New Haven: Reveal Thyself

So I'll be here the 13th (Mon) thru 17th (Fri), and my friend's probably gonna show me around a lot, but is there anything I should *definitely* check out?

totts playing on the counter at home

ah fuck wrong thread

what are you interested in stevie? there's the pizza, and the school, and not much else. . .

i've never been but all the ppl i know at grad school there would tend to agree

I'm going to visit my friend. I'm sure she'll have tons for us to do but idk if there are any "must sees". Guess not?

this thread makes me want a pizza

i want to marry a pizza

well stevie I like going to the peabody museum. if the weather is nice you can walk up to east rock park and camp out. uhmm rudy's has great 'belgian' fries. the pizza at B.A.R. is pretty good and they brew their own beer. hmm what else

the music library @ sml is a nice piece of architecture. the A&A building is kinda cool and neat to visit, so is the beinecke.

there are probably some cooler places off campus, like in the southern part of the city, but I didn't do much exploring so *shrug*

Pepe's (?) restaurant is supposed to have the best pizza anywhere. I've been there and it doesn't really compare to some of the best places here in north NJ/NYC, but worth checking out anyway. Definitely check out B.A.R. as dayo said... Lots of neat other bars and restaurants on the southern and east sides of the city.

yeah pepe's and sally's are the standard 'bring tourists here' pizza places.

overrated: louis lunch, it's just a burger in between two pieces of white bread iirc.

stay away from: all those thai restuarants

Rudy's is not an option until they reopen in their new location on Chapel.

Bar or Modern for pizza. Stay away from Pepe's and Sally's. Avoid the overrated Claire's. Cafe Romeo, in East Rock, has better veggie options. we finally got a decent gastropub, Kelly's. How one little city can have so many mediocre Thai restaurants is a question for the ages. but Thali Too, near the campus bookstore, offers good, cheap South Indian eats. Take a campus tour, if you can. The Yale architecture really is something. Oh, and bundle up. We're in for a wet, cold week.

^^ booming post

just struck me that the most appropriate analogy to describe sally and pepe's is that they are the geno's and pat's of new haven

Haha I liked those thai restaurants!

Well the one or two I frequented..

And all I get is Pad thai usually.

Stevie, the one gay bar in NH my ex took me to about 8 years ago was hor-rib-ble. I wonder if anything's changed.

I assume you guys were here for school?

Even our Thai places can't mess up Pad Thai too terribly, but they're uniformly average, for the most part. Thai Awesome, out in Hamden, is probably the best of the lot. The best deal in town, though, has to be the food-cart food court outside of Yale-New Haven Hospital. It's like a culinary mini-UN, and you can stuff yourself silly for less than a tenner. The carts near the Yale Whale will also due in a pinch.

Nope, Partners is still the pits. There's a cute bar and grill on York (166?) that flies it's rainbow flag proudly and is a much better bet. Killer meatloaf!

yeh, for school. lol, the rumor used to be that my college master's husband was a regular at partners. I used to go to the burrito cart a lot but I got terrible food poisoning from it once, plus I think it closed down when roomba did because it was part of roombas... not sure

Roomba's no more. The burrito carts carry on, but I'm not a fan. What's with the slaw? Whole Enchilada on Whitney has new management and some damn good burritos, sans slaw. BTW, Roomba successor Bespoke passed into other hands. The Camachos opened a very high-end restaurant in Branford. Haven't tried it yet. Sounds amazing.

have you been to ibiza? it was the one restaurant I felt regret about not eating at while I was there

also I heard miya's is now only serving sustainable sushi, good on 'em. though I was never really a fan of the place, too overpriced for what it was

Bun Lai is batshit, in the best possible way. Miya's has gone not just sustainable, but as local as possible. his latest kick seems to be finding creative uses for invading species, both animal and vegetable. but, yeah, the restaurant is well outside of my current starvation budget. no more Ride the Wild Donkey Rolls for me, at least for a while. everyone should look up Miya's menu. it's a trip.

re: Ibiza. just once, ages ago. IIRC it lived up to the hype, but so did the three-figure bill. did celebrate a B-Day at rival Barcelona a couple of years ago, and it was just as good (and nearly as pricey, though i was spared that bullet). the Ibiza owners opened a tapas place in Hamden that i've been meaning to check out. it's supposed to be (a little) more reasonable.

Greetings from New Haven

http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad184/sdolnack/b8b9d2c4.jpg

PS Claires Corner Coupia-- not actually all that awesome!

nope, not even a little bit awesome. i don't get the universal raves about her Lithuanian coffee cake, either. it's like a roofing shingle. if you need to veg out, try Elaine's Healthy Choice, just up the street from Broadway. Jamaican vegan fare. funky, cheap, and tasty. welcome to town, btw!

Okay so what are everyones recommendations w/r/t:

a) museums
b) cool/divey bars
c) cool quirky things to see
d) maybe nice places to buy things

A. Yale British Art Museum and Yale University Art Gallery are across the street from one another. Don't expect the MoMA, but that should fill a few hours pleasantly. Have lunch at Atticus bookstore and cafe. Get the black bean soup and a bread sampler, an Aztec chocolate brownie if you have room

The Beinecke Rare Book Room and Sterling Library will scratch any bibliophile's itch. Some incredible items on display at both.

The Peabody Museum of Natural History is just a walk from the Green, down Church and Whitney. Small, but worth visiting for the Great Hall of Dinosaurs and for the Native American exhibits. Nice local flora/fauna dioramas and a fun Gift Shop, too.

If the Yale Museum of Rare Instruments is open, that's also fun.

check out the uh...manuscripts room at sml? only open during odd hours

stevie for real though there's been a lot of great posts itt already

B. Not a barfly, but Richter's (Chapel & College), Anna Liffey's (Whitney), Café Nine (250 State), and Yale's own after-hours GPSY (Park?) are some of the more popular local watering holes. i think the infamous Rudy's is still in transition, unfortunately. For something classier (and some incredible mixology), look for the swank 166 Crown and Firehouse 12. Pick up an Advocate, and scan the music listings. There's usually something worth seeing.

Hula Hanks or any of the other Crown St. Clubs if yr rilly looking to slum it. BAR brews some dece beer, but 16 Prime is the best tap room in town. Great burgers, too.

C. hmm. Sterling Library plaza has a Calder and a Noguchi to ogle. But your best bet is just to walk around the adjacent Greens, wander over to the Ninth Square area (just between the City Hall and big bank buildings). see if you can find Artspace and nearby Bentara, our best (and only) Malaysian restaurant.

If you're up for more of a walk, c'mon down Whitney, past Yale, to East Rock. pretty and peaceful. with some great gourmet shops and a rather nice park. But that's my nabe, so i may be biased. The New Haven Historical Society is on the way, as is the arty Audubon St. area. More galleries - and a killer music (sheet, not recorded) store, Foundry Music.

D. What are you looking for? http://i54.tinypic.com/1j14s2.jpg's, overpriced and understocked, is sadly the only record shop here. They have been ramping up their used vinyl section, so that could kill a few hours. Around the corner is the cool, quirky Labyrinth Books. A few more hours to be whiled away there, though they're not cheap. Most of the nice-things shopping is done on Chapel (Wave Gallery, that Lotsa Villages chain place), Broadway (Yale-fortified B&N, UO, etc), but there are some sweet shops along Whitney. It's not much of a shopping town, i'm afraid. There is a fun vintage clothing store at the corner of Whitney and Trumbull. and the cheese-and-charcuterie boutique, Caeseus.

Odd, that embedded link should just say "http://i54.tinypic.com/1j14s2.jpg's" which you know already, prolly.

ok srsly wtf, ipod?

Oh, two more recommended stops along Chapel: Group W Bench, a head shop crammed with curious goods, and our lone used book shop, the Book Trader. Some amazing stuff often turns up at the latter.

Oooh! The several Asian markets on Whitney and Orange are totally worth yr time. The expected assortment of crazy candies and off-the-wall drinks to browse. You won't leave empty handed.

lolz @ hatcat showing up, thank you I Love NFL

plz 2 xplain hatcat thing? Was trying to type C-u-t-l-e-r-'-s...

ILNFL (the subboard) automatically replaces references to QB jay http://i54.tinypic.com/1j14s2.jpg with that lil guy why becuase it's funny

Heh. tnx!

Update: yday we strolled around. I am so amazed at the architecture!! We saw the Praise Song for the Day inauguration poem lady do a reading at Labyrinth, and then we did trivia at lolBlack Bear. Today were doing art museums; we did Peabody yday as well and I got Bengali burritos! So good.

Hooooly shit at the rare book library too

Love those Bengali Burritos!

Today was North Haven, omg biggest shopping center sprawl I have ever seen in my life. Ate at the vegan Jamaican place today and then ogled at the cute beardo(s) at Edge of the Woods. Tomorrow is art museums, GPSY, and maybe Bar!

I probably take the shopping Mecca of Universal Drive for granted, but i'm not sure what makes it different from any other commercial strip-mall hellsprawl. i would never put it on a visitor's agenda. Haha. If i may ask, where are you coming from? Sounds like you're enjoying the sites and the sights during your stay. And, yay! You made it to Elaine's! :-D