2015-07-27: Advanced Planning Skills

We are confident in our skills at being tourists. Who wouldn't be after our recent smashing successes? We celebrated by strolling the streets of Jersey City.
New Jersey gets a bad rap, it is the butt of many jokes in comedies and such. In The French Connection  Gene Hackman gets grumpy with someone because "they made me come all the way out to Hoboken, I hate Hoboken." Then I think he beat the guy up or shot him or something. Gene Hackman is often in a grumpy mood but it was a little extra grumpy.

Not gritty enough for Gene.

I am told things have changed a lot since the 70's and 80's when New Jersey was an industrial wasteland for New York. We meandered through Jersey City downtown. It feels a lot like a place which is just starting to become popular with the artist children of rich parents. Not quite there yet, at the moment it is a lot of arty types with no money. But it has a multi cultural, varied lifestyle choices and student abundance which reminds me of Newtown, Sydney in the early 90's. I am guessing there is a similar amount of rebellious sex going on. That will attract the rich artist kiddies for sure.
The sun was out and pretty strong. We got hot and a bit sweaty.

Food & Beverage Review: Skinners Loft

mapref
http://www.skinnersloft.com/
In the hospitality trade you see a lot of places opened by people that effectively want a cool place to have their friends around to for drinks. The idea that a bar is a bloody good way to spend a lot of cash and a daft way to make money seems irrelevant to them. This is almost definitely one of those places.

Cheapest I have seen is over $4 a square foot. Paint is a lot cheaper.

3 stories of ridiculously cool fit out including a replica pressed tin ceiling. Pressed tin used to be popular here. Even the replica stuff is not going to be cheap I don't think.
We stopped just for a quick beer. With the beer came some popcorn. The popcorn had truffle oil, parmesan and pepper on it. I believe they have a rule of thumb of one bowl of popcorn per beer so I had to drink faster than usual to balance the equation given the speed Ewa was downing bowls of popcorn. I have seen Ewa eat popcorn before. It has never been like this.

I know truffle oil should cost the same as olive oil but the fact is it doesn't. The barmaids call this Crack and are constantly making more and eating it themselves.

As I was to busy pouring beers down my gullet Ewa struck up conversation with the barmaids. Mostly about why Jersey is cool (Jersey people will jump at this topic) and where we could go to see said coolness.
Turns out the big three things are Diners, Taylor Ham and Kayaking by the Statue of Liberty.

Rating: 8/10 (+1 for the popcorn)

We already knew about the Diner thing. Jersey has tons of diners from the thirties through to the fifties which have been maintained and still do a steady trade. I especially like the art deco styled ones. Future Diners!!! (which I guess makes no sense as in the art deco brushed aluminium future we all ate pills instead of chicken fried steak).

You can't just stand there like a tourist!

There is a Diner at the end of the street we are staying on. Seizing the opportunity to check more lists is what life is all about.

Hooray, thematic glamour!

I am not sure if they have times related to the breakfast, lunch or dinner menus. If they do I don't think they adhere that strongly to them. They do have "sets". We fell in love with the Nagoya BrekoFastu Settu (coffee, toast and a boiled egg) during Japanese classes and cannot help our selves from using set theory here.

Brunswick chowder or stew or something, anyway I don't think it is a Jersey invention so it doesn't count as a list checking bonus item. Tasty though.

One thing they do adhere to is the Jersey accent. When walking around NY city I can hear a slight difference between New York and Jersey people. Nothing huge, the number of Jersey people that work in NY city have probably diluted the difference somewhat.

We don't do crackers in soup. They do. We copied. Pretty good. The packages are tricky to open for fisherman fingers.

Walking into this Diner was walking back to when the accent was distinct and strong. I swear customers I walked in at the same time as changed their accents as they crossed the thresh hold.
Not sure if this is a nostalgia thing or a protective colouring; "I am not from New York, don't kick me out, listen to my strong accent".

Lunch Time Set!

Our accents are so foreign I think the ejection mechanisms weren't tripped. Or of course they only kick out New York people. Plus we are delightful anyway.