West Village, 14th Street at Eighth Avenue; Eighth Avenue Between 14th and 13th Streets

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So Friday late afternoon, FL and I head downtown to meet Myra to go for a walk on the just opened newly done High Line. High excitement. And FL consented to go early so I could get a photowalk in. And not only did it not rain, the sun came out. Things to be thankful for.


Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Tonight I'm going to show you two buildings, the old and the new. Well, part of the old. This was originally the New York County National Bank, built in 1907. If you crave to see the whole building, click on the above link. Can you guess what it is today? Why, a men's spa, of course. Nickel, by name. They have designed it to look like the inside of a submarine which results in a "masculine yet sophisticated environment." Funnily enough, the Chinese massage place that FL, Myra and I dropped into after dinner for $10 worth of massage each also looked like the interior of a submarine. There's where the resemblance ended. Sophisticated, it wasn't.



Mary Sargent © 2009 . click to enlarge

Now, around the corner on Eighth Avenue, we have One Jackson Square, almost finished. What recession?

FL was taken with the building, especially the shiny parts, but objected to the brick. She thought it should be some kind of gray metal.



Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Surprise! It has a long side, too. Along Greenwich Avenue. It does look better on this side where no brick is showing, don't you think?


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West Village, Greenwich Avenue Between 11th and 12th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

So I walked right into Roasting Plant Coffee and ordered a small skim latte. And I had a chocolate chunk cookie, even though it was my diet day. I diet every other day. But what the hell, I had to make a full report to my readers.

Good thing I got in before the crowd came in. Notice the gal in the red has on a jacket and flip flops. It was that kind of a weather day. Not too warm, not too cool.

Okay, the first thing to know is the sizes are small, medium and large. None of this having to think, uh, what should I say if I want medium? The second thing is that they don't just grind the beans immediately before they make your cup, they roast their beans every day on site. Thus the stainless steel and plastic tubing.



Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

See those little desks or booths in the back? You can bring your laptop in and plug it right in. I want a laptop.

So the coffee? Excellent. So was the cookie. It had that homemade taste, the one you taste in the top back of your mouth.

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