A neighbor in Lehigh Valley
Lena
Allentown · Lehigh Valley Buzz · 6 years
Lena moved to Allentown for family and stayed for the food. She is home with a toddler now, which means she knows every bench on Hamilton that fits a stroller and every market stall that will let a small hand take a sample of fruit.
She writes about the city the way a person writes when they chose it. The new places on Hamilton. The Fairgrounds market on a Saturday. The parkway when the creek is up. She does not need the city to be finished. She needs it to be itself on a Sunday morning.
The letters go to people who just got here and still think they have to drive to find a good meal. She likes proving them wrong in one page.
What Lena likes to do
Slow loops of Lehigh Parkway, Saturday mornings at the Fairgrounds, and finding the quiet bench before the playground fills.
Favorites around Allentown
Personal picks, not partners. None of these places asked to be here.
- Coffee
- The shop on Hamilton that knows her order. She drinks it on the walk toward the park.
- A walk
- Lehigh Parkway, the wide path along the creek, when the toddler will still nap in the stroller.
- The market
- Allentown Fairgrounds Farmers Market. She has a route. Produce first, then the bakery, then whoever is roasting that week.
- A diner booth
- The diner on 7th, after the market, when everyone needs a grilled thing and a booth.
- An event they never miss
- The Allentown Fair. She goes once, at the edge of the day, for the food and the lights and then home.
What Lena loves writing about
- Food and new places
- Coming up
- Out and about
Sunday morning is when Allentown tells you why you stayed.
Lena, Allentown