Finding Quiet
Manhattan's Chinatown is the hardest-working neighborhood in a city of workaholics. Finding quiet spaces to relax, and create something other than green, is rare. Even meals are eaten in a cacophony of other people working. Tomorrow I head out to California, where the sunshine perhaps relaxes people's ambitions a tad. But before I go, a couple snapshots of quiet leisure in Chinatown.
Silk Road Cafe has the best coffee in Chinatown. I come here for meetings a lot. Last week, I spied some teens chilling out front, kids who would blend in unnoticed on Bedford Ave, but here, generate double takes.
Barrio Chino, at Orchard and Broome, is Chinatown only in name. Twelve minutes to walk from my Chinatown crib to the Loisaida's re-interpretation. Theirs involves expanses of wood and brick, and a place to sit quietly in the sunlight.
