New York City Vacation #4
Return to Landsdowne Road
Written by Dan
McDonald
I
finished walking the High Line sometime in the afternoon on Saturday May 23. I
had started along the northern end of the High Line near 34th Street
and walked down to 14th Street and then walked all the way back to
34th Street. I wanted to finish my afternoon along the west side of
Midtown Manhattan. In December of 2014, when I spent three days in New York
City I had stayed in an apartment on the West side. I had become a little
familiar with the area recognized depending on exactly where you were in the
area as the Clinton area, or Chelsea, or Hell’s Kitchen, the Theater District
and on 46th Street there was restaurant row, all a few blocks west of
Times Square. But especially I wanted to pay a visit to the first place in New
York City where I had eaten a meal. On the first Monday of December 2014 I flew
into the Newark airport and caught a taxi to bring me to Manhattan. It was a late
afternoon flight. I felt a bit excited but nervous about my coming to New York
City. Riding in a taxi can be an experience in New York City. I had always
heard that. Whenever the traffic slowed for a moment, the cabbie began honking
his horn. If there was a red light we could see ahead, it didn’t matter it was
as if the horn was connected to the brake. If the car stopped the horn blew. As
we reached the Holland Tunnel, the underwater tunnel gateway to Manhattan from
New Jersey there was a short curb and a sign telling drivers not to change
lanes. The cabbie looked over at the lane and decided he could save a couple of
minutes by changing lanes and so we jumped the curb and were on our way. I was
beginning to wonder if coming alone to New York City had been a good idea. This
was a big city and I would be alone. What was I getting myself into?
I
reached the apartment where I would stay and got the key from the desk per
instruction of the owner of the apartment. I was going to be staying at an
apartment through a bed n’ breakfast set up. It was really only a place to stay.
Breakfast did not come with the room. I would not see the owner very much as
she had a job and it was a busy time for her. It all sort of sunk in that I was
close to being alone in this great metropolis. I had not been a city kid and
the city was growing bigger than I would probably be able to handle in my own
mind. I had grown up in a rural area outside of a small village. The village
where our mail was addressed had contained 13 houses. New York City was home to
several million, some 69,000 people per square mile on the island of Manhattan.
I knew no one and you hear the stories. The stories that it isn’t as bad as
they make out and the stories that such and such a person did get mugged when
he was there. I was hungry and I decided to try to find a restaurant.
I
passed by some restaurants like an Ethiopian restaurant. I didn’t want my
eating to be an adventure into the unknown on this first evening. I guess I wanted
something kind of making me feel almost like home. Finally on 10th
Avenue I saw a pub that reminded me just a little of my favorite pub in Tulsa.
McNellie’s Pub in Tulsa is modeled after pubs like those serving in Ireland.
Landsdowne Road seemed like something I might enjoy. I enjoy good ale, or a
good IPA. I generally go weeks between drink, but I do enjoy a couple of drinks
on occasion. Landsdowne Road had a Guinness sign and that indicated good beer even
if my taste was more for pale ale or a lighter brew than a Guinness. I sat down
and ordered an IPA on draught – as I have yet to meet an IPA that I didn’t like.
I looked over the
menu and then asked the server for recommendations. There was enough background
commotion that I did not really understand the server well because I don’t hear
well when there is background noise. She recommended the wings, saying that was
what gave the pub its reputation. I thought onion rings sounded pretty good and
ordered onion rings to go with Shepherd’s Pie. She looked at me as if I was a
bit strange to ask for a recommendation and then to go ahead and order onion
rings. I sort of figured out after that she had recommended the wings, as in Buffalo
wings. But the Shepherd pie and onion rings did hit the spot.
Later I told the
server that sometimes I didn’t hear too well when there was background sounds.
She asked me where I was from and I told her I had grown up in Illinois and had
spent a little more than half of my life in Oklahoma. She said, “You’re
Oklahoma” in a way that seemed to indicate that was something of a good thing
or at least not a bad thing. She added, “But you need to come back and try our
wings, they are our specialty.”
There was something
about the conversation that made me feel like coming to New York City was going
to be alright. Looking back I think that it was simply I felt my first sense of
a genuine human connection in this big city. A big city can be overwhelming,
but all that changes with a sense of a genuine human connection. I came back
before I left New York City and had the Buffalo wings mild version in my
December visit. They were fantastic. I had a different server. When I came back
this May to New York City, after walking the high line I searched up and down
10th Avenue until I found my way back to Landsdowne Road. I had the
wings spicy. I prefer the mild, but probably others would just as much prefer
the spicy. I was disappointed that they didn’t have any Landsdowne Road
t-shirts for sale or otherwise I would have bought one. I told the server that
I had a story for how a conversation at Landsdowne Road had meant a lot to me
in my first visit to New York City and I would write it in a blog. The important
thing is that it was not the sort of conversation that anyone would imagine to
be anything special. But for me, wondering if I had been mistaken in coming to
New York City that first true human connection changed everything. I was ready
from that moment to experience this great city along mouth of the Hudson River.
Perhaps that is why
Landsdowne Road will always have a place in my heart and why I will probably
visit there if and whenever I make it back to New York City. The server who
waited on me this time last time reminded of the one who waited on me in December, but a memory from nearly six months earlier is a pretty shaky thing. But now as I ate for my third time at Landsdowne Road I felt like I belonged in New York City at least for this two weeks. There was no other place I wanted to be. If there is a lesson
from this story it is simply to try to be human whenever you deal with others. Sometimes
a simple human connection can mean so much to someone in their circumstances that you know nothing about. I believe my first New York City visit began to be a joy when I felt a human connection.
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