Uptown To Do List - Week of Dec. 9, 2024
An ever changing list of things to do above the park
Hello and Happy Monday! We’re motoring toward the new year and hoping to leave no tree unlit along the way. We’re glad you’re along for the ride. Tell your friends!
EATS AND DRINKS
Mess Hall (2194 Frederick Douglass Blvd West 118 and 119th Streets): we love a bar with a gimmick, so it will come as no surprise that we fell in love with Mess Hall back in the days of the “adult happy meal,” when Mess Hall’s food sitch was comprised almost entirely of hotdogs and cheese poofs. So when the hotdog program dried up, we found ourselves pretty lost. Until we learned about Martini Mondays. (Cacophony is just a grammar gimmick, after all.) On these magical Martini Mondays (which is every Monday), you can get two martinis and a snack caddy for $30 or $12 martinis all night, or both. Just remember a lot of restaurants above the park are closed on Mondays, so if you expect to sop up some of that delicious booze with local carbs, make sure your landing spot is open!
Bird in Hand (3569 Broadway between West 146th and 147th): we haven’t had a bad meal at Bird in Hand (which was on our Thanksgiving dinner rec list) and they deserve a special shout-out for trying to make vegan soul food with their maitake fried chicken and their brunchtime plant-based chicken n’ waffles (made with plant-based chicken rather than mushrooms). Would eat both again, though they really hit it out of the park with their panko-fried crispy deviled eggs. (And one of us doesn’t even like deviled eggs.) Bonus: there are two happy hours each day, Monday-Friday (12-6 pm and 11 pm-2 am). For the early happy hour, all draft beers, wine and menu cocktails are $2 off. For the late happy hour (which adds Sundays to its roster too), the deals include $10 classic cocktails, $7 draft beers and $8 wines by the glass.
Beer Run Harlem (3604 Broadway between West 148th and 149th Streets): Harlem has a sore lack of bottle shops but beer run makes up for the bottle shop drought. It has a small but mighty selection that is well-organized and pretty reasonably priced. The spot doubles as a bar—it feels like the sort of spot you’d find in the East Village. You can order beers on draft or pay a small corkage fee and open up something delicious you find in one of the refrigerators. We stumbled in on a weekend and landed in the middle of a women’s soccer match—and a lot of women’s soccer fans. So I think if you like beer or women’s soccer, this spot definitely is for you.
HAPPENINGS
Holiday Tree Lighting Festival (Plaza de law Americas, Broadway at West 175th Street): on Thursday, December 12th from 3pm on, NoMAA is hosting a series of fun times in Washington Heights. At 3pm, there will be ornament making inside United Palace Theater, followed by a Holiday Market starting at 4pm in the United Palace annex. You will probably not want to miss the drumline with Bean Block, which starts at 5 and culminates in the tree lighting in Plaza de las Americas at 5:30. If you get through the tree lighting and still haven’t had enough, there will be an open mic at United Palace starting at 7pm (doors at 6:30). Everything is free to attend but obviously you’ll want to buy something from the market, so don’t forget some cash.
Little Women at United Palace (4140 Broadway between West 175th and 176th): on Sunday, December 15th, pre-show at 2:30, movie at 3pm, United Palace will be screening Little Women (2019) for the ridiculously affordable ticket price of $5. The movie will begin with pre-show caroling on stage because the good people at United Palace want to make sure you get a $25 show for the price of $5. As if that weren’t enough, before all of the festivities start, there will be a “book swap” in the Grand Foyer in collaboration with Word Up Community Bookshop where you can contribute gently loved books in exchange for new reads. Buy your tickets here.
Family Days at the Moris-Jumel Mansion (65 Jumel Terrace between West 160th and 162nd): on Saturday, December 14th from 1-3pm (and the second Saturday of every month), join the folks at the Morris-Jumel Mansion for a day of family programming that will take place in the old 18th-Century kitchen! The Morris-Jumel Mansion is cool because it is the oldest surviving residence in Manhattan (gasp)! In fact, George Washington—that guy they named the bridge after—used the house as his headquarters. On tap this weekend is lantern making, just in time for the holidays. The program is free and open to the public but first come, first served, so you will want to get there closer to 1 than 3. Families will also receive a Family Day ticket code, which will allow them to visit the museum itself for free on a different day, which you will want to do, because how often do you get to make lanterns in George Washington’s kitchen?!
Coca-Cola Winter Wonderland at the Apollo Stages at The Victoria (233 West 125th Street, right next to the Apollo, which is between Adam Clayton Powell and Fred Doug): on December 14th at 2pm, if you aren’t at the Moris-Jumel Mansion, you probably want to be at the Apollo Stages at The Victoria doing a wide array of holiday-themed activities, including pictures with Santa, all while taking in some amazing performances. Also, did we mention that it’s all FREE? Yep, FREE. We haven’t been to The Victoria yet, but it’s been on our list, so we are looking forward to this.
DID YOU KNOW?
The first cab company in New York was founded in 1896. It ran a fleet of fully electric cars called Electrobats, which weighed in at 2,500 pounds—approximately the same weight as a modern Citibike e-bike. Electrobats could achieve top speeds of 15 miles per hour and cover distances of up to 25 miles on a single charge.
The first Electrobat vehicle charging stations above the park started with the Harlem Electric Company at 6 East 116th Street and ended at the United Electric Light & Power Company at 201st Street and the Harlem River. Today, sadly, we only have two curbside electric vehicle chargers at a single station above the park in Manhattan: they are both located on Fort Washington Avenue between West 164th and 165th.