Uptown To Do List - Week of Jan 20, 2025
An ever changing list of things to do above the park
Hello and Happy Monday!
EATS AND DRINKS
Talkin’ Tacos (4179 Broadway at West 177th Street): Talkin’ Tacos is part of a multi-state chain and has that vibe. You order on kiosks and the aesthetic of the spot is sort of like a Chipotle painted all black with a lot of neon paint. The portions are big and affordable with limited options for customization. There’s no spicy salsa but there are several different hot sauces you can try, including cayenne, habanero and jalepeno. We went there hoping specifically to eat the queso, which is pictured online with a Mexican flag of toppings but our queso came with just a few crumbled takis on top and definitely nothing white or green. The birria and bang bang shrimp tacos were good and, if junk food is what you’re craving, this place will hit the spot. We went on our way to a show at United Palace and, for that, it is a great option because the theater is about a block away.
Jerk House (2143 Adam Clayton Powell Blvd at West 127th Street): The slogan of Jerk House is “We’re jerking amazing” and, even though it’s a chain, we kind of agree. We have only ever had the jerk chicken dinner and only in takeout form but it is good. In fact, it’s a mainstay at our place. We have only two complaints about this magical jerk house and here they are: first, they don’t really serve any vegetables (you can get rice and peas and also sauteed cabbage but that’s about it), and second, they don’t jerk anything that isn’t meat though their website promises that “You can jerk almost anything!” So this is not a place for vegetarians but if you eat chicken or pork, this IS the place for you.
Maki (3208 Broadway between West 125th and 126th): Maki is a newcomer Japanese grab and go type spot. There are tables and chairs in the place but it seems to us clearly to cater to a grab and go crowd. We stopped by in the very first days it was open and took advantage of a BOGO sushi special. Everything was delicious and fresh. The service was awesome. The matcha in particular gets rave reviews from us and others (but don’t sleep on the fish, really don’t). According to Yelp right now, Maki is running a few specials: 10% off matcha drinks if you order over the phone, 50% off your second sushi, and free miso soup with a poke bowl. You’d do well with any one of these.
HAPPENINGS
Wicked Trivia at Beer Run Harlem (3604 Broadway between West 148th and 149th) on Thursday, January 23, at 7pm! All the questions will center around your knowledge of the movie/musical Wicked! The beer selection will be excellent. Free to play, prizes for the winner. If you’re lucky, the prize will be more beer!
If Wicked isn’t your thing OR you feel like you need an afterparty for your Wicked trivia victory, head over to Bixi (2164 Fred Doug at West 117th Street) on Thursday, January 23 starting at 9pm for some live music. Happy hour lasts until 8, so if you aren’t at Beer Run, you should be at Bixi taking advantage of some of their specials before the live music starts. (Also if you want to hit up Bixi but skip live music, on Mondays from 5-10pm, martinis are two for one—whoa. That happy hour is almost as long as Chocolat’s, which the sign out front tells me is from 2-8 though, remarkably, not advertised on their website. Hmmm.)
Playwright’s Playground will be taking place on January 27th at 7pm at Harlem Stage. Playwrights can pre-submit 10-12 pages of new work in the early stages of development. Actors are cast on the spot at the event and perform a cold reading, followed by a moderated audience feedback session. RSVP here. (There are a series of these types of events being hosted by Harlem Stage, so keep an eye out for similar future posts here if this sounds interesting to you.)
Harlem School of the Arts is offering FREE Afro-Caribbean, Yoga and Movement and Swing Dance classes now through January 27th. They promise dance will “boost flexibility, muscular strength, stamina, balance, cognitive ability and cardiovascular health,” which probably checks a lot of New Year’s resolution boxes for a lot of people, so no excuses. Register here.
National Book Award Finalist I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter has been adapted to a play by Literature to Life and the WORLD PREMIER will take place on Monday, January 27, at 7pm at United Palace (4140 Broadway between West 175th and 176th). Tickets are a steal at $20 (buy them here), which is less than we would pay just to sit in the theater with nothing going on—but especially when you consider that there is a talkback after the performance.
The New York Road Runners will kick off their 2025 Rising New York Road Runners season in Washington Heights on Sunday, March 2nd at 8am. Whoo! There are three stages to this FREE event: Stage 1 is a non-competitive short dash sitch for kids ages 2 to 11; Stage 2 is an untimed non-competitive half mile run for kids ages 8 to 18; Stage 3 is a competitive one mile race for kids ages 12 to 18. I do not think you can combine children to get to the qualifying minimum age but you can ask any questions you have about these events here.
DID YOU KNOW?
The world famous Apollo Theater was originally a whites-only theater known as Hurtig & Seamon’s New Burlesque Theater. In 1914, Benjamin Hurtig and Harry Seamon obtained a 30 year lease on the theater, which was newly constructed at the time. They lasted almost 20 years, until Fiorella La Guardia (yeah, that airport guy), began a campaign against burlesque in 1933. His wasn’t the first campaign in NYC but it was the one inadvertently gave birth to the gem that is the Apollo! You can read more about the Apollo’s history here or, better yet, take yourself on a tour.