New York Food Frenzy Weekend

Some would not call a trip organized 6 weeks in advance a "spur of the moment" trip, but me being me, that is spontaneous!  Plane tickets and hotel were booked at the end of July for the Labor Day weekend in September.  Now, this isn't to unusual, but it did mean I would be traveling back to back weekends.  Labor Day in NYC, 3 days home and then a long weekend in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but more about that later!

This trip to NYC would be a little different than the last few "theater-centric" trips.  This quick trip would not include any theater, but something even more exciting.

After booking this trip I found out that Eataly, the Mario Batalli and Lidia & Joe Bastianich, Italian food emporium imported from Torino would be opening just a week before my trip...JACKPOT!  This was going to be a food frenzy weekend!  Check out his NY Post article about Eataly NYC http://www.nypost.com/p/lifestyle/food/welcome_to_eataly_G5QHOIVyNtzG44tyFb5GVM

And so the trip begins....

Saturday, September 4th

With an 8am flight out of Savannah it was an early morning but the benefit of an early morning departure as the beautiful sunrise that was seen from the big windows at the airport.  The flight could not have been better.  The plane left on time and I barely noticed the wheels were up.

As the plane approached NYC the views were staggering, the day was clear and you could see for miles.  The plane begins the approach into LaGuardia and all is going splendidly, we will even be landing a little early, when all of a sudden I feel the plane rising and the ground is getting further away...oops!  The flight was cleared to land, but a plane on the ground didn't hear our plane was cleared and was now on the runway.  No worries, we get to see the city for the air for a second time.  I have to say, the pilot was great, when we did land, it was the smoothest landing I have experienced...I barely noticed we had touched the ground.

Since bags were not checked in we went directly to the exit and called Carmel Cars for our pick-up.  There was hardly any traffic going into the city and the car dropped us at the corner of 6th Avenue and 28th Street.  Why were we dropped off at the corner....well, a movie was being filmed on the street the hotel was on, and closed to vehicle traffic, not a big deal, since it was a 3 minute walk to the hotel. We arrived at the hotel just after 11am.

Check-in wasn't until 3pm, so we left our bags with the bellman and asked him what movie was being filmed.  He told us the name and the "star" in the film which we promptly forgot because we had never heard of him.

Now that we were luggage free it was time to check out our Italian food "mecca".  We walked over to Eataly...OMG huge, it's about 50,000 square feet.  The  foods are beautifully displayed and there is a big selection.  We walked into the entrance on 5th Avenue which is were the cafe, passticeria, chocolate and panini sections were located.  We shopped for about an hour including perusing the book shop and then put our name in at Rossopomodoro pizza for lunch it was an hour and 45 minute wait.

We decided to pay for our purchases and then went into the Eataly wine shop, where there is only wine from Italy, to see what was on offer.  We then popped across the street for a coffee at Starbucks, sacrilege since there is a Lavazza cafe in Eataly! 

The line out the door of Eataly (23rd Street) at 1pm extended all the way to 5th Avenue and it didn't seem to get any shorter! We killed an hour at Starbucks.  Got on line to get back into Eataly at 1:45pm, got in within 5 minutes at the 5th Avenue entrance, not the enormous 23rd Street main entrance...big hint, use 5th Avenue entrance.

We checked with hostess and got seated 5 minutes later.

OMG...this was the best pizza EVER.  We ordered the parma ham, parmiagiano, arugula, & mozzarella, no tomato sauce pizza and the fennel and pickled salad...both delish.  Mom had glass of Gavi di Gavi, excellent wine...easy going down.  I had glass of Flor prosecco...wonderful.  Lunch cost about $50  After lunch we decided to stop in wine shop to buy bottle of each wine.

As we were walking out of Eataly standing there with his little daughter was Anthony Bourdain!!!!!  Mom said "Hello Chef" and waved, he smiled, said hello and waved back.  I was too wimpy to say anything.

By now it was about 3pm so we trotted off to the hotel to check-in.  We had a room on the 9th floor facing the street.  I was very keen to stay at this hotel, the Hotel Indigo Chelsea since it opened last October (http://www.indigochelsea.com/) This hotel is the boutique brand of Intercontinental hotels and I have stayed at the Hotel Indigo In Atlanta and loved it.

The air conditioning in the room was not working so there was a mobile AC unit, the front desk comped us breakfast because of it.  This didn't bother us, since the weather was so lovely we didn't even need the AC.  I liked the room alot, it was clean comfortable, wood floors with carpet between beds.  The room was compact but had everything, nice closet with safe and mini bar.  Bathroom small, but has everything needed and great lighting.  I really liked there was a walk-in shower and no tub to have to climb into.

After a quick freshen up we left the hotel and walked over to the Highline Park to walk the Highline (http://www.thehighline.org/)  It's a great park and perfect weather to take pictures!

We walked from 20th Street down to Chelsea Market on the Highline, walked through the market and browsed, and bought brownies from FatWitch brownies (YUM!).  Mom had heard they are supposed to be fantastic and they were!

By  now it was 5:30pm so we walked over to Bar Veloce (http://barveloce.com/) for apperitivo (7th Ave at 20th).  This was a great find, nice wine bar, exposed brick walls, not many people there at 6pm, but when we left at 7:30pm it was filling up.  We had 2 glasses of nice Italian white wine ($10 per glass).

We walked down to 14th Street for our 8pm dinner reservation at Crispo (http://www.crisporestaurant.com/).  This was an excellent choice.  It was Italian (big surprise there!), with lots of atmosphere, more exposed brick walls, lighting dim.  We had the burata cheese appetizer special...it was a good choice, the ball of burata was huge, the grilled bread it came with was excellent, but the fresh chopped tomatoes on top were the crowning touch.  For her entree mom had the branzino special, beautifully grilled fish, very light and very flavorful.  I had the pork shank with chiles, the pork was huge and fall off the bone tender, the shank was served on a bed of potatoes, apples, and eggplant with lightly fried onion ring strings on top...talk about flavor explosion....delicious!  With a half carafe of white wine, which was good and 2 espresso to end the meal the bill was $112.

Sunday, September 5th

It was another fantastic weather day!

We took the subway down to the East Village to have brunch at Five Points (http://www.fivepointsrestaurant.com/).  I had the Eggs Ranchero, Mom had the  Eggs with ricotta & tomatoes also known as eggs in purgatory.  Both dishes were EXCELLENT and the service was as good as the food!

From Five Points we walk to 4th Street to catch the A train going uptown.  Our destination was the Cloisters.  We took the A train to the 190th Street stop and then walked through Fort Tryon Park to the Cloisters (http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/the_cloisters).  This museum has a lovely setting with knock-out views of the Hudson.  We spent a couple hours looking at great art and just ogling the beautiful setting and taking lots of pictures.

We took the A train back to mid-town and transferred to the 1 train and got off on the corner near our hotel.  Just after 5pm we decided to have a glass of wine at hotel's rooftop bar.  It was a bit rough around the edges, but nice to be outside.

Tonght we had a dinner reservation at Nirvanna, an Indian place.  This was the first time for Indian food for me.  We took the 1 train to Times Square and then the Times Sq shuttle cross town to Grand Central and walked a couple blocks to Nirvana.

The food here was great. For entrees I had the chicken tika masala which was a good starter Indian dish.  Mom, who prefers spicy food had the lamb predry and she loved it. It was a bit too spicy for me.  We had an order of the garlic naan, which was great and an appetizer that I can't remember what it was, but remember liking it!  With a bottle of wine dinner was about $100.

Monday, September 6th

The weather was really cooperating with us on this trip and we walked down 7th Avenue to 18th Street to have breakfast/brunch at Cafeteria ( http://www.cafeteriagroup.com/).  This is a 24 hour neighborhood joint.  We both had the really nicely done omelet, fluffy and with delicious goat cheese!

We walked back to the hotel, checked out and waited for the car service to pick us up and take us to LaGuardia

While waiting for our flight it was interesting people watching.  I wondered if people look at themselves before going out.  Some I saw looked like they just came from gym and were laying all over floor

The flight home was uneventful, albeit not as smooth as the flight on Saturday and we were home unpacking by 6:30pm.  Another great NYC adventure!