Why do I always feel like a kid in a candy store when I’m in Manhattan? Perhaps it’s Lil A’s infectious sense of wonderment that’s rubbed off on me–btw, I suspect she has a future in fashion–
or perhaps it’s the fact that NYC is a perfect playground for big kids like me. For as soon as I step outside of the hotel lobby, it feels like fun is waiting to happen, no matter what time it is, no matter what I have planned or not planned. Today’s blog entry is about one such perfect Manhattan day.
So on this early Spring day with just the right amount of sun to temper a brisk wind, I take a short walk to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and catch part of a mass with a rather convoluted sermon that left me scratching my head…
Then back to Saks for a last round of shopping (who doesn’t love their express elevator to the shoe department!) and across the street to watch the skaters–love the JCrew store at this location, too…
Then it’s time for a really bad (and by bad I mean straight-to-the-derriere-good) veggie burger at the Shake Shack. No photographic evidence here of artery-clogging deliciousness. But in my defense I opt out of using transportation and walk the rest of the day. It’s really the best way to see the city anyway…
If NYC is your home, you can probably tell I’ve covered some grounds on foot from these pictures. I finally do get a break and rest my legs, however, when I make it to Broadway to catch a thrilling performance of American Idiot at the St. James Theater:
If you are a Green Day fan or just want to hear some great music, go see this show. It’s funny, bittersweet and moving all at the same time. It’s money well spent. After the show, with 21 Guns still ringing in my head, I go stand in one of the busiest intersections in the world and just soak it all in…
Listening to sounds in Times Square is like walking through a living dictionary because here you can hear all kinds of languages all around you.
From here it’s down to the bohemian Greenwich Village for dinner. Now I’m not really a foodie but I am a fan of reality TV, so if travel happens to bring me to one of the restaurants run by past winners of the show Top Chef, that’s just bonus.
Tonight I’m at Perilla, 9 Jones Street (between West 4 and Bleecker Sts.), Chef Harold Dieterle’s cozy place, and I’m glad I’ve brought my appetite. The food is exquisite.
And the night’s still young…
Tags: American Idiot, Green Day, Greenwich Village, Harold Dieterle, Manhattan, Perilla, Saks, Shake Shack, St. Patrick, Times Square
The most interesting thing about NYC is how much the vibe changes from neighborhood to neighborhood, even if the physical distance is a mere few blocks. You could pop out of one subway station downtown and immediately feel an energy or ambiance that’s totally opposite from any other random stop on the Upper East Side. And I don’t mean just the way people are dressed or act–even the corner markets, residential buildings, and smell take on a new identity. Sometimes I want to just ride a line from one end to the other, getting out at every stop, and just observe these differences. But that’s a time luxury I do not have.
Anyway, on this day Lil A is convening the 4/18 Club at the Chelsea Market for brunch and she’s brought her peeps (that would be her parents). The Meatpacking District is definitely one of my favorite areas in Manhattan; you’ve got waterfront views, cool brick slaughterhouses and packing plants converted to boutiques and lofts, as well as all the high-tech businesses in the area–the perfect combo IMO–so I am definitely looking forward to this meeting:
If you want to eat at the Chelsea Market, I highly recommend The Green Table, a sustainable organic eatery that brings clever dishes from farm to table each day. Their artisanal potpies are incredible (great selections for vegetarians and carnivores alike), and I have to say their bourbon vanilla French toast is just out of this world. Hands down the best French toast I ever had.
Just around the corner from the Chelsea Market is the High Line, a 2.33 km park that was once an elevated railroad track:
And yes, that is the Statute of Liberty in the horizon:
Today it is an urban park with naturalized plantings,
surrounded by new mixed-use real estate that follows any kind of gentrification:
One of the funnier things you’ll find at the High Line is an amphitheater-style sitting area that lets you watch traffic (or the day) go by from behind a glass shield…
Now wouldn’t that be a great treat, to just spend a day watching the world rush by in Manhattan?
Tags: Chelsea Market, High Line, Manhattan, Meat Packing District, NYC, The Green Table
A couple of years I got to spend a week in NYC completely unplugged. No business meetings, no family obligations. Zero agenda. It was glorious. A week of roaming the island at leisure was one of my most memorable trips anywhere. I’d wake up and decide on an Uptown day for visiting Museum Mile and strolling through the posh neighborhoods. Central Park made a perfect muse for my photography.
On another day I’d hang out in Midtown to take in all the sights and sounds of the touristy Chrysler Building or Empire State Building. After grabbing a quick lunch I’d loiter around Saks Fifth Avenue near Rockefeller Center and work my way to Bergdorf, leaving a trail of destruction at shops in between.
But as much as I loved the serenity of the Upper East Side and the buzz from Midtown’s daily grind, it was not a complete NYC trip until I got in some Downtown time. Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Meatpacking District, Soho, Tribeca…all these neighborhoods–each with its own funky, hip vibe–were exactly what I loved most about this town. If I were a New Yorker, I’d definitely be a downtown girl.
This time around, I take a day out of diaper duty and hop on the 1 train downtown from 96th to Houston. I pop out on the street and head for the shops…
I have to confess that I do think about trading my LA home for one of these while walking through soho:
I make a quick stop into Kidrobot; I know I am much too old to like toys but I have a thing for cool packaging, and if there’s a bird of some sort involved then I’m definitely in! So I make a small contribution to the economy:
The little birds stay on her hat from the magnet:
At Prada I meet a charming sales associate who offers to stash a couple of dresses for me till sale hits in a few weeks. At Chanel another nice person takes an hour to go through all the new buys with me. I know for a fact the economy is still a stinker from all this attention. Is it wrong that I get the same high from shopping as from running a couple of miles? I tell myself again that I’m just helping the economy.
Sometimes the last thing you want to do is have a long, laborious lunch when you’re just hitting a stride somewhere. So when in NY, I grab a fast lunch at a chain called Così (http://getcosi.com/), and I believe I have been in all of its locations. The bread is that good. On this day I have the grilled salmon salad at the location near NYU:
On my way to work off lunch this is what I see…
But what stops me dead in my tracks is this Strand Bookstore–they’re not kidding about the 18 miles of books. You could just lock me up in the store and throw away the key:
Their art section is nothing short of amazing. I still can’t find the book on Francesco Clemente that I’ve been looking for but I make out like a bandit anyway. I’m not sure how far I can walk with a bunch of heavy books but I can’t help myself. Today I am a one-woman stimulus package!
Tags: Bergdorf, Cosi, Downtown, Empire State Building, Manhattan, Midtown, Rockefeller Center, Saks, Soho, Strand Bookstore, Uptown
There’s so much of NYC to see that no matter how many times I’ve been there, the unfamiliar always trumps the familiar. Manhattan elicits the same excitement whether I’m seeing it for the first time as a college freshman on a miniscule budget or as an executive many years later on a less restrictive business account.
It does not matter if I’m eating cheap pizza from a takeout joint or schmoozing clients at the swankiest places.
It is the same whether I’m window shopping in Soho as a twenty-something or power shopping at Chanel as a former twenty-something…
The joy of New York is to simply be in the city, regardless of wherever I am in my life.
To experience Manhattan, all I need are my two feet, a subway pass…
and then I let the city happen to me.
And once in a while, when the timing is just so, fashion and travel intersect right in front of my eyes:
And that’s why I blog.
Tags: Chanel, Manhattan, New York City, subway
I decide to walk some 38 blocks today down to Columbus Circle and by the 2nd block I have to remove my scarf and cardigan. It’s a warm, cloudy Spring day and as there’s no such thing as walking in pedestrian-unfriendly LA, I try to go everywhere on foot while in NYC, no matter how far. Much to my delight, not a single driver gives me the finger when I dash across the street…in fact, they even wait for me to cross without revving the engine. Imagine that!
As soon as I’m done with the shopping at Columbus Circle and step inside the ubiquitous Duane Reade to get a bottle of water, however, the rain comes pouring down. Lightning and thunder make their appearance as well. A small crowd gathers anxiously at the front door and most brave their way back outside. Work or lunch beckons. With a newly purchased umbrella in hand (now it makes total sense why there is a Duane Reade on every block for your every need), I walk out and then come right back in. My OCD self asks for a plastic shopping bag so that I can “waterproof” my purse; the plastic bag then goes inside my paper shopping bag. For all you purse fanatics out there, you feel my pain, right? I know the caviar leather is the best defense in the worst of all weather challenges, but c’mon, I’m not leaving anything to chance. We Angelenos do not trust rain. We don’t see it often enough and in a big downpour, we think we might melt right into the puddles forming beneath our feet.
People say there are 10 million people with 10 million stories in this city, all unfolding at the same time. That explains the energy in Manhattan, and it boggles the mind how many stories intersect then multiply each time you meet someone on the street. The permutations are endless. For example, while I am waiting inside this drugstore for the rain to stop I have a wonderful conversation with a lovely doctor who tells me about his two adult children and his numerous travels around the world with his wife. We bond over our love of travel and art. So for half an hour or so, the unpleasantness of an unexpected rain brings forth a very pleasant conversation between strangers. That’s rain and the city for you.
During my trek of the 35 blocks back to my sister’s place, I slosh past the Theodore Roosevelt Park. It’s lush and romantic looking in the rain. We have the fantastic Griffith Park in LA but New Yorkers really knows how to do parks. I’ve blogged about the park surrounding the Meiji-Jingu Shrine in Tokyo as being one of my favorite walks in the world, but I could probably wander around Manhattan’s many parks for days. Anyway, if I were to spend a day at Roosevelt Park, I’d have to cross the street to go to the Shake Shack (http://www.shakeshack.com/) where I had the best veggie burger the last time I was in the city. I’ve basically tried every veggie burger in the world and most unfortunately encourage me to become a carnivore again.
With the rain I haven’t been able to take too many pics but even if I had been able to, it wouldn’t have done me any good. I’m having some technical difficulty downloading them to my laptop so the fuzzy one from my blackberry today is as good as it gets. I know it’s no fun for you to read about traveling without the photographic evidence.
Tags: Columbus Circle, Griffith Park, Manhattan, rain, Shake Shack, Theodore Roosevelt Park, veggie burger
