Stephen and I had an amazing weekend in New York City over Labor Day weekend. We haven't been back to the Big Apple in a few years (probably 2 years for me and almost 10 for Steve). Forgot how much I love that city!
We had an early morning flight on Friday and we were up at 4:30 am to get showered and drive to the airport in Dallas. Smooth flight and we arrived right on schedule in NYC at 11am. I had arranged for a car service to pick us up at LaGuardia for the ride to the hotel in Manhattan. My request was for a simple black sedan (i.e., a Lincoln Town Car) but our driver informed us that we "got lucky" and he had a limo for us instead at no extra cost. Ummm. Okay. I hate to seem ungrateful but let's just say I would have much rather had the simple sedan. It was a white stretch limo that was completely pimped out and had seen better days. All I could think of was The Jersey Shore and Snooki. Totally ghetto - we were laughing all the way to the hotel at how tacky it was.
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| The inside of our cheesy limo pimp mobile - yes, that is neon on the ceiling |
We arrived at our hotel for the weekend, the St. Regis in midtown Manhattan. They upgraded us to the next room level and our butler showed us to our room. Wow, wow and more wow. It was a gorgeous room and HUGE by NYC standards. We were in a newly renovated room and the butler told us that we were the first to stay in that room as they just finished remodeling that floor earlier that week. The room was decorated in muted greys with lovely royal blue accents. The bathroom was huge with separate tub and shower, double sinks and we even had a TV in our bathroom mirror. Not much of a view from the room but it was quiet - you couldn't hear a single horn, siren or bus and that was perfect for us. The chandeliers were incredible. We had a butler for our floor and each morning they would deliver French press coffee with a piece of biscotti and a newspaper at no extra cost. We felt like royalty. At times the butler service could be a bit much - I called for a pair of scissors to cut a tag out of my clothes and he delivered it on a velvet pillow and made a big sweeping bow at the door when I answered it. I almost laughed out loud at the poor guy.
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| Bedroom at St Regis, NYC with chandelier |
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| TV in bathroom sink mirror |
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| Another view of our bedroom |
We dropped off our bags and headed to lunch a few blocks away at a place called Quality Meats, which is basically a steakhouse. It was good but I stuck to a basic salad. Steve got their filet mignon sandwich which was far better than my boring salad with grilled shrimp. However, I was saving my calories for dinner later that night. I found the women's room amusing. If you go there you never need to worry about them running out of hand towels in the bathroom (see photo below).
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Women's bathroom at Quality Meats. You can never have too many
hand towels, I guess. |
Afterwards we walked up and down 5th Avenue and Madison Avenue and popped into and out of stores. I will say that just about everything on 5th Ave and Madison you can probably find in your local mall (J. Crew, B. Republic, Ann Taylor, etc...) but the window displays were fun to look at it. I also went by my favorite store, Henri Bendels, and bought a few jewelry items (I will post pic on my NYC shopping scores tomorrow). We did get a laugh out of the below, though:
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| What is this? |
Hard to tell from the pic as I was across the street and got it on my Iphone. It looks like a club with the neon lights on the outside and if you look carefully to the left of the doorway you will see a velvet rope and people waiting in a line. Waiting to get into a hot new club or restaurant? No. They are waiting in line to get inside Hollister. Yes, waiting for Hollister. There was even a doorman with a clipboard. These are crazy times, people.
We cleaned up and headed out to our dinner at Gramercy Tavern that evening. Dinner was fantastic. Gramercy Tavern is New American cuisine. Tom Colicchio used to be the head chef there a few years ago before he got really famous. Steve had a corn custard appetizer and I had beef tartare. My entree was a roasted pork loin and Steve had the roast chicken. We shared desserts - a spiced plum cake for me and a blueberry cake with ginger ice cream for him. We were stuffed! It is pricey but definitely worth it. Great atmosphere - feels like dining in a Tuscan farmhouse with warm terra cotta walls, wood beams and vaulted ceilings. Definitely a NYC power dinner place. On the way back up the elevator at our hotel we rode with Venus and Serena Williams' mother. They were all staying there for the U.S. Open.
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| Cosmo at Gramercy Tavern |
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| Steve laughing at me for taking pics in the restaurant |
The next day was a morning workout (gym for me and running in Central Park for Steve) and then we hopped the subway for shopping in Soho.
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| My trusty NYC subway app was so helpful! |
I love the Soho cast iron historic district. It's scenic with its cobblestone streets and cast iron balconies and the shopping there is a lot more unique. It's all small boutiques so you are much more likely to find something that you can't get back at home. Steve was SO patient with me this day. I dragged him to girlie store after store. He spent most of the day sitting on store couches and surfing the web on his Iphone. I'll post tomorrow on what I scored. I did treat him to a lovely lunch at a little French place called Bistro Des Amis where he chowed down on a cheeseburger and had 2 glasses of wine so he was pretty happy. We headed back to our hotel at 3pm for late afternoon massages at the hotel spa.
That evening was our best dinner. We took a cab to Greenwich Village and ate at Blue Hill Restaurant. It won the James Beard award for best restaurant in NYC for 2013. Their focus is a farm to table concept with most of the food being sourced from their farm in the Hudson River Valley. Amazing. My favorite dish of the night was an appetizer called "This Morning's Egg" and it was an egg that had been laid that morning at the farm and was softly poached and served over corn risotto with truffles. I can die happy now having eaten that. Here are a few pics from dinner.
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| View of Freedom Tower from Greenwich Village - outside NYU law school, too |
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| Amuse bouche - tasted like mini sloppy joe's! |
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| This Morning's Egg appetizer....incredible |
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| My entree - seared duck breast with corn and lima beans and baby okra. YUM. |
We walked around the Village that night and had a nightcap at a local bar before heading back uptown. Sunday we slept in late and then got ready to hit the subway again and head to The Bronx for a 1pm Yankees' game.
Part II of New York (plus shopping bits) will be posted tomorrow and Thursday!
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