I’m back from my long weekend in New York City, but I miss it already! It’s been too long since I’ve had a trip to the Big Apple and I loved being able to combine a work trip with a best friend trip. My best friend Lizzie and I have wanted to go to NYC together since we were kids and it worked out perfectly, especially since she’s now living in Philadelphia. We fit A TON into our weekend, but it was so worth it! Sharing all the things we did and the restaurants we went below. I’m also sharing some places that were recommended to me by some of you because I’d love to add them to our list for next time. If you have a favorite NYC spot, let me know in the comments below!
Thursday – I arrived at the hotel just in time to change my outfit and freshen up before a work dinner. We went to ABCV which is a restaurant by Jean-Georges Vongerichten. He also has ABC Kitchen which is one of our favorite restaurants to visit in NYC. I was especially excited about ABCV though because it’s a vegetarian, and mainly vegan, restaurant. The girl I was with wasn’t vegan but had heard really good things about it so she couldn’t wait to try it too. Everything we had was so delicious! Some of the dishes included this warm honeynut squash dip with tahini and homemade sourdough bread, lettuce cups with avocado, the famous roasted cauliflower, shitake mushrooms with ponzu and shishito peppers and the most delicious sticky coconut rice. It was definitely a dinner to remember!
Friday – Friday was my busy day with tons of meetings, back to back until 6pm! I had hoped to wake up early and get breakfast at The Wild Son {I’ve heard such good things} but, unfortunately, the jet lag prevented me from waking up as early as I would have liked. Also, it didn’t open until 10 so I wouldn’t have been able to make it anyways. Next time!
For lunch, though, we were around the Flatiron and went to La Pecora Bianca for lunch. A few people recommended it but I wasn’t that impressed. Maybe I ordered wrong, though. I got the caprese sandwich with homemade buffalo, but it was not remarkable. I’m thinking one of their salads might have been a better choice. I did like the iced chai I got, however.
After the meetings I went to Eataly and shopped around. I love looking at all the authentic imported Italian products. There were apple and pear jams that looked perfect for fall, unique chocolates and candies, and jars of olives and peppers. Luckily we have an Eataly in Los Angeles, so I’ll have to go there when I’m back. If I wasn’t pregnant, I would have ordered a glass of wine and had a cheese plate. I remember loving that last time I was there with Matthew.
My best friend Lizzie arrived around 7:45 and we quickly got ready for dinner. The funny thing about NYC is that everyone eats so late. We thought that arriving at one of the restaurants at 9pm we might be ok with getting a table since maybe the 7pm reservations would be leaving. But no, they quoted us an hour and 45 minutes, which would be 10:45/11. Yikes! We went down the street to Buvette, a French restaurant, to grab a drink while we waited. Lizzie got a dirty martini, I had my water, and we shared the most delicious walnut pesto toast. It sounds so simple, but it was delicious! Everything else on their menu looked really good too.
Around 10:15 we headed back to Via Carota, hoping they’d be ready to seat us a little sooner. Luckily, they did! Within 10 minutes we had a nice little spot at the bar. The bartender made me a delicious virgin Moscow mule with lime and ginger and it was so good- tangy and a little spicy! We asked for his opinions when it came to food and pretty much took all of them. We shared two appetizers, the “Funghi” ( mixed fungi on smoked schmorza cheese), the “Carciofi Alla Griglia” (grilled artichoke with garlic aioli), “Polipo” (the roasted octopus on olive tapenade), and the “Tortelli” (tortellini with smoked ricotta and onions.) The pasta was so delicious –fresh pasta with a sauce that reminded me of an onion soup. And the octopus was so tender and soft. I LOVE octopus and we had the best ever when we were in Portugal. It takes a long time to cook octopus so that it’s soft enough, I’m thinking maybe that’s what they did.
We couldn’t resist dessert when we saw another server bring some tiramisu to a guest! We decided to go with that although our server recommended the pannacotta first. I think we were just in a tiramisu mood though, and it was heavenly. Definitely worth it! Next time we’ll have to get the tiramisu and the pannacotta though!
Saturday – Saturday we were up early because we really wanted to go to Jack’s Wife Freda for brunch. It’s a Mediterranean restaurant that I’ve always wanted to go to on previous New York trips. All the dishes look so unique. We got the “Rosewater Waffle” with Lebanese yogurt and honey syrup and the “Eggs Benny” with smoked salmon, potato latkes and beet hollandaise. I also loved the “Nana Tea”- black tea with fresh mint.
After breakfast, we took the subway uptown, walked through Central Park because the weather was gorgeous, and went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the Heavenly Bodies Exhibit which features a dialogue between fashion and medieval art from The Met collection to examine fashion’s ongoing engagement with the devotional practices and traditions of Catholicism.The exhibit ends in a week so I’m so happy we were able to make it. The detail on some of these gowns was absolutely stunning.
After the exhibit, we went back downtown to get lunch at Charlie Bird, a restaurant I had heard about a lot recently, especially because of their “farro” salad. We, of course, ordered the farro, along with two pastas – “gnocchi rosa” a gnocchi with red sauce and a classic “spaghetti cacio e pepe”.
Next we walked around and went shopping! I was so excited to check out the Sezane store since it’s the only one in the US. I wish I could fit into their clothes right now, but I’ll have to wait until post-baby. Then we went into Piccoliny which is an adorable kids store. I picked up a few books for Augustine that he absolutely loves, and I was so tempted by this cute I Love NY tee that had a hotdog for the I and a pretzel for the heart symbol. So adorable!
Afterwards we took a breather at the hotel for a bit and then headed up to get COOKIES on the Upper West Side. You all know I’m a huge cookie monster and Levain has the best I’ve ever tried! I’m always trying to find a good copycat recipe. We got every flavor of course – chocolate chip walnut, double chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin and the chocolate chip peanut butter chip. They were so so yummy!
Next up we went to Bemelmans Bar which is in the Carlyle Hotel. It’s a piano bar with (overpriced ha!) drinks but it’s a fun atmosphere. I especially loved that Ludwig Bemelmans painted murals on the walls, including some from his famous Madeline picture books.
What’s NYC without a little musical theatre?! We went to see My Fair Lady which was at Lincoln Center. My Fair Lady is one of my favorite musicals of all time and Lizzie and I used to watch the movie when were younger, so it was such an incredible experience to see it with her. I teared up during the opening number, and almost everyone in between – especially “I Could Have Danced All Night!” I’m so glad we were able to see a show, and one of our favorites at that.
After the show not much was open for food. We looked up reviews for a good Neopolitan style pizza and luckily Ribalta was still open. And even better, it was right near our hotel! We had the classic DOC Margarita and one with eggplant and ricotta. The crust was so good!
Then we went back to our hotel room and watched musical numbers on YouTube. Perfect night with my favorite girl!
Sunday morning– We woke up early, even though we were exhausted because we wanted to get bagels at Ess-a. So many of you recommended this bagel spot to me and it lived up to the hype. Luckily there wasn’t much of a line and we ordered almost right away. I’ve heard after 10am there’s a line down the street so I’m so happy we didn’t have to wait long. I got an everything bagel with scallion cream cheese and smoked lox. It was HUGE! I ended up having half there and then half later at the airport. I love a good bagel with lox!
Other NYC Recommendations I Wish We Had Tried:
BRUNCH
Good Thanks NYC (I hear the blue bowl is good!)
Joseph Leonard (brunch)
Other bagel recommendations: Brooklyn Bagel, Russ and Daughters (apparently their lox is amazing)
LUNCH
Tacombi (tacos and corn esquites)
Una Pizza Napoletana (apparently their pizza is better than in Naples)
DINNER
Boucherie (We also passed Petite Boucherie which looked so cute!)
Sant Ambroeus in the West Village (apparently Jennifer Aniston’s favorite)
Lupa {I’ve been before and it’s so good!}
Veselka – Ukrainian food in the East Village
Other musicals that were recommended: Waitress, Once on this Island, Anastasia, Pretty Woman
Other activities- the color factory exhibit, Natural History Exhibit {dinosaurs!}
Can’t wait for our next NYC trip! I’ve been a few times and it never disappoints! You can check out pics and recommendations from a previous trip here. If you have any favorite posts I should add to my list, let me know in the comments below! I shared my weekend on Instagram Stories too, so I added a special “NYC” highlighted stories section. You can also see what I packed for my trip here.
WHAT I WORE
xox
