Big Adventure NYC Tomorrow!

We're just one day from our Greatest Hits Big Adventure! Whether this is your 1^st or 4th Adventure in the last year, it should be a great day.

Along with all of the sensational stops, We're preparing some Big Adventure Survival Kits and other surprises to hand out throughout the day. As well as our Connect Four board for an epic showdown of another Connect Four Tournament. Plus, we'll have some trivia covering the last several years of Adventuring in NYC with questions such as "Captain Sully Sullenberg is best remembered for doing WHAT?"

Hoping you'll join us for at least part of our Greatest Hits' NYC Big Adventure tomorrow! Starting promptly at 12:30 and continuing late into the evening. Air Conditioning at every stop. Promise

Planning on joining us for The NYC Big Adventure this Saturday? Make sure you buy/bring your Metrocard! We'll be making best friends with the F and L lines as we transverse the city from stop to stop. A little bit of walking and a fair amount of Subway Riding.  As a special treat, we tried to arrange for the MTA to let us take turns driving the trains and serving as the conductor, but strangely they didn't seem very open to that idea.

Let us know if you have any questions and we'll see YOU tomorrow! If you're lucky, you'll end up drinking out of one of these at Otto's Shrunken Head. Tomorrow brings another whirlwind day exploring one of the most exciting, interesting city on the planet.

Complete itinerary for The NYC Big Adventure’s Greatest Hits

The Complete itinerary for The NYC Big Adventure’s Greatest Hits on Saturday, June 30th, 2012

Sweet Khaki Molacki! We’re less than a week away from this Saturday’s NYC Big Adventure’s Greatest Hits this coming Saturday, June 30^th!  We’ve stretched this out long enough and are now ready to do a grand reveal of the big, big, big day. Below find the entire itinerary for our day. As the purveyors of the Big Adventure, we’ve always taken pride in never repeating any stops or locations on a single adventure in over five years. This weekend, we’re flipping the script and taking a stroll down memory lane with visits to our favoritelocations. We will be spending the day exploring la crème de la crème of places in New York City that are inexpensive, social and unique to the city.

We’ll be visiting a German restaurant in the West Village, the most under-rated Museum in the city, the best Hot Dog joint in the five boroughs, one of the friendliest bars in NYC and more. We’ll also be (of course) brining back some trivia, competitive games and even some quality giveaways.

We encourage you to pass this information along to anyone who might want to enjoy our Greatest Hits track by track. As per usual, feel free to join for only part of our Big Adventure or from beginning to end for a day we promise will be unique, affordable, social, and distinctly NYC. Whether you might be attending your first or your umpteenth Big Adventure, we think you’re in for a good time! Developing info (and a chance to RSVP) always at facebook.com/TheBigAdventure

Lederhosen– 12:30 PM- 39 Grove Street  New York, NY 10014 - -(212) 206-7691- From “The International NYC Big Adventure”-  We’ll be starting the day with German Cuisine and Beer that’s a fine mixture of shtick and authenticity. You’ll be enjoying the giant Bavarian Pretzel while smirking at the giant mural that looks like it is right out of the Sound of Music.  Tons of lunch specials being offered including a Bavarian Breakfast Special that sounds nothing like breakfast.

BlindTiger – 2:00 PM- 281 Bleecker Street  - (212) 462-4682 -  From “The NYC Big Film Adventure” – We’ll saunter just a couple blocks down the street to visit one of NYC’s most beloved Brew Houses – the incomparable Blind Tiger. Friendly vibe, knowledgeable bar tenders and a beer selection that is among the best in the city.

NewYork Transit Museum–3:30 PM- 130 Livingston Street  Brooklyn-    - (718) 694-1600-  From “The 24-Hour NYC Big Adventure” $7- Per our post earlier, this is the most underrated and amazing museum in New York City. Visiting is a must for anyone who deals with the daily commute on Public Transit. The small admission fee for the largest transit museum in the world is well worth it to explore retired subway cars dating back 100 years and more – all housed in an underground, decommissioned Subway Station from 1936.

Crif Dogs – 6:00 PM -113 St. Mark’s Place (between 1st Avenue and Avenue A) - From “The Letter C NYC Big Adventure” - You may be used to having hot dogs over the campfire or at a ball game, but these are like no other hot dogs you’ve had before.  Billed as “NYC's Number 1 Weiner", Crif Dogs come wrapped in bacon, covered in avocado, or even smothered in mayo and sliced pickles. No matter what, these tasty dogs are definitely something you’ll remember from your trip to the city. Side bonus: we will stare at people as they attempt to get into somewhat secret bar PDT via a phone booth in the wall of Crif (really).

Flight 151 Bar- 7:30 PM–18th Street and 8th Avenue (Chelsea) - (212) 229-1868  -  Also From “The Film NYC Big Adventure” To revel in the glory of “Up In The Air” - -A bar with an aviation theme is perfect for people who want to go to the airport but don’t want to fly. Wha? We’ve had some memorable times in this place and they check off on all the key ingredients needed for a Big Adventure: cheap drink prices, popcorn at the bar, invitations to draw on bar napkins and, best of all, flight announcements in the bathroom. Seriously. This also is the perfect place for some notorious Big Adventure Trivia

Otto’s Shrunken Head-  11:00 PM—538 E 14th St (also between Avenues A & B) -212-228-2240- From “The Coney Island Big Adventure” A Trip back on the L train to the East Village will deliver us at Otto’s Shrunken Head.  Otto’s is a world class Tiki Bar with great, cheap drinks. We’ve set up some fantastic drink specials just for the Big Adventure. If the Photo Booth and impressively strong specialty drinks like the Volcano Blast aren’t reason enough to visit this pharmacy turned bar, the rockabilly band playing in the back will be.

The Donut Pub – Late Night- 203 W 14th St at 7th Avenue –(212) 929-0126- From “The Big Adventure OnIce” Few things are better than a late night donut that meets the pastry trifecta: freshly made, perfectly warm and smothered in the most delicious Icing this side of the North Pole. We’ll cap off our night at this small 24 hour eatery with Boston Cream, Glazed and Chocolate iced treats.

And maybe, just maybe, if there is a crew adventurous enough and awake enough, we might try to end the night with a Sunrise Ride on the Staten Island Ferry.

 We hope that you’ll join us this Saturday! We’ll be Tweeting throughout the day as well. If you do plan on coming, let us know via e-mail or the Facebook Event Page  so we can plan accordingly. See you on Saturday, June 30th!

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The NYC Subway Museum - A set location for our "Greatest Hits" NYC Big Adventure on June 30th!

While we are not quite ready to share complete final agenda for our “Big Adventure’s Greatest Hits” day on Saturday, June 30^th (Soon! We promise!), we do have a stop or two all lined up. For example, you can bet your last MetroCard Swipe that we’ll be making a return visit in the afternoon to the New York City Transit Museum known better as The Subway Museum!

We first visited the museum in Brooklyn way back on our 24-Hour Big Adventure, it quickly became one of the more-talked about highlights of the day. Housed on two-levels in a decommissioned station, the Subway Museum is one of our favorites. It ranks among the most interactive and captivating museums in the city. With admission setting you back only seven clams and housing a pristine collection of old Subway Cars that you can walk in and out of, this place qualifies as a “can’t miss.” So, we’re not going to miss it.  

It’s also the perfect place for us to pick up those Subway Token Cuff Links that our wardrobe has been missing. Here is some info we posted a while back on why we consider this, hands down, the most underrated museum in New York City. 

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The Met? MoMa? The Guggenheim? They’ve got nothing on The Subway Museum.

Housed in a 1936 decommissioned, but still operational, subway station in downtown Brooklyn, the New York Transit Museum is perfect for visitors of all ages. Upon shelling out the nominal entrance fee of $7, you can enjoy the permanent collection and temporary exhibits all dedicated to the buses, roads, bridges and, of course, the 106-year-old Subway System. We personally love the collection of turnstiles through the years (man, those things used to be easy to jump) and old subway tokens.

By far the best part is the Subway cars from the last century that live on two working subway tracks on the lower level. You can meander through every car; each reflects a different era and each is in immaculate condition. To complete the experience, the cars even have print ads and subway maps relevant to the years the car ran. For as much time as most New Yorkers spend on our respective subway lines, this place is a must visit.

Located at the corner of Boerum Place and Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn Heights (below ground)

http://www.mta.info/mta/museum/

Getting set for our next Big Adventure

I think the Big Adventure's collective head is going to explode in an attempt to pluck the best of from Past Big Adventures in a way that makes sense. Spending Saturday, June 30th visiting the highlights and greatness of 15 different Adventures over the years is more complicated then playing Jenga during an earthquake.

Okay, we're almost there. If anyone just wants to spend an entire day hitting sensational easy-going dive/drinking bars ('cause that's often where the crazy fun lies), we seem to have that itinerary set:

• Subway Inn
• Flight 151
• Holiday Cocktail Lounge (Update: Just found that this place shut its doors in Jan. RIP)
• KGB 
• Parkside Lounge. 

There. Done. Some of the best dive bars in Manhattan from Midtown to the East Village to the Lower East Side. You're welcome (Not what we'll be doing on 6/30, but a handy list). As a word of warning/encouragement, we've given both The Subway Inn and Parkside Lounge some very late nights. Not sure that they ever actually close.

Short Film Festival at Bryant Park this Saturday

Summer nationwide means blockbuster films and quality cinema. Summer in NYC means enjoying festivals and outdoor green space. Behold: Tropfest! Two great tastes that taste great together. Billed as the “World’s Largest Short Film Festival”, the international Tropfest invades Bryant Park with its NYC debut this Saturday, June 23^rd. There will be concerts and events throughout the day starting at 3:00 PM. 

The film competition component starts around 8:00 PM. Submission guidelines insist that no film can be longer than seven minutes and there are no budget restrictions. The event is completely free, but with a Hugh Jackman hosting and celebrity judges including Rose Byrne and Judah Friedlander, lawn space will fill up quickly. Space is limited so if you want to guarantee a place, the organizers recommend you get your free tickets here.

Announcing: The "Greatest Hits" NYC Big Adventure coming on Saturday, June 30th!

We're back at it yet again! Thrilled to announce our next outing will be The NYC Big Adventure’s Greatest Hits on Saturday, June 30th starting around 1:00 PM and continuing late into evening. Feel free to join for as few or many of our best hits of the day as you like!

After over a dozen memorable and successful NYC BigAdventures that have consisted of scouring the city for locales, haunts and activities we’re ready to build an entire day around the best of the best! This album has all your favorite tunes: Unique, Social, Inexpensive and distinctly NYC.

Making a best of is no easy task. Our first draft of the itinerary has us spanning over several days, so narrowing it to just the one disc shall be one of our greatest challenges yet.

The Big Adventure crew is combing over the itineraries of Big Adventures that includes five years and over ninety (!) unique stops to create a track listing that highlights our best moments. No small task since there are so many to choose from. And just to keep things interesting, we may even throw in a couple of completely NEW stops that revolve around a familiar theme. Intrigued? Hoping that YOU can join us to revisit a familiar stop from a past Big Adventure or encounter a Big Adventure beloved place that we love and that you might be seeing for the first time.

We'll announce a full itinerary along with a few surprises in the next couple of weeks well in advance of the event. All are welcome and we’ll have space for all. Pass along the invite to whomever you think might be interested on another Big Adventure that is designed to be the pinnacle of a day that is unique, inexpensive, friendly and very NYC. Ah, it’s one thing that we’ve learned to do pretty. Hope you can join us! (Note that some of our stops will be 21+).

  

Feel free to RSVP if you think you might join us on Facebook The Big Adventure Event Page and E-mail us if you have any questions!

 

The Most Unique Subway Station Entrance in NYC

In a transit system with over 468 individual subway stations, a lot of them start to look the same after a while. In New York City, there are surprisingly few stations that really stand out. A while ago, we posted on the art on the 14th street. Now, we wanted to share a subway entrance that truly knocked our socks off.

Below are three photos we took all the way uptown outside the 181th Street A line train station in the Hudson Heights section of Upper Manhattan. The entrance looks so impressively grand that it could have been lifted right out of a movie set.

Opened way back in 1932, all of the original styling seems to be in tact. Note the IRT stencil lettering on the third pictures above the wood doors. The station itself is notched deep within the station; the platform is accessible via elevators and escalators only. Which, you know, is a giant pain in the rear when the elevator and/or escalator is out.

True, there are some similar quality facades on lines in some parts of Brooklyn and such, but this one really stands out. Makes our local subway stations look like an architect's lazy Friday afternoon effort.  The 181^st Street station also really ads to the low key charm of the neighborhood complete with windy, narrow streets and the highest natural peak on Manhattan Island. 

The Big Adventure wants to know, what is the most colorful, unique NYC subway entrance that YOU’VE ever seen?