Working in Downtown Syracuse/ Armory Square= YEEE!

So as the months have passed as an employee of an art gallery in downtown Syracuse, I keep discovering neat little things about the city. You would think that having worked here since February of last year I would know about all of the restaurants and historic squares that are within a few blocks of the gallery. Wrong!

Every Saturday, my roommate Melanie and I ride the bus downtown together because we both start working at the same time (me at XL Projects art gallery and her volunteering at the MOST (Museum of Science and Technology)). We also always have a half hour after the bus gets downtown before we have to be at our places, so we usually stop at Dunkin Donuts and stroll through the city.

On our first walk, I discovered that Dinosaur Bar-B-Que is only 4 blocks from my workplace. And in case you don’t know what Dino BBQ is, it’s a fantastically unique restaurant that has been voted to have the best ribs/BBQ sauce in the COUNTRY. In little old Syracuse! Sweet.

On the second walk, we went the other direction and realized that Pastabilities (all kinds of homemade pasta), the Empire Brewery (hand crafted brews and delicious Blue Corn bread), and Clarke’s Ale House (the ‘family’ gathering place of Alpha Phi Omega, the co-ed community service fraternity that I am in- which is ironic because we are a dry fraternity (we do not drink) going to an ale house. We weren’t ‘dry’ many years ago, and that’s when the tradition of going to Clarke’s was established…) are all within 2 blocks of the gallery.

This morning before work Melanie and I saw some huge tour buses/semi trucks about 100 yards past the gallery, so of course we decided to investigate. Little did I know, but I work one block from the Landmark Theater (historic/beautiful theater, showing all kinds of performing arts events). Tonight, a band called Tragically Hip is playing (don’t ask me who they are though…) and next Friday the Nutcracker Ballet is coming to town.

Isn’t is fascinating that I can get paid to hang around art all day, walk literally across the street to the Black Olive (delicious Mediterranean food) for dinner, then walk less than one block to the Landmark Theater to see a professional ballet company perform the Nutcracker? I think so.