The Adventures of Baby Arthur

by Lincoln

We didn't have any travel plans over the long Labor Day weekend so we spent it at home and around town. We took this opportunity to spend an afternoon with Moira, See-Fut and Wylie right over the bridge in Brooklyn in an area called DUMBO. The name has nothing to do with the elephant and it actually stands for "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass". I used to spend a bit of time in the Brooklyn Heights area years ago and sometimes down in DUMBO. Boy, have things changed down there! DUMBO is now teeming with life and has surprisingly become quite a family oriented area.

We started off by visiting Brooklyn Bridge Park. The park itself is still years away from being finished, but it already has a lot to offer. The riverside park his home to one of the largest kiddie playgrounds around and the playing complex is appropriately shaped like a boat. Following the mariner theme, there is also a sandbox shaped like a rowboat and a kiddie fountain as well. The park also has a large grass picnic area a seasonal weekly farmers market by Community Markets. Best of all are the breathe-taking and pervasive views of the Manhattan skyline.

The DUMBO area also offers many restaurants, including the famous River Cafe and Grimaldi's pizzeria. I think Grimaldi's may serve the best pizza in NYC. Hundreds of other agreed with me on this day, as the line literally wrapped around the block! Before heading back home we stopped by Rice for a snack. Perhaps the best feature of this restaurant was the connection to Speak Up, which is a really nice garden patio bar for relaxing outdoor drinking. (We saved the drinking for another time!)

While the food itself was probably a bit too vegetarian for my taste, what struck me the most was the number of strollers, families and children of all ages at the place. This was no anomaly, as the waitstaff was prepared for this clientele. They quickly offered us a high chair, straws and a plastic cup for Arthur to drink his water. The final icing on the cake was the group of two young and fresh twenty something females that walked in. They took one look inside the joint and told the host "there are just way too many babies in here, sorry!".

I'd venture to guess that the recent real estate boom ushered in a new population of young families. This isn't a surprise as DUMBO seems like a real great place to live!

In Other News... Shang NYC

It was also Grandma's birthday, so for the occasion, we took her to an extra fancy Chinese meal at Shang NYC. If you clicked on the link, it took you straight to the dessert menu! That's because while the food was perfectly decent, the best part was the dessert BY FAR. We had the warm chocolate cake, fresh mango panacotta and house made fresh sorbet. All were perfectly made and devoured quickly. There aren't many eaters that are pickier than my mom and she gave it a glowing approval by saying that she "hadn't had such a great dessert in quite some time". Here's the gold star for Pastry Chef Melissa Chang for making my mom's birthday dinner a success!

However, since this is a blog about babies, I will mention that we took the first reservation of the evening by design. They don't offer high chairs and probably wouldn't be the most kid friendly establishment when they are busy! Nevertheless, Shang gets my vote!

Labels: nyc