Costco in Harlem!

Here it is, finally, now that Uptown Mom's kids are (fingers crossed) nearly out of diapers. Still very happy to have it. Apparently (relying on reports from the husband -- I was not available to make the trip), parking is about $4.75-ish after tax -- still acceptable when one considers the cost of gas to get to any location coupled with the fact that my time is not valueless (and the opportunities for traffic are way fewer when one doesn't have to leave Harlem, let alone Manhattan!).

Disappointed to report, however, that the bakery at the Manhattan Costco is (rather surprisingly) not kosher. Of course they still sell plenty of kosher bread products made elsewhere, but Uptown Mom is bummed not to be able to stock her freezer with 12-packs of croissants unless she happens to find herself in the New Rochelle, Brooklyn or Hackensack stores.

Voting in small town Harlem

I like the fact that when I go to vote in Harlem, one of the pollworkers asks after my family. Apparently she knows us by sight and by name, even though we don't actually know one another personally, because she used to do the USPS route that delivered packages to our address. In any event, my husband and I took turns voting tonight, and she noticed that neither of us had brought the kids.

(Yes, I know it can be a civics lesson for them, and sometimes we do bring them, but this is the THIRD time we've voted this fall -- tonight we had other things we had to get done with the kids before they went to sleep.)

Kosher cupcakes in Harlem, revisited

I am late with my report back about the cupcakes because the party for which I had ordered them had to be postponed a week due to illness.

So now I can tell you: Tonnie's cupcakes are absolutely lovely. They were giving out samples when I arrived so I got to try a chocolate one, although I didn't succeed in getting a chocolate from the party assortment (a guest got there first). Based on what I saw with the samples and with my baker's dozen, it appears that they don't put the frosting on until the moment of sale. They were absolutely delicious. Uptown Mom is a happy camper.

I also inquired about the kashrut while I was there. The man behind the counter, who seemed to be either the owner or manager, seemed quite knowledgeable about the status. Although the letter evidencing the hashgacha is not yet there, it seems that he is aware of the steps he needs to take to get it, and just hasn't gotten around to it because they've only been open a few weeks. Since the other location is already supervised and he readily recited to me (correctly) the website where I can find information about the supervision of that location (Kosher-NY), I think he knows his stuff and we'll see the letter soon. Will report back when I actually see it (let me know if you see it first!).

Spooky minyan in Harlem tonight....

OK, I don't think it's eally going to be all THAT spooky, but Harlem's oldest independent floating egalitarian minyan is holding Shabbat services tonight, Erev Halloween, at a new location. If you're interested in hearing more, visit www.harlemjews.com.

Halloween in Harlem

Tomorrow from 1:30 to 3, at 121st and Morningside Avenue in Morningside Park, there will be a HALLOWEEN FESTIVAL, featuring a costume parade, balloons and treats. It would be great to see a nice turnout. (Please note that if it rains the event will be cancelled.)

If I hear of other kid-oriented Halloween events in Harlem, I'll be happy to post about them as well (so feel free to let me know).

Uptown Mom is not exactly a baseball fan, but...

... living where I do means living 5 stops on the B-Train from Yankee Stadium, so GO YANKEES!!!

KOSHER CUPCAKES IN HARLEM?!?

As you may have heard, we have a new cupcake shop in the 'hood. Uptown Mom was not looking for a new cupcake shop; she is pretty happy with Make My Cake, which is very close to her home. However, the new shop, Tonnie's Minis, has just told me on the phone that they are KOSHER. I cannot personally vouch for either the hashgacha of the store itself, or the quality of the food -- I haven't been by the store yet in person -- but their Greenwich Village location is under kosher supervision, and assuming the uptown cupcakes are made in the same location, that will suffice for Uptown Mom's purposes. Even better, people really seem to like these cupcakes. And the price point is fantastic -- $20 for a dozen, and they do a baker's dozen on request. (By contrast, I paid $20 the other day to celebrate a family birthday with 5 cupcakes from Make My Cake.) In the holy name of research, Uptown Mom has ordered a dozen of them to supplement the homemade cake and other goodies we're making for a birthday party this weekend. I assume that the cupcakes will turn out to be smaller than those at Make My Cake, but those are enormous, and I'm not fearful that they'll be itsy-bitsy, since it sounds like they make an extra-small size (and I don't believe that's what I've ordered).

Will get back to you on both the deliciousness and the kashrut post-party! And if you already can comment on this new shop, please do chime in.

Life goes on.

I see with chagrin that I have once again allowed this blog to lie fallow for far too long. For that I apologize, dear readers. All I can say is that something must have happened while I was busy making other plans.

I’d like to extend a warm welcome to the many new parents and kids of Harlem – some new arrivals, some not, and some newborn! – with whom I’ve become acquainted in the months since I last updated this blog. I look forward to seeing more of you in the streets, parks, playgrounds and shops of Harlem in the months and years to come.

As always, if you know of events or resources for kids and/or parents in Harlem that you would like to see featured on this blog – or you just want to say hi! – please send me a message and I will do my best to oblige. I look forward to hearing from you.

Harlem Tae Kwon Do rocks.

So now I must kvell. My oldest son, after two years of "Peewee" classes, is now old enough for the big kids' classes at Harlem Tae Kwon Do, and he just qualified for his "green stripe", which required learning various kicks.

Harlem Tae Kwon Do rocks. The folks who run it are amazing at what they do and very very warm people. Their kids' classes are extremely reasonably priced relative to just about anything else our son could be doing with his afternoons ($60 for 1 class/week, $80 for 2 classes/week or $120 for unlimited classes), and just a wonderful combination of exercise, focus, discipline, and of course punching, kicking and yelling. (I've also taken the adult classes myself and I love them but find it tough to make them work with my difficult schedule. Working out at home is pretty much the only thing that really works with my schedule.)

R.I.P., Tribal Spears

Tribal Spears, a beloved gallery/cafe near my home, is closing this weekend. We will miss Tribal Spears and its energetic proprietors, who have poured themselves into this community, terribly.

Sorry to have abandoned this blog for the better part of a year

It's been an eventful year for everyone, including Uptown Mom and family. Events about which I failed to blog in the past year include the opening of an absolutely wonderful new playground in Morningside Park between 116th and 117th Streets, which happily replaced most of The Playground with the Dangerous Equipment, the sad untimely closing of Antoinette's and the incredible privilege of being in Harlem on the night of November 4, 2008.

So one of my resolutions for the new year is more consistent blogging.

Happy new year everyone!

Feel better, Representative Rangel.

Rep. Charles Rangel is in the hospital with the flu.

Speaking of one of the unlucky folks for whom this year's flu shot didn't work, I feel for you, Rep. Rangel.

Feel better soon.

More on Vote Tampering (Found the 94th)

Turns out that the 94th Election District is very far west at about 134th Street. See this map (you will need to enlarge it to make sense of it).

If you brought your kids to the voting booth with you in that district, the little civics lesson may not be over yet, unfortunately.

If you want to find out your election district by address, try this link.

A little transparency might go a long way.

Where exactly is the 94th Election District?

UptownMom is very disturbed this evening by the stink of vote tampering in Harlem. If you, dear reader, can point me toward a map showing where Harlem's 94th Election District is, I will be impressed and appreciative.

Many thanks.

An overdue update

Haven't been very prolific lately because life and work have just been really, really busy. But I did want to take the time to post an important update.

I started this blog in early 2007 in part because as an uptown parent, I was deeply concerned about the crime stats, particularly trend numbers, in my neighborhood, compared to the rest of the city. 2006 was a HORRIBLE year for the 28th precinct in terms of violent crime -- in a year when most of the city saw improvements, we had a sizable increase in murders and various other categories of violent crime. Frankly, I was fearful that certain loved ones of mine, who are constantly claiming that my decision to raise my kids in Harlem rather than the 'burbs is fundamentally selfish, could be right.

Well, I am feeling much better about things now. 2007 was not only much better than 2006, but actually better than the PRIOR year -- i.e., 2006 wound up being an outlier in terms of trend data. I'm not feeling motivated enough to scan in the current stats, but year-end references to how much better 2007 was for us can be found here and here. Current crime stats for the 28th precinct can be found here, and as of today (February 14, 2008), they show very promising trends for the year so far compared to even 2007.

It's not perfect here, of course. I know of local stores being held up. I know of a mugging that took place almost right in front of my house in the middle of last year. But this is the real world -- things happen everywhere. Sad but true. In the late 90s, a friend of mine was mugged -- pretty seriously roughed up by multiple assailants -- just down a main road from my house in Cambridge, MA, somewhere I wouldn't have hesitated to walk alone at night before OR after the incident. When I lived in Park Slope earlier this decade, a neighborhood not notorious for its crime rates in recent years (we lived on the margins of the neighborhood, but not an especially infamous margin), I remember there being hold-ups in stores, and I also recall that our CAR was SHOT while parked on the street. (Of all things, it happened while we were at the hospital having our first child. So we returned to find that the car had been shot and wondered, of course, what is this terrible place where we are going to be raising a kid?) So I try to take a deep breath and focus on trend data rather than the specific incidents I happen to know about. The numbers are quite encouraging -- enough that I'm back to feeling basically great about giving my kids a chance to live in Manhattan.

Review: Antoinette's LOVES YOUR KIDS.

Tonight we went to Antoinette's for the second time, and it was wonderful. The food (which by the way includes antibiotic/hormone-free beef and free-range chicken) was quite delicious. On the ever-important kid front, the staff was very nice to us, even as the babies kept deliberately dumping food on the ground. They were able to give us 2 highchairs, AND they had paper over the tablecloth and CRAYONS. I'm certain that that was the first time we've been to a Harlem restaurant that was so welcoming to kids. Toward the end of our meal, the musicians (apparently they start playing at 8) started to arrive and they were cooing over our kids too -- in fact, the singer sang "Puff the Magic Dragon" as a special favor for our big boy and told me that if 8 is too late for us, they'd start a little earlier if we told them they're coming (!). Apparently they will be at Antoinette's through January.

We had been there once previously, but it was right when they opened and they didn't yet have their highchairs. They were super-nice and very apologetic about that, though, so rather than give them fewer than 4 Yum's, I waited til we came back and experienced the highchairs before writing this review. I'm glad I did: in addition to getting the kid issues down, I think they also did a better job this time at getting all the food prepared at the same time, etc. It was a real pleasure.

PS We weren't in the mood for wine tonight, but I believe they still have a BYOB policy pending receipt of their liquor license. Which gives you a chance to patronize The Winery or Harlem Vintage. Based on our experience last time they very graciously cork and provide glasses.

4 Yum's: Yum! Yum! Yum! Yum!

Stephanie's

has a sign on it saying it has been seized for non-payment of taxes.

No comment....

Montreal Pet Care

New awning sighted cross the street from Antoinette's. Anyone know what this is?

Tell me it's not a direct competitor for Posh Paws, just a couple of blocks down from there....

Also, there's a sign on SoHa 118 indicating that a Chase branch will be opening soon.

An unsolicited suggestion to retailers: We really appreciate your efforts. But there's a MaMu on 116th and Fred, and clusters of banks at 116th/Lenox and 125th/Fred. Our pets already have nice things to wear and a vet. The human residents are looking for a green grocer, a bagel shop, an excellent pizzeria, Thai food, Japanese food, sit-down Chinese food, Indian food, a wonderful educational toy shop (Grandma's is great but not close enough to my house), stores that sell baby supplies (strollers, child-safety-hardware, furniture, etc.), indoor play areas without flashing lights and tons of artificial noise, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Okay: Rant over.

Harlem Thanksgiving - digest (heh)

Due to a miscommunication, there were no blackeyed peas. However, there was cornbread, a Harlem-inspired addition which I failed to mention in my earlier post. While no one was blown away by the cornbread, it was pretty tasty and moist, which apparently is an achievement for parve cornbread, since cornbread is usually heavily dairy. (The recipe, which I found on a kosher blog, is a vegan recipe, purportedly from Angelica Kitchen, a restaurant I'm not crazy about but everyone vegan seems to love.) The collard greens, to which Uptown Dad added liquid smoke to make up for the lack of ham hocks, got lots of praise. And the sweet potato pie was certainly the sleeper hit of the night (people seemed more excited about that than about my husband's famous chocolate pecan pie, although we chocoholics continued to prefer the latter).

And the turkey -- oh my goodness, suffice it to say there were NO leftovers, none, zip, from a 17-pound bird. Yikes!

Harlem Thanksgiving 2

I never posted what we decided to do about Thanksgiving because it remained, and to an extent remains, up in the air. Suffice it to say, the "Thanksgiving" feast I was planning will take place this afternoon (yes, the Sunday after Thanksgiving). In honor of our beloved Harlem, it will include collard greens, black-eyed peas, and sweet potato pie, as well as wine from The Winery. In honor of our commitment to ethical kashrut, it will include kosher organic free-range turkey from Wise Organic Pastures. (Kudos to Simon Weil for starting Kosher Conscience! -- but we were not aware of its existence when we made our purchase.) Uptown Dad is doing ALL the cooking, and as the babies are asleep, now is my chance to go tidy up. I'll post later with how it turned out!