The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has officially updated “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America.” This isn’t the first such renaming. Some of my old favorites are Bay of Newe Spaine, Mar Di Florida, and Golphe de Mexique. Somehow, the Cubans got left out of every re-naming, as far as I can tell. Because the change […]
The story goes that a bread maker from Naples in 1897, Gennaro Lombardi started a grocery store in Little Italy at 53 1/2 Spring Street, and began selling tomato pies for 5 cents in which the cheese is put down first, then covered in tomato sauce. In 1905 Lombardi received a business license to […]
This Ain’t Eggs Benedict! Invention is made possible by new technologies, except for the invention of eggs Benedict. This 21st Century case of co-invention between Elijah Lee and Alfred Goodrich arose because of carbon fiber technology and 3-D printing. It led to the collaborative design and manufacture of some of the world’s best sounding new […]
For 132 years this family owned establishment has been operated by four generation descendants of Antonio Veniero, an Italian who immigrated to America in 1885 when he was fifteen years old. In 1894 at this 11th street location, he opened a social club with a pool table, where he roasted espresso and served homemade […]
When you have lived in Florida most of your life, you get to see your share of Biker Bars along the coast. There is a dog-friendly Biker Bar behind Sloppy Joe’s on Greene Street just off Route 1 in Key West that rocks, and we have never seen such pretty girls, as we have […]
While Mamma Leone is probably most famous from Billy Joel’s song, “Movin Out” from his 1977 album The Stranger with the lyrics: “Mamma Leone left a note on the door, she said Sonny, move out to the country”, there really was a Mamma Leone. Virtuoso Enrico Caruso talked Luisa Leone into converting her Manhattan home […]
When Hollywood comes calling for a classic New York neighborhood bar, 7 B Horseshoe Bar Aka Vazacs seems to always fit the bill. The bar gets its name from the street corner it resides on and the long horseshoe shaped bar running down the center complete with 31 beer taps. The ambience is neon […]
Next year will be the 100th anniversary of Caffe Reggio, the famed hangout of Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsburg, Dylan, Baez, and even Elvis. Back in 1927, it began as a Barbershop that specialized in 10 cent shaves, when customers kept requesting coffee, so owner Domenico Parisi realized that a shave took twenty minutes and it […]
Just a half mile offshore from Route 1 is the uninhabited ghost town Indian Key Historic State Park. It’s in Upper Matecumbe Key at Mile Marker 78.5 and is accessible only by boat, kayak or paddleboard. Before the Overseas Highway stitched the Florida Keys together, this tiny island, barely 11 acres of coral rock and […]
The Maine Mall is an enclosed shopping center located in South Portland, Maine, and stands as the largest mall in the state. Owned and operated by Brookfield Properties, it also ranks as the second-largest mall in northern New England. Over the decades, it has served as a major retail hub for southern Maine, drawing shoppers […]
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