New York
New York Diary Blog 2013
Tuesday 26 March
4.45am alarm for United Airlines from Glasgow to Newark. Finally made it through immigration, nearly as bad as Havana (the irony!) and then yellow cab experience to Manhattan. Checked in to our hotel The Nolitan on Kenmare Street. It’s modern and slightly quirky. Up to the rooftop for views over the city, unpack and out for a stroll. First drink of the holiday in Gatsbys Bar and then a walk around our hood. Find a restaurant called La Esquina and stop in for some small plates, Pollo Tosquitos and crabmeat, really good Mexican food. Across the road to Café Select for a Brooklyn Lager and early dinner at Lombardis. Apparently they queue around the block to get in here so we were lucky. The early start and flight hits us and we are nearly asleep in our pizza, the best in New York so they say. Back to hotel for sleep at 8.30pm. Comfy Nolitan bed!
Wednesday 27 March
Wake up ridiculously early and go up to the rooftop to catch the sunrise. Amazing sight with so many iconic buildings. Breakfast in hotel restaurant, Cantine Parisienne. Great kwaffee! Walk downtown and end up at Battery Park. A lot of the area is still undergoing work following Hurricane Sandy, Ellis Island still closed. Take the Staten Island Ferry for views of The Statue of Liberty and of Manhattan. The sun comes out. Get off at Staten Island and take a stroll. It’s so much quieter and peaceful and the views across the Hudson are amazing. Early morning beer at Steinys. It’s a proper neighbourhood bar with friendly staff.
Back on the ferry to the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. Buy our subway passes and make our way to Union Square where the food market is in full swing. Walk towards Hells Kitchen and find our way to the much recommended Spotted Pig for lunch. Leave like stuffed piggies and take a walk along the Highline which was an old freight line due to be demolished until locals intervened and it was turned into an urban garden and walkway above the city. Walk above the newly gentrified Meatpacking district. It’s a unique way to see the city. Back downtown and stop for a beer in Firefly before back to hotel to change for dinner.
Out to Greenwich Village for pre-dinner drinks in Slane Castle and then dinner at Minetta Tavern. Massively busy, very cosy (we knew a lot about or dining neighbours by the time we left) but food really good. Stuart in Bone Marrow and Pigs trotter heaven!
Thursday 28 March
Walk along the Bowery on the Lower East Side to the institution that is Katz’s diner for breakfast. Choose to sit as far away as possible from the When Harry Met Sally sign. Instead sit next to the photo of Mikhail Gorbachev one of hundreds of photos of famous patrons. I had the bagel with Lox and cream cheese, Stuart had the classic Pastrami on Rye.
Head downtown again and buy tickets for the 9/11 Memorial. Sad to see people hawking unofficial merchandise. The queue to get in is long, for some reason I thought they would limit the number of people who can get in at any time to fairly small groups but this is not the case. The Memorial itself is actually very moving and seeing the names of people of all nationalities, ages and faiths and the number of names hits home. I had been for a drink in Windows in the World in the North Tower in 2000 so all my New York pictures had the towers in them. It’s strange to be back and not see the buildings as part of the Skyline.
Take our first trip uptown to the shopping mecca below Central Park. Stop at the famous Russian Tea Rooms for a cocktail. I had a Moscow Mule and Stuart a Russian Margarita. Make a stop at Tiffanys, “nothing bad ever happens in Tiffanys!” Credit card required. From here call in at YSL and Barneys. Lose Stuart in his new favourite place, the shoe department at Barneys where he can view skyscraper heels. Bag myself a Marc Jacobs. Eventually locate Stuart who could have stayed for days! Thirsty work so stop off at the Pierre Hotel for drinks near Central Park, very old school. Back to hotel.
Pre-dinner drinks at the Gansevoort Hotel after being accosted by a drunk lady looking for a cigarette! We were id’d (I love this city!) Pretentious cocktail type place with good views and 80’s music. No-one listens to modern music in New York, Motown and 80’s tunes a plenty. Not a criticism just an observation. Reservation at Les Halles (time for a No Reservations pun). Feel like I’ve been before having seen the restaurant on No Reservations and having read the book. When we see Carlos the chef he looks like an old friend, probably wonders why people grin at him in a familiar way. Stuart had Escargot and New York Sirloin on the recommendation of our excellent waiter (he’s a pro) and I had the Pate and Tuna, all very good, oh and wine! Head to Desmonds Tavern for a drink feeling a little tipsy.
Friday 29 March
Breakfast at hotel. I foolishly order French toast and am hit with a plate bigger than my head with French toast maple syrup, and a mountain of fruit. Somewhat confused/ Take the subway uptown to Central Park. Breathe the rarefied air of the Upper East Side! Walked through the park in the sunshine watching the street performers, stop at Strawberry Fields and head across to the Dakota Building.
Had lunch at Illilli, a Lebanese restaurant. Fabulous food and really nice place but the service was hit and miss. Despite the staff appearing to multiply as new faces kept appearing at our table the pace got slower and slower. Still I definitely had the best hummus I’ve ever tasted and my first Lebanese beer Amaza and Stuart had Lamb and Beef meatballs and the mixed platter. Stopped off at Eataly the Mario Batali megastore near the Flat Iron building (a food theme runs through). It is like the man himself big and loud and busy but pretty impressive. Stopped for a cocktail at 230 Fifth Avenue which has a roof terrace where you can sit wrapped in a blanket or robe on a cold day and look at The Empire State building rather than be at the top of The Empire State building.
Out in the evening on a bar crawl, start at Grey Dog and then onto Sweet and Vicious. It’s loud and lively and has an outdoor smoking patio with seats. Favourite bar so far. End up having late night dinner in La Esquina. I love this place, it’s a cross between a restaurant and a bar serving food late. The music is loud but not too loud and the atmosphere is good, really informal. Hot, hot hot Chicken Empanadas!
Saturday 30 March
Morning coffee and then a walk across the nearby Williamsburg bridge to the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn. Apparently it’s full of hipsters so we should fit right in!!! Navigate the ruthless cyclists and make it safely to the other side. Great views back towards Manhattan. It’s a busy neighbourhood with lots of independent shops, restaurants and bars and a great place to stroll. Manage to get a table at Diner for brunch after a short wait at the bar. Stuart had the burger and a Mimosa and I had the Vegetable Hash, who knew sprouts could taste so good (no Xmas dinner has ever suggested this was possible). Warning, the Bloody Marys which I ordered because everyone seemed to be having them so I figured they must be good are bloody lethal. Stop for a beer in the beer garden at Lucky Dog which as the name suggests is very dog friendly. Everyone in New York seems to have a dog. Stuart finally gets his wish to take the L back to Manhattan while humming the Beastie Boys An Open Letter to NYC, our holiday soundtrack. Get off at Grand Central Station. The interior is stunning. Poke or heads into the famous oyster bar which is a bit overpowering. Stop for a cocktail at The Campbell Apartment. It is all very Mad Men My cocktail is pretty much pure alcohol so glad to get some air. Brave the madness of Times Square, take the obligatory photos and get the hell out of there, too much Disney and fast food chains. Back to hotel and for the first time back at the right time for the nightly Nolitan Cheese and Wine. Free every evening 5-7pm, a nice touch. Ask one of our friendly hotel staff on a whim to see if they can get us a reservation at Prune for dinner. Amazingly get a table booked for 10.30.
Head to the Lower East Side to The Back Room for pre-dinner drinks. Can’t see it which is the whole point. The large bouncer outside asks if we’re here for The Back Room and directs us downs some steps along an alleyway and then up some steps to an unmarked door. It’s all very prohibition with drinks served in teacups and too cool for school types behind the bar sporting matching goatees, today’s new favourite bar! Late dinner at Prune. Amazing Parmesan omelette to start for us both followed by Lamb for Stuart and Branzino for me and Affogato for dessert. Stuart excited to see Gemma Arterton in the restaurant. I was more impressed to see she was there with Jake Gyllenhall.
Sunday 31 March
Happy Easter!! Late up today, day of rest.
Coffee and cannoli in Little Italy to start the day. Take a stroll through Little Italy and Chinatown and soak up the hustle and bustle. Offered a fake Gucci bag or watch every 20 seconds or so! Lunch at Rubirosa for thin crust Pizza. Head towards SOHO with its expensive boutiques and galleries and stop for a glass of Prosecco at The SOHO Grand Hotel (where our friends stay). Take the subway to the West Village, first rain of the holiday. Have a light refreshment in Fiddlesticks and take shelter in the Vig Bar close to our home, another really friendly bar.
Bonkers rain. Drenched in quest to find another mystery unmarked bar which is closed. Remember we have a Nolitan umbrella in our room and return to dry off and start again. Head for dinner at Torrisi Italian Specialities. Arrive early so recommended to have a drink at the next door bar. Taster Menu for dinner (see best of for Menu). Amazing food and service. Roll home.
Monday 1 April
Not feeling great today, more sleep required. Stuart out for subway street food adventure, getting off at different stops for coffee, Pizza slice and his first hotdog then to Desmonds Tavern for an early beer. Finally make it out to rendezvous at 33rd and Lexington. Head uptown. Make a tourist stop at Bloomingdales (definitely more of a Barneys girl!) Have lunch at diner Eat Right Now. So begins the incredible journey. Try to get money from an ATM without success and are told that chip and pin cards don’t always work in America. Try and find a bank from home and walk from Union Square along Park Avenue forever. Stop for a drink and wifi at Tavern 29. Eventually find a machine that will give us some quick cash. It may have been easier to get money in Cuba! As we are around the corner go back to Les Halles for dinner, Foie Gras and Skirt Steak for Stuart and grilled chicken salad for me. Head back to the hotel for champagne to celebrate our ATM success and then find extra cash in our room.
Tuesday 2 April
Today is Famous Fat Dave’s food tour. Dave picks us up at the hotel in his old checker cab called Sweetness. We have not made any requests as to where to go and were happy to leave it up to Dave as have our fellow tour companions. Drive over the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn and pick up our fellow eaters Valentina and Happy (from Virginia Beach). The tour of Brooklyn begins. We start at Delfontes with Potato and Eggs Hero with Virginia Ham. Dave sensibly only orders two of these so the four of us can share, need to pace ourselves. This is washed down with a Manhattan Special, a cold caffeine drink which is amazing. Great start. Next stop is Rico’s Tacos for Seasoned Pork Leg Torta with Oaxaca String Cheese, Avocado and Jalapeno and Horchata to drink. Stuart and Happy decide to take the Jalapeno challenge. Really good and loved the Horchata a rice and almond based drink. Next stop Brighton Beach and Coney Island. I’ve always wanted to go to Coney Island. Dave points out that this large Russian community have picked the most communist looking buildings to live in at Brighton Beach. We visit the Belarus deli. Soon becomes apparent that these older Russian ladies mean business and that we are on their turf. Dave advises us to be careful if standing around taking pictures as not all the employees are happy about this (the guy with one arm is fine but the rest with two arms not so happy!) We wait outside while Dave buys our Coney Island picnic of pickles, salami and poppy seed pastry. Drive over to the boardwalk to eat our food. It’s another area hit by Sandy and some places are still closed. The boardwalk is vast and at this time of year quite peaceful, I imagine it’s very different in summer. So glad to have made it here. Off to Brennan and Carr run by an Irish American family. Dave orders the Gargiullo Burger with cheese, onions, hot beef and broth. Have to sit some of this one out as very rich but amazing. The owner here is a real character and full of stories. I reckon you could pull a chair up and be there hours later but our tour is for four hours so we move onto Spumoni Gardens and sit outside for a pizza slice and spumoni. Spumoni is not ice cream, it’s not sorbet, it’s Spumoni, ok! Final stop is Ferdinando’s for hand piped Cannoli and Manhattan Special on tap. They filmed a scene from The Departed here and there is a picture of Leo on the wall. I love Cannoli but love Manhattan Special even more. The tour is fab, would highly recommend for the local insight, the characters and the banter. Have eaten as a local and been to areas I would never have seen as a tourist. If I’m back in New York will definitely do it again for one of the other boroughs. Dave drops us at the Brooklyn Bridge so we can walk back to Manhattan, will then have completed all three (BMW – Brooklyn, Manhatttan and Williamsburg). The walk is a good idea after the food but amazingly not as stuffed as I thought I would be as just tried a little of everything. Take a walk to Wall Street and the New York stock exchange. Have a soft drink in Porterhouse, very old school bar. Subway to Greenwich Village and spot the legendary Gray’s Papaya. Time for the hot dog papaya combo, perfect and the drink is fab. Have our first real drink of the day at McCoys. Order some blue point oysters to go with our wine. Next stop 1849 for a beer and stumble across Highlands a Scottish bar, remarkably tasteful and packed with locals. Finish our eating extravaganza with wine, charcuterie and cheese. Nothing deep fried in sight!
Wednesday 3 April
Coffee in our hood before heading to MOMA. I’m excited, Stuart less so. It’s very busy and don’t get off to a great start as it take Stuart nearly 40 minutes to check his backpack in. It is an amazing building and space. You could spend the entire day in there. Particularly liked the architectural exhibition. Difficult to get much time and space to look at things as constant stream of people walking in front of you and looming over your shoulder. Cannot imagine it ever gets particularly quiet but pleased to have been. Stroll through Rockafeller Plaza passed the famous ice rink. End up dangerously close to Times Square and escape for lunch in the Brooklyn Diner. Head downtown for some retail therapy in SOHO. Quick purchase from Club Monaco while Stuart sets his sights on a more expensive picture in the gallery across the road. Head to Circa Tabac for last full day of holiday cocktails. Circa Tabac is the only smoking bar in New York. In an agreement made prior to the smoking ban they can continue as long as a certain amount of their revenue is tobacco sales. The cocktails are great and the staff good fun. Next stop Brinkleys Bar for a window seat where we watch a local use the surrounding scaffolding to complete his workout. Move onto Toby’s bar on our street. The friendly bar man gives us a free glass of wine and it would be rude to refuse. Tapas at Plan B not the best food of our holiday but wise in light of our liquid day. Espresso at Grey Dog before we round off the night in Firefly.
Thursday 4 April
A bit hungover, glad our flight is this evening and checkout a civilised 1pm. Butchers Daughter for coffee, the fact that the seats spin round is making me dizzy. Stroll along the Bowery passed the vast shops selling kitchen and restaurant supplies and along Rivington to where Paul’s Boutique used to be so Stuart can pay homage! Back to the Nolitan to finish packing and check out. Head to Toby’s for lunch of Pizza and Calzone and then down to Mulberry Street for final Cannoli and coffee at Caffe Palermo, home of the Cannoli King! Walk through Chinatown to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Too late for the tour but watch the film about the different nationalities that came to live in the Lower East side and the changes to the housing and the neighbourhood over the years. Really interesting and so wish I had made one of the tours. Would definitely come back. Back to the hotel for the final time to finally write those postcards and then car to the airport. So long New York, its been amazing.
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Tuesday 26 March
4.45am alarm for United Airlines from Glasgow to Newark. Finally made it through immigration, nearly as bad as Havana (the irony!) and then yellow cab experience to Manhattan. Checked in to our hotel The Nolitan on Kenmare Street. It’s modern and slightly quirky. Up to the rooftop for views over the city, unpack and out for a stroll. First drink of the holiday in Gatsbys Bar and then a walk around our hood. Find a restaurant called La Esquina and stop in for some small plates, Pollo Tosquitos and crabmeat, really good Mexican food. Across the road to Café Select for a Brooklyn Lager and early dinner at Lombardis. Apparently they queue around the block to get in here so we were lucky. The early start and flight hits us and we are nearly asleep in our pizza, the best in New York so they say. Back to hotel for sleep at 8.30pm. Comfy Nolitan bed!
Wednesday 27 March
Wake up ridiculously early and go up to the rooftop to catch the sunrise. Amazing sight with so many iconic buildings. Breakfast in hotel restaurant, Cantine Parisienne. Great kwaffee! Walk downtown and end up at Battery Park. A lot of the area is still undergoing work following Hurricane Sandy, Ellis Island still closed. Take the Staten Island Ferry for views of The Statue of Liberty and of Manhattan. The sun comes out. Get off at Staten Island and take a stroll. It’s so much quieter and peaceful and the views across the Hudson are amazing. Early morning beer at Steinys. It’s a proper neighbourhood bar with friendly staff.
Back on the ferry to the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. Buy our subway passes and make our way to Union Square where the food market is in full swing. Walk towards Hells Kitchen and find our way to the much recommended Spotted Pig for lunch. Leave like stuffed piggies and take a walk along the Highline which was an old freight line due to be demolished until locals intervened and it was turned into an urban garden and walkway above the city. Walk above the newly gentrified Meatpacking district. It’s a unique way to see the city. Back downtown and stop for a beer in Firefly before back to hotel to change for dinner.
Out to Greenwich Village for pre-dinner drinks in Slane Castle and then dinner at Minetta Tavern. Massively busy, very cosy (we knew a lot about or dining neighbours by the time we left) but food really good. Stuart in Bone Marrow and Pigs trotter heaven!
Thursday 28 March
Walk along the Bowery on the Lower East Side to the institution that is Katz’s diner for breakfast. Choose to sit as far away as possible from the When Harry Met Sally sign. Instead sit next to the photo of Mikhail Gorbachev one of hundreds of photos of famous patrons. I had the bagel with Lox and cream cheese, Stuart had the classic Pastrami on Rye.
Head downtown again and buy tickets for the 9/11 Memorial. Sad to see people hawking unofficial merchandise. The queue to get in is long, for some reason I thought they would limit the number of people who can get in at any time to fairly small groups but this is not the case. The Memorial itself is actually very moving and seeing the names of people of all nationalities, ages and faiths and the number of names hits home. I had been for a drink in Windows in the World in the North Tower in 2000 so all my New York pictures had the towers in them. It’s strange to be back and not see the buildings as part of the Skyline.
Take our first trip uptown to the shopping mecca below Central Park. Stop at the famous Russian Tea Rooms for a cocktail. I had a Moscow Mule and Stuart a Russian Margarita. Make a stop at Tiffanys, “nothing bad ever happens in Tiffanys!” Credit card required. From here call in at YSL and Barneys. Lose Stuart in his new favourite place, the shoe department at Barneys where he can view skyscraper heels. Bag myself a Marc Jacobs. Eventually locate Stuart who could have stayed for days! Thirsty work so stop off at the Pierre Hotel for drinks near Central Park, very old school. Back to hotel.
Pre-dinner drinks at the Gansevoort Hotel after being accosted by a drunk lady looking for a cigarette! We were id’d (I love this city!) Pretentious cocktail type place with good views and 80’s music. No-one listens to modern music in New York, Motown and 80’s tunes a plenty. Not a criticism just an observation. Reservation at Les Halles (time for a No Reservations pun). Feel like I’ve been before having seen the restaurant on No Reservations and having read the book. When we see Carlos the chef he looks like an old friend, probably wonders why people grin at him in a familiar way. Stuart had Escargot and New York Sirloin on the recommendation of our excellent waiter (he’s a pro) and I had the Pate and Tuna, all very good, oh and wine! Head to Desmonds Tavern for a drink feeling a little tipsy.
Friday 29 March
Breakfast at hotel. I foolishly order French toast and am hit with a plate bigger than my head with French toast maple syrup, and a mountain of fruit. Somewhat confused/ Take the subway uptown to Central Park. Breathe the rarefied air of the Upper East Side! Walked through the park in the sunshine watching the street performers, stop at Strawberry Fields and head across to the Dakota Building.
Had lunch at Illilli, a Lebanese restaurant. Fabulous food and really nice place but the service was hit and miss. Despite the staff appearing to multiply as new faces kept appearing at our table the pace got slower and slower. Still I definitely had the best hummus I’ve ever tasted and my first Lebanese beer Amaza and Stuart had Lamb and Beef meatballs and the mixed platter. Stopped off at Eataly the Mario Batali megastore near the Flat Iron building (a food theme runs through). It is like the man himself big and loud and busy but pretty impressive. Stopped for a cocktail at 230 Fifth Avenue which has a roof terrace where you can sit wrapped in a blanket or robe on a cold day and look at The Empire State building rather than be at the top of The Empire State building.
Out in the evening on a bar crawl, start at Grey Dog and then onto Sweet and Vicious. It’s loud and lively and has an outdoor smoking patio with seats. Favourite bar so far. End up having late night dinner in La Esquina. I love this place, it’s a cross between a restaurant and a bar serving food late. The music is loud but not too loud and the atmosphere is good, really informal. Hot, hot hot Chicken Empanadas!
Saturday 30 March
Morning coffee and then a walk across the nearby Williamsburg bridge to the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn. Apparently it’s full of hipsters so we should fit right in!!! Navigate the ruthless cyclists and make it safely to the other side. Great views back towards Manhattan. It’s a busy neighbourhood with lots of independent shops, restaurants and bars and a great place to stroll. Manage to get a table at Diner for brunch after a short wait at the bar. Stuart had the burger and a Mimosa and I had the Vegetable Hash, who knew sprouts could taste so good (no Xmas dinner has ever suggested this was possible). Warning, the Bloody Marys which I ordered because everyone seemed to be having them so I figured they must be good are bloody lethal. Stop for a beer in the beer garden at Lucky Dog which as the name suggests is very dog friendly. Everyone in New York seems to have a dog. Stuart finally gets his wish to take the L back to Manhattan while humming the Beastie Boys An Open Letter to NYC, our holiday soundtrack. Get off at Grand Central Station. The interior is stunning. Poke or heads into the famous oyster bar which is a bit overpowering. Stop for a cocktail at The Campbell Apartment. It is all very Mad Men My cocktail is pretty much pure alcohol so glad to get some air. Brave the madness of Times Square, take the obligatory photos and get the hell out of there, too much Disney and fast food chains. Back to hotel and for the first time back at the right time for the nightly Nolitan Cheese and Wine. Free every evening 5-7pm, a nice touch. Ask one of our friendly hotel staff on a whim to see if they can get us a reservation at Prune for dinner. Amazingly get a table booked for 10.30.
Head to the Lower East Side to The Back Room for pre-dinner drinks. Can’t see it which is the whole point. The large bouncer outside asks if we’re here for The Back Room and directs us downs some steps along an alleyway and then up some steps to an unmarked door. It’s all very prohibition with drinks served in teacups and too cool for school types behind the bar sporting matching goatees, today’s new favourite bar! Late dinner at Prune. Amazing Parmesan omelette to start for us both followed by Lamb for Stuart and Branzino for me and Affogato for dessert. Stuart excited to see Gemma Arterton in the restaurant. I was more impressed to see she was there with Jake Gyllenhall.
Sunday 31 March
Happy Easter!! Late up today, day of rest.
Coffee and cannoli in Little Italy to start the day. Take a stroll through Little Italy and Chinatown and soak up the hustle and bustle. Offered a fake Gucci bag or watch every 20 seconds or so! Lunch at Rubirosa for thin crust Pizza. Head towards SOHO with its expensive boutiques and galleries and stop for a glass of Prosecco at The SOHO Grand Hotel (where our friends stay). Take the subway to the West Village, first rain of the holiday. Have a light refreshment in Fiddlesticks and take shelter in the Vig Bar close to our home, another really friendly bar.
Bonkers rain. Drenched in quest to find another mystery unmarked bar which is closed. Remember we have a Nolitan umbrella in our room and return to dry off and start again. Head for dinner at Torrisi Italian Specialities. Arrive early so recommended to have a drink at the next door bar. Taster Menu for dinner (see best of for Menu). Amazing food and service. Roll home.
Monday 1 April
Not feeling great today, more sleep required. Stuart out for subway street food adventure, getting off at different stops for coffee, Pizza slice and his first hotdog then to Desmonds Tavern for an early beer. Finally make it out to rendezvous at 33rd and Lexington. Head uptown. Make a tourist stop at Bloomingdales (definitely more of a Barneys girl!) Have lunch at diner Eat Right Now. So begins the incredible journey. Try to get money from an ATM without success and are told that chip and pin cards don’t always work in America. Try and find a bank from home and walk from Union Square along Park Avenue forever. Stop for a drink and wifi at Tavern 29. Eventually find a machine that will give us some quick cash. It may have been easier to get money in Cuba! As we are around the corner go back to Les Halles for dinner, Foie Gras and Skirt Steak for Stuart and grilled chicken salad for me. Head back to the hotel for champagne to celebrate our ATM success and then find extra cash in our room.
Tuesday 2 April
Today is Famous Fat Dave’s food tour. Dave picks us up at the hotel in his old checker cab called Sweetness. We have not made any requests as to where to go and were happy to leave it up to Dave as have our fellow tour companions. Drive over the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn and pick up our fellow eaters Valentina and Happy (from Virginia Beach). The tour of Brooklyn begins. We start at Delfontes with Potato and Eggs Hero with Virginia Ham. Dave sensibly only orders two of these so the four of us can share, need to pace ourselves. This is washed down with a Manhattan Special, a cold caffeine drink which is amazing. Great start. Next stop is Rico’s Tacos for Seasoned Pork Leg Torta with Oaxaca String Cheese, Avocado and Jalapeno and Horchata to drink. Stuart and Happy decide to take the Jalapeno challenge. Really good and loved the Horchata a rice and almond based drink. Next stop Brighton Beach and Coney Island. I’ve always wanted to go to Coney Island. Dave points out that this large Russian community have picked the most communist looking buildings to live in at Brighton Beach. We visit the Belarus deli. Soon becomes apparent that these older Russian ladies mean business and that we are on their turf. Dave advises us to be careful if standing around taking pictures as not all the employees are happy about this (the guy with one arm is fine but the rest with two arms not so happy!) We wait outside while Dave buys our Coney Island picnic of pickles, salami and poppy seed pastry. Drive over to the boardwalk to eat our food. It’s another area hit by Sandy and some places are still closed. The boardwalk is vast and at this time of year quite peaceful, I imagine it’s very different in summer. So glad to have made it here. Off to Brennan and Carr run by an Irish American family. Dave orders the Gargiullo Burger with cheese, onions, hot beef and broth. Have to sit some of this one out as very rich but amazing. The owner here is a real character and full of stories. I reckon you could pull a chair up and be there hours later but our tour is for four hours so we move onto Spumoni Gardens and sit outside for a pizza slice and spumoni. Spumoni is not ice cream, it’s not sorbet, it’s Spumoni, ok! Final stop is Ferdinando’s for hand piped Cannoli and Manhattan Special on tap. They filmed a scene from The Departed here and there is a picture of Leo on the wall. I love Cannoli but love Manhattan Special even more. The tour is fab, would highly recommend for the local insight, the characters and the banter. Have eaten as a local and been to areas I would never have seen as a tourist. If I’m back in New York will definitely do it again for one of the other boroughs. Dave drops us at the Brooklyn Bridge so we can walk back to Manhattan, will then have completed all three (BMW – Brooklyn, Manhatttan and Williamsburg). The walk is a good idea after the food but amazingly not as stuffed as I thought I would be as just tried a little of everything. Take a walk to Wall Street and the New York stock exchange. Have a soft drink in Porterhouse, very old school bar. Subway to Greenwich Village and spot the legendary Gray’s Papaya. Time for the hot dog papaya combo, perfect and the drink is fab. Have our first real drink of the day at McCoys. Order some blue point oysters to go with our wine. Next stop 1849 for a beer and stumble across Highlands a Scottish bar, remarkably tasteful and packed with locals. Finish our eating extravaganza with wine, charcuterie and cheese. Nothing deep fried in sight!
Wednesday 3 April
Coffee in our hood before heading to MOMA. I’m excited, Stuart less so. It’s very busy and don’t get off to a great start as it take Stuart nearly 40 minutes to check his backpack in. It is an amazing building and space. You could spend the entire day in there. Particularly liked the architectural exhibition. Difficult to get much time and space to look at things as constant stream of people walking in front of you and looming over your shoulder. Cannot imagine it ever gets particularly quiet but pleased to have been. Stroll through Rockafeller Plaza passed the famous ice rink. End up dangerously close to Times Square and escape for lunch in the Brooklyn Diner. Head downtown for some retail therapy in SOHO. Quick purchase from Club Monaco while Stuart sets his sights on a more expensive picture in the gallery across the road. Head to Circa Tabac for last full day of holiday cocktails. Circa Tabac is the only smoking bar in New York. In an agreement made prior to the smoking ban they can continue as long as a certain amount of their revenue is tobacco sales. The cocktails are great and the staff good fun. Next stop Brinkleys Bar for a window seat where we watch a local use the surrounding scaffolding to complete his workout. Move onto Toby’s bar on our street. The friendly bar man gives us a free glass of wine and it would be rude to refuse. Tapas at Plan B not the best food of our holiday but wise in light of our liquid day. Espresso at Grey Dog before we round off the night in Firefly.
Thursday 4 April
A bit hungover, glad our flight is this evening and checkout a civilised 1pm. Butchers Daughter for coffee, the fact that the seats spin round is making me dizzy. Stroll along the Bowery passed the vast shops selling kitchen and restaurant supplies and along Rivington to where Paul’s Boutique used to be so Stuart can pay homage! Back to the Nolitan to finish packing and check out. Head to Toby’s for lunch of Pizza and Calzone and then down to Mulberry Street for final Cannoli and coffee at Caffe Palermo, home of the Cannoli King! Walk through Chinatown to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Too late for the tour but watch the film about the different nationalities that came to live in the Lower East side and the changes to the housing and the neighbourhood over the years. Really interesting and so wish I had made one of the tours. Would definitely come back. Back to the hotel for the final time to finally write those postcards and then car to the airport. So long New York, its been amazing.
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