NYC Weekend

Well, this was officially the longest, shortest weekend that I have ever participated in. My better half and I took a 0600 flight on Friday and came back at 0900 on Sunday, far too early after our late night.

I have to say thanks to our friend's friends, who I have never met and already forgot their names, but they were out of town and let us stay at their place. Now that we have that out of the way we can get into our weekend.

We did a lot during those forty some hours in NYC. We walked, ate, walked, drank, ate, walked,drank, slept. That was our first day. If you have never been to NYC, you need to go. So much to do, so little time. We ate lunch in Tribeca at Bouley Market Cafe which was very delightful. Beets were hot on the menu as we had them in our appetizer and I had in my entree (Halibut, beets, horseradish cream). After enjoying our lunch we continued our feast at Amy's Bread in the Village. This was Jennifer's favorite bakery when she lived here. She enjoyed the Pink Cake and I gobbled up the carrot cake. We left Amy's and headed no where in particular where I walked next to Harold Dieterle, Top Chef Season 1 Winner and Chef at Perilla. Smaller than the TV makes him out to be, but his restaurant looks mighty fine. Next time we are there we just might have to stop by.

So up to this point I think I have consumed somewhere in the vicinity of 3900 calories, but who is counting. Next, we visited the Morrell Wine Bar in Rockefeller Plaza where we enjoyed a clean bathroom and a refreshing glass of wine. After that, a little shopping, a little walking and we were back at the apartment we were staying at in the Financial District. In the evening, we had reservations at Bar Baloud which really had us excited, but after a long day of eating, drinking, and walking we decided not to venture all the way across the island and stayed local in the Financial District where we enjoyed Stone Street. This place makes you believe you are somewhere else. It gives you the feel of a European city, far away from the hustle of NYC. Buildings from the mid-19th century, cobblestone streets and many patrons sit at the hundreds of tables in the middle of the street. It was a great place to be on a warm spring night.

Saturday started off with coffee, shopping and a milestone in my life - I bought a pair of pants that were size 36. This has not happened in the past 10 years. Cheerio!! Anyways, ate at Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles in the Financial District for brunch. Very tasty! I had the smoked salmon and sour cream omelet and a Bloody Mary. The Bloody could have been better, but my food was perfect. After that we took the Staten Island Ferry, which had crashed earlier that day. Saturday night was filled with more drinking and eating - I am sensing a trend here. We had dinner with our friend's Matt and Denise at Morandi which was great. Ambiance, location, food, and staff were great and the company was even better. I had Pappardelle al cinghiale, flat ribbon pasta with braised wild boar. We finished off the evening with a party, the real reason we came to NYC. Our friends, Vikki and J.T. were married in New Zealand last month and we get to celebrate with them. And celebrate we did at a place called STOUT where I had some Mother's Milk. I wasn't overly impressed with their beer list but at that point in the night it didn't really matter.

Woke up, came home. Still too early.