Our Favorite Croatian



There were two of them, one peddling us through Central Park in the rain in a covered pedicab,

and another, two days before, working on tables in the bar at Delmonicos on a day the restaurant was closed, but our favorite Croatian we met in NYC definitely had to have been at the restaurant.  It was sunday and we were on our guided tour of the Revolutionary War in lower Manhattan starting at City Hall Park, onto St. Paul's Chapel (oldest chapel in Manhattan, same block as 9/11 site),

and down into the financial district near Wall St. where George Washington gave his inaugural speech at Federal Hall in 1789.

A few more blocks towards the East River and we ran across Beaver street, which looked familiar from my reading of Dining at Delmonico's: The Story of America's Oldest Restaurant, so I asked our tour guide if we were close.  She said yes, only a block away, and it's right on our way to Fraunces Tavern,

our last stop, and sight of Washington's farewell address to his troops.  The Delmonicos corner building was clearly being worked on as so many NYC buildings are, full of scaffolding and iron,

yet the very front entry was still beautiful and in tact...only one problem, the door was closed so we couldn't simply peek in and take a quick picture.  Debby, in the pic on the left, suggested we just

come back on wednesday before we visit the Statue of Liberty.  As we were about to leave to Fraunces a guy with a carpenter's work shirt came up to us and asked if we'd like to take a look around inside, that it was closed today, totally empty, but the lights were on because he was working in the bar inside.  It turned out the man was the brother-in-law of the current owner of Croatian heritage by the name of Dennis Turcinovic, the same guy I had just read about in the Delmonico's book a few days before we left on our trip.  We walked into the oldest restaurant in America, fully lit, by ourselves.  We walked around and into the bar taking a few pics and when we left our

favorite Croatian left with us and locked the door!  That night, at the motel room, we went out onto Open Table online dinner reservations and got a table for two nights later.  Abby tried the Lobster Newburg, a dish that was actually invented at Delmonicos back in the 1880's, Jan and I the world famous Delmonico's steak, Julia the filet and Carly mac and cheese with a few dashes of crab in it.  The spirit of Delmonicos was with us as we all agreed this was the best steak any of us had ever had.