I remember having these arguments in yeshiva about why Brooklyn wasn’t really the best place in the world, as you can imagine people from Brooklyn have a lot of pride and I would constantly have to stand up for the city of Rochester (despite the fact that I myself was from New York City) Now, I do know that Brooklyn is an awesome place, the frum neighborhoods kind of blow – but if you check out Cobble Hill, Park Slope, Ditmas Park and Dumbo – you will find cool and hip neighborhoods with all the amenities of Manhattan. The arguments really centered on the fact that in Rochester – “there was nothing to do”.
A few weeks ago I was eating at someone’s house Friday night, also at the meal were 5 girls from Lakewood on a road trip and they were asking the host what there was to do after shabbos, after naming off all of the possibilities – the girls were still not satisfied and they asked in half horror if there was a pizza store of sorts in the neighborhood. It turns out that when frum people tell you there’s nothing to do – they really mean there’s no kosher pizza store or the like – that is open late.
I can see this phenomina first hand at the restaurant I work at – it is the only kosher place for miles and one of the former chefs told me that Jews in the restaurant tended to spend 1.5 to 2 times as much time eating and hanging out as normal restaurants, I told him that was because most of these folks wouldn’t be going out to a show or bar after dinner and that they needed to get the most bang for their buck.
In Rochester we had no kosher place to eat and this translated to nothing to do, the Lakewood girls basically equated no kosher pizza store with nothing to do on a Saturday night….
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