The Wavertree’s 17-month, $13-million, city-funded restoration won an award for historical preservation last month, and the South Street Seaport Museum’s flagship will host two swank events this month.
BY JANEL BLADOW
We kicked up our heels as summer got off to a spectacular start last weekend. So many fun things around the hood.
GLAMOUR GALA… Dress up in your fanciest whites and come out to support neighborhood businesses and our community on June 6! Attend the second-annual benefit gala for the Old Seaport Alliance, an organization of business owners and community leaders with the mission to improve our seaport. The event is Tuesday, June 6, 7–10 pm (Thursday, June 8, is the rain date). Come aboard the beautifully restored Wavertree at Pier 15 for an evening of great local food, festive party drinks, lively music and neighborliness. Organizers promise lots of great live and silent auction items and surprises, including a tattoo booth for those who want to get their “sailor-style” on! This year’s sponsors are the South Street Seaport Museum, Suntory Toki Whiskey and North Street Creative Studio, among others. Tickets are $100 donation and available at www.501auctions.com/OSAGala.
SEA SERENADE… Another (sea)worthy event coming up aboard the iron-hulled, three-masted ship Wavertree is an evening of “Sails, Stars and the Sweet Sounds of Classical Music.” On June 15 at 8 pm, the beautifully restored ship, built in 1885, will be decked out with dramatic, festive lights and festooned with colorful nautical flags. The Seaport’s own Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra celebrates South Street Seaport Museum’s on-going 50th anniversary with an “exquisite, one-of-a-kind, maritime-inspired concert.” The sunset sounds include works by modern classical composers Igor Stravinsky and Charles Ives. The featured performance will be “Sea-Fever,” John Masefield’s classic poem, sung by tenor Glenn Allen Seven as set to music by KCO Director Gary S. Fagin. Tickets start at $20 and available at www.knickerbocker-orchestra.org/donate.
GRAND OLE GAL… And while we’re singing the praises of the museum’s flagship, we must note that the Preservation League of New York State last month presented a special honor to all those who helped restore Wavertree to her glory. Those who worked and funded the year-long overhaul received an award for Excellence in Historic Preservation, fittingly presented at the historic New York Yacht Club. The statewide program commemorates efforts to preserve New York’s architectural heritage. The last time the league celebrated a ship was the John J. Harvey Fireboat in 2002.
GREAT GRUB… Foodies, your time has come! Eight award-winning chefs present six experimental menus for, as the promo goes, “one awesome summer.” Master chefs from across the country will each give New York a taste of their culinary wizardry with exclusive two-week residencies at the Seaport Food Lab, 203 Front St. at Fulton Street. Sponsored by Chase Sapphire, diners will see and sample never-before-tasted dishes by some of the country’s best chefs. Starting June 20 and running through July 2, a trio from Chicago — Paul Kahan (Blackbird), Cosmo Goss (Publican) and Erling Wu-Bower (Nico Osteria) bring their talents. Following on their fry pans is the king of Southern style, Savannah’s Hugh Acheson (The Florence) from July 9–21. Beginning July 30 and running to Aug. 12, take “A Trip to Israel with Alon Shaya” (Shaya Restaurant, New Orleans) for some of his greatest hits — tabouleh, shakshouka and hummus. Then Aug. 20 to Sept. 2, Jessica Koslow (Sqirl) brings her unique West Coast style to the Big Apple to preview her new concept “Tel.” Rounding out this gastronomic extravaganza is Top Chef Dale Talde of his namesake restaurant in Park Slope. He’s bringing along steller friends: Iron Chef Makoto Okuwa, Charlestown’s Michael Toscano (Le Farfalle) and Beau Schooler of the Rookery Cafe in Juneau, Alaska. Tickets are now available for the first two events at: https://www.seaportdistrict.nyc/foodlab.html The following three residencies tickets will go up closer to the dates.
The new exhibit “Millions: Migrants and Millionaires aboard the Great Liners, 1900-1914” shows how the rich traveled the seas in luxury — but the poor, not so much.
SHOWING CLASS… The latest exhibit at the South Street Seaport Museum explores the vastly different ways the rich and the poor sailed the oceans a hundred years ago. “Millions: Migrants and Millionaires aboard the Great Liners, 1900-1914” examines the great divide between First Class and Third Class passengers on ships such as Titanic, Olympic, Lusitania, Mauretania, Aquitania and Imperator during the golden age of transatlantic travel. While First Class passengers sailed in the lap of luxury in wood-paneled suites and crystal chandelier dining rooms, nearly 13 million immigrants made the voyage in stuffy, overcrowded lower decks. Drawing on the museum’s permanent collection of ocean liner memorabilia, this exhibit displays side-by-side the two classes, on the same ships but worlds apart. Master woodcarver Deborah Mills will evoke the spirit of grandeur by replicating a wood panel that adorned the interior of the Smoking Room of the RMS Mauretania throughout the run of the show. And every Wednesday, visitors can tour the Maritime Craft Center (209 Water St.) to see the piece evolve. Films featuring ocean liners and immigrants and harbor life at its heyday are not to be missed. The exhibit opens June 23, Wednesday through Sunday 11 am–7 pm, at the museum’s mezzanine gallery level, accessible from the main entrance of the museum on 12 Fulton Street. It runs through Jan. 7, 2018.
