I'm Will Fulton, and this is thrilled us explorers. When the most famous part of your borough is actually the public transportation that takes you to and from said borrow, that's usually not a good sign and attention announcement. But the Staten Island Ferry launches from the southern tip of Manhattan. It's totally free, and it does come with some spectacular views of the Statue of Liberty, the downtown skyline, and some islands. What's that over there, that's Governor's Island, I think governor or else we're such about New Yorkers. It was Governor's Island, by the way. But it's also important to note your optimal Staten Island Ferry experience starts well before you step on the boat. Let's rewind about fifteen minutes when my partner Keller, and I were standing in the terminal waiting to board. There's a Thrillist article that has very specific like boating instructions. We go to the right really, yeah, that's how they get like the good scene thrill list tips for boarding stat in my own fair speed your way over the right landing platform and walk up the right staircase to the top level. Walk all the way multiple ells, all the way back to the back of the boat through the doors, and you now have a front row seat literally to all the astonishing views in Manmark. Once you've used secured your spot, send someone down for another twenty four ounds can of brew. So we follow the article's advice, Thank you Thrillist, and found ourselves front and center of the boat with Modela tallboys in hand. Yeah, it's good that actually worked correct. The Staten Island Ferry just might be the island's most famous export, besides the Wu Tang Clan or Pete Davidson. It's bright orange boats were shuffling close to seventy thousand passengers per day between Northern Staten Island and Lower Manhattan. Now it's about half that thanks to the pandemic. The ferry has been featured in movies like The Dark Night and Spider Man Homecoming, and also one very popular episode of Sex in the City, and for a lot of Staten Islanders it's actually a source of pride. Hello, my name is Rosian Carolina. I am the New York City Department of Transportation Staten Island Borrow Commissioner. If you want to find out anything about the Staten Island Ferry, and about Staten Island in general and about d ot in general. If I don't know it, probably nobody else know there. Yeah, So so the State Island Ferry began operating, I would say, back to the eighteen hundreds. So it's it's it's it's it's an iconic mode of transportation. It is Staten Islands uh number one connector to UH, I like to say, to the rest of the world. And it's almost like our golden ticket out here for Stanton Islanders. So yeah, we consider that our golden tickets. Everyone does the same exact thing, Where can I get tickets? And when, you know, when we tell people that it's free, they're like, wait, it's free, you can get on end up pay. I'm like, yeah, last free thing in New York City. And the reason it's free dates back to the early nineties when the city government wanted to make the other four boroughs more accessible to Staten Islanders, who, in classic Staten Island fashion, we're feeling a little isolated. But no, it's actually it benefits everyone and and and it says I think it actually encourages people in a way to come to Staten Island. So if you're in Manhattan and you have nothing to do, and you say, let's just take a ferry ride over, you know, come to Staten Island. You know, come visit it. There's lots to do out here. But that leads us to a phenomenon that, in many ways encapsulates this episode's entire thesis. A lot of people will take the ferry, be the site, grab a beer, but then turn right back around and go back to Manhattan. Yeah. You know, I'm not happy about that, to be honest, I wish that people would just, you know, get off the boat. There's so much ado and you can go to Snug Harbor, which is a beautiful, beautiful center of Snug Harbor Center. Uh. You can go to Fort Wadsworth and walk around these beautiful hills and views of the Verrizontal Bridge Um and there's so much to do. Even just along Bay Street in Richmond Terrace. I mean, there's restaurants to go to, there's a Statin Land Museum act you right across the street. And we've been trying really hard with the Chamber of Commerce and a lot of other folks on Staten Islands to get them to stay here for a couple of hours. You know, this has been our our, our goal for several years. I have to be honest. Staten Island is known as the Fifth Row and it lives largely in the shadows of Manhattan, Brooklyn Queens, and even the equally underrated Bronx. Even native New Yorkers rarely venture there. It's relegated to the same status as Long Island or even New Jersey. It's part of the city, but not really. In this episode, we're going to spend a day in Staten Island, meeting some local Islanders who love their borough and highlighting some things to do if or when you decide to make the trek yourself, which you totally should, because even one fairy ride to Staten Island can literally change your life. My dad told me when he moved here around the nineties that, um, it was so hard to find shi Lankan people. And that's how he kind of bumped into my mom. Uh, he said, like he tells everyone, like the first woman, a Shilancan woman he met with my mom and they met at the Satna and Ferry, which is a crazy point on the ferry. It's really crazy. I mean, I have friends who also are couples and they met each other from the ferry. It's the Fairies. Not only a boat ride, but you can might find your love. I mean, if you want to find love, come down to send that one. One and a half miles away from the ferry terminal. A small stretch on Bay Street, just off the Upper Bay right across the river from Brooklyn, is known colloquially as Little Sri Lanka, where one of the world's biggest free Lankan communities outside of Sri Lanka resides and the centerpiece of the neighborhood in the opinion of many, is the restaurant Lock Ruana and the Sri Lankan Museum. Uh So, my name is Julia j sing huh I owned the Sri Lankan Museum down here in Stown Island. You also have a restaurant called La Ruana, which is like one block away from each other. The restaurant where I sat down with Julia looks like a temple on the outside with an expansive mural, gold painted doors and statues flanking the entrance, and on the inside, well, it's one of the most elaborately decorated restaurants I've ever been in. My dad's goal was to kind of make you feel like you're in Sri Lanka without a passport, so you're just walking into Sri Lanka in New York City. The walls are all done in bamboos in kubook, which is like a certain type of rock that we used to build houses in Sri Lunka. So when you're like looking at the wall, you're actually looking into a window. We have like the doors, the ceiling um, the roofing, so you're basically walking into an outdoor of a house. And that's kind of like like a like a village house in Sri Lanka. And naturally visitors get a little preoccupied with taking photos of the statues and the hanging lanterns and then many many pieces of art on the wall. Like I wonder they're like taking so many pictures without eating their food. I'm like, are you gonna get your food or what I mean? A lot of people say like Sri Lanka food is like Indian food, but if I can tell, one difference is that we use coconut milks into our carry so it's not too heavy, so no dairy at all. When it comes to our carry. We're strictly coconut milk base. I don't think there's like any type of gazine that we don't incorporate coconut. So I definitely if you like gonna. Definitely tried to food and when I asked her what dish would be best for me a complete Sri Lankan food novice, she had an answer ready. Definitely the lump price. That's like over like a three hundred year old recipe. It's like a little buffet in one plate because we have so many varieties of curry. It has like egg plan snisembol, which is like sweet onion, and we have bananakari, kashana kari fried boiled egg and whatever meat that you choose um and it works with any type of meat, and it comes with the yellow rice in the base and it's like wrapped into banana leaf, so it's really cool. You're you're opening up the banana leaf and everything's laid out. And we always recommend that. I tried the lamp lam press, by the way, and it made me so mad. There isn't a Sri Lankan restaurant on every block in this city. Julia, who was about to graduate from college opened up a Sri Lankan museum in high school in the restaurant's basement. This made her the youngest museum curator in the world, and the museum itself is the only Sri Lankan museum in the world outside of Sri Lanka. I started off my new you when I was fifteen. That was like when I kind of got the idea because I always see my dad design, Like if you see the ducor, this is exactly how it's like at my house. My dad has like all these artifacts antiques all around, even in my room. I don't even have a choice to design my own room. There's literally antique in my room. And it's like he surprised me with it because I went to Sri Lunka last year and when I came back, my whole room was just like not my place. I wasn't mad, but I actually like, I'm like a history like a history geek. So it really he got lucky that he has a daughter that likes it too. You know, a lot of people didn't know where Shri Lunka was, and I went to uh Northree Dame Academy, which was an old girls school here on Staten Island. Um. I was the only sulan Kin girl, so it was kind of uh, you know, the spotlight was real and I kind of got tired of talking about it, and I was like, you know, let me have a place where I could just present Sri Luncle all around me. Like I used to be insecure about calling it a museum, because when you compare the museum here in New York City either huge me. I used to call it a ga allery even though we had the sign. But it was just so hard for me because I had some as an eighteen year old girl. Just imagine amount in securities you have, especially going to all girls schools too. Um. But now I feel more confident. Now I have my old place, which is a block away, so people who have Sri Lunkan food, they also get the chance to also learn about the history as well, so it's kind of an all rounded place. One thing that I have in the museum is a section of the Vedas, which is about the indigenous people in Sri Lunka. So when I met the leader of the indigenous people when I was just fifteen two, I have the picture of with him and he actually gave me his bow and arrows that he actually used, So that's like my favorite part of the museum, and also my Grandma's suitar for sure. So there's a lot of sentimental stuff too. You know when you go to New York City, they're so it's so big and it's hard to find your place, and it's crazy like everybody knows each other somehow, which is like really cool of Astan Island and uh and if you don't have any friends, there's so many friends out here would want to be your friend out lack Ruana hasn't all you can eat buffet option on the weekend, so ideally you start your Staten Island trip off here and then of course visit Julia's museum. We have links to both in our description. Leaving Little Sri Lanka, we headed west, basically across the entire island to visit Elm Park and meet up with the dude who is basically exactly the type of person you'd expect to encounter on Staten Island. So, Daniel, what did you have for breakfast this morning? Alright, sotona cancel me. I did a couple of pieces of gloom and free toast, so my avocado and over easy eggs. Why would get that? It's usually not my mo joe, but you know, a good healthy breakfast and then I could eat like a galvo and the rest of the day, you know. Daniel Mandelo is much much better known on the Internet as meals by couge, as he runs a TikTok and Instagram account that is followed by literal million it regine means the real word, and Italian is cousino, a cousina, which means cousin. So here's by couss, like here's by couse So cousine just a cousin. Everyone's my cousin. You know. I normally sandwiches or pizza's. You know, I kind of got a little Italian flay to it, and yeah, I just kinda I review sandwiches in the most vulga way possible, but still with some clash, you know. And I mean I keep the Stantining Island clash with it, you know. So it's a little both, you know, but it's a comedy, you know what I mean. He's trying to hurt nobody's business here, as he is a native Staten Islander. We asked Daniel to take us to one place on the island that he really really loved, and he chose De Ninos, an old school pizzeria that is routinely ranked among the city's best, which would obviously put it in the running for the best pizza in the entire country. Beautiful, we got the Denino's white Pie. It's kind of funny. Every time you order that, they go do you know what that is? Because they do it different here. You know, they told they were go with the cheese, but they also throw white onions in there, a little little zinga, which I I like white onions on my polly. So it's just mint. The crust is mint on the tone. Oh my god, Beautiful, I grew up coming here. You used to go to. Uh how are you going? So when we were sitting at the bar Indaninos, which basically looks like every other old school Italian tavern, and I mean that in a good way, the lunch rush started coming in and we actually had trouble talking because everyone walking in immediately recognized Daniel. You get that a lot every day, like like every day every day, and like I can't leave my house and I guess, yeah, it's such a recognizable face, you know. So we went to the back room to finish our pizza and talk a little bit about Staten Island Pride. A lot of people say we're not weally like a pot of the burrows, which you know they and go scratch the ways in my opinion, but we are, you know what I mean, We're like the only one not connected. I think the other four like all in twined. You can get to the other bows easily. Here you gotta take a fucking twenty dollar bridge or a ferry. Plus people just like shoot on stand because at a stan Island dumb which has been closed for over twenty years, I understand. Like why I stand is it's a little you know, forgotten and we all forgotten. We always get the ship end of the stick when it comes to New York City, you know what I mean. When it snows out. You know, our roads aren't as plowed as like the other bows. You know, we don't get well like the red headed step child over here, you know, but we take it out it comes and uh, we still got better pizza than the rest of them. So falcome so after Daninos. As every truth thattn Islander knows, the move is to go across the street and grab some dessert at Ralph's Italian Ices, another local legend. I love that it's iconic stand outs use ice is Everyone's like, oh, we got Rouse in Long Island. We got Rousey and Rouse started here Port Richmond. Staten Island like come out with new flavors every year. Me I'm like a twelve year old. I like birthday cake, which you know, some people will say it a little bit of a sin, but you know they can go scratch. It's just overall a quality spot and I'm like prouded from Stina Island. You know, it's Staten Islands. Not as much as a ship hole as everybody says. It's a nice place to grow up. You know, everyone's lovely here or not everybody, you know what I mean. But it's a classy spot. You know, there's a lot of characters and a lot of fun things to do. It's still close to the city, so you know, it's a nice train and a ferry ride over and you're into little hustle and bustle of the city. But it's a nice little piece quite subourbon ish, you know, it's most suburban you're gonna get in New York City. And if you consider it New York City. You know it's it's it's officially blurted New York technically is you know, I pay New York City tax, So fuck it, it's New York City. All right, We're gonna take a quick break. But when we get back, did you know that Staten Island has an abandoned fort you can explore and hike and even camp around. Yeah me, neither. We have that and a whole lot more stick around. Along with this sentiment of great food and a distinct sense of community. The other facet of Staten Island that locals kept bringing up is the space, the open areas, the parks. There are actual hikes you can take in Staten Island. So Keller and I decided to venture to a recreation area right below one of the island's most iconic features. All right, so we are directly underneath the mighty Verizono Bridge or in forts Will Fort Wadsworth, a National Recreation area. Yes, part of the National Park System, which we love. Shout out to the NPSY. It's cool. A lot of people here, jogging, riding bikes, sucking their dogs. It's right by the water too, oh wow. Yeah, And there's the city skyline. It is cool. Fort Wadsworth is right on the water. There's an actual beach you can camp on in the summer with great views of the city skyline. And there's an actual abandoned fort there too, hence the name. These platforms are all that remain of gun batteries from the late eighteen hundreds in early nineteen hundreds, designed to attack swift destroyers or mine sweepers attempting to dash into New York Harbor. None ever tried. Yeah, it was all the way some we thought so. By the mid eighteen sixties, bigger, accurate guns could destroy a stone fort like this, so it was compromised and became obsolete almost before it's last stones are laid again mismanaged funds, and while it was occupied with children and dogs and outdoor enthusiasts, the sprawling abandoned buildings did provide a certain mood um not totally unlike the setting for a horror movie. Yea, uh, not something where I'd want to walk alone. It's light, it's getting a little dark. Turning this on in case we need to record our untimely deaths. We're down a little trail too. There's just like so many little yeah, like twist and turns that I feel like we could go in there if we were like, we could go into high school. Yeah, I mean these are they're like little places to crawl in. No should climb off this. Yeah, let's let's check out these doors first. I'm super creeped off by Yeah, it's very creepy stone brick structures that have but they're not fenced off rotting doors. Like rotting you could climb through all of that. All right, I think we should just at least look in. I'm just gonna look in. It's dick and musty. Holy shit. Oh man. So after totally chicken ng out and running out of that abandoned tunnel, at this point, it had been at least two hours since we ate something, so we decided to check another legendary Staten Island eatery off our list, the Royal Crown Bakery in Old Town. It is always crowded, has an enormous seating area, and its glass display cases are filled with the kaleidoscopic array of the best looking pastries you've ever seen. Well, I got this, which they said was one of the most popular things that cheesecate cone con and then I got like a mini everything is sprinkled and polter chugar. It's amazing. That looks so good. Oh crap, it's different, Capo. I love cheesecake. This is like one of the best things I've ever had in my mouth. So this is a homemade chocolate bread which has been around for twenty five years. We use white and off chocolate in very popular. And here we have a homemade Rainbow cookies and Alpinola cookies only cookies that have been only on the top and the bottom. And again they're all authentic, all family recipes and in the family fees. That was Frank Glano, one of the owners of Royal Crown. Will hear more from him in one second, but first we gotta talk about this chocolate bread. Like you know how much I love bread. Yeah, I'm sorry, but we have to take this home. We got him. I will carry it around all day. That's so good about It's so good, unbelievable. It really is like just like a you mean dinner loaf, which happen, That's what I mean. Like it's not like a cinnamon sworld load. It's not sweet. It's okay. Here's Frank royal crying and stunt out and open the n It's just a very comfortable and happy environment. You know, you come here in a suit, you're coming shorts and slippers and we have, Thank god, we have a lot of regulars that come every day. They just love the environment. It's very comfortable, peaceful and good food. You know, old recipes that I may people are making him on today. That's pretty much. It really seems like you have a lot of regulars. Like I see people coming in and they know, yes, they love it. And we're closed on Mondays now and a lot of people are very upset. As we've come to learn, Staten Island is a place that values tradition, community and eating and drinking like a lot. And the last stop on our fun field Staten Island Adventure was Leadis Shore in on the literal banks of the west side of the island. It's a tiny bar in a skinny brick building with candles in the window. It's also an excellent place to grab a pint and hear some old stories. And almost immediately when we walked in, we started hearing those stories. Without even asking, John, the longtime bartender, showed us the bar's antique phone booth where Madonna filmed part of her nineteen eighties six video Papa Don't Preach. Does it still work? Yeah? Oh fun? Yeah. Mat In fact, that's my bulls phone. You don't have a phone ups upstairs for a seventy one years. He doesn't have a phone up there. That's his phone. But she was sitting in there, there's a plant of phone, and she's saying and she's on the phone with the Lates, was taking popping up preaching. Yeah, she said, we're saying it. And I know it's been a while, we were talking thirty eight years ago. But if you smell aw Seedy, you still sw the smell mana yeah, nine to nineteen o five in this location and openly and uh Larry Leady's grandfather, great grandfather, Jacob Leedy on On opened and owned it, and then his grandfather ran it and his father ran it. She got signed it says Leady shoring Way. I saw in the corner down there for a hundred anniversary and um two thousand five they renamed that the corner over there, Leadyship Shoran Way because of a hundred anniversary. It's an old bar obviously, and does get a little sleepy during the day, but it also gets pretty rockies here at night. A lot of dancing was on, a lot of music while a rock and roll, A lot of tremendous musicians. Jimmy Matt tways every Wednesday and Saturday. Jimmy had a couple of great albums in the like late sixties, early seventies. He was a band called the mack Truck Band. So Larry, Larry Leady, he just ran out the liquor slow he should be back short league. Can any questions that I can answer? He can? And right on cue Larry Leady walked in with his arms full of liquor bottles. The show folks for some questions. Um, this is Larry Leady, name Ry of thanks to meet you. I'm Will and this is a Keller Keller. Will's definitely not stand now that that was a kind of unique. You don't know if there I say, I'm not even the tired. The said I'm American, right, Mom obvious to said you would never know, right right, talking like this, you've seen kind of I'm gonna know the Irish knows. Come on, Oh, yes, Larry is a lifelong stand islander. He grew up and still lives above the bar, and he's seen the borough change around him and in some ways leave him behind. I found out in life that when you stay in one spot too long, like me, you become a stranger. I am a stranger now. No one knows me. Twenty years old, everybody knew me. I'd have to hide from people high Okay, now I sit out tied this bar up until about five years ago. If I had a quarter for every beat, I'd be a millionaire. You know how many beats I get now? Maybe two a day. It's the clock. The clock. The clock gets here, you become a stranger. But Leadys is truly a spot that history has passed through and also imbibed in we have. I've had a guy that was on a Titanic in nineteen twelve. At the time he was eighty one years old. Nineteen sixty one on more than fifty one, so I was ten, and the nineteen sixty one he was like eighties six. His name is Herbie Dyke. She survived the Titanic and drank in this bar. And like most buildings that are a hundred plus years old, there are some resident ghosts. I got other things, this wounded, This plaice is hoards. I think it's my great grandmama. I look at it. Can I hear and I could actually hear this? Completly leave leave leave, We heard the phone book is still haunted by Madam Damel. Within a few hours and several shots, we were thick in the middle of a stranger's birthday party, where locals gave us free pizza and cake. While we listened to Jimmy Mack and made some new friends. We realized that Staten Island isn't a hidden wonderland necessarily, but it is a place with great food and stellar bars, and above all else, a community of locals who are more than willing to accept you with open arms and sing along to a Maggie may Cover with you. We it's really what more do you want out of a day trip? Right? Don't sue us? Rod Stewart, Right, ye man, it's good too, It's really good. Should we move here? I'm talking? All right? That is it for us? Thank you so much for listening. This episode was edited and mixed by the miraculous Noah Murphy Special thanks to Jim Demico, Megan kursh Brett, Kushter and Emi we Feld. We will be back with a new episode next week. See you then, Thanks bye,

I'm Will Fulton, and this is thrilled us explorers. When the most famous part of your borough is actually the public transportation that takes you to and from said borrow, that's usually not a good sign and attention announcement. But the Staten Island Ferry launches from the southern tip of Manhattan. It's totally free, and it does come with some spectacular views of the Statue of Liberty, the downtown skyline, and some islands. What's that over there, that's Governor's Island, I think governor or else we're such about New Yorkers. It was Governor's Island, by the way. But it's also important to note your optimal Staten Island Ferry experience starts well before you step on the boat. Let's rewind about fifteen minutes when my partner Keller, and I were standing in the terminal waiting to board. There's a Thrillist article that has very specific like boating instructions. We go to the right really, yeah, that's how they get like the good scene thrill list tips for boarding stat in my own fair speed your way over the right landing platform and walk up the right staircase to the top level. Walk all the way multiple ells, all the way back to the back of the boat through the doors, and you now have a front row seat literally to all the astonishing views in Manmark. Once you've used secured your spot, send someone down for another twenty four ounds can of brew. So we follow the article's advice, Thank you Thrillist, and found ourselves front and center of the boat with Modela tallboys in hand. Yeah, it's good that actually worked correct. The Staten Island Ferry just might be the island's most famous export, besides the Wu Tang Clan or Pete Davidson. It's bright orange boats were shuffling close to seventy thousand passengers per day between Northern Staten Island and Lower Manhattan. Now it's about half that thanks to the pandemic. The ferry has been featured in movies like The Dark Night and Spider Man Homecoming, and also one very popular episode of Sex in the City, and for a lot of Staten Islanders it's actually a source of pride. Hello, my name is Rosian Carolina. I am the New York City Department of Transportation Staten Island Borrow Commissioner. If you want to find out anything about the Staten Island Ferry, and about Staten Island in general and about d ot in general. If I don't know it, probably nobody else know there. Yeah, So so the State Island Ferry began operating, I would say, back to the eighteen hundreds. So it's it's it's it's it's an iconic mode of transportation. It is Staten Islands uh number one connector to UH, I like to say, to the rest of the world. And it's almost like our golden ticket out here for Stanton Islanders. So yeah, we consider that our golden tickets. Everyone does the same exact thing, Where can I get tickets? And when, you know, when we tell people that it's free, they're like, wait, it's free, you can get on end up pay. I'm like, yeah, last free thing in New York City. And the reason it's free dates back to the early nineties when the city government wanted to make the other four boroughs more accessible to Staten Islanders, who, in classic Staten Island fashion, we're feeling a little isolated. But no, it's actually it benefits everyone and and and it says I think it actually encourages people in a way to come to Staten Island. So if you're in Manhattan and you have nothing to do, and you say, let's just take a ferry ride over, you know, come to Staten Island. You know, come visit it. There's lots to do out here. But that leads us to a phenomenon that, in many ways encapsulates this episode's entire thesis. A lot of people will take the ferry, be the site, grab a beer, but then turn right back around and go back to Manhattan. Yeah. You know, I'm not happy about that, to be honest, I wish that people would just, you know, get off the boat. There's so much ado and you can go to Snug Harbor, which is a beautiful, beautiful center of Snug Harbor Center. Uh. You can go to Fort Wadsworth and walk around these beautiful hills and views of the Verrizontal Bridge Um and there's so much to do. Even just along Bay Street in Richmond Terrace. I mean, there's restaurants to go to, there's a Statin Land Museum act you right across the street. And we've been trying really hard with the Chamber of Commerce and a lot of other folks on Staten Islands to get them to stay here for a couple of hours. You know, this has been our our, our goal for several years. I have to be honest. Staten Island is known as the Fifth Row and it lives largely in the shadows of Manhattan, Brooklyn Queens, and even the equally underrated Bronx. Even native New Yorkers rarely venture there. It's relegated to the same status as Long Island or even New Jersey. It's part of the city, but not really. In this episode, we're going to spend a day in Staten Island, meeting some local Islanders who love their borough and highlighting some things to do if or when you decide to make the trek yourself, which you totally should, because even one fairy ride to Staten Island can literally change your life. My dad told me when he moved here around the nineties that, um, it was so hard to find shi Lankan people. And that's how he kind of bumped into my mom. Uh, he said, like he tells everyone, like the first woman, a Shilancan woman he met with my mom and they met at the Satna and Ferry, which is a crazy point on the ferry. It's really crazy. I mean, I have friends who also are couples and they met each other from the ferry. It's the Fairies. Not only a boat ride, but you can might find your love. I mean, if you want to find love, come down to send that one. One and a half miles away from the ferry terminal. A small stretch on Bay Street, just off the Upper Bay right across the river from Brooklyn, is known colloquially as Little Sri Lanka, where one of the world's biggest free Lankan communities outside of Sri Lanka resides and the centerpiece of the neighborhood in the opinion of many, is the restaurant Lock Ruana and the Sri Lankan Museum. Uh So, my name is Julia j sing huh I owned the Sri Lankan Museum down here in Stown Island. You also have a restaurant called La Ruana, which is like one block away from each other. The restaurant where I sat down with Julia looks like a temple on the outside with an expansive mural, gold painted doors and statues flanking the entrance, and on the inside, well, it's one of the most elaborately decorated restaurants I've ever been in. My dad's goal was to kind of make you feel like you're in Sri Lanka without a passport, so you're just walking into Sri Lanka in New York City. The walls are all done in bamboos in kubook, which is like a certain type of rock that we used to build houses in Sri Lunka. So when you're like looking at the wall, you're actually looking into a window. We have like the doors, the ceiling um, the roofing, so you're basically walking into an outdoor of a house. And that's kind of like like a like a village house in Sri Lanka. And naturally visitors get a little preoccupied with taking photos of the statues and the hanging lanterns and then many many pieces of art on the wall. Like I wonder they're like taking so many pictures without eating their food. I'm like, are you gonna get your food or what I mean? A lot of people say like Sri Lanka food is like Indian food, but if I can tell, one difference is that we use coconut milks into our carry so it's not too heavy, so no dairy at all. When it comes to our carry. We're strictly coconut milk base. I don't think there's like any type of gazine that we don't incorporate coconut. So I definitely if you like gonna. Definitely tried to food and when I asked her what dish would be best for me a complete Sri Lankan food novice, she had an answer ready. Definitely the lump price. That's like over like a three hundred year old recipe. It's like a little buffet in one plate because we have so many varieties of curry. It has like egg plan snisembol, which is like sweet onion, and we have bananakari, kashana kari fried boiled egg and whatever meat that you choose um and it works with any type of meat, and it comes with the yellow rice in the base and it's like wrapped into banana leaf, so it's really cool. You're you're opening up the banana leaf and everything's laid out. And we always recommend that. I tried the lamp lam press, by the way, and it made me so mad. There isn't a Sri Lankan restaurant on every block in this city. Julia, who was about to graduate from college opened up a Sri Lankan museum in high school in the restaurant's basement. This made her the youngest museum curator in the world, and the museum itself is the only Sri Lankan museum in the world outside of Sri Lanka. I started off my new you when I was fifteen. That was like when I kind of got the idea because I always see my dad design, Like if you see the ducor, this is exactly how it's like at my house. My dad has like all these artifacts antiques all around, even in my room. I don't even have a choice to design my own room. There's literally antique in my room. And it's like he surprised me with it because I went to Sri Lunka last year and when I came back, my whole room was just like not my place. I wasn't mad, but I actually like, I'm like a history like a history geek. So it really he got lucky that he has a daughter that likes it too. You know, a lot of people didn't know where Shri Lunka was, and I went to uh Northree Dame Academy, which was an old girls school here on Staten Island. Um. I was the only sulan Kin girl, so it was kind of uh, you know, the spotlight was real and I kind of got tired of talking about it, and I was like, you know, let me have a place where I could just present Sri Luncle all around me. Like I used to be insecure about calling it a museum, because when you compare the museum here in New York City either huge me. I used to call it a ga allery even though we had the sign. But it was just so hard for me because I had some as an eighteen year old girl. Just imagine amount in securities you have, especially going to all girls schools too. Um. But now I feel more confident. Now I have my old place, which is a block away, so people who have Sri Lunkan food, they also get the chance to also learn about the history as well, so it's kind of an all rounded place. One thing that I have in the museum is a section of the Vedas, which is about the indigenous people in Sri Lunka. So when I met the leader of the indigenous people when I was just fifteen two, I have the picture of with him and he actually gave me his bow and arrows that he actually used, So that's like my favorite part of the museum, and also my Grandma's suitar for sure. So there's a lot of sentimental stuff too. You know when you go to New York City, they're so it's so big and it's hard to find your place, and it's crazy like everybody knows each other somehow, which is like really cool of Astan Island and uh and if you don't have any friends, there's so many friends out here would want to be your friend out lack Ruana hasn't all you can eat buffet option on the weekend, so ideally you start your Staten Island trip off here and then of course visit Julia's museum. We have links to both in our description. Leaving Little Sri Lanka, we headed west, basically across the entire island to visit Elm Park and meet up with the dude who is basically exactly the type of person you'd expect to encounter on Staten Island. So, Daniel, what did you have for breakfast this morning? Alright, sotona cancel me. I did a couple of pieces of gloom and free toast, so my avocado and over easy eggs. Why would get that? It's usually not my mo joe, but you know, a good healthy breakfast and then I could eat like a galvo and the rest of the day, you know. Daniel Mandelo is much much better known on the Internet as meals by couge, as he runs a TikTok and Instagram account that is followed by literal million it regine means the real word, and Italian is cousino, a cousina, which means cousin. So here's by couss, like here's by couse So cousine just a cousin. Everyone's my cousin. You know. I normally sandwiches or pizza's. You know, I kind of got a little Italian flay to it, and yeah, I just kinda I review sandwiches in the most vulga way possible, but still with some clash, you know. And I mean I keep the Stantining Island clash with it, you know. So it's a little both, you know, but it's a comedy, you know what I mean. He's trying to hurt nobody's business here, as he is a native Staten Islander. We asked Daniel to take us to one place on the island that he really really loved, and he chose De Ninos, an old school pizzeria that is routinely ranked among the city's best, which would obviously put it in the running for the best pizza in the entire country. Beautiful, we got the Denino's white Pie. It's kind of funny. Every time you order that, they go do you know what that is? Because they do it different here. You know, they told they were go with the cheese, but they also throw white onions in there, a little little zinga, which I I like white onions on my polly. So it's just mint. The crust is mint on the tone. Oh my god, Beautiful, I grew up coming here. You used to go to. Uh how are you going? So when we were sitting at the bar Indaninos, which basically looks like every other old school Italian tavern, and I mean that in a good way, the lunch rush started coming in and we actually had trouble talking because everyone walking in immediately recognized Daniel. You get that a lot every day, like like every day every day, and like I can't leave my house and I guess, yeah, it's such a recognizable face, you know. So we went to the back room to finish our pizza and talk a little bit about Staten Island Pride. A lot of people say we're not weally like a pot of the burrows, which you know they and go scratch the ways in my opinion, but we are, you know what I mean, We're like the only one not connected. I think the other four like all in twined. You can get to the other bows easily. Here you gotta take a fucking twenty dollar bridge or a ferry. Plus people just like shoot on stand because at a stan Island dumb which has been closed for over twenty years, I understand. Like why I stand is it's a little you know, forgotten and we all forgotten. We always get the ship end of the stick when it comes to New York City, you know what I mean. When it snows out. You know, our roads aren't as plowed as like the other bows. You know, we don't get well like the red headed step child over here, you know, but we take it out it comes and uh, we still got better pizza than the rest of them. So falcome so after Daninos. As every truth thattn Islander knows, the move is to go across the street and grab some dessert at Ralph's Italian Ices, another local legend. I love that it's iconic stand outs use ice is Everyone's like, oh, we got Rouse in Long Island. We got Rousey and Rouse started here Port Richmond. Staten Island like come out with new flavors every year. Me I'm like a twelve year old. I like birthday cake, which you know, some people will say it a little bit of a sin, but you know they can go scratch. It's just overall a quality spot and I'm like prouded from Stina Island. You know, it's Staten Islands. Not as much as a ship hole as everybody says. It's a nice place to grow up. You know, everyone's lovely here or not everybody, you know what I mean. But it's a classy spot. You know, there's a lot of characters and a lot of fun things to do. It's still close to the city, so you know, it's a nice train and a ferry ride over and you're into little hustle and bustle of the city. But it's a nice little piece quite subourbon ish, you know, it's most suburban you're gonna get in New York City. And if you consider it New York City. You know it's it's it's officially blurted New York technically is you know, I pay New York City tax, So fuck it, it's New York City. All right, We're gonna take a quick break. But when we get back, did you know that Staten Island has an abandoned fort you can explore and hike and even camp around. Yeah me, neither. We have that and a whole lot more stick around. Along with this sentiment of great food and a distinct sense of community. The other facet of Staten Island that locals kept bringing up is the space, the open areas, the parks. There are actual hikes you can take in Staten Island. So Keller and I decided to venture to a recreation area right below one of the island's most iconic features. All right, so we are directly underneath the mighty Verizono Bridge or in forts Will Fort Wadsworth, a National Recreation area. Yes, part of the National Park System, which we love. Shout out to the NPSY. It's cool. A lot of people here, jogging, riding bikes, sucking their dogs. It's right by the water too, oh wow. Yeah, And there's the city skyline. It is cool. Fort Wadsworth is right on the water. There's an actual beach you can camp on in the summer with great views of the city skyline. And there's an actual abandoned fort there too, hence the name. These platforms are all that remain of gun batteries from the late eighteen hundreds in early nineteen hundreds, designed to attack swift destroyers or mine sweepers attempting to dash into New York Harbor. None ever tried. Yeah, it was all the way some we thought so. By the mid eighteen sixties, bigger, accurate guns could destroy a stone fort like this, so it was compromised and became obsolete almost before it's last stones are laid again mismanaged funds, and while it was occupied with children and dogs and outdoor enthusiasts, the sprawling abandoned buildings did provide a certain mood um not totally unlike the setting for a horror movie. Yea, uh, not something where I'd want to walk alone. It's light, it's getting a little dark. Turning this on in case we need to record our untimely deaths. We're down a little trail too. There's just like so many little yeah, like twist and turns that I feel like we could go in there if we were like, we could go into high school. Yeah, I mean these are they're like little places to crawl in. No should climb off this. Yeah, let's let's check out these doors first. I'm super creeped off by Yeah, it's very creepy stone brick structures that have but they're not fenced off rotting doors. Like rotting you could climb through all of that. All right, I think we should just at least look in. I'm just gonna look in. It's dick and musty. Holy shit. Oh man. So after totally chicken ng out and running out of that abandoned tunnel, at this point, it had been at least two hours since we ate something, so we decided to check another legendary Staten Island eatery off our list, the Royal Crown Bakery in Old Town. It is always crowded, has an enormous seating area, and its glass display cases are filled with the kaleidoscopic array of the best looking pastries you've ever seen. Well, I got this, which they said was one of the most popular things that cheesecate cone con and then I got like a mini everything is sprinkled and polter chugar. It's amazing. That looks so good. Oh crap, it's different, Capo. I love cheesecake. This is like one of the best things I've ever had in my mouth. So this is a homemade chocolate bread which has been around for twenty five years. We use white and off chocolate in very popular. And here we have a homemade Rainbow cookies and Alpinola cookies only cookies that have been only on the top and the bottom. And again they're all authentic, all family recipes and in the family fees. That was Frank Glano, one of the owners of Royal Crown. Will hear more from him in one second, but first we gotta talk about this chocolate bread. Like you know how much I love bread. Yeah, I'm sorry, but we have to take this home. We got him. I will carry it around all day. That's so good about It's so good, unbelievable. It really is like just like a you mean dinner loaf, which happen, That's what I mean. Like it's not like a cinnamon sworld load. It's not sweet. It's okay. Here's Frank royal crying and stunt out and open the n It's just a very comfortable and happy environment. You know, you come here in a suit, you're coming shorts and slippers and we have, Thank god, we have a lot of regulars that come every day. They just love the environment. It's very comfortable, peaceful and good food. You know, old recipes that I may people are making him on today. That's pretty much. It really seems like you have a lot of regulars. Like I see people coming in and they know, yes, they love it. And we're closed on Mondays now and a lot of people are very upset. As we've come to learn, Staten Island is a place that values tradition, community and eating and drinking like a lot. And the last stop on our fun field Staten Island Adventure was Leadis Shore in on the literal banks of the west side of the island. It's a tiny bar in a skinny brick building with candles in the window. It's also an excellent place to grab a pint and hear some old stories. And almost immediately when we walked in, we started hearing those stories. Without even asking, John, the longtime bartender, showed us the bar's antique phone booth where Madonna filmed part of her nineteen eighties six video Papa Don't Preach. Does it still work? Yeah? Oh fun? Yeah. Mat In fact, that's my bulls phone. You don't have a phone ups upstairs for a seventy one years. He doesn't have a phone up there. That's his phone. But she was sitting in there, there's a plant of phone, and she's saying and she's on the phone with the Lates, was taking popping up preaching. Yeah, she said, we're saying it. And I know it's been a while, we were talking thirty eight years ago. But if you smell aw Seedy, you still sw the smell mana yeah, nine to nineteen o five in this location and openly and uh Larry Leady's grandfather, great grandfather, Jacob Leedy on On opened and owned it, and then his grandfather ran it and his father ran it. She got signed it says Leady shoring Way. I saw in the corner down there for a hundred anniversary and um two thousand five they renamed that the corner over there, Leadyship Shoran Way because of a hundred anniversary. It's an old bar obviously, and does get a little sleepy during the day, but it also gets pretty rockies here at night. A lot of dancing was on, a lot of music while a rock and roll, A lot of tremendous musicians. Jimmy Matt tways every Wednesday and Saturday. Jimmy had a couple of great albums in the like late sixties, early seventies. He was a band called the mack Truck Band. So Larry, Larry Leady, he just ran out the liquor slow he should be back short league. Can any questions that I can answer? He can? And right on cue Larry Leady walked in with his arms full of liquor bottles. The show folks for some questions. Um, this is Larry Leady, name Ry of thanks to meet you. I'm Will and this is a Keller Keller. Will's definitely not stand now that that was a kind of unique. You don't know if there I say, I'm not even the tired. The said I'm American, right, Mom obvious to said you would never know, right right, talking like this, you've seen kind of I'm gonna know the Irish knows. Come on, Oh, yes, Larry is a lifelong stand islander. He grew up and still lives above the bar, and he's seen the borough change around him and in some ways leave him behind. I found out in life that when you stay in one spot too long, like me, you become a stranger. I am a stranger now. No one knows me. Twenty years old, everybody knew me. I'd have to hide from people high Okay, now I sit out tied this bar up until about five years ago. If I had a quarter for every beat, I'd be a millionaire. You know how many beats I get now? Maybe two a day. It's the clock. The clock. The clock gets here, you become a stranger. But Leadys is truly a spot that history has passed through and also imbibed in we have. I've had a guy that was on a Titanic in nineteen twelve. At the time he was eighty one years old. Nineteen sixty one on more than fifty one, so I was ten, and the nineteen sixty one he was like eighties six. His name is Herbie Dyke. She survived the Titanic and drank in this bar. And like most buildings that are a hundred plus years old, there are some resident ghosts. I got other things, this wounded, This plaice is hoards. I think it's my great grandmama. I look at it. Can I hear and I could actually hear this? Completly leave leave leave, We heard the phone book is still haunted by Madam Damel. Within a few hours and several shots, we were thick in the middle of a stranger's birthday party, where locals gave us free pizza and cake. While we listened to Jimmy Mack and made some new friends. We realized that Staten Island isn't a hidden wonderland necessarily, but it is a place with great food and stellar bars, and above all else, a community of locals who are more than willing to accept you with open arms and sing along to a Maggie may Cover with you. We it's really what more do you want out of a day trip? Right? Don't sue us? Rod Stewart, Right, ye man, it's good too, It's really good. Should we move here? I'm talking? All right? That is it for us? Thank you so much for listening. This episode was edited and mixed by the miraculous Noah Murphy Special thanks to Jim Demico, Megan kursh Brett, Kushter and Emi we Feld. We will be back with a new episode next week. See you then, Thanks bye,