Cool Bars and Great Restaurants (Penny)

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After 2 Broadway shows in 2 weeks, ('Wicked' and an Arthur Miller play starring Scarlett Johannson and Liev Schreiber) we're moving onto more interactive games ...

In the spirit of making the most of NYC, we have deemed this year 'The Year of Cool Bars and Great Restaurants'. And what better city to embrace this theme? Manhattan is bursting with superb quality venues where tough competition forces everyone to shine.

New York Restaurant Week began our tirade on night-time antics. Twice a year, a selection of super high-end establishments compromise their Wall Street prices with affordable prix fix meals. The plebs eat like kings for a week.

Dave surprised me with dinner at Nobu. It was phe-nom-in-al.

Afterwards we hit a secret cocktail bar in the West Village called 'Employees Only'. A glowing neon 'psychic' sign detracts the riff-raff, whilst those in-the-know squeeze past tarot cards and crystal balls to be welcomed into a 1920s style speakeasy. The hostess whisked our coats away before we had a chance to blink. The cocktails were works of art, (priced that way too!), and no matter what anyone says, it's quite satisfying to leave a bar you entered seamlessly only to find a line of desperadoes waiting in the snow for access rights.

Ha! We are too cool for school.

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