Tony’s Pizza & Pasta | mywalkinmanhattan

I had some extra time today to double back to some of the sites that either were not open the day I walked this part of Inwood or did not have time to visit. The Dyckman Farmhouse tour (See TripAdvisor and VisitingaMuseum@Wordpress.com) is defiantly something you should tour while you are in the neighborhood. Sitting on the top of a hill overlooking Broadway at 4881 Broadway, you have to be sure to visit the house when it is open. Its hours are from 11:00am-3:00pm Thursday-Sunday. It is worth the visit to step back to the 18th Century and see how people lived in comparison to today. It’s a small island into the past in a bustling neighborhood.

The Dyckman Farmhouse at 4881 Broadway during the summer months.

The House in the Fall months

House sign

Dyckman Farmhouse Museum

The tour is self-guided and free. The house was built in 1785 by William Dyckman in the Dutch Colonial style on what was once a 250-acre farm estate that he inherited from his grandfather who had come to the New World in 1661. The original house had been further in the estate, and it was destroyed during the Revolutionary War. The house left the family in 1868 and was bought again by Mr. Dyckman’s granddaughters in 1915 and was restored (Wiki).

Dyckman Farm now sits above the neighborhood in the Fall of 2024

The back of the farmhouse.

The house was donated to the City of New York in 1916 and is now part of the Parks system. The nice part is that the house has a self-guided tour, and you can take your time to look over the rooms and the gardens.

The Smokehouse behind the Dyckman house.

It really is a simple house as the Dyckman’s, who owned most of the land in this part of Inwood were farmers. They owned the house for several generations, and it was the last family member living their grandchildren who invested in the house to open it up to the public.

The back of the property by the old smokehouse

The back of the house in the Fall of 2024

It amazes me of how many people lived in this house at one time with the amount of space in which they had to work. The bedrooms are pretty small and take time out to see the downstairs kitchen. It makes us appreciate today.

The upstairs bedroom at the Dyckman Farmhouse

The Dyckman Farmhouse rooms reflect its rural past but the family still entertained and housed many extended family members.

The second bedroom

The guest bedroom

The gardens in the back are a nice place to roam and relax. The beds are set up with both flowers and vegetables and are maintained by their Friends group. Sit back under one of the trees and just enjoy the view. It really is a time capsule to our rural past in an extremely busy section of Inwood. Watch their events calendar too as there are many activities at the Dyckman House.

Touring the Dyckman Farmhouse property

https://www.facebook.com/DyckmanFarmhouseMuseum/

Touring the inside of the house at Christmas time

Touring the inside of the Dyckman Farmhouse during the holidays.

The first floor is a reflection of a working farm and home. Things are sensible without being overdone. Still the family would have held a prominent place in the Dutch farming community.

The formal parlor at the Dyckman Farmhouse

The parlor in the Dyckman Farmhouse.

The farmhouse kitchen in the basement of the home. The hearth was also part of the heating system of the house.

I double backed and explored the surrounding neighborhood of Payson Avenue, Cummings Street, Academy Street and walked down Dyckman Street to Nagle Avenue. I made a quick pit stop at Nagle Bakery at 121-B Nagle Avenue, which is pretty good.

I had a Pastilito, a type of Dominican beef or chicken turnover, which they make really good, and they are only a dollar. I also had a fruit filled Coconino, a type of flaky pastry with mango filling that was a little dried out but not bad. The bakeries in Inwood are wonderful and offer a lot of selection at a very fair price.

The pastries at Nagle Bakery at 121 B Nagle Avenue (Closed January 2023)

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This was the unfortunate part of most of the bakeries I tried in Inwood. By the time I got to the bakeries it was later in the afternoon so everything seemed not as fresh as first thing in the morning and it had been sitting since the morning. Nagle Bakery, though is not bad and if you are in the neighborhood, it’s worth the stop.

Nagle Bakery at 121-B Nagle Avenue (Closed January 2023)

On my back to the subway at 207th and Dyckman Street, I stopped at Tony’s Pizza and Pasta at 4771 Broadway (now closed) for a quick slice before the ride downtown. You have to watch them here. On the outside sign, they advertise a $1.00 slice but when you go in its $1.50. Then when you order the slice, you have to designate that you want the $1.50 slice, or they will try to bait and switch you with a larger slice that is $2.50. The $1.50 slice is not bad, and the sauce is pretty good, but the more expensive slice is much bigger. Not a good business practice but the pizza was pretty good, so I forgave them for that, and it is close to the subway station.

Tony’s Pizza and Pasta at 4771 Broadway (Closed 2018)

The cheese pizza was really good.

With both Nagel Bakery and Tony’s Pizza both closed before and during the pandemic, my favorite place to eat in the neighborhood now and when I visit the Cloisters is G’s Coffee Shop at 634 West 207th Street. The food and the service at this local neighborhood spot is excellent and the prices are extremely fair (see my reviews on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com).

G’s Coffee Shop at 634 West 207th Street

https://www.instagram.com/gscoffeeshop207

I made trip to the Cloisters and the Dyckman Farmhouse for a Christmas themed “Holiday Decoration” tour for both places and stopped in for a late breakfast because I was starving. They had a wonderful all day breakfast special, a Breakfast Burrito ($7.95), filled with eggs, chorizo sausage, salsa, avocado and hashbrowns wrapped in a soft burrito shell. It was very large and delicious. The flavors were really brought out by the salsa, hot sauce and the sausage. With a cool Lime Soda is really made the meal.

The Breakfast Burrito with Chorizo sausage was excellent.

When visiting the Dyckman Farmhouse again for a Spring walking tour, I stopped by G’s for lunch and had the Bacon Cheeseburger Deluxe that I saw everyone ordering on the last two trips to the restaurant I had made and it was worth the trip.

The Bacon Cheeseburger was perfectly cooked with a nice amount of caramelization on the meat and was loaded with freshly cooked bacon and topped with a few pieces of cheese, chopped lettuce and tomatoes. The French Fries were cooked to order and were the small shoestring type that were crisp and plentiful on the plate. The burger had a nice complexity to it and the meat had a lot of flavor to it as it was a fresh patty not frozen. For less than $10.00, it made a nice lunch.

The Bacon Cheeseburger lunch at G’s Coffee Shop.

The service is very nice and the orders come out quick. It is a Hodge Podge of neighborhood types but that’s what I think makes this G’s Coffee Shop special, it really is a neighborhood restaurant catering to everyone. It is a restaurant that every neighborhood should have.

It was a quick afternoon in the city but a nice walk for the day. I just wanted to revisit the Inwood neighborhood to be sure that I covered everything and see the Dyckman Farmhouse. Don’t miss it at the holidays as well.