nyc, part one
I think it’s safe to say we had a pretty epic trip to NYC a couple of weeks ago.
on friday, our first full day in the city, you wouldn’t have even known a blizzard was coming. It was 40+ degrees and sunny and chilly but overall quite pleasant. our hotel was just a couple blocks away from grand central, so we popped in there for a cappuccino, grabbed bagels from a nearby shop (which turned out to be our favorite, after trying two others over the weekend), walked up to see times square, and then to the southern end of central park.
we did a little bit of shopping (aka we did not come equipped with proper winter coats, so both of us ended up buying one there…turned out to be a good investment), grabbed a few treats from milk bar, and then headed downtown for a late lunch at momofuku noodle bar. we probably had over 100 restaurants pinned to a google map that interested us, but eating here was at the top of our list, and one of our few “musts.” we got the classic momofuku ramen, some pork steam buns, and their take on a kale salad, and all three were fantastic.
post-lunch, we headed back to our hotel for a bit to relax and recharge (literally…NYC drained our phone batteries like whoa), and a couple hours later, took the subway over to the greenpoint neighborhood in brooklyn to check out a few bars. first, we went to TØRST, a minimalist bar specializing in unique, higher ABV beers. we loved that you could get different size pours of each beer (5 oz, 8 oz, 12 oz), so we were able to try a few each. and the best part was that almost everything on tap was from the east coast, so it was all new to us!
#flannelfridayforever
from there we headed just a few blocks down the street to brooklyn brewery. here, you buy “tokens” at the door in increments of $5, which you then use to redeem beers at the bar. unsurprisingly, this turned out to be one of our favorite places of the weekend – we loved the open, warehouse feel of the brewery, and ended up hanging there for a couple hours. we tried a bunch of different beers, but a favorite was the greenmarket wheat.
after the brewery, the weather was still decent, and we felt like walking off some of our beer, so we headed down towards the williamsburg bridge and decided to walk across (we’d planned to do the brooklyn bridge, but we weren’t up for walking that far then, and never made it back over there). I am terrified of heights and especially bridges, but I was determined to have the experience and make it across. as you may know, there’s a dedicated walking lane on this bridge, and I actually felt pretty safe and secure the whole time. being able to see manhattan all lit up like that was totally worth it!
once we got across the bridge, it had started to snow lightly, and we were starving. we pulled out our phones and realized we were really close to katz’s deli, which stays open late on weekends and was another must on our list. you just never know what to expect from places like this that are so hyped, but holy pastrami, it was amazing. (probably also contributing to the amazingness was our level of intoxication). we split a pastrami sandwich (on rye, with mustard) and an order of latkes, and were in heaven. i’ll have what she’s having, indeed.
we weren’t quite ready to call it a night yet, so we headed over to mcsorley’s, widely considered to be the oldest Irish tavern in NYC. here, there are two options: light beer or dark beer. lots of cool memorabilia on the walls here, and bartenders that feel like they walked straight out of another era. we sat in the window here and watched the storm start to pick up, and ended our night with a walk back to our hotel.
and then came Jonas.
but that didn’t stop us! we had reserved cronuts from dominique ansel for saturday morning, and there was no way we were missing out on those. the subways were still running, so we headed down to soho. these guys were totally worth the trip. (and the bakery had a great window for watching the snow fall).
after pastries we braved the elements for awhile and walked up to NYU and washington square park — we couldn’t see much, since the snow was blowing everywhere, and most of the buildings were closed, but we did our best.
once we had enough walking, we took the subway to the upper east side and made a quick lunch stop at dean & deluca, and then were on our way to the Met. we thought it would be a good day for an indoor activity, but by the time we got there, they had decided to close early, so we only had about an hour or so to see the museum. we checked out a few areas that interested us, plus the special exhibit on Egypt, and were on our way again. can’t wait to go back and explore more next time.
then it was back to our hotel to regroup. by this time, most of the city had shut down – all museums, all broadway shows, and quite a few restaurants. we stopped by a newsstand to pick up some snacks in case we weren’t able to find dinner anywhere later that night. we relaxed at our hotel for awhile, and then got this bright idea that maybe everyone else assumed SNL was cancelled and that we should go because we would probably definitely get in. so we walked – well, basically skied – the mile over to rockefeller center and arrived just as the nice NBC man was announcing that the last standby tickets had been given out. oh well, we tried. we called around to see if any nearby bars/restaurants were open, and ended up at judge roy bean public house, where we had burgers and beers.
and then came one of my favorite parts of the weekend. the mayor had issued a travel ban earlier in the afternoon, so there were no cars on the road, save for a few police cars and other first responders. we turned onto madison avenue to find tons of people walking in the streets, taking pictures, playing with their kids, having adult snowball fights, you name it. it was pretty magical, i gotta say.
good night, Jonas! part two coming soon.