Entries tagged as ‘manhattan’
This was a strange weekend and I can’t really figure out why. Here are my two boys in Long Island City. We were chilling on these fancy chairs having a chat. I actually got a little pink from the sun! It was gorgeous out and the park right there is really nice. A waverunner gang went by us and we were jealous.
Other things I did this weekend:
Met up with two lovely girlies for dinner and drinks (margaritas!) at Tortilla Flats. Tequila is an acquired taste and I’m working on acquiring it. These margaritas are pretty good! Tortilla Flats is kitschy, fun, and PACKED on Friday nights! Well, at least when we left. We got there at seven and waited probably five minutes for a table, which they gave us on the condition that we could only have it for two hours and twenty five minutes. Ha! So yeah, that was a really fun dinner and I hope to go out with those girls again (Kimberly and Victoria, are you reading?!).
And the other thing I did this weekend:
These lovely pancakes are blueberry with ricotta and mascarpone. Mascarpone! Ummm… do I even have words for this? Everyone else’s food was lackluster but I will go back to Cranky’s Cafe simply for this wonder of griddled goodness.
That was my entire weekend. I thought about going to the Hester Street Fair, but didn’t. Besides dinner with the ladies, I just hung out with the boys! Plus it rained Sunday so my only adventure was going to church.
Wow, I can’t usually sum up my weekend in one blog post but I’m feeling it today and I think this week should make up for it. ;) Happy Monday!
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: blueberries, cranky's cafe, long island city, manhattan, margaritas, mascarpone, new york city, pancakes, queens, skyline, skyline views, tequila, tortilla flats, yet another drinking post
Um, HELLO it was gorgeous this weekend. Look at me in my new Chloé shades wearing one of my spring jackets without a scarf. I was even wearing flats. How refreshing!
So last weekend it was snowy, snowy and this weekend was nothing but sunshiiiiine in the skies! I had to go into the office on Saturday, which was a bummer, so I feel like I only had one night and one day of the weekend but I definitely made the best of it. Yesterday I ran in the morning through Prospect Park. The lake was very blue and I was very happy. Spring is almost here! Hopefully this is not a tease.
Anyway, onto brunch:
I met up with my good friend Melissa after the both of us had very eventful weeks and we ended up at Good over in the Village. It seems to be a pretty good spot (no pun intended, seriously).
Melissa had the basil and goat cheese scramble:
I think that kind of looks gorgeous. This is what brunch is all about (besides mimosas of course – which we didn’t even get).
Also had some cheese grits that were a little spicy:
I’m more of a home fries girl myself, which is good because that’s what I got with my mushroom, broccoli, and ricotta salata omelet:
I think I’m growing up because I never used to like mushrooms. Also, this was the first time in my entire life I’ve ever ordered an omelet. Sometimes I think I had a weird upbringing because we never ate omelets, never watched the Sound of Music and never went skiing. I don’t know if those things have anything to do with each other besides the fact that they all came up in conversation yesterday. And apparently I like omelets. The ricotta was hiding underneath the omelet and that was a nice surprise.
So Good is pretty good. I already said that.
Afterwards, Melissa and I went somewhere that pretty much every New Yorker has an opinion about. And that includes me. One day I think I will post the reasons why I think I can call myself a New Yorker (in fact, I will do that this week!) and tomorrow I will let you know what our second destination was. Here’s a hint: I should have bought some milk.
Happy Monday!
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: asparagus, basil, brunch, cheese grits, chloe, eggs, goat cheese, good, greenwich village, manhattan, mushrooms, new york, new york city, omelets, restaurants, ricotta, scramble, shades, spring, west village
Where do you go to lunch when one of your friends from Michigan comes to the city? The Adore of course. It’s one of my favorite little places in the city. It’s a Japanese French bakery of sorts which means it’s French but the chef and everyone who works there is Japanese. They close early (around 4 or so everyday) but if you’re lucky enough to get a banana cupcake (read: the best muffin of your life) or a sandwich before they sell out, it’s really a treat. And it’s my favorite hot chocolate in the city.
It’s a tiny space and you might never know it, but there’s seating space upstairs if you’re staying for lunch. So we did. We each got baguettes (hers grilled eggplant, mine a croque monsieur) and spinach puree soup.
It was very green and very delicious:
It looks a little intimidating, but I assure you it was good.
Besides that, last night Kayti and I had the best night of our lives. We went to a speakeasy of sorts and got the number for another speakeasy of sorts that I thought I probably was never going to be able to go to. So we’ll be going there tonight. I’m having the best birthday ever. :)
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: baguettes, best hot chocolate, birthdays, food, hot chocolate, lunch, manhattan, new york, new york city, sandwiches, soup, spinach
Well, well, well… what have we here? Somebody has a chalkboard heart.
Yes. Indeed. In my room. Now.
My bedroom is huge for a New York City apartment. Last year I was living in an 8×10 craphole in the East Village and now that I’m living in Brooklyn, I’ve got a thing called SPACE! It was a strange concept at first.
I have this huge wall that has just been staring at me since I moved in. I’ve been slowly putting my room together piece by piece since I didn’t own much (or anything) before. And last night I finally got around to that blank wall.
I got the idea to make a chalkboard after seeing my friend Laura’s loft apartment in Bushwick with an entire wall of chalkboard. But I decided I didn’t want an entire black wall, I wanted a chalkboard in the shape of something: a heart. I like hearts. Not girly pink ones (usually) but I do like them. I have a little heart tattooed on one of my ribs. So heart it is.
Missy came over and helped me. First up was cutting up a bunch of paper shopping bags I was holding on to for some reason (this one, obviously) to make a tarp for the floor since I didn’t even think about getting one. The next part was the hardest: drawing.
Go up to a wall and draw a giant heart free-hand and take a step back and see what you’ve got. It probably ain’t pretty. It probably looks like a million things it shouldn’t. Missy and I had lots of laughs over this process. But the drawing was really the hardest part. This is when it was kind of crooked and we couldn’t figure out why:
We kept trying to make this side wider and that side more curved and this side inside out until I finally realized I had a tape measure so we made some measurements and some improvements and it finally looked like a pretty damn good heart. A damn good one. The painting part took an actual five minutes, but the preparation into it was pretty intense. Haha.
I want to say thank you to my good friend P for letting me borrow his painting supplies which I am not going to return. This chalkboard paint is not gonna come out (or it is, but I don’t really want to try… I’ll buy you a new paint tray, P). Here’s me showing off my skillz:
Here’s Missy showing off her skillz:
And here’s us with the final product after it dried:
It’s kind of daunting to have this giant black heart in front of my face as I’m typing this, but it’s gonna be way less daunting once someone draws a pretty picture on it. Who wants to come over and draw or write something? I’m supposed to wait three days before I draw on it, but I already have the chalk!
Oh and my animals really like it too:
That’s Owly, Rawly, and Somebody I Have Not Yet Named because when I got him his name was “Ghasty” and it’s just not sticking. And yes, I am 25 in about five seconds and I have stuffed animal friends. I’m awesome.
I can’t wait to draw on my heart!
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: apartments, bedrooms, brooklyn, chalkboard paint, chalkboards, east village, hearts, i love brooklyn, living in crap holes, manhattan, new york city, painting, projects, space, stuffed animals
I love: new friends, old friends, good restaurants, speakeasys, and the bridges of New York. I can’t imagine wanting to be anywhere else. Full update tomorrow ’cause it’s way past my bedtime. :)
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: bridges, brooklyn, manhattan, new york city, night time, nyc, williamsburg bridge
Happy New Year from me and Miss Abby V.! She came back with me from Detroit for New Year’s and our night turned out pretty okay. We spent the whole day yesterday shopping and then made our way to a blackjack party in Brooklyn to ring in the New Year but there was really no blackjack at all. There was one table. It was strange. New Years is always so hit or miss.
We left that party shortly and went to an apartment in the East Village.
At that party we took pictures in the hallway and hung out on the stairs:
Ok, so that’s not all we did, but that’s the only things I have pictures of! It was an interesting evening, to say the least. I had a good time, though. I’m glad that it turned out the way it did, even though it ended up nothing like what we had planned, and I’m even more glad that today I’ll be giving my feet a nice break. Happy 2010, y’all!
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: 2009, 2010, abby, brooklyn, east village, going to bed now, happy new year, manhattan, my feet kill, new year, nyc, parties
Merry Christmas Eve! I am in Detroit now but I only got in late, late last night, which is why I’m sending you a Christmas tree from Washington Square Park. Ain’t it pretty?
I’m so excited to hang out with my family today and I can’t wait for them to see what I brought for our exchange game. This year’s theme was “favorite things” but you’ll probably never guess what I came up with. Well, maybe. :)
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: christmas, christmas trees, late night, manhattan, merry christmas, new york, new york city, the village, washington sqaure park
Hello! Tuesday night I went skating again at Bryant Park. Since it’s peak season and it was after work, you can probably imagine how packed it was.
The ice was so bad and there was so much snow, I felt like I was walking through a cloud instead of skating on ice. I probably dulled my blades something good. I tried to do a few things but there were just SO many people! I did a couple axels and a few spins but that was pretty much it.
I did a flying camel in the middle of the rink and then the lady teaching lessons came over and told me that she was teaching a lesson and she couldn’t really tell me not to skate in the middle but, um, could I not skate in the middle? Huh? And I was with my professional photog who also got yelled at, but for taking a picture of me (no electronics on the ice!). So many rules in figure skating!
At least the lady was nice enough to let me know when her lesson was over so I could use the middle again and I did a few more spins. I did two sit spins which I definitely have not done in years. Legs = sore.
Here’s me trying to do a layback:
As packed as it was, it was actually pretty fun. And I only knocked over one person (seriously). Also, now there’s a huge Christmas tree in Bryant Park which makes it even more lovely.
Skating at Bryant Park makes me want to skate every single day. And it makes me even more excited to finally try skating at Prospect Park, the rink that’s super close to my apartment. It’s ridiculous how close it is to me actually (I can see it from my bedroom window) so I need to get me and my skates over there ASAP.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: bryant park, christmas trees, figure skating, ice skating, manhattan, midtown, new york, new york city, rules, skating, tourists
For the record, I rarely take cabs. I’ve probably taken them by my own volition less than ten times in the two and a half years I’ve lived here. Of course if someone insists we take one, I’ll go with it, it’s just not a habit I like to keep. Case in point: The other night after a late volleyball game with my ZogSports team, we were all waiting for the subway and one of those freight cars came by and my friend Melissa was like, “Wow, what IS that?” I was like, “Girl, you must not stay out very late ’cause they come by all the time at night!” and she was like, “No, girl, I take cabs.” Word. Haha.
Anyway, there’s a picture of me in a cab. Wheeee!
Now, I’ve mentioned how many good pizza places there are in New York and how many of them I still need to try. One of those places is Co. So we went there Friday:
We split a bottle of wine and ordered salad and artichoke hearts as an appetizer. Then we ordered three of their pizzas to share: Margherita, Boscaiola (tomato, mushroom, buffalo mozzarella, pork sausage, onion and chili), and Meatball. The Neapolitan-style pizzas come with four pieces and there was four of us. Perfect! We actually probably could have ordered a fourth since they weren’t that big, but I was fine with three.
Here’s the Margherita, a staple, so I like to try it at new places. And now it’s making me want to go out and get some pizza again.
The Meatball (left) was good, but we all agreed the Boscaiola (right) was the best.
I would go back to Co. It’s a cozy little place: 54 seats, a small bar area by the door and half of the tables are shared, which is fun and very New York.
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Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: 679 bar, bars, cabs, co, food, friends, manhattan, margherita, meatpacking district, new york, new york city, nyc, pacman, pizza, restaurants, taxis
September 20, 2009 · 9 Comments
This is Michelle. She flew into NYC for the weekend to visit and I made her play model for me. As you can see, she got a little bored. We went to my friend’s Gossip Girl-themed birthday party on the LES Saturday night and she wore a dress from the Anna Sui for Target collection, which was inspired by the show. Yeah, girl.
One of our first stops for the weekend was the Doughnut Plant.
Um, yeah. If you’ve never been here, you don’t know what you’re missing. I mean, it’s not just doughnuts, it’s a way of life.
I made her get the blackout doughnut and a creme brulee doughnut which is exactly what I got too. At first she wasn’t convinced, but after her first bite, there were no complaints. She couldn’t believe how good they were either. Of course there are more options (tres leches for one) but the blackout and creme brulees are too good for me to pass up for anything else.
The blackout is a cake doughnut but to me, it’s really just cake. It’s so chocolatey: chocolate crumbs on the top and gooey chocolate in the middle. It’s hard to describe but basically, you should get one now. A word to the wise: The Doughnut Plant is closed Mondays. I learned that one the hard way.
And the creme brulee:
Another not-your-average doughnut. It may be small on size but it is huge on taste. My mom’s favorite dessert is creme brulee so she absolutely loves these doughnuts.
After the Doughnut Plant, we somehow found ourselves in the middle of the San Gennaro Festival.
We played tourists and took pictures just like everyone else.
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Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: food, new york, nyc, yummies, too much food, we like to eat, chocolate, the lower east side, san gennaro, little italy, the L, LES, manhattan, doughnuts, donuts, the doughnut plant, peppers, eats, cannolis, visitors, playing tourist, creme brulee, gossip girl, anna sui, target
