Los Altos Town Crier » Visit to famous soul-food restaurant highlight of Los Altos resident’s trip to Harlem

By Barbara Carter

$Image from article Visit to famous soul-food restaurant highlight<br /> of Los Altos resident\'s trip to Harlem$
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Venola Evans, left, and Barbara Carter, right, stand with soul-food chef Sylvia Woods, center, in her Harlem restaurant.

My friend of 44 years from Santa Clara and I traveled by plane to New York’s LaGuardia Airport, where we were met by our friend from Tampa, Fla. She had come up days before us and had her four-wheel drive vehicle.

Our adventure began. When we got to our designated hotel in Tarrytown, there was some sort of mistake, so we were assigned to a nearby facility - in a suite fit for a queen.

Of course, we were all queens and thoroughly enjoyed the historical Tarrytown House Estate, which we found after seeking the help of a real live angel.

It was nestled in trees and shrubbery. It was so serene and beautiful we thought the whole mistake must have originated in Heaven.

An hour’s drive from the airport, Tarrytown House was built just for us. It had Old World charm and really I could have spent our entire stay there.

However, the next day the first of many taxis appeared and whisked us off to our original destination, a nearby Marriott.

The first day’s tour - taxi to the train, train to Grand Central Station, taxi to the tour bus - and we’re finally touring downtown Manhattan.

We saw Madison Square Garden; the site of the tragic airplane attack on the Worlds Trade Center; Times Square, where the ball falls on New Year’s Eve; and even stopped by ABC for a show.

We bought a pass for the day (on a tour bus) and could jump off at any spot and catch another when were ready to tour on. Of course, we spent some time in Central Park as well as boating to the Statue of Liberty.

The highlight of our second day was a stop in Harlem where we visited Sylvia’s, a restaurant started by a mother and daughter back in 1962 as a 35-seat eatery, now expanded to seat 450 people for soul culinary delights.

Run by three generations of the Woods family, this landmark takes up a whole block.

Though I really enjoyed our visit to the Big Apple, California is home, and I was happy to return.