How to Celebrate Father’s Day with a New York Flair

Dad’s Day is right around the corner. Here are some cool New York-style ways to celebrate.

Take Dad to Dinner

It’s time to get out of the house or apartment. Dining at home has been fun and the breadth of shows on Netflix is enticing, but now that indoor dining has resumed and outdoor dining is a real thing in New York, Dad can enjoy a foodie night on the town for Father’s Day.

Courtesy Brooklyn Chop House

Always lively Brooklyn Chop House in FiDi is offering a special prix fixe menu for Father’s Day. The Asian-inflected menu features a range of small dishes that Dad will love like rock shrimp tempura, chicken lettuce wraps, chicken satays with peanut sauce and Pac Man seafood dumplings. (Make sure you take a photo of dad with that one!)  Entrees are a man-sized 24-ounce bone-in, dry-aged ribeye steak; ginger scallion lobster; sweet black bean Beijing chicken; and spicy Kung Pao chicken.

Courtesy LoLo’s Seafood Shack

Harlem’s original Cape Cod and Caribbean mashup LoLo’s Seafood Shack will feature a spread of seafood baskets and boils, juicy jerk ribs, and more from Chef Raymond Mohan. You can pretend that you’re taking Dad to an island as you sit outdoors in the restaurant’s surprising Harlem backyard.

Courtesy Bar Marseille

Combine a day at the beach with dinner at Bar Marseille in the Rockaways. Presenting an eclectic collection of flavors found along the French Riviera including influences from North Africa, Italy, Greece and Spain, the Father’s Day menu offers dishes like a brisket and grilled asparagus special along with grilled oysters, beef tartare and chicken Provençale.

If Your Dad Is More of A Drinking Guy

Courtesy Fiddlesticks Pub

Join Fiddlesticks and Teeling Whiskey for Father’s Day, celebrating the family legacy of Dublin’s most-awarded Irish Whiskey. From June 17-20, bring your father to Fiddlesticks Pub in the West Village for a bespoke experience sipping experience. Dad will enjoy specialty cocktails with personalized leather coasters to complete the very individual experience. Seating is at the outdoor Phoenix Parlor, inspired by the Teeling Whiskey distillery in Dublin.

Buy Dad a Book about His Favorite Restaurants and Drinking Spots

Nom Wah Tea Parlor © John Donohue

Artist John Donohue has spent the past umpteen years drawing sketches of all the restaurants in New York City and now Paris. With so many restaurants shuttered due to Covid, the “All the Restaurants in New York” book is especially relevant and poignant. Undoubtedly, many of Dad’s favorites are included. And since he still can’t really safely travel to Paris yet, Donohue’s new “All the Tables in Paris” illustrations will have him dreaming of his next vacation with the whole family. Better still, buy Dad both books and a print of his favorite restaurant that you can easily frame. You’ll be helping the restaurant industry, too: 10% of all print sale profits go to the Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation’s COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund.

Buy Dad a Ticket to the Hottest Shows in Manhattan

“Springsteen on Broadway” © Meryl Pearlstein

Make sure Dad has copies of his vaccine card so he can enjoy Bruce Springsteen’s return to Broadway. Starting this month, the Boss will re-mount his sold-out “Springsteen on Broadway” smash at the St. James Theater. Only fully vaccinated patrons can attend so add the New York Excelsior Card to your phone wallet for easy display. (Note: A negative Covid test is not enough to secure entry). Even if you saw it on television, there’s nothing like hearing Bruce tell the story of his life in words and music, in person. Seating is not socially distant, so keep that in mind if you decide to purchase tickets.

Immersive Van Gogh © Meryl Pearlstein

Immersive Van Gogh has just opened in a purpose-built space on Pier 36 in Lower Manhattan. The huge 500,000 cubic foot structure is easy to spot – it’s covered with Van Gogh’s famous sunflowers. The product of video artist Massimiliano Siccardi with direction by Broadway set designer David Korins (Hamilton) and music by Luca Longobardi, three massive rooms of differing configurations and a balcony await Dad on his special day. Not to be confused with a similarly named Van Gogh immersion (Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience) happening on Vesey Street, this sound, color and light experience is a fully immersive sensory sojourn into the mind of the great artist. The visuals are on a loop that lasts for 35 minutes but you can stay as long as you want and enjoy the changing tableaux.

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One Response to “How to Celebrate Father’s Day with a New York Flair”

  1. 2kneeled says:

    2heliotrope…

Planning a trip to NYC?