The Biggest of Apples

Carly Martin

17 Oct 2025 — 5 min read

Much to discuss!

When the Mayor has Swagger, the City has Swagger

Last weekend Nat and I had a fab time in New York City. This was only my third time ever in NYC and I feel like I finally got to walk around and understand a little bit better. We stayed with bestie Stef in Harlem in her very swanky guest room, and we got to hang out with Stef's mom Lori. Real Lori-heads know that she is booked and busy and she told us about how she was meeting up with a friend from college who the last time she had seen in person was at her wedding 30 years prior.

We started Saturday with a coffee at Sojourner in Harlem and then took the train down to Greenwich Village to get Murray's Bagels, which slapped. We spent most of the day walking around the Lower East Side - we stopped by the Union Square farmer's market and The Strand Bookstore, we walked through Washington Square Park, dropped by the Stonewall Inn and visitor center, and dropped in at Chelsea Market.

Murray's and view from the Little Island

We also made a stop in at the Grey Art Museum in NoHo to see an exhibit about the career of June Leaf - who was a multi-disciplinary artist who split her time between NYC and Nova Scotia, CAN. I had not heard of her prior to walking into this gallery but loved walking through a giant collection of works from throughout her lifetime. Her work centers around femininity, man vs. machine, and the human condition. Here are some standout favs:

"How Can I Be Sure" (1973), "June's Hand and Sculpture, Mabou" (1980), "Head" (1975), and "Robert Enters the Room" (1973)

Saturday night we caught up with bestie Ava in Chelsea and had dinner and yapped. In a moment that really showed personalities, there were concurrent conversations where Stef and I were discussing therapy while Nat and Ava were sharing their favorite Eric Adams quotes. I think the winner was "All my haters become my waiters when I sit down at the table of success."

Any time spent with Ava is always spectacular : )

On Sunday we went to Brooklyn, got incredible breakfast burritos at Santa Fe BK and sat in McCarren Park in Williamsburg and had breakfast. We wandered around Greenpoint, which we discovered is referred to as "Little Poland" because of the concentration of Polish immigrants and Polish-American residents (the signage at the Greenpoint branch of the library was in English and Polish). We then took the Ferry from Williamsburg to DUMBO and I read about the entire history of hasidic Judaism while waiting for the ferry. We traversed the Brooklyn Bridge and got frozen margs at Stef's college bar of choice, Cowgirl SeaHorse. All in all, a fabulous weekend.

Drunk Monks

Last weekend I was home in Maine and stopped by Amy's place of employment while she was bartending and she made me her new drink obsession: the Industry Sour.

downed it so fast I forgot to take a picture

The Industry Sour is equal parts simple syrup, lime juice, fernet-branca, and green chartreuse. She mentioned off hand how she'd love to make this at home but that it's so hard to get bottles of chartreuse because the monks keep dying. Y'all know I was straight to google to learn about the liqueur monks.

Turns out, chartreuse is an herbal liqueur that is green in color (where the color gets its name from) made exclusively by Carthusian monks in France. In the 1600s a French diplomat gave the monks a alchemic recipe for "an elixir of long life" and they've kept the recipe a secret since then. The French government has tried at several points in history to shut down their operation but these crafty monks just keep moving the distillery. Today there are 2 monks in the entire world who know the recipe and make only 1.6 million bottles of chartreuse per year. You learn something new everyday.

TFFN

recs 4 u

a song i'm loving:

Swoon - Fickle Friends

a movie i watched:

One Battle After Another (2025) - this rocked. Sorry to be a Paul Thomas Anderson film bro but wowie punchy storytelling and gorgeous cinematography is so back

a book i'm reading:

I've restarted We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry. I started awhile ago but gave up initially bc there was so much exposition and so many characters to keep track of but the plot is about the Danvers, MA high school field hockey team as they call upon their Salem witch ancestors to win their senior season. I thought I'd try one more time for the sake of the season.