New York City’s Other Island Borough is a place to eat, drink, be cultured, and has more green space than anywhere else in the city.
Commonly referred to as New York’s “underdog” borough, Staten Island often draws visitors primarily interested in the free scenic ferry that departs every 30 minutes from the Lower Manhattan Ferry Terminal and offers great photo opportunities of Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. However, we see it more as a local gem, a bastion of incredible Sri Lankan cuisine that’s hard to find in other boroughs, with small cultural centers and museums, and more green space than anywhere else in New York. We’ve rounded up a few things to do if you’re spending a day on this urban island.
1. A Warm Welcome
Like so many other places in New York, St. George, the neighborhood that begins at the ferry terminal, is in the midst of a construction boom. The heart of the project is the Empire Outlets, a massive shopping mall home to many renowned designer boutiques. Directly centered on the Financial District, the terminal area is also the setting for Postcards (pictured above), a poignant 9/11 memorial completed in 2004. The names of the 263 Staten Islanders who participated in the 9/11 strike and the 1993 World Trade Center boom are etched in individual silhouettes set into the skyward-facing white cement walls, like the Wind Blowing postcards. resemble and contain messages from a family. An adjacent memorial commemorates the deaths of 73 local first responders who after died.
From the ferry terminal, you can walk to Richmond County Bank Ballpark, home of the Staten Island Yankees, the New York Yankees’ minor league team. Tickets to games where you can watch tomorrow’s MVP, with views of the Manhattan skyline.
2. Sri Lanka Nation
Lakruwana, a Sri Lankan restaurant about a mile from the ferry terminal (a lovely waterfront walk) and marked by a majestic elephant mural on the side of the building, feels like it’s been transplanted into the Sri Lankan landscape. And somehow, it has. Owner and expat Lakruwana Wijesinghe traveled home to buy almost everything to furnish the restaurant, from bamboo and stone wall panels to ornate wooden doors and Buddha statues, not to mention clay pots and water cups. Lakruwana met his wife, Jayantha, on the Staten Island Ferry and they run the business together: he runs the front of the house and she runs the kitchen, dishing out dishes made with curry paste, mustard seeds, ginger, coriander and cumin. The weekend brunch is a buffet offering a range of flavors and warmth. No matter what day you visit, order the menu’s signature Lampreis. This rich mix of curried rice, banana leaves, eggplant, bananas and sweet cashews is so aromatic that the smell will linger in your head for days.
Lakruwana is one of many Sri Lankan restaurants on Staten Island, home to about 5,000 Sri Lankans, the largest population outside the South Asian country. There are other restaurants nearby, located next to markets selling coconut vinegar, banana flowers and other imported goods. There’s also the Sri Lanka Art & Culture Museum, a compact space on Lakruwana Street filled with masks, furniture, statues and more, founded and run by the Wijesinghe’s daughter. The dying community as a whole is so special that Anthony Bourdain wrote about it on his show No Reservations.
3. See a show at a historic theater (or just take a tour)
In 1929, when Herbert Hoover moved into the White House, Popeye made his comic strip debut, Ernest Hemingway published In Another Land and Picasso and Dali painted their masterpieces. Despite the devastating stock market crash, it was a great year for the arts, and New York was no exception. The Manhattan Museum of Modern Art is open to the public, and further south on the waterfront, the St. George Theatre has become a glamorous destination with an ornate interior and vaulted ceiling designed by Nestor Castro, who designed the interiors of many Times Square theaters. The debate is to blame. Movies and live variety shows drew crowds until vaudeville fell out of fashion, but it remained a film until the 1970s, when it finally fell out of fashion. However, after a local initiative, it was restored to its baroque splendor, tiled with chairs
