Uptown To Do List - Week of Feb 24, 2025
An ever changing list of things to do above the park
Hello and Happy Monday! This week’s Eats and Drinks is going to be all about Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. If you haven’t been to Little Italy in the Bronx, you are missing out!
Our key for events:
👋 - We are going to this event, so come by and say hello!
🌟 - We wish we could go, but you should go and tell us how it is!
EATS AND DRINKS
Zero Otto Nove (2357 Arthur Ave., The Bronx): this is the original location of the beloved NYC chain. The menu has all of the classic Neapolitan dishes, with amazing pizza coming from their wood-burning brick oven and delicious pastas like mafalde in cartoccio. We also love their fava, cariofi and cacio appetizer and insalata di arugala. All the food is sourced from Arthur Avenue. We usually go there for dinner before events at the Bronx Zoo (like Brew at the Zoo, which happens every June) or the NY Botanical Gardens, which are a short walk away from the restaurant. The restaurant is decorated to look like an Italian villa and has a large back room, so its perfect for large groups. One downside: they don’t take reservations, so make sure to get there early or expect to wait 20 - 30 minutes if you go later or on a weekend night.
Roberto’s Restaurant (603 Crescent Ave., The Bronx): also fairly close to the Bronx Zoo and the NY Botanical Gardens, we went to Roberto’s after seeing the Holiday Train Show at the NYBG (it was amazing - everyone should go, regardless of whether you have children or not). Despite having a reservation, it still took about an hour for us to be seated because the restaurant was SO busy and a little chaotic. Once we were seated and ordered our food, everything was delicious. In addition to its standard menu, Roberto’s has a daily changing blackboard menu, which includes many dishes you wouldn’t see anywhere else. Our party ordered a fettucine with cream and black truffle that had good amount of black truffle shavings on it. We also ordered the branzino and osso bucco off the regular menu and were pretty happy with it. Just be ready to wait for a little while when you get to the restaurant!
Arthur Avenue Retail Market (2344 Arthur Ave., The Bronx): one of the last four remaining WPA markets established by Mayor LaGuardia in the 1930s (including Essex Street Market and East Harlem’s La Marqueta), it is a fixture in Little Italy in the Bronx. The market includes cigar makers, butchers, cheesemongers, a beer hall, a pizzeria and a green grocer - if you are making any Italian dishes, you have to make a stop here for ingredients! Our favorite buys are from Mike’s Deli - the mozzarella (featured in Chris Bianco’s episode of Chef’s Table: Pizza) and the sun-dried peppers (which are great toppings for sandwiches and pizzas!).
HAPPENINGS
👋 Harlem Ice is now available on Disney+. It is a five-part documentary series that follows the girls of Figure Skating in Harlem through some very exciting journeys. There is also a recent write up in the New York Times about Figure Skating in Harlem’s search for an indoor rink. We are probably going to do a private showing in our apartment this weekend!
Morir Sonando, a comedy show, returns to United Palace (4140 Broadway between West 175th and 176th Streets) on Wednesday, February 26th at 6:30 and 9pm. The performance promises an “uproarious night of stand-up comedy,” which, you know, we could all use. Tickets are tiered: $25 for standing room, $35 for general admission and $50 for the front row. Get yours here.
🌟 Secret City is Live in Harlem on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, February 27, 28 and March 1 as part of the 2025 Composers Now Festival. The event description promises gates opening to a world where dreams whisper and magic dances. The Secret City website seems to confirm that this organization? place? is music focused and there may be cocktails and/or baked goods. More than that I could not gather despite spending some time on the various sites. Point is, this sounds like fun. If you figure out what’s happening tell us because we probably want to go too.
Check out Harlem Fashion Week Presents: “We Are Not Going Back” at Harlem School of the Arts (645 St. Nicholas Avenue, north of West 141st Street) on Saturday, March 1, at 5:30. The event will be a celebration of the creative resistance of Black culture through the powerful lens of fashion, art and performance. There will be a fashion show, photo gallery, curated vendors and a celebration of dance, drama and music. All guests are kindly asked to wear something “Made by Black.” The photo exhibit starts at 5:30, runway show at 7pm. Get tickets here.
Calling all artists: the Uptown Arts Stroll Poster Contest is live. Cash prizes range from $500 to $2000. Artists must live or work in West Harlem, Washington Heights or Inwood (defined by the contest folks as West 125th to West 220th Streets). But if you live there (I assume school also counts), you’re eligible to enter. If you haven’t heard, the Uptown Arts Stroll started as a volunteer-organized one-day event the Sunday before Thanksgiving and grew into a month-long festival. The Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA) is the producer of the Uptown Arts Stroll. Enter your artwork here and be quick. The deadline is March 16th. If you need inspiration, you can see some of the past posters here.
Speaking of contests, the NYPL is hosting a James Baldwin Creative Contest for Teens. Between now and Sunday, March 23rd, teens can create a piece of work (choose from short stories, essays, letters or narrative/comic art) that takes its inspiration from Baldwin’s work. Submissions are limited to 2,000 words or five pages if you’ve selected the comic art approach. Winners can get published and win $250 (some of which you’ll certainly want to contribute to the operations of Above the Park)! Deets here.
DID YOU KNOW?
The first New York City apartment of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas author and creator of “gonzo journalism” Hunter S. Thompson was located at 110 Morningside Park between West 121 and 122nd Streets. He stayed there for free thanks to an old Air Force friend, who gave him a room in exchange for chores. That wasn’t his only residence above the park, either. Thompson later lived at 562 West 113th Street, where he was reported to be a menace. If you’re intrigued, you can follow his journey through NYC here.