A Brooklyn Meals Crawl That’s Powered by the Australian Crawl

On the lifeguard station at Fourth Road in Brighton Seaside, Brooklyn, Capri Djatiasmoro and a gaggle of associates — all long-distance swimmers — received prepared Sunday morning for a distinct type of meals crawl.

Stuffing money and bank cards into their rubber caps and attaching neon swim buoys round their hips, they ready to hit the chilly water to swim to one among their favourite meals: lobster rolls at Paul’s Daughter, on Coney Island.

It was the primary swim crawl of the season for Ms. Djatiasmoro and about 10 different swimmers, affiliated with the Coney Island-Brighton Seaside Open Water Swimmers Membership, who collect for 2 or three of those casual outings every year. Because the swimmers ready to run into the Atlantic, Ms. Djatiasmoro cupped her palms like lobster claws and playfully pulled associates to the water line.

Whereas some folks prefer to discover town’s eating places on foot, in a meals crawl, these New Yorkers favor a wetter route. The itineraries are timed weeks upfront to match the tide schedule. (The group swims out at low tide, then floats again with the incoming excessive tide.)

Sunday’s journey was the group’s first so-called Foodie Swim because the coronavirus pandemic started. The swimmers proceeded west, following the sting of the shoreline for greater than a mile, their caps and buoys bobbing within the waves, earlier than rising on the Coney Island Pier and heading to the restaurant for lobster rolls and fried calamari.

Ms. Djatiasmoro, 70, who lives within the Kensington part of Brooklyn, has been organizing these occasions since 2010, when she started making mile-long swims to Steve’s Grill Home, the place she ordered onerous lemonade, onion rings and French fries. Different swimmers took word, and he or she invited them to affix in. (The restaurant, on the boardwalk in Coney Island, has since closed.)

After lengthy swims, individuals are starved, Ms. Djatiasmoro stated. “Realizing this lobster roll was right here for me was good motivation,” she stated between bites on Sunday. They take a half-hour to eat, then get proper again within the water for the return journey, taking care to keep watch over each other.

Eri Utsunomiya, 54, of Jersey Metropolis, N.J., and a few fellow swimmers cheered as they ordered their lobster rolls. They have been among the many first to complete. “When it’s troublesome, I goal for one jetty at time,” Ms. Utsunomiya, 54, stated of the swim. “However after I’m caught, I take into consideration meals.”

There have additionally been swims to Rudy’s Bar & Grill, in Coney Island, to chug just a few beers and eat cheese fries after which float again. Ms. Djatiasmoro’s good friend Jeanne DuBois, recommended the lobster-roll swim in 2018. They’ve additionally achieved a nine-mile crawl from Governors Island to Staten Island to eat barbecue at Juicy Lucy BBQ.

“The swim is simply profitable when you take pleasure in it,” stated Ms. DuBois, 62, who contains an ocean swim as a part of her commute from Kensington to her job on the New York Aquarium in Coney Island. “We’re not into that ‘no ache, no acquire’ type of stuff.”

On July 10, the group plans to return to the water for a 10-mile Key lime pie swim from the Coney Island Pier to Valentino Pier in Purple Hook, Brooklyn. There, they’ll eat pizza and barbecue alongside the seaside and finish the day with a slice of pie from Steve’s Genuine Key Lime Pie.

And the swimmers have set their sights on a brand new route, from Brighton Seaside eastward to Manhattan Seaside. Ms. Djatiasmoro is already speaking to a lifeguard there about what she calls “the meals and beer scenario.”

“I don’t know if they’ve lobster rolls, however I’ll accept a beer and a scorching canine,” she stated. “I’ll be burping scorching canine on the way in which again.”