harbor)

Blue Whale martini at Blue, culinary jewel of the North Shore.

Thirty-six episodes into the Tour, I toasted its conclusion with a visit to Snug Harbor. Hosting an imposing row of Greek Revival buildings, a botanic garden, a currently closed cafe, an ice cream parlor, an event space, and a law office, it had previously drawn my attention with its multiple museums and concerts at the Music Hall. It lured me once again with the promise of a great story to wind up this series of blogs (soon to be a second ebook).

Postcard of Sailors Snug Harbor.

As usual my spirits were buoyed by the coltish enthusiasm of my fellow Staten Island Ferry riders, making memories for the folks back home.

Novel dual POV: He shoots, she shoots.

Located on the North Shore’s Richmond Terrace, an easy hop from the ferry terminal on the S40 bus, the Snug Harbor Cultural Center was originally known as Sailors Snug Harbor. Or Sailor’s (the singular possessive). Or Sailors’ (plural possessive). One of those. The carefree creative writer has the upper hand nowadays but the mad copyeditor and proofreader still lurks beneath.

Entrance to Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden.

From nursing home to tourist attraction: thereon hangs a tale, which the Parks Dept. tells in an unusual amount of detail.

No apostrophe above the entrance.

Captain Robert Richard Randall, after whom the adjacent neighborhood of Randall Manor was named, decreed that after his death in 1801 his former estate in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village should be turned into a retirement home for “aged, decrepit and worn-out seamen.”

Captain Randall. Was Old Spice’s Captain deodorant named after him?

Posthumous legal challenges held up the project until developers had filled the Village with its noble brownstones — so the retirement home was built instead on the North Shore of Staten Island. Sailors Snug Harbor served that function for a century and a half.

Does Capt. Randall approve? Hard to tell.

By the 1960s Sailors Snug Harbor had fallen into disrepair. The trustees were looking to rebuild — until the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission stepped in and landmarked the buildings in 1968. They were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and the grounds were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976. The signature sight is Temple Row, an interconnected group of five Greek Revivals near the entrance, with another row behind it. Three of them are museums and the other two are set aside for museum expansion. The Noble Maritime collection, center, is based on the work of artist and retired sailor John A. Noble. It includes a houseboat converted into an artist’s studio.

Noble Maritime Collection.

The building with the navy-blue banner at left is the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art. It is probably named for the Newhouse family, the publishing magnates who own (among other things) the Staten Island Advance, the borough’s premier media outlet. Courts upheld the city’s preservation effort by 1968 — but in 1970, the state health department asked the home to fix fire hazards in the 19th century buildings, and the trustees again challenged their landmark status.

Newhouse Center, Building B, Staten Island Museum.

Happy ending: The city acquired the land, the retirement home moved to North Carolina, and the Snug Harbor Cultural Center was born in 1976. It has been an oasis of beauty and culture ever since, attracting a quarter-million visitors a year to Staten Island. The Staten Island Museum is to the right, with Building B, its future annex, to the left.

Building B and a little more of the SI Museum.

Among the more charming and bucolic sights is Cottage Row. These four Victorian cottages served as staff headquarters when Snug Harbor was still a retirement home for sailors. Now they host an ice cream parlor, the entrance to the Chinese Scholar’s Garden, and an occasional artisans’ fair. (There is a small admission fee for the Scholar’s Garden as well as a “suggested donation” for the museums.)

On Cottage Row.

The Eggers Ice Cream Parlor practically demands a return visit. Indeed, this was only the first of two visits — I saved the museums for a future tour. Featured flavors on that day were Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Coconut, Campfire S’mores, and Peach.

Eggers has two other locations, at Historic Richmond Town and on less than leafy Forest Avenue.

Snug Harbor is not just a museum complex in a spacious park. It is also a botany hotspot with 17 gardens, including this greenhouse, plus a heritage farm and a compost site. The Carl Grillo Glass House has arid, tropical, and temperate zones spread over 2800 square feet. It was built in 1999 on the site of the original Snug Harbor greenhouse, and is named for Carl F. Grillo, a Staten Island native associated with New York State’s Liberal Party and an advisor to Mayor Giuliani. (The state’s Liberal Party and Conservative Party are nominally separate entities with their own party lines on the ballot but serve more often as kingmakers: their endorsements help the major parties win elections.)

The Carl Grillo Glass House.

The coolest item, at least in terms of temperature, was the Allée (French for avenue). I can’t explain it any more succinctly than the Snug Harbor website: “This green tunnel is made of 120 upright hornbeam trees curving around an arched structure through a technique called pleaching: a method of tying and interlacing flexible young shoots on a supporting framework to create walkways, arbors and arches. It is a popular technique in French and Italian gardening.” Here’s a little bit of Versailles in Staten Island.

One quibble: There’s no place to sit and enjoy the cool.

The Heritage Farm grows thousands of pounds of produce each year while educating the young in life sciences, sustainable farming, and the importance of seasonal eating.

As the sign says.

Amid natural and manmade beauty, a sobering sight — the World Trade Center Educational Tribute. Dedicated three years after the Twin Towers fell, it is a place for both education and reflection. Inside are artifacts, pictures, a tribute wall commemorating more than 250 souls, and tiles made by children: “Mom… Dad… Uncle… Love…”

World Trade Center Educational Tribute.

One of the 343 FDNY personnel who died that day was firefighter Joseph A. Mascali. He was a certified EMT First Responder and a confined-space and high-angle rope rescuer. Gone at 44.

Member of the elite Rescue 5 unit.

Once in a while, words fail me.

First Responder Mascali and family.

Beauty and history swirling in my head, I exited through one of Snug Harbor’s five gates. A quick walk down Snug Harbor Road, west of the center, led to Blue on Richmond Terrace, peeking through the trees like a well-kept secret.

With the waters separating Staten Island and Manhattan behind it.

But not before standing at the side of the Kill Van Kull, next to the restaurant, to admire a tugboat. There would be more boat ogling from the back windows of the restaurant itself.

Chugga chugga.

Here is Blue, a vision in red. Note the outdoor-dining tent at right.

Red awning, white tent, blue cocktail. It all fits together.

Blue has a pleasant looking, albeit darkish, bar area…

The brighter front-window view attracted a couple of drinkers.

…as well as an elegant front dining room with coffered ceiling.

And lancet windows.

But my few fellow diners were drawn to the back. For obvious reasons.

That’s where the view was.

There were two pre-fixe lunch or dinner menus, at $45 and $55 (at presstime). As often happens, I knew what I wanted to order before even setting foot in the place: focaccia Margherita, Mediterranean salad (as opposed to one of the pasta alternatives), salmon teriyaki (Scottish salmon, with a sweet glaze, plus apples, figs, cranberries, strawberries, and feta, over greens, with orange-amaretto vinaigrette), and for dessert, tartufo. I had never had tartufo and had no idea what it was but it sounded irresistible.

The $45 prix fixe. If you want ribeye or lobster tail, ask for the $55 menu.

Oh, and this. Meet my Blue Whale martini: Grey Whale gin, Saint Germain liqueur, lemon juice and sour mix, and blue Curaçao.

Not my first martini. But my first blue one.

For a while, it distracted me from the view, and it takes a cataclysm to distract me from a view.

The waters in the martini glass were bluer.

The bartender didn’t stint on the gin. When I left that place, I was flyin’.

I dispensed with the lemon slice. It was already perfect.

Eventually, though, airborne or not, I started noticing the traffic on the Kill Van Kull again.

Sky, waterway, and martini, all blue.

Not to mention the arrival of lunch!

Study of salad, focaccia, and martini, minus another sip or two.

The distinction between the focaccia Margherita and a fun-size slice of Sicilian might have been a fine one, but regardless, it was a subtle taste sensation of multiple cheeses, perfect crust, and a little green stuff for, y’know, showmanship.

It photographed better with a bite taken out of it.

Given that the entree came over greens, I may have overdone it on the salad, but the SIRT has added five pounds to my average weight in the past 10 months, and the alternatives were loaded with calories and kidney-stone triggers. When a salad is this rich in tasty stuff, consuming it is no burden.

Mediterranean salad, are you ready for your closeup?

Especially with a little enhancer.

Minus a few more sips from last time.

And now the glazed salmon teriyaki was at hand. A friend inquired about the diamond-pattern plate. Inquiries have been made.

Not a blue-plate special but a special plate at Blue.

A closer look. The thin-sliced salmon, times two, was well-impregnated by sweet teriyaki sauce on both sides.

Salmon, fresh and dried fruit, more salmon.

Right to left: Apples. Figs. Strawbs.

Not the band, the berries.

Keeping things in context.

The Blue Whale’s tail.

Oh, and there was a show in progress. Have I mentioned the show?

Two tugs, in contrasting colors, sail east and west.

This version of tartufo, a Calabrian concoction, turned out to be vanilla gelato encased and layered in molten, then frozen, chocolate. Strictly a black & white affair here, though some versions of tartufo use two different flavors of gelato.

Topped with whipped cream and chocolate flakes.

Here comes a big mamajama. I have lapsed into present tense as an expression of awe. The gentlemen hardly look up.

Perhaps they have not had a Blue Whale today.

The boat is easily longer than the restaurant. A steady hand on the wheel is much appreciated.

Captain Randall might approve.

And there it goes.

Having both northern and eastern exposures helps!

My ride home was nothing so grand. Just the Guy V. Molinari, named for a Staten Island borough president of bygone days.

Crossing the harbor in Big Orange.

The Statue of Liberty had her admirers, as usual, but so did a guy’s phone. Dude, look up. The statue will always be there but every version of the sky is a one-time event. The clouds seemed to converge on Lady Liberty.

His orange tee matched the ferry, though. Points for that.

A few feet away, the lady holding the torch did not go unnoticed. I wonder what she meant to the boy at right, sitting next to his parents.

He is my hope for the future.

The family contemplated Liberty together, as something else slid into view. Something officially known as One World Trade Center.

No one calls it that except the post office.

She points. Look. It’s the Freedom Tower.

The parents of my hope for the future.

The name was changed from Freedom Tower to One World Trade Center in 2009, but everyone here still calls it the Freedom Tower, just as we refer to the Avenue of the Americas as Sixth Avenue. One World Trade Center is an address, but the Freedom Tower is an idea.

Ideas are what capture the imagination.

What is freedom? Is it a zero sum game? Or is it something we all can share?

The Freedom Tower.

This concludes the Staten Island Restaurant Tour. It has been one of the happiest chapters of my career. I hope to repeat it, in various forms, for other parts of the five boroughs and beyond — but I will never stop returning to my now beloved Secret Island.

* * *

Don’t stop reading. Just a little further, please.

Would you mind a little promo? The first 21 parts of the series, one for each stop on the Staten Island Railway, have been collected into a Kindle ebook, Staten Island Restaurant Tour: Eating and Exploring in New York’s Secret Borough. The remaining 15 parts will shortly become Another Staten Island Restaurant Tour: Off the Rails and Onto the Bus in New York’s Secret Borough.

I see these blogs as a body of work and the best way to emphasize that is to collect them into ebooks, one piece flowing into another onto another. It also is the best way to get paid. Think of the ebooks as an online tip jar (or two). When eating out, always tip your server generously. Double the state/city tax is the minimum, 20 percent is not excessive, and when in doubt, round up.

The original Medium blogs remain online, but the photo-heavy format sometimes makes them hard to access in full due to the vagaries of servers, devices, and internet connections. With up to 70 photos in a single blog, possibly scattered among multiple servers, gaps occasionally appear — and without the pictures, much of the text is meaningless. With the ebooks, you’ll never miss a pic, and you’ll help me defray the cost of all that good eatin’. And maybe buy a new pair of walking shoes.

Apart from promoting my books, there is no other form of promo connected with these reviews. I did not ask for, or receive, any free meals or payment. The restaurant owners never knew I was coming (though they did see me taking pictures). I showed up as a civilian, ate my fill, and paid my bill. Any enthusiasm you spot is the honest kind.

I hope the SIRT will encourage you to visit New York’s Forgotten Borough (or as I prefer to call it, the Secret Borough). Get off the tourist track, take some interesting walks, and eat some awesome meals. Along the way you will more than likely be treated considerately by folks who are low key, kind, tolerant, hardworking, and proud of their diverse and historic island.

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)

Part XIX: Lakruwana (Stapleton)

Part XX: Pier 76 (Tompkinsville)

Part XXI: Chang Noi Thai (St. George)

Part XXII: Mike’s Unicorn Diner (Bulls Head)

Part XXIII: Melt Shop (New Springville)

Part XXIV: Da Noi (Travis)

Part XXV: Big Nose Kate’s Saloon (Rossville)

Part XXVI: The Manor (Manor Heights)

Part XXVII: Luk & Bart Homemade Food (Mariners Harbor)\

Part XXVIII: Rinconcito Paisa (Graniteville)

Part XXIX: New Dinette (Port Richmond)

Part XXX: The Stone House (Clove Lakes Park)

Part XXXI: Hitto Ramen (Castleton Corners)

Part XXXII: Primo Pizzeria (West New Brighton)

Part XXXIII: Don Roberto’s Classic Italian (West Brighton)

Part XXXIV: The Veranda (Silver Lake Park)

Part XXXV: Casa Blanca (New Brighton)

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. For offline reading, the first 21 episodes of the SIRT are available as an ebook, and the last 15 will shortly follow. Stay tuned for future tours and miscellaneous blogs. See you soon!