 |
| NYC Public Library Christmas Tree |
With an early Saturday morning departure out of Savannah we arrived in NYC just after 10am. Instead of using my "go to" car service (Carmel), I opted to try another service, Dial 7 Car Service. Here is a link to their website:
http://www.dial7.com/
After a bit of mis-communication with the dispatcher and my error with exiting the airport from a different (new to us) door, we found our driver and we were whisked off in comfort to the Intercontinental Times Square Hotel at 300 W. 44th Street, which is between 8th & 9th Avenues (we thought it was the perfect location!). Here is the link to the hotel's website: http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/intercontinental/hotels/gb/en/new-york-city/nychc/hoteldetail
After paying the driver $30, plus tolls & tip we were escorted into the lobby by a friendly bellman. Since it was early by hotel check-in standards, we were prepared to just leave our suitcases with the bell staff and hit the streets of the Big Apple. To our surprise, the front desk agent told us our room was ready and we checked in right away and went to our room. Mom and I really liked this hotel. It was clean, comfortable, great location and the staff was very nice and accommodating.
We were happy to find a big Christmas market set-up in Bryant Park, and perused the stalls for about an hour checking things out and making a little purchase here and there. Spices for mom and a really interesting acorn pendent made from a coin for me.
After the tour, be bundled up and stepped outside to brave the NYC Christmas-time weather, really it wasn't too bad! We had a gander at the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center and then found a wine bar where we could toast to the start of another NYC adventure.
Once seated and greeted by our server, we let him know we had an 8pm curtain time and he said, no problem, we'd be finished by 7:30pm and he was true to form, but we never felt rushed. We were thrilled with this restaurant. It was the perfect choice, since the portions are more tapas sized then entree sized and we didn't want to have full stomachs and then sit through a 2 hour show!
The wine list is extensive and not inexpensive! Since mom and I had already had a glass of bubbly, we decided we would order wine by the glass and not a bottle. We had read the chef is from the Alsace region of France and because we had such wonderful food experiences in Strasbourg, France in 2011 we went with 4 very Alsatian dishes. The duck cassoulette was the winner, but the pork belly was no slouch either. The Alsatian tart brought back wonderful food memories and the liverwurst was creamy and delicious.
The show we saw was Golden Age at the Manhattan Theater Club on 55th Street between 6th & 7th Avenue, so it was a quick walk from the restaurant. It was a bit confusing entering the theater because there are 2 stages, the one we needed was downstairs, but people kept directing us to the street level theater. We finally were headed in the right direction and got settled into our seats. The theater was fairly small, but it worked for this particular production. Honestly, I probably wouldn't even have considered seeing this show, except for the fact that Bebe Neuwirth (think Lilith from Fraser) was in it and I was eager to see her on stage. The show was OK, not the greatest but not the worst I've ever seen. When mom asked how I liked it, I replied, "it's interesting". But, isn't that what going to the theater is all about....broadening your mind and experiencing different things. Really, it wasn't something that was off the wall, just a play that I might not have gone to if it weren't for the cast.
After the show we made our way back to the hotel and stopped in the restaurant/lounge (Ca Va) for a drink and then it was off to sleep for us. It was a jammed-packed day and we needed our strength to fight the crowds at Eataly the next day (or so we thought!).
I could hardly believe our luck, there was plenty of room in the cafe and we easily found a table to sit at. I stood in line to order our coffees and pastry and mom grabbed a table. It was perfect, good coffee, fresh pastry right where we planned to go anyway.
After "fueling up" we hit the store to check out what Eataly had in stock. Even in the store portion of Eataly the crowds were slim. Upon check out we found out why...normally the store opens at 10am but because of the Christmas holiday they opened at 8am, and many people didn't know this. I did though, since I'm on the Eataly email list...sometimes I am a smart cookie!
We had tickets to the 3pm performance of Chaplin, so made our way to the theater after lunch. Both mom and I absolutely loved this show, the music was fantastic and the actor playing Charlie Chaplin really made him come to life. We were kind of surprised at how much we enjoyed this show since we weren't quite sure how the life of Charlie Chaplin would "transfer" into a Broadway musical, but was terrific!
After the show we made our way back downtown, to the Chelsea neighborhood to The Drunken Horse (225 10th Ave. between 23rd & 24th Streets) for pre-dinner drinks. This is a wine bar I "found" last year on another NYC trip and like alot. It's nothing fancy, but the staff is friendly, the wine is good and the prices are reasonable. Plus it helps that it is located right next door to the restaurant where we had dinner reservations!
Dinner was at The Red Cat at 227 10th Ave. Here is a link to the restaurant website: http://www.theredcat.com/redcat.php This was our second visit to The Red Cat and it did not disappoint. It's definitely got a neighborhood vibe, the service staff is excellent at what they do, the food is delicious and the prices are NOT outrageous!
Christmas Eve began with a return to Eataly, not only for another Italian breakfast "fix" but also so mom could buy the guanciale she passed on buying the day before! Before the purchase we had to "confer" with Facebook friend Judy Francini, also known as the Divina Cucina, to see if buying the guanciale and not refrigerating it for 2 days would be ok. Judy said, "of course, no problem". So a return to Eataly became a "done deal".
With guanciale purchased, it was back to the hotel to drop it off and then we decided to walk up to Lincoln Center where we had tickets to see the NYC Ballet perform the Nutcracker. We walked up 8th Avenue and when we got to Columbus Circle I asked mom if she wanted to stop in at the Time Warner Center (a vertical shopping mall) to kill some time before the performance. She said "sure, why not".
Leave it to us to find yet another restaurant. As we walked into the shopping center, I noticed a sign on the doors listing all the restaurants inside, one of them was Landmarc. I asked mom if she wanted to check it out. The reply I got, "sure, why not". So,up we go. The dining room was very crowded but the bar was practically empty...you can guess where this is going. I asked the hostess if we can just sit at the bar, the reply, "of course". We were after all, a little thirsty and it was 12:30pm!
At about 1:30pm we paid the bill and walked the 5 or 6 blocks to Lincoln Center. As expected there were lots of children at this performance, but what I wasn't expecting were the dancers to be children. It's a lot different then the performance of the Nutcracker I saw there when I was kid! But it was fun to see the elaborate sets and costumes. It was a great way to spend Christmas Eve day!
After the ballet we hopped a downtown train and made our way to the West Village to Babbo, where we had a 5:30pm dinner reservation. Since we arrived there at 5pm we decided to sit at the bar for a pre-dinner drink, a green apple bellini, not as great as the pear bellini I had there once before, but it was ok.
At 5:30pm the hostess came to get us and seat us and then it all went down hill from there. Because it was Christmas Eve there was a special 7-Fishes Tasting Menu. Our server, clearly wanted to sell these tasting menus. Once we were seated he told us about the tasting menu, we said thank you and then we began looking at the Ala Carte menu. What happened next is not an exaggeration, within 1 minute he was back at our table asking if we had any questions. Our reply, "no, we are still looking at the menu". He left, walked around the big table/Christmas Tree centerpiece in the middle of the room, which took about 1 minute and came back to the table and asked again, if we had any questions or were ready to order. This just "frosted" us. To make matters worse, his "attitude" about wine selection was beyond condescending. If there is one thing I am pretty familiar with, it's Italian food and wine and this guy was just mucking up my much anticipated (in hind-sight, maybe too high expectations) meal at Babbo.
In the end, mom and I ordered off the Ala Carte menu, which I'm sure ticked off the server to no end. We had squid ink pasta as our starter and we each had the branzino. The food was good, I won't say excellent, but they were "solid" dishes. And, I have to give big kudos to the back servers, who expertly de-boned our branzino and were very pleasant to deal with, we wished they were our front server. We ordered a lower-end priced bottle of wine (I did the selecting without any assistance from Mr. Server!), and it went well with the fish. If the server had a better attitude I probably would have ordered a pricier wine, but "psst" to him! The maitre'd hovered about taking our dessert order, and we decided to have a plate of 5 cheeses with a lovely glass (one for each of us) of dessert wine from the Emilia Romagna region. The icing on the cake was when we ended the meal with 2 limoncello, that had to be some of the worst tasting we have ever had!
Would we go back to Babbo? Probably not. Was I disappointed? Yes. Do I think my expectations were too high? Most definitely.
When we exited the restaurant at about 8pm the place was so jammed we couldn't even put our coats on inside. Since it was fairly early, by our dining standards, we hopped back on the subway going uptown and de-camped to the lounge at Ca Va, the Todd English restaurant inside our hotel, for a couple after dinner glasses of wine.
Merry Christmas...let's have lunch at a Mad-House! That was the scene at Norma's in Le Parker Meridien at 119 W. 56th Street. Here is a link to the website: http://www.parkermeridien.com/eat1.php
I had a 10:30am brunch reservation and as we entered the hotel lobby and turned the corner we spotted a mob of people cascading down the entry stairs to Norma. My first thought was, is this the only place in NYC open for brunch on Christmas day? Norma's is known for their breakfast-y foods, so this really wasn't that big a surprise, but the extra 20 minute wait to be seated was annoying.
Service was swift and not overly friendly. The portions were gigantic to put it mildly. I had the eggs Florentine which were excellent, and I probably ingested close to 5 pounds of spinach, yes, there was that much spinach, but the hollandaise sauce went really well with it! I was so enamoured with my dish, I can't even remember what mom had, but I do remember the fresh squeezed orange juice was terrific and the glass was just as big as the food portions! After this meal we won't be needing any more food for the rest of the day! Prices aren't cheap here, so the bill was what we sometimes pay for a dinner, but they certainly don't skimp on the amount you get for your money!
After brunch we sauntered back to the hotel, gathered our bags and waited in the lobby for our 1pm car pick-up that would return us to LaGuardia airport where we would board a plane bound for home. And as luck would have it, by departing on Christmas day we completely avoided a huge storm that shut down or delayed flights into and out of the NYC area the very next day.
It was another NYC trip to remember!
No comments:
Post a Comment