We boast some pretty intense New York pride at Bari. Not, like, Yankee fan intense. But we’re unabashedly in love with our city.

For the most part, we’ve all lived in New York for a while now. And it’s easy to numb ourselves to the tall buildings, crowded streets, aggressive pan-handlers and wafting smells of pizza (on.every.single.block). But the city itself never ceases to remind us that we live in a one-of-a-kind, weird-but-beautiful place.

Case in point: Only in New York could you be walking down 10th Avenue and stumble upon a sheep-laden gas station.

Okay, so we didn’t exactly stumble upon it. Our director, Sara, quasi-dragged us there. (A little back story: Pre-Bari, Sara worked in the art world. And sometimes her inner artist rears its head and demands to do something artsy. See: That one time we painted our walls black.)

In any case, Sara wanted to go see these buzzed-about gas station sheep. So we took a little Bari field trip.

Our takeaways?

  1. Seeing 25 sheep take over a Getty gas station that you’d previously visited to, you know, fill your gas is surreal.
  2. Each sheep is worth about half a million dollars. You are not allowed to touch them. And there are ‘sheep bodyguards’ there to make sure you don’t. (Note: ‘Sheep bodyguard’ is probably not their official title.)
  3. Real estate developer and art collector Michael Shvo bought the Getty Gas Station to use it as a stage for outdoor art exhibits.
  4. This Getty Station will rotate outdoor art exhibits and is going to be incorporated into a future luxury High Line residence. Again, only in New York.

Our little field trip served as a welcome reminder that art is everywhere in this city. We can’t look down on our walk to work without coming across a funny spray-painted message on the sidewalk. Or look up without seeing message-based graffiti art. And now, we can’t walk through Chelsea without seeing sheep in a gas station.

New York, you are weird and beautiful. And we wouldn’t have you any other way.

Photos via Bari Studio