NYC NOW - Midday News: What to do in NYC between Christmas and New Years, and a Coquito Recipe!

Episode Date: December 25, 2024

With some New Yorkers away for the holidays, WNYC’s Janae Pierre and Ryan Kailath discuss things to do as the city clears out. Plus, a Brooklynite shares her family’s coquito recipe.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate and happy holidays to all. This is our one and only episode today. Here's your news headlines from Michael Hill. The man accused of killing a woman by lighting her on fire on an F train, remains in jail without bail. WMIC Samantha Max reports. 33-year-old Sebastian Zepeda learned his murder and arson charges yesterday in a Brooklyn court. Prosecutors say on Sunday, Sepeda approached a woman as the train pulled into the Stillwell Avenue station.

Then they say he set her clothing on fire, fanned her with a shirt, got off the train, and watched her burn to death. Prosecutors say the medical examiner's office still hasn't identified the woman. But the office ruled her death a homicide by combination. of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries. Zapeta allegedly told law enforcement after his arrest that he drinks a lot of liquor and doesn't know what happened. A defense attorney declined to comment after his arraignment. The Freehold Raceway is on its last lapse.

Officials announced the closure of the Monmouth County landmark in September. They're also shutting down the raceways off-track veteran sports bar favorites near the Jersey Shore. The last day of operations is this Saturday. Freehold Raceway was established back in 1853, making it the oldest racing track in the country. The track's general manager says they're unable to continue operations under existing conditions.

35 and Parkley, Sunny now, sunny and a high in the mid-30s today with a real feel in the 20s, the night, mid-20s, and then tomorrow's sunny and mid-30s. Real feel, though, freezing once again. Friday's still cold, sunny and 39. Certain parts of New York City aren't too congested this week as folks visit with their families for the holidays. After the break, we look into what's happening in the Big Apple. Stay close. The week between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve is a strange time in New York City.

Transplant heavy parts of town empty out as people go visit their families. And Midtown turns into one giant crowd of tourists shoulder to shoulder filling the sidewalks. So what's a New Yorker to do for the holidays? Well, WMYC's Ryan Kailoth has spent the last seven Christmas times in New York City, and he joins me now. And Ryan, your family isn't even in New York. So why do you like to spend the holidays here? I mean, I love just about every holiday in New York today, but I really love Christmas time. It's surreal.

It's like this alternate dimension New York where parts of town are empty and other parts of town are magical and everybody's got the Christmas spirit. it. I love it. And you get to do all these kinds of things that you normally don't get to do because the crowds are gone. People are home. As long as you're avoiding Midtown, that is. For one, you know, restaurants and even normal shops, just places I love, but like I never get to go to because they're always crowded. Radio Bakery and Greenpoint. It's a bakery. It's a great bakery. I'm not going to wait an hour in line for some bread or a sandwich. But during that magical week, there's no way. Or the spot in my neighborhood, DePaulo, it's this Italian deli in Little Italy, best fresh handmade mozzarella in the city, in my opinion. You have to take a ticket and wait for 30, 40 minutes, so I skip it a lot of the time. I don't get my little treat. But this time of year, you get to just walk in. Same with restaurant reservations. And reservationists around the city will tell you this, that that week, if you get on it early, before everybody comes back for New Year's Eve, you can get that reservation that you've been trying to get at that restaurant that you've been

wanting to go to. Another thing, too, art exhibits. You know, outside of MoMA, outside of the Met and the Taurus magnets in Midtown and elsewhere, other things are pleasantly empty. So I take that week to just, like, stop by all my old favorites that I'm crowded out of sometimes and get them to myself. Yeah, yeah. I'm taking notes here for sure. But what are some specific things going on this year around Christmas. One of my personal traditions, because it's a nice quiet way to start, Christmas Eve, wake up 10 in the morning, I think it is. There's the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.

That is this world-famous choral concert that's broadcast live from King's College in Cambridge in England. It's broadcast live around the world where they do all this classic choral music with one new piece introduced every year, usually by a major composer. Something very cool at the sculpture center in Long Island City is called Tableau Vivant. So basically, years ago, there was a very architecturally famous, well-designed midtown skyscraper lobby that is no longer there. But this artist has recreated it in this vast warehouse space in Long Island City.

So imagine you walk into a building. It's like a midtown skyscraper, but instead of being perfectly normal, it's imagined as like a ruin. So there's plants pushing up through the concrete floor and vines climbing up the ceiling and cracked fluorescent lights blinking in the corner. It's a very surreal installation that reimagines Midtown like if it were abandoned for decades. So that would I would check out, Sculpture Center in Long Island City. You can find pictures of it online, but honestly, it's worth just checking out. Yeah, that sounds really interesting. But what if I've got family visiting here and they want to see the tree or go to Central Park or Times Square maybe.

Yes, we love our family visits. Something I love to do if I am, if I do find myself in Midtown, etc. this time of year, there are so many hotels up there with great lobby bars. And, you know, unfortunately, it's kind of the crappier, the hotel, the more empty the bar is going to be, which might be what you're looking for. But two really, really nice ones, the J.W. Marriott Essex. It's on Central Park South. They've got this big, new, comfortable bar lounge, huge, cozy leather seats.

It's in the sort of lobby ante room of their new steakhouse there. That thing is amazing. Also, at the St. Regis Hotel, the King Cole Bar was just renovated, and it is glorious, super comfortable, super fun. All those high-end places, they are pretty expensive. But it's a hotel. Hospitality is in the name. They don't mind if you get one dry.

drink and nurse it for a while. So if I find myself with some time to kill in that part of town, that's something I like to do. Yeah, you can line up my espresso martinis right now. Also, recently I found myself in Times Square super late at night. And I learned about a very cool thing in Times Square. It's called Midnight Moments. And this is every night at the end of the night from 1157 p.m. until midnight. Every billboard in Times Square gets taken over. and turned into an art gallery. So every month, it's a different artist. Last month was Olofer Eliasson,

who New Yorkers might remember from his big installation in the East River. This month, it's Lori Simmons. So imagine you're in Times Square, it's late, and suddenly every advertisement disappears, and a huge monumental piece of artwork fills up every digital billboard in Times Square for three minutes exactly,

1157 to midnight. It's called Midnight Moments. That is something very magical and unusual to catch because how often are any of us in Times Square at midnight? That's WMYC's Ryan Kylath. Food has a way of connecting us to our past. For the last few holiday seasons, we've asked New Yorkers across the city about the memories that come to mind when they think of certain family recipes.

Here's one from last year. My name is Michelle Carlo, and I live in South Slope, Brooklyn, where I've been since, wait for it. 1988. Both sides of my family are from the island of Puerto Rico. My father's family came here in the late 1920s, my mother's in the late 1930s, which, as the diaspora goes, kind of makes us like Mayflower. One of the holiday traditions from Puerto Rico is Coquito. It's a beverage.

It's a quintessential holiday libation. If you've never had it, it is a Caribbean vacation in a glass, and the recipes for Coquito are guarded like classified secrets, handed down for one person to another, and there is no share. My abuela made Coquito every single Christmas. People, like, wait for it. It was like the big reveal, Coquito, yeah, because it's just so good. But when my grandmother, my abuela, died unexpectedly in 1994, the recipe went with her. Or so, my family thought, because the next Christmas, I showed up on my titis, my aunts,

scattering. And my family was like, what? You're trying to make coquito? Until they tasted it. And they were like, what? How? How? Because Abuela never let anybody watch her make coquito. I mean, you know, the kitchen would be full of people helping, you know, during the big meal preparation, but she would shoo everybody out because nobody can watch and make the coquito. But I did because I was a nosy and hungry, child, teenager, and young adult. And on this one day in time, Abuela was in the kitchen making a holiday magic. I was trying to see what kind of snack I could sneak.

And there she was, making the coquito. And I can tell you, it is a delicious, sweet, creamy blend of rum, coconut, rum, milk, rum, vanilla, rum, eggs, rum, spices, and rum. Michelle Carlo lives in South Slope, Portland. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. Have a lovely holiday. We'll be back with one episode tomorrow.