I’m back in Washington Heights again traveling on the East side of Broadway and exploring all the side streets. I started my day walking along the length of 187th Street. I swear I find some great bakeries and restaurants in the neighborhood.
I started with a snack at the Grullon Bakery II at 575 West 187th Street. This local bakery has a wonderful selection of Dominican pastries and meat pies. The pastelitos here are really good. The chicken filling is spiced well and fried crisp. Their Cubanos’ stuffed pastries are wonderful as well. They are similar to the pastelitos but a different dough and a sweeten outside.
Grullon Bakery II at 575 West 187th Street (Closed 2021)
All of their meat pastries run around $1.00 so it makes a nice travelling snack. Also check out some of their sweetened pastries as well. I have to say one thing, the staff seemed very amused by me eating there. I figured they don’t see too many customers who are not Dominican.
I was able to walk the whole distance of Wadsworth Avenue before nightfall. Now that the days are getting shorter, it’s harder to walk the distance before it gets too dark. Wadsworth is lined with many beautiful pre-war apartments but one section that is really nice is by Fairview Avenue with buildings that are shaped by the curvature of the road. Take a good look up and really look at this building. Its design is really unique, and the look of the apartments inside must be interesting.
Walking down Fort George Avenue it seemed to me that everyone is obsessed with washing their cars. All up and down the street, everyone was power washing their cars and trucks so be on the lookout for streams of water. This is quite a walk up and down the hill passing the upper part of High Bridge Park which is loaded with trash in this part of the park. Even though this part of the park is loaded with interesting rock formation, it isn’t well taken care of and loaded with weeds.
I walked through Amelia Gorman Park off Wadsworth Avenue, which is unusual as the park starts on Broadway and you walk up the steps to the sitting area up above. It offers a nice view the surrounding area and the parks on the other side of the island. When you walk up the many flights of stairs, you will notice this park is also filled with weeds. The sitting area at the top of the park offers many benches and just as many nice views.
The park is dedicated to Gertie Amelia Gorman, a real estate investor at the request of her family. It is a nice place to relax after a long day of walking. Her daughter, Gertie Emily Webb gave the City Parks system $25,000 for the establishment of the park and a $50,000 trust to maintain it (NYCParks.com).
Amelia Gorman Park on Wadsworth Terrace
https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/amelia-gorman-park/history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorman_Park
I walked the whole length of Wadsworth Avenue and back and then I started the length of St. Nicholas Avenue when night fell. I just walked one side of the road on the way back to the subway station. There is a lot of hustle on the avenue with street vendors hawking their wares and small food vendors selling ices, juices, pastelitos and fresh fruit. The stores that line this section of the block are loaded with life as everyone is rushing around either looking or buying.
For dinner that evening, I stopped at El Malecon Restaurant at 4141 Broadway. I passed the restaurant many times on the walk up and down Broadway and it offers a very interesting menu of Dominican, Caribbean and Spanish dishes. I had their chicken quesadilla there was served with fresh guacamole, which were freshly fried and bursting with flavor and then had the Shrimp with Garlic Sauce with a mound of rice and a side of beans.
El Malecon at 4141 Broadway in Washington Heights
https://www.nycgo.com/restaurants/el-malecon
The portion sizes are very big so come prepared with a big appetite. The service can be a little rough if you don’t speak Spanish that well, but they will try to help you with the menu. The place should not be missed when travelling up this way.
Their Shrimp with Garlic Sauce was excellent
On the way back to the subway, I noticed that people are still outside in the cool night air playing dominoes and cards. Even in the cool weather, the island way of life still rings true in this neighborhood, and it feels a whole lot safer.
Please read my other blogs on walking Washington Heights. It was a big area to cover:
Day Twelve: Walking West of Broadway to West 170th Street:
https://wordpress.com/post/mywalkinmanhattan.com/98
Day Thirteen: Walking Broadway west of 193rd to 165th Streets
https://wordpress.com/post/mywalkinmanhattan.com/113
Day Fourteen: Walking south down Broadway west of 174th to 164th Streets
https://wordpress.com/post/mywalkinmanhattan.com/122
Day Fifteen: Walking west of Broadway from Washington Heights to Harlem:
https://wordpress.com/post/mywalkinmanhattan.com/139
Day Seventeen: Walking the border of Riverside Drive in Washington Heights from 181st to 153rd Streets:
https://wordpress.com/post/mywalkinmanhattan.com/163
Day Eighteen: Walking down Broadway from Wadsworth Terrace to Wadsworth Drive:
https://wordpress.com/post/mywalkinmanhattan.com/184
Day Nineteen: Walking the East side of Broadway from 193rd to 155th Streets:
https://wordpress.com/post/mywalkinmanhattan.com/192
Day Twenty-One: Walking Washington Heights from Amsterdam Avenue to Highbridge Park:
https://wordpress.com/post/mywalkinmanhattan.com/210
Days Twenty-Five and Twenty-Six: Crisscrossing Broadway from 181st to 155th Streets:
https://wordpress.com/post/mywalkinmanhattan.com/225
Day Thirty-Six: Visiting the Little Red Lighthouse and the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights:
https://wordpress.com/post/mywalkinmanhattan.com/850
Day Forty-One: Walking Dyckman Street from 207th Street to 155th Street and the Polo Grounds Apartments:
https://wordpress.com/post/mywalkinmanhattan.com/1376
Places to Visit:
High Bridge Park
190th & Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY 10040
(212) 639-9675
https://www.nycgovparks.org/park-features/highbridge-park/planyc
https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/highbridge-park
Open: Sunday-Saturday 6:00am-11:00pm
Amelia Gorman Park
Wadsworth Terrace & 188th-190th Streets
New York, NY 10040
(212) 639-9675
https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/amelia-gorman-park
https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/amelia-gorman-park/history
Open Sunday-Saturday 6:00am-11:00pm
Places to Eat:
El Malecon Restaurant
4141 Broadway
New York, NY 10033
(212) 927-3812
http://maleconrestaurants.com/
Open: Sunday 8:30am-2:00am/Monday -Thursday 8:30am-1:00am/Friday & Saturday 8:30am-2:00am
My review on TripAdvisor:
Grullon Bakery II (Closed 2021)
575 West 187th Street
New York, NY 10033
(212) 740-1190
My review on TripAdvisor:
mywalkinmanhattan 
Don’t miss touring Gorman Park in the warmer months and save your appetite for any of the wonderful Dominican restaurants that line Broadway.
LikeLiked by 1 person