March 2011
1 post
22 tags
Vegandelicious.
It’s not often within the rich and gluttonous offerings of New York City that one can eat to his or her heart’s content and leave a restaurant feeling neither overstuffed nor uncomfortable.
Should the desire to eat to your heart’s content sound enticing, may I introduce you to Angelica Kitchen, featuring organic vegan fare on East 12th Street in the East Village.
...
February 2011
2 posts
Bottomless Brunch. Tipsy before Lunch.
When I heard “Bottomless Brunch,” I naively thought I would be overstuffing myself in a buffet line.
I should have known better, I’m in New York City.
The “bottomless” part pertains to the beverages.
The destination: Harry’s Champagne Brunch at Harry’s Cafe downtown near Wall Street. The focus is on the bottomless flutes, as evidenced by the...
January 2011
1 post
11 tags
Plein Sud. Plain Fantastic.
I love France and I love French: the language, the people, the food, the wine. You name it, I love it.
That now includes Plein Sud, the French brasserie located within the saucy walls of the Smyth Hotel (a Thompson boutique hotel with more swagger than the number of rooms it has) on West Broadway in Tribeca.
I had the pleasure of a Sunday brunch with the company of two gorgeous gals who love...
November 2010
3 posts
10 tags
OTTO? Oh, yes.
Mario Batali’s name is behind it. But don’t take his word for it.
A Batali partnership with Joe Bastianich opened in 2003, OTTO (pronounced “oh-toe,” like the number eight in Italian) provided a needed respite and recharge from a day exploring Manhattan on foot.
Located on the corner of 8th Street and 5th Avenue (perhaps it should be called OTTO-Cinque?), just off...
7 tags
The High Line.
With sixty degree temperatures in mid-November, there was no excuse not to hit the streets this weekend. Or should I say “the tracks?”
As a girl with an ever-present country mouse-city mouse inner juxtaposition, I love nothing more than finding the same juxtaposition in the city I love.
I found it at the end of Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District at the High Line.
The...
October 2010
8 posts
8 tags
Splish Splash...
… I was taking a Russian Turkish bath and wondering what the hell I got myself into.
It wasn’t until I left, feeling like a new woman, clear-minded, energetic and as though I’d enjoyed a full body massage, that I caught on to the benefits and the motivation to step foot inside 268 East 10th Street.
Stepping into this eastern European environment in the East Village, one dons a...
10 tags
M Shanghai.
Mmmmmmmm is M.
Some go ga-ga over sweets, but I’m 100% team savory. And delights such as those served at M Shanghai Bistro in Williamsburg, Brooklyn catch my attention.
I will do anything for the soup dumplings, or “juicy pork buns,” as they are properly named. Made in-house by a team of dumpling chefs, they are handcrafted deliciousness.
The same goes for the steamed...
“The present in New York is so powerful that the past is lost.”
– John Jay Chapman
5 tags
Get MAD.
Really MAD. Completely and totally MAD at the Museum of Arts & Design (MAD) on Columbus Circle.
An afternoon spent wandering the Dead or Alive: Nature Becomes Art exhibit was fascinating, bringing back memories of childhood in the country, chasing down bugs and creatures… but with a decidedly more morbid flair.
I got up close and personal to each piece of work (without touching, of...
7 tags
Around the world and back for ATLAS.
Everyone has a neighborhood coffee shop in New York. Whether or not you patronize yours, well, that’s another thing, but everyone has one. And coffee addicts, I would venture, patronize their favorite neighborhood coffee shop on a more-than regular basis. That’s me and mine is Atlas Cafe on the corner of Grand and Havemeyer in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Atlas is colorful and...
September 2010
5 posts
4 tags
Oktoberfesting.
16 to 18 days of beer, the best of the ‘wursts of one kind or another, and sauerkraut. That’s probably enough said. But I’ll continue…
2010 marks the 200th anniversary of the world’s most eternal annual wedding party, celebrating the marriage of Bavaria’s Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese. Oktoberfest is traditionally held in Munich, Germany during the...
7 tags
Jazz, Flûte 'n Boogie.
I don’t mean the instrument. I mean the bubbly.
A lovely evening was spent last night at Flûte Bar’s Gramercy location on East 20th in Manhattan. I was lured there by the featured musicians, Rob Duguay’s Low Key Trio, but I was enchanted by the full package.
The ambiance is romantic, with warm candle-lit mood lighting, red-accented decor and inviting couches set about, tucked...
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13 tags
Bryant Park Lovin'.
Bryant Park, I’ve discovered, is full of free fun. We are now in the midst of Fall Festival, running September 13-20, featuring free after-work performances including jazz, the Met Opera, BAM, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Parsons Dance and more! Each day features a lunchtime what’s what session with the performers of the evening, giving background on the organization or highlights of the...
August 2010
3 posts
Free yoga in Bryant Park: Tuesdays and Thursdays... →
Artists, meet fleas. Fleas, artists.
Brooklyn, not unlike the rest of NYC, loves its artists. Every borough brims with creativity, but the various neighborhoods in Brooklyn each exude their own flavor and flair boldly, proudly and loudly.
Williamsburg has infinite impromptu sidewalk flea markets, with van-fulls of worn clothes, vintage treasure and books, books, books laid upon the concrete or hung along the fences that run the...
July 2010
2 posts
Take Me Down to K-Town.
I was pretty sure I’d never had Korean food when I wandered into one of K-Town’s finest last week, Gahm Mi Oak, with a few out-of-town friends.
Gahm Mi Oak is an easy find, not too far down West 32nd Street, with a simple and tasteful decor. You could sit traditionally— sans shoes and on the floor, but they likely assumed that four Americans would want chairs, and at the...
Street fairs in NYC this weekend (via TimeOut)! →
Summer. Many concerts and events throughout the city are free to the public, so it’s time to hit the streets and soak up the sunshine (and store it for the three-fourths of the year we have no sunshine!). A great way to wander, interact, learn and perhaps snag yourself a gem or two are streets fairs. Linked is a round-up of what to catch this weekend in the Grand Apple.
June 2010
6 posts
“New York is the biggest collection of villages in the world.”
– Alistair Cooke
WatchKid Koala beauty. Celebrate Brooklyn! June.25.2010.
Celebrate Brooklyn! & That Cute Koala.
I celebrate Brooklyn every day. I’ve been celebrating since I arrived here.
Celebrating the language I hear around me, the tongues flicking words unfamiliar to my ears, representing a culture I don’t know… but want to know. Celebrating the coexistence of races, of nationalities, of histories, of stories. Celebrating those unlike myself, who’ve lived in Brooklyn their...
7 tags
Caracas' Venezuelan Wonders.
Caracas Arepa Bar in Brooklyn caught my eye every time I ran past it for months now. Though I’d never eaten there, I like the logo, so I continued to notice it, and day after day I told myself, “I should try that,” a repeatedly fleeting thought lost by the time I was home untying my running shoes.
So when a visiting friend-of-a-friend, and former-NYC-resident suggested...
May 2010
1 post
8 tags
April 2010
4 posts
“You come to New York to find the ambiance that will evoke your best. You do not...”
– Dr. James Hillman
One Dolla' Oystah's.
I’ve got a thing for seafood. Shellfish, in particular. And it’s an all-new craving territory since a recent month spent on the coast in Senegal, eating les fruits de mers straight out of the ocean.
Among other cravings for Senegalese treats I got used to that month, oysters rose to the top of my mental favorites tab, recently becoming a craving to be reckoned with. So when a friend...
WatchAllergic to video games? Not with Zyrtec.
Neat guerilla advertising stunt in the middle of Times Square. Remember pinball? Well, this is virtual pinball, played by wiggling your hands/fingers and standing in front of this crazy screen on the sidewalk.
Garner attention? Um, yes. Yes, it did.
6 tags
Oh, Pacha!
Appropriately, my NYC club scene cherry was popped at Pacha NYC, and in style, no less. DJ Boris was spinning in Celebration of his own birthday, in Bash fashion, and I joined some of his friends at a table upstairs overlooking the mayhem and madness of the party below.
The club was gorgeous and posh, and the mood was hyped at 2 am when we arrived. Smoke machines filled the room, sliced by...
March 2010
10 posts
Cheapie, cheapie movie tickets. →
As “NYC’s 10 Best” writes, it’s hard to find a movie ticket under ten bucks… anywhere these days, but especially in the Big Apple. These cheapie deals can be at inconvenient times, but when and if bargain days can be planned for. I’m going to add Cobble Hill Cinemas in Brooklyn to my to-do list!
Namaste.
With a studio located on my street, I lucked out on the yoga front. Yoga, I’ve discovered, is something I need for many reasons. As a dancer, it realigns me in the right ways and stretches me out just so. As a human, it gives me strength. Not just guns, but mental strength, resiliency and patience. It reminds me that sometimes- often- all you can do is try, try again. It encourages me when I...
Bugs and Remedies.
I have been on this earth, in this form, for just under 28 years. And never in my life have I felt so “right where I need to be” as I have since I stepped foot in New York City. I’ve visited a lot of places, lived a lot of places, seen a lot of faces…
… sorry I couldn’t help the last bit there. A country song just started to write itself out of my head. What I...
Myra & the Best Burger Yet.
I have been craving the intersection between meat, cheese, tomato, onion and bun for quite some time now. But everywhere I go out to eat, there are so many phenomenal options, I say to myself, “really, self? You’re going to get a burger?” And then self feels bad and orders something fabulous, like red curry mussels or red snapper, or something that I can’t get just...
3 tags
Rude, Crude and In-the-Mood.
Colin Kane is hilarious. ‘Nuff said.
I saw him last night at Caroline’s on Broadway— great touristy comedy spot— and though he is not the kind of comedian you’d want to bring your mother-in-law to see the first time you meet her (depending on her threshhold for crude bathroom humor and references to male genitalia and sexual acts), I was the person laughing so...
3 tags
Fruits de mers de DBGB.
In Senegal, you can get an order of raw sea urchins, a dozen oysters, a dozen mussels, an order of cockles and a plate of french fries (for a little starchy foundation) for twenty dollars. That was not a typo, I said twenty. 2-0.
As such, I ate quite a bit of fresh-out-of-the-ocean seafood on a recent sabbatical to heaven in West Africa and I developed a taste for it. The kind of taste for...
“One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as...”
– Thomas Wolfe
Pulled Pork Pain.
Technically, I’m not a GRITS (girl raised in the south). But my dad is a BRITS (alright, alright I just made that one up for something comparable because he is a boy raised in the south) and I attended the University of Alabama for four years. So I bestow upon myself the right to claim authentic cravings for southern food. Soul food. Good home cooked vittles.
It had been quite some time...