Pier 57...

Yesterday was the second or three Summer Streets weekends - so we set off on our bikes over the Williamsburg Bridge to enjoy cycling on the car less streets of Manhattan.

We stopped off for a little brunch on the way at Delicatessen - which was delicious as always. Unfortunately we took a little bit too long enjoying our brunch and by the time we'd finished, so has SUmmer Streets - cars were back driving up Park Avenue.

I thought Summer streets went on until 4pm, but obviously it finished at around 2pm instead. So we went to Plan B instead - we cycled over to the Hudson River cycle path and enjoyed riding by the river.

On the way up the cycle path we stopped off for something to drink at Pier 57...

Apparently the pier has been sitting empty for a looooong time and there's been lots of ideas about what to do with it. At the moment though it's full of pop-up shops in converted shipping containers!

There were only a few that were being used, but I think it's quite a new thing - most of them were foodie/cafe shops (including a Fletcher's BBQ one!) and there was a beautiful old yellow Citreon H Van selling nice bits and pieces too...

 The rest of the space had picnic tables, free ping pong tables, a little stage with some speakers blasting out music, and huge unused shipping containers hanging from the ceiling...

After our poor ping-pong performance we got some home-made lemonade from one of the shops and went to sit in the sunshine...

It was such a great little find - and such a brilliant use of an otherwise empty space. I've just been reading about the bigger plans for the Pier, apparently it's going to be a much much bigger shopping complex made out of the shipping containers and old aeroplanes (!), with places to eat and drink as well as a roof garden and stuff. We'll have to cycle back up to Pier 57 in a couple of years and see how much it's changed!

 We were pleased we'd missed the Summer Streets, otherwise we might never have found out about this place and never have played ping-pong with a huge metal box hanging over our heads.

P.S. We actually managed to resist buying any BBQ at Fletchers... it was tough, but we were just a wee bit too full from brunch. Next time.