It's a hell of a town!

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Hey!

This blog is about my trip to New York from Thursday 5th February to Monday 9th February 2009. It's been almost a week since I got back, but here we go!

Just a few chronological details, but then this blog is going to be about what I did in "themes" not "times"! I flew on the red eye on Thursday night/Friday morning and landed around 5:20am - but had to wait for my shuttle that took an age to arrive and then two hours to get from JFK to Chelsea - ridiculous - but at least I didn't get there too early for Jo and Julian, with whom I was staying. I spent three nights in Chelsea (best sleep I've had since I've been here) and then caught the train to JFK on Monday afternoon for a 4:59pm flight back to LAX.

Food

La Bergamote - sticking to tradition, I went to La Bergamote twice for Hot Cocoa, which Warwick and I did several times when we were in New York in May. Still as lovely and I even bought an apple pastry one of the times!

Magnolia - I thought that I might drop into Magnolia, and I ended up going three times! I went twice on one day - once alone then once with Paul. Loved the cupcakes and there wasn't a line as new stores have opened up - one of which I also visited (on 6th Ave). So I had two buttercake cupcakes with chocolate frosting and one chocolate cupcake with pink frosting!

Rosa Mexicano - Jo and Julian took me to dinner at Rosa Mexicano. It was pretty good Mexican food with fantastic frijoles, great guacamole, and marvelous margaritas! And the company wasn't bad either... 😊 The guacamole was made fresh on a special cart that stands right next to your table when you do it, so that was pretty cool even though we missed most of it. I then had a lovely hot chocolate with chocolate and raspberry liqueur and whipped cream on top.

Fioli - Jo booked us a table at this lovely little Italian restaurant, a style of restaurant which seems popular in New York and that I adore. It's great Italian food at reasonable prices. LOVE IT! So we enjoyed some light mains and decadent desserts together as well as some wine. All in all a great evening with my future sister-in-law.

Shake Shack - again another tradition and this one I repeated! Jo and I went here for dinner on another night, ate Shackburgers and split a chocolate shake. I came another time for a late lunch and had a Shackburger and devoured a whole chocolate shake myself. What deliciousness!

Murray's Bagels - a ha! Another place we went to in May, even in travel I am a creature of habit. I had a yummy cinnamon bagel with cream cheese.

Wai? - Paul took me too a little cafe near his school where we chatted for several hours. It was so good to catch up with him, as we also walked around the East Village and then went to Magnolia! I also got to see his school.

Momofuku Bakery - just thinking about this place makes me feel sick - I ate something called "Volcano Bread" which was potato gratin with bacon and gruyere in baked dough. It was sooooo rich. Here was where I finally met the infamous Patrick that Amy has told me so much of. We walked around for a few hours to work off our food and then went back and had dessert. I could only manage a cookie, which was mad of cornflakes, marshmallow, and choc chips.

Shoes and Dresses

Kate Spade - Jo and I started our shoe shopping expedition at Kate Spade, but to no avail, even though it was a pretty store.

DSW - here was our try to find some discounted shoes, but there was nothing really of interest here either.

Manolo Blahnik - this store was quietly tucked away from the craziness of 5th Ave, but still close to the shopping district that is uptown. I found the most perfect wedding shoes here - but at $715, they were well out of my price range.

Saks - this department store has it's own floor dedicated to shoes and even an express elevator that goes directly to it! Fond some nice red shoes - but they were Louboutin, so ridiculously high!

Bergdorf Goodman - 60%!o(MISSING)f a wide range of designer shoes - I was in heaven! I picked up at least 10 pairs (well the right shoe) then narrowed it down to about three to try on the left shoe as well. There were some gorgeous shoes, but I kept coming back to the same style in different colours. In fact, I visited the store three times to try on these shoes... and on the last time...

Jimmy Choo - these shoes were incredible - I found some gorgeous silver shoes with mesh on them and at a more reasonable price than the Manolos (these were on sale). But, alas, the heel was too high to wear all day for my wedding. They were gorgeous though!

Madison Ave Stores - between Bergdorf and Jimmy Choo, we wandered into numerous shoe stores and had a look, but didn't really find anything of interest.

Chelsea and Greenwich Village - one morning Jo and walked from Chelsea to Greenwich Village and found some interesting stores (granted, she knew these stores) such as: the cookie shop in Chelsea (Eleni's?), a few designer stores (including Marc Jacobs accessories where I bought fingerless gloves), a cool little fashion and accessories shop in the Village (with funky feathered headpieces), and finished at Murray's Cheese Shop, where we bought lunch.

Kleinfeld - this was the ultimate bridal experience! I had to book well in advance and give a $50 deposit in case I didn't show up. We got there and after a short time waiting with other nervously excited brides-to-be, were ushered through the main fitting room to a smallish cubicle where the consultation began. After a very brief discussion with our fitter (Vivien?), I showed her some pictures of dresses I liked and she came back with several of them and others like then as well as the appropriate undergarments so I could try them on. I'm not sure how many dresses I tried one - 8? 10? 12? - but some looked nice on but weren't me, others looked awful on but were very pretty, but there were five in the end that I really liked and one in particular. Poor Jo had to sit through all this too! We then headed downstairs to check out shoes and accessories but we came away empty handed.

Entertainment

Birdland - Jo, Julian and I went to Birdland for the 11pm set of the Lewis Nash Quintet. It was pretty incredible. I ordered a cosmopolitan and sat back to relax and enjoy the music. The drummer was the band leader and his drum solos were perhaps the best I've heard. It was a fantastic evening in a beautiful, histroical jazz club.

Ticket Lottery - this experience was entertaining in itself! Jo and I couldn't get tickets to "In the Heights" at a reasonable price, so we decided to take our chance with the ticket lottery. For this, you turn up at the theatre at 5pm-5:30pm to put your name on a slip of paper and put in a bucket. Just after 5:30pm, they draw out a number of names and those people get to buy tickets for $26.50! Bargain! Unfortunately there were quite a number of people, so we missed out. Apparently it is a very good musical, so if you're in New York, let me know!

Defiance - so instead of a show, we went to a movie at Union Square. It was called "Defiance" and was about some Jews in WWII who escaped from the slaughter of the Holocaust by hiding in a forest and fighting for their freedom. I quite liked it actually.

Sightseeing

Rockefeller Center - I went to the Rockefeller Center by myself and thought my visit quite apt for the currently economic situation - it was built during the great depression, funded by John D Rockefeller to help people have work. Incredible! It was a cold day when I was there, so I had views across a frozen and snow-covered Central Park as well as seeing downtown Manhattan from another angle!

Ice Skating - afterwards I went ice skating in front of the Rockefeller Center. I was by myself, but it was fun. I skated for around 45 minutes and had a great time. I took lots of photos too so I could prove that I'd done it.

Frick Collection - one afternoon I squeezed a visit to the Frick Collection (which isn't hard as it is small). This was great, just the kind of museum I like! It was the Frick private residence and art collection that had been turned into a gallery after his death (1919?). Some things had changed, but it was primarily just as it had been in Frick's time. The free audio tour was really great too.

MoMA - another morning I had a quick visit to MoMA where I checked out the Batiste Madalena exhibition of movie posters from the 1920s. It was pretty interesting stuff that was created in such short time periods. I also went to the fifth floor to view the collection there and realised that we went there in May - at least my taste in art is consistent!

That was pretty much my long weekend in New York - fun, yummy, and exciting!

Your pre-New York Fashion Week Correspondent,

Sarah

p.s. all my photos can be viewed here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=76311&id=708616805&l=e07e5

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Comments

[jude]

food
so much food and so little time

[sezj]

I managed to fit it all in! :)