In February, I had a post about the Bronx and the neighborhood I grew up in. I mentioned The Bronx Ale House. I was under the impression that the Ale House had taken over an old Irish neighborhood bar, The Punch Bowl. Today I was actually in my old neighborhood and saw that The Punch Bowl is still there on the corner of 238th and Broadway. The Bronx Ale House is also on 238th, a couple of doors down. Now all I have to do is to go to both and see if The Punch Bowl is still the same and what kind of craft beer the Ale House has.
Posts Tagged ‘New York’
The Punch Bowl is Still The Punch Bowl
Friday, August 20th, 2010George Steinbrenner - Rest In Peace
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010Yesterday George Steinbrenner died at the age of eighty. Steinbrenner was majority owner of the Yankees for over thirty-seven years. During that time, the Yankees won eleven American League championships and seven World Series. A controversial and commanding personality, Steinbrenner was probably one of two great Yankee owners. He also contributed greatly to the growth and commercial success of baseball through his ownership of the YES cable network.
I have been a Yankee fan since the early1970s and for many of the years I disliked Steinbrenner and his antics with managers and players. However, more recently I watched “The Bronx is Burning”, the ESPN series about the Yankees during the 1977 season. Oliver Platt’s portrayal of Steinbrenner was nuanced and empathetic. I appreciate the dedication and commitment Steinbrenner provided to making the Yankees the great team they are.
The other great Yankee owner was Jacob Ruppert. Ruppert created the Yankees through his purchase of Babe Ruth and building of Yankee Stadium. He was also a major figure in the brewing industry. Here is an excerpt from Brewing Battles about Ruppert’s death:
“On January 14, 1939, Jacob Rupert died at the age of 71. He had been sick since April, and his death was front-page news in New York. Besides Rupert’s family, Babe Ruth was the last person to see the Colonel.
When Ruth arrived at the Rupert apartment, the Colonel was in an oxygen tent, in which he had been placed at 4:30 o’clock. He was removed from his tent at 7:15 P.M., and the first thing he said, according to his nurse Ann McGill, was:
“I want to see the Babe.”
“Here he is, right beside you,” she said.
The dying man opened his eyes and reached out his hand to Ruth, but was
too weak to speak. Ruth patted his hand.
“Colonel,” he said, “you are going to snap out of this, and you and I are going to the opening game of the season.”
The Colonel smiled faintly but still could not talk. Ruth turned away and started to leave the room, but the Colonel summoned up his strength and called to him weakly. Ruth returned to the bedside, and the Colonel again held out his hand and murmured the one word “Babe.”
“It was the only time in his life he ever called me Babe to my face,” Ruth said after he heard the news of the Colonel’s death. “I couldn’t help crying when I went out. (New York Times January 14, 1939)
At the time of his death Ruppert had a wealth of more than $100 million. Descended from German immigrants, he had risen to the upper echelons of New York society. Much of his fortune was in real estate. His brewery holdings included Hell Gate brewery which he had purchased from the heirs of George Ehret in1935. Under his leadership the Yankees won ten American League pennants and seven World Series. After purchasing Babe Ruth from the Red Sox for $100,000 in 1919, he made him the highest paid baseball player for many years. Prominent honorary pallbearers at the funeral included Joe McCarthy, manager of the Yankees, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, former Governor Alfred E. Smith, Senator Robert F. Wagner, Julius Leibmann, President of Leibmann Brewery, Babe Ruth,Edward J. Schmidt, Philadelphia brewer, C.D. Williams, Secretary of the USBA, Lou Gehrig, representing the Yankees, and Rudolph J. Schaefer, President of F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company.
Over 15,000 people attended the services at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. Among the mourners was a delegation of beer distributors from New England. Lou Gehrig expressed his condolences as follows, “His loss is a great one. He was one of the outstanding sportsmen of the era, and a most loyal friend.” Seven months later, the talented and durable first basemen would ceasse playing, a victim of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The Iron Horse declared himself “the luckiest man on the face of this earth.”
Jacob Ruppert and Miss Harwood at Yankee Stadium, 1921
Towers
Saturday, April 17th, 2010Yesterday we went to the John Hancock Center and went up to the observatory on the 94th floor. You could see Chicago and beyond in all directions as well as how Lake Michigan curves and the coastline of the lake. The lake is a wonderful resource for Chicago and they seem to have known that from very early on. They did not build factories on the coast and now there are beaches along it. Although there are highways that run along the lakefront, there are various access points for non-vehicular traffic.
The observation experience at the Hancock was well done. You got a hand held device with earphones and narration for what you were seeing. Many of the views were of Navy Pier with the big Ferris wheel in the middle. It looked very inviting so we went there next.
Navy Pier is a mall, a museum, a marina and an amusement park all in one. The amusement park includes three rides; one of which is a recreation of the original Ferris wheel, built for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. I did not know until yesterday that there was an actual creator of the Ferris wheel named, - surprise, surprise - George Washington Gale Ferris. Ferris, Daniel Burnham and others wanted to build something for the Chicago World’s Fair that would rival the Eiffel Tower that had been built for the 1889 Paris Exposition. Since the original wheel created in 1893 was demolished in 1906, the creators did not succeed. However, subsequent Ferris wheels continue to provide entertainment for countless people.
The other thing I learned at the Hancock building is that it is part of the World Federation of Great Towers. I have been in four of them, Hancock, CN Tower, Toronto, Space Needle, Seattle and the Empire State Building, New York.
Bells
Monday, April 12th, 2010Today we went to the library and then we walked to the Rockefeller Chapel, which is on the campus of the University of Chicago. The building is very large and very beautiful. When we got there, the organist was practicing for a concert tomorrow. He played beautifully so we are tempted to go back. There will also be tea and biscuits, which provides added incentive.
At 5:30, we went on a “tour” of the carillon in the bell tower. Both the carillon and the chapel were gifts of John D. Rockefeller and his son John D. Jr. The tour guides were the bell player (the fancy name is carillonist ) and her husband. It felt like it was a million steps up and across a couple of narrow catwalks. The carillon is the second largest in the world. The first, at Riverside Church in New York, was also a Rockefeller gift.
The view from the top of the tower was amazing. You could see the Chicago skyline and Lake Michigan. The music from the bells was very enchanting and had a unique sound. It is essentially a keyboard; she used her fists and feet.
Yesterday we went to the White Sox game. It was a lot of fun and they won. Their slogan is The Chicago White Sox: It’s Black and White. Most people at the stadium, even if they weren’t wearing White sox paraphernalia, were wearing white and black. It’s a great color scheme. Very modern.
Cellular Field is nothing to look at from the outside. It doesn’t have the old-fashioned feeling of the new Yankee Stadium. It is more like the old Shea Stadium - mostly parking lots and no neighborhood.
Inside it was pretty nice and the crowd was very well behaved. No drunken outbursts. Of course, it is possible that the Twins are not major rivals. I’m not sure about that. The people in Chicago are really friendly and the atmosphere in the stadium was probably due to that.
To get to the stadium we took a bus and the train. That made it feel much more like we were in the city. We even got a transit card. Coming back, the train wasn’t even crowded; I think more people go back to downtown – north - than south to Hyde Park, which is what we were doing.
Hyde Park Is Not That Convenient
Friday, April 9th, 2010We are staying in the Hyde Park area of Chicago. It is pretty with tree-lined streets and several parks. The apartment is about a twenty-minute walk to the University of Chicago. The problem is that there is no subway here and so far, everywhere we have thought about going is a long bus ride away. Also, I am used to college neighborhoods having restaurants, bars, bookstores, and pizza places. We have not found anything like that yet. It seems more like Raleigh than a first rate city. Maybe I am just used to New York. However, even Amherst, where the town is about three or four blocks, appears to have more going on.
A short walk from the apartment is a little strip mall with a small market, two restaurants, some stores and a CVS. We ate at Cedars tonight and it was good. Tomorrow we are going downtown - long bus ride - and maybe we will see the real Chicago.
Beer in Other Places
Saturday, March 6th, 2010In the past week there have been some interesting items about beer in different places as well as some different beer customs.The New York Times had a very interesting story about beer in Vietnam. The local draft beer is bia hoi, “a crisp, cold beer with a clean taste suggesting rice and an almost subliminal whisper of something like hops.” I think most of the Americans who go to Vietnam are Vietnam War vets but I loved China and it would be very exciting to visit other parts of Asia.
The Alcohol and Drugs History Society website has a story today about Green Beer Day at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. David Fahey teaches there. It is apparently a pre- St. Patrick’s Day beer crawl. This year there were twenty arrests.
A Good Beer Blog writes about proposed beer regulation in Botswana. One of the local beers is chibuku is made from sorghum. They also have a higher alcohol content beer made from honey and sugar, khadi. The Chinese make Baiiju from sorghum. It is very strong and viscous. I didn’t really like the taste.
The final item comes from the Mount Hope Monitor, a Bronx newspaper. Apparently Burger Kings plans to sell domestic beers - Budweiser - in some New York locations. I do not know if that will make Burger King more or less appealing.
The Bronx
Sunday, February 14th, 2010Today’s New York Times has an article about the Kingsbridge neighborhood, in the Bronx. I lived in this area from the age of eleven until I went to college. I have been in every place mentioned in the article many times. I have also traveled on the No.1 train more times than I can remember.
No. 1 Train (Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times)
I first saw this article on the website, Bronx News Network. One of the places mentioned in the article, The Bronx Ale House, was the feature picture of the BNN in November and will be the site of a fundraiser for the website.
Years ago, the Bronx Ale House was The Punch Bowl, a standard Irish bar like many others in the Bronx during the 70s, 80s, and 90s. I hope to visit the Bronx Ale House, which is now a craft beer bar, the next time I visit my family or go to a Yankee game.
Bronx Ale House
The Times article also mentioned S&S cheesecake. This is the best cheesecake I have ever had and I highly recommend it.
This post is my 100th post on word press. If you count the thirty-eight posts I did manually on my website, amymiittelman.com, I am closing in on 150 altogether.
New Year Plans
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009My friend Jan, who blogs at Restaurant-ing Through History, has an excellent post with ideas for her blog in the coming year. I like what she did so I thought I would do the same.
I hope to post more about our recent research trip. On the way home, we stopped at Gettysburg and I have few things to say about it. We are planning more research trips so those will probably generate posts as well. One place we are thinking of going is Chicago, which would certainly enable me to compare another big city with New York.
I also hope to post more about my new project, Dames, Dishes, and Degrees. The upcoming political year promises to be very challenging so it is more than likely that I will have something to say about that.
I also plan to change the look of musings a bit. Some blogs will be leaving the blog roll and new ones taking their place. It is nothing against the ones I am removing; I just feel it is time for a change. I am now on twitter and I am hoping to display some of my tweets.
I wish everyone a healthy and happy New Year. Cheers!
Cancer
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009As part of my research for my new book, I have been reading short stories from various eras of Harper’s Magazine. One written in 1949, “The Lady Walks,” by Jean Powell, deals with a faculty wife who has breast cancer. Although my original interest in the story was because of the faculty wife character, Ravita, as a nurse I found the description of the cancer treatment clinic she goes to unsettling. The description did not seem that different from clinics I have worked at various times in the past fifteen years.
After reading the story, I have concluded that things have not changed as much as we might think or like in the area of treatment of cancer. Today I participated in a Cancer Care teleconference, “The Latest Developments Reported at the 32nd Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.” It was very interesting; there are new drugs that might prevent bone loss in cancer patients as well possibly prevent the re-ocurrence of cancer. However, treatment for certain kinds of breast cancer is a five-year process, which seems extraordinary long.
Around Thanksgiving, I read a story in the New York Times about a recreational lounge for cancer patients at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, a hospital in New York City. One of the patients is Seun Adebiyi, a young Nigerian immigrant and a Yale Law School graduate. He has lymphoblastic lymphoma and stem-cell leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. He is also trying to be the first Nigerian to compete in the Winter Olympics in skeleton. His goal is 2014. I have participated in a bone marrow drive but I have never received a call to donate.
I have had friends who have died from ovarian cancer and relatives who have experienced lung cancer. Although we may not have made as much progress in the last sixty years as we would have liked, let us hope that we can make significant progress against cancer in the coming days.
Raleigh
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009We are home now after our two week research/vacation trip. Internet access was a bit of problem so I was not able to post as much as I would have liked. I have written before about the immediacy of blogging and how I sometimes just ignore that imperative. This turns out to be one of those times.
Our trip to Raleigh was very interesting, particularly because it was a Southern city. It seemed segregated; we did not see that many people of color in restaurants or at the university. Nine percent of the student population of North Carolina State University is African-American. This seemed low to me but there is a historically black college North Carolina Central University nearby in Durham, which is ninety percent African-American.
The underlying context of my new book, Dames, Dishes, and Degrees, is the changes in higher education in the past 100 years. After being in Raleigh, I wonder about the continued existence of historically black colleges, especially when they are state institutions.
I think my reaction to the lack of diversity in Raleigh is understandable, but I realize that Amherst, where I live, is not necessarily that much more diverse. The comparable public university in Amherst is the University of Massachusetts. Four percent of its student body is African American. The other two schools in Amherst, Amherst and Hampshire College are both private schools. Amherst College apparently does a good job in attracting a diverse student body since ten percent of its students are African-American.
My point is that I was approaching Raleigh from a holier than thou Northern perspective. On reflection, many places in America, both north and south, need to do a better job of creating and sustaining diverse, integrated communities.
Our last day in Raleigh we did sightseeing, which was very enjoyable. The Capital is a very pretty building and we got to go inside the Governor’s mansion, which was also very nice. The museums in Raleigh are free which is great. The history museum had a wonderful exhibit of pictures from the Depression and the natural history museum had a spectacular butterfly environment, which was spectacular.
The beer got better as we went along, and in the end I found two good craft beers: Carolina pale ale and Bad Penny. Both were very enjoyable.
The people in Raleigh were very nice, hospitable, and friendly. My original impression of Raleigh was that it was similar to Springfield, Massachusetts. After six days there, I still feel this is true. Raleigh is a city with certain tourist attractions on an urban level but it does not have the energy, vitality, and thriving downtown of the great cities such as New York, Paris, Boston, Edinburgh, or San Francisco.
