RENTED!!!

This house at 216 Conklin in Eastwood rented quickly! Do you have a house you'd like to rent? Are you looking for a single family home to rent in Syracuse? Please call me at 315-395-7523.

People are especially looking for rental homes in Tipp Hill, Eastwood, and Strathmore in the city of Syracuse. Outside the city I get a lot of requests for Liverpool, Clay, Cicero.

Books and Memories

I used to live in the neighborhood of Eastwood (that's in the city of Syracuse) on Woodbine Avenue. I was thrilled when we moved in that there was a great bookstore up on the corner - a huge cavern of a bookstore, untidy and full of surprises and cheap cool old books.

The bookstore changed hands, and I braced myself. Surely it couldn't possibly be as cool. They will get rid of all the old books and make it into a Borders wannabe type place.

Imagine my surprise when the store was actually vastly improved. They remodeled, changed where the entrance was, cleaned up the store and got rid of a lot of junk. It was actually easier to find books. The new layout of the store made

more sense. Instead of cash registers right by the door which would get blocked when people stood in line, there was a roomy, airy cafe setting where you could buy your books without feeling hemmed in.

The new owners kept a lot of what I liked about the old store. There is furniture to sit on, and interesting things to look at, such as the old typewriter

s, old ads and posters. They added a bulletin board with local flyers and business cards, as well as intersting old bits of ephemera.

They plan to open a cafe soon, but for now the

coffee is free.

Books & Memories LLC

2600 James Street
Syracuse NY 13206

Open Monday thru Saturday from 11AM to 7PM

Books and Memories Web Page

Phone: 315-434-9268

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Giannis Bronx Style Pizza is Awesome.

I read about this restaurant in the Chus On Chow blog, and a couple of weeks ago I was driving down the Burnet Avenue in Eastwood feeling kind of hungry and I realized I was driving by the great pizza place I had been meaning to go to. So I stopped and got a couple of slices of cheese pizza.

I asked Gianni what Bronx pizza was, and he explained to me that in the NYC area there is a lot of competition for pizza, and people make their own sauce and dough, so that the pizzas have a unique flavor. Here in Syracuse, everything is called New York Pizza, so he decided to differentiate himself from the masses by calling it Bronx Pizza. Well, also he's from the Bronx.

Next Saturday I was driving around hungry again and pulled into his parking lot. Then I realized I had no cash! But that was ok, I rummaged around and found some change and had enough for a slice of vegetable pizza, ($2.76). He remembered me from the week before too. I came in at the same time as another customer, and he gave us both a free sample of tomato pie.

Now, I had never heard of tomato pie before coming to Syracuse. When I came here, I didn't feel inclined to try it. "tomato pie, that's just pizza without the cheese, why would I eat that?"

But as soon as I tried this, I forgot all about the cheese. The bottom of the crust was slightly crisp, yet chewy, and the inside of the pizza has a pleasing sponginess, nice and light. It's topped with a really wonderful sauce, slightly tangy, and not too much of it. Perfect.

The vegetable pizza was great, with a nice thin crust and thick layer of cheese. I loved the breaded eggplants and ricotta cheese.

I'd be tempted to eat there every day, but I'm on a fitness program right now. Every Saturday I get to eat whatever I want and I'm planning a visit.

The shop itself is hard to see at first, it faces out into the parking lot off of Burnet Avenue. It's right next to a golf shop, and down the street from Shifty's Bar and Grill and Domenic's Restaurant.

Google Maps page for Gianni's Bronx Style Pizza

Syracuse NY Pizza Blog and Reviews

Gianni's Pizza

1428 Burnet Avenue, Syracuse, NY 13206-3519(315) 425-7770

House I used to live in is vacant

This is on a nice street in Eastwood, Woodbine. This is the house I lived in when I first came to Syracuse. It's a cool place, with two bathrooms and a yard, nice neighbors, walking distance to lots of things like the post office, bookstores, library, supermarkets.

This house is now rented!

My Neighborhood

This is a street a few blocks away from my house. It looks just like my street, and is very typical of Eastwood.

One thing that's funny about this area, all the older houses have these long driveways with the garage in back. That is fine in the summer, but it's hard in the winter when you have to clear such a long driveway. Didn't they realize that this is not a practical layout? The newer houses all have the garage in front.

I do like the fact that the street is not dominated by big old ugly garage fronts and usually I like a style of neighborhood layout with garages behind the houses, especially if they are accessible from a back alley like they were in Toronto.

Maybe the garages used to be stables which you would want further from your dwelling.

Snowy Day in Eastwood

I took this while I was on a walk the other day. Doesn't that bush with snow on it look like it's growing cotton?