NEW YORK _ Take a walk on 125th Street. Check out the Apollo Theater marquee, the latest exhibit at the Studio Museum, the patio dinner crowd on Lenox Avenue, the high-priced brownstones, the locals of all hues striding past Afrocentric sidewalk stalls while a drum circle grooves across the street.
Harlem, several years into a burst of new prosperity, is rolling like an uptown train with a full head of steam.
Even the Starbucks harbors surprises. On the afternoon I ducked in, model Nia Fields, preparing for a photo shoot, had just put on the headgear of a neo-Egyptian queen. The results were so dramatic, I thought some customers might drop their drinks and start building her a pyramid.
"We're doing a modernized Nefertiti," said Melanie Gonzalez, her Nikon-bearing friend and director.
New projects, new diversity, new buzz and creeping anxiety _ this is what a first-time tourist finds in Harlem. And the newcomers don't come any newer than me.
I've been to Manhattan many times. But it was only in May, after several years of reading about Harlem's multiplying restaurants, falling crime rate and rising rents, that I made my first journey on foot above 110th Street.
I set aside a day and a night. I booked a room at the Aloft Hotel, which, when it opened in 2010 at Frederick Douglass Boulevard and West 124th Street, became Harlem's first new hotel in more than 40 years.
Most of my itinerary was new attractions. I was visiting midweek, so there would be no gospel brunches or Sunday church-music tours.
First up was a Crispy Bird sandwich for lunch at Red Rooster Harlem, where the menu is dressed-up comfort food, the service is courtly and the diners come in all ages and shades.
Then came a lively stroll on 125th Street, where I encountered jazz bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding doing a sound check for an outdoor show. I should have realized then that this was going to be a good-luck trip.
For dinner: the Cecil, a trendy minimalist dining room on West 118th Street known for its Asian-African fusion cuisine. I had the pan-roasted cod with sorghum and coconut collard greens.
