A couple weeks ago, I went back to NYC for some fun with friends and family before a two-day business trip in San Francisco. I hadn't been back since January and it seems I become surly and whiny if I don't get my Manhattan fix every 4 months or so. I've only been in Ashland for a year and 3 months--seems like I've been gone from NYC at least twice that long. Not sure what that means, but anyway...here's a quick recap of my trip.
Day 1: A lost day--Got up at 4amPT and due to a cancelled flight and 3 hours sitting on the runway at LAX (only to get in the air and have the airline run out of food before they get to me), didn't arrive at my friend Karen's until 11pmET. Missed dinner with friends I haven't seen since I left New York. Major bummer. Me after a long day.
Day 2: VIE (Very Important Errand)--hair appointment at Miwa Alex. Then lunch with Beth at Le Pain Quotidien in ABC on Broadway at 16th St., one of my most fave stores in NYC. Then, what luck! Megasale at BCBG! Off to pick up Karen and go to the Pegu Club, a tropical upstairs lounge in Soho, to meet Mary from HBO and Marty from Bluefly. Love them. Dinner with Karen, my friend from Warner Music Group, and Keith from Hitwise at Cookshop (try the rabbit and pizza) and then post-dinner beer and gnudi at yes, you guessed it, The Spotted Pig. I know I am obsessed, but I can't help myself. Celeb sighting there was pretty good as usual--Anthony Bourdain (hey, not only a famous chef, but a fellow Vassar alum!) and Steven Schirripa who plays Bobby Bacala on "The Sopranos."Alas, the two of them weren't sitting together as that would've made a better story.
Day 3: Breakfast with Karen and then off to Facial Index, my favorite place to get glasses in NYC. It's in Soho at 104 Grand St. Don't miss it--they are handmade from Japan. Met my mum and aunt for lunch at a Chinese/Korean place in Koreatown on 35th St. Shopped, etc. until dinner at Bao Noodles for tasty, quick Vietnamese and then an intriguing, avant-garde Noh based on Yukio Mishima's "The Lady Aoi" at the Japan Society which is currently celebrating 100 years. The play started out with a naked pregnant woman walking extremely slowly across the stage...need I say more. Seriously, I'd recommend you go see this, except that it was a limited run. Read the play though--it is known for being one of Mishima's most passionate works and is based on one of the oldest novels in human history,“The Tale of Genji” written in 1004AD. Still hungry, so around 11pm we went for Korean fried chicken which is all the rage in Seoul and now NYC. We're recommended a place called Bon Chon at 314 5th Ave (upstairs) which in typical Korean fashion is not a dive, but a sleek, full-on club and bar with pounding dance music. Absolutely yummy--light and crisp--not the kind of fried chicken you'd eat with waffles, but perfect with a beer late night after bar-hopping.
Day 4: We hit the Guggenheim for a couple hours before lunch. Hadn't been in a few years and I'd forgotten how much I love this museum. Much more intimate and manageable than the MOMA which has become a zoo ever since it reopened. The Guggenheim has an impressive permanent collection of Kandinsky and Chagall--I'd forgotten that too. They also had a fun interactive exhibit with a disco floor. Off to lunch at Sfoglia, a new Italian on the way upper east side getting raves these days, then some sightseeing and a 3-hour appointment at my favorite Korean bathhouse for a vigorous body scrub and massage, Sol Spa (read why I love this spa so much here). Dinner with my friend Phil Terry who took me, my mum and aunt to Jewel Bako. Well-done, innovative food, but portions tend to be on the small side, so if you're hungry, I'd go with the omakase like I did. Late-night Smalls run. Nice for a quick single-malt and half a set, but too crowded to hang for long.
Day 5: Brunch at one of my favorite places for breakfast, Public, on Elizabeth between Prince and Spring. Great tea-smoked salmon and spinach benedict, bloody marys, pastries. This after sneaking an absolutely delectable cream-filled bomboloni from Falai Panetteria on the Lower East Side. More shopping and then...prep for more eating! (Sensing a trend here?) Dinner with Karen and my family at one of my favorite bistros in NYC, Le Tableau at E. 5th Street between A and B. My mum and aunt went back to the hotel and Karen and I went in search of some late-night revelry. Boy, did we find it. We end up at Mo Pitkin's House of Satisfaction and Karen's about to sit at the bar. I hear live music in the back and go to check it out. What do I find? Karaoke night! I am on the serious karaoke vibe these days. Find out why here. We enjoyed lovely renditions of "I Touch Myself," "Jeremy," and "Sweet Child O' Mine"...believe me, I had a tough time restraining myself.
Day 6: Lunch in Koreatown with my family and then off to San Francisco and back to the grind. Had an interesting plane ride. Remind me to tell you about it sometime.
Click here for the download of my first trip back to NYC--even more jam-packed and whirlwind-y than this one!
