Climbing Through Catacombs and Snagging Some Junior's Cheesecake

After arriving home from work early this morning (!), I clearly slept in. But I worked another night editing shift today, so I had time to do something fun this afternoon before work.

Fortunately, I live in the East Village, a neighborhood with all kinds of weird and wonderful nooks and crannies to explore.

Today I took a “Catacombs by Candlelight” tour of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral on Mulberry Street (not THAT St. Patrick’s Cathedral — the famous one’s uptown on Fifth Avenue). It’s about a five-minute walk from my apartment.

So the cool part of the walking tour is that you don’t just get to go inside the church; you also get to walk through the dark catacombs and vaults underneath, as well as venture up into the choir loft to check out the guts of the original 1868 pipe organ.

We started in the crypt, home to such luminaries as Countess Annie Leary, a Catholic philanthropist who helped the Irish and Italian communities, and the Delmonico family, whose members introduced the world to eggs Benedict, lobster Newburg, and baked alaska.

We also got to go inside a crypt boasting Guastavino ceiling tiles, the same design that adorns the Grand Central and Ellis Island museum ceilings (the guy who bought the crypt space was a millionaire).

And a fun fact: According to my guide, if you take the downtown-bound 6 train to the last stop, City Hall, and discreetly stay on the train when passengers are told to exit, you can get a great view of the former Old City Hall station’s gorgeous stained glass windows and Guastavino tiles. The 6 train makes a U-turn through the secret, no-longer-operational station on its way to head back uptown. This was also the station used in the “Fantastic Beasts” film’s subway battle scene.

Considering the end of the line is only three stops from my apartment, totally doing this now! My guide said some conductors are strict and will kick you off, but it depends on who’s working, and most of them are cool with it.

After visiting the catacombs, we walked back into the sunlight and the graveyard outside. I learned the distinction between a graveyard and a cemetery: A graveyard is attached to a church; a cemetery is freestanding.

From there we headed inside the church, which boasts an extraordinarily plain exterior, but a gorgeous inside.

It has cast-iron columns, not stone (cast iron was much cheaper). I climbed a winding narrow staircase up to the choir loft, where I got a great view of the original 1868 pipe organ and its 2,500 pipes. (Look, organ guts!)

The loft also offered a great view of the spot Francis Ford Coppola used in the baptism scene in “The Godfather.”

The tour lasted about 90 minutes, and I’d definitely recommend it. A lot of people who tour St. Patrick’s are locals rather than tourists, as it’s not exactly a marquee attraction amid the New York City glitz. I discovered it when I read a New York Times story about the tours a few months ago.

And finally: Today’s food adventure was another dessert bonanza, featuring Junior’s Cheesecake.

I opted for a “Little Fella,” which is basically a cheesecake without the crust (a.k.a. just the cheese filling).

It was good, but I actually prefer the baby cheesecake I had from Fay Da Bakery in Little Italy the other day. It was also very rich, so I’m glad I got the little one — I’d get a stomachache if I ate one of the gargantuan slices in the glass case!