Coney Island & Brighton Beach

Until I visited last weekend, my vision of Coney Island was stuck in the turn of the century -- the previous century -- when photographs were in black and white, women wore bathing suits that went down to the knee, and the entire beach was crammed with families wearing swim caps, sitting under umbrellas.

Present day Coney Island lacks the nostalgic charm of history books, but I can't sneer at a respectable beach that's an easy hour by train from Manhattan. Growing up near Santa Monica's beaches in California, I was amazed the first time I visited Dewey beach in Delaware -- I'd just driven several hours from Washington, D.C., for a puny sliver of sand. Coney Island, on the other hand, had a wide expanse of sand, and it wasn't too crowded. Although the water was choppy, it was nice to walk in the sand and get my feet wet. They even had an amateur sand castle competition taking place Saturday afternoon.

At least one of the rides epitomized my romanticized vision of Coney Island: the rickety-looking wooden Cyclone roller coaster, built in 1927. It's actually a National Historic Landmark, and though I didn't ride it, it reminded me of Colossus roller coaster at Southern California's Six Flags Magic Mountain. It lacks the crazy loops and twists and turns of the newer roller coasters, but is perfect for giving your stomach that unique weightless feeling.

We lunched at Totonno's, a pizzeria a few blocks inland with fabulous pizza and rather surly service. The pies have a thin, but not soggy, crust, just the right amount of cheese, and they use fresh mushrooms. They were evidently annoyed that we didn't order drinks, though -- when my dining companion (politely) asked for a refill of tap water, the waitress pointed at the sink next to the bathroom and said, "I got the first round. You can get the second."

From Coney Island, it's an easy walk to Brighton Beach, a major Russian enclave. Instead of row after row of fried clams, burgers and soft serve, Brighton Beach's boardwalk has Tatiana Cafe and Tatiana Restaurant, where you can dine on smoked fish, caviar and chicken Kiev. The beach there is less crowded and impressively free of trash. Just a block inland on Brighton Ave. there's an impressive array of Russian grocery stores and shops. Even the Starbucks had items listed in Cyrillic. All the stores were selling sour cherries, so I tried some of those, sadly passing up the individual Fage yogurt containers (3 for $1, with looming expiration dates) due to lack of refrigeration in my near future. I liked the sour cherries well enough, and can see them going really well as a sauce with duck (I had them raw).

Our day ended with a quick stop at Nathan's so my friend could try one of their famed hot dogs. While calorie counts on fast food menus usually don't make much of an impression on me, the fried fish combos exceeding 2,000 calories were somewhat alarming. Good thing Michelle Obama didn't eat here, since she already got quite a bit of grief for her 1,700 calorie Shake Shack meal.

Nathan's (the original location founded in 1916)