NYC Weekend

This weekend was one of my favorites in NYC. I did a lot of truly “New York” things, was able to mark some new things off my “list to do” and it was really hot and sunny so I was able to get more of a tan than I’ve gotten all summer. It was great!

Friday night, I went with Joy to a Mets game. I was hesitant to go since I’d already been to two Mets games this year and was really wanting to go to a Yankees game, but decided to go anyway. It was fun and ended up being an exciting game. Afterwards, we went to grab a late dinner at Corner Bistro. This place is consistently ranked as the #1 burger in the USA. I’ve been wanting to go for over a year and never made it! It really was an excellent burger!

Saturday at noon, Joy and I met back up to get pedicures and go to brunch at Alice’s Tea Cup. I’ve only been to Alice’s once and was glad to go back. The food was really good, but the dining room was hot – too hot for me to have any hot tea and that’s the reason you go there! I’ll have to go back more this winter when I can enjoy the tea!

After brunch, I headed to the park on the river, just down the street from my apartment. I got to lay-out for a couple of hours – it was great! That night, I met up with a group for Ebonee’s going-away party. I don’t know Ebonee terribly well, but have been around her a few times and basically “crashed” her party. It was okay though. She is super cute and sweet. We went to dinner at Otto, which I’d been wanting to try because it’s on the list of 10 Best Ice Cream Sandwiches in NYC that I have (I’ve now tried 3 of the 10). Otto is an Italian restaurant and the chef is Mario Batali. He’s pretty famous – on the Food Network and Iron Chef- and he owns about 8-9 restaurants in the city, plus others in Las Vegas and LA. I’d been to one of the others here – Lupa- which was excellent. Otto was good, too. We ate family style, ordering a cheese plate and salad, a few pizzas and pastas. It was lots of fun! I got a gelato filled brioche ice cream sandwich that was really good, too!

After dinner, we headed to Little Branch. Possibly, THE coolest place I’ve been in NYC yet. I knew we were going somewhere for drinks, but wasn’t sure what type of place to expect. I do know Ebonee well enough to know it would be cool, but I didn’t expect it to be this cool! It was one of the secret, hidden speakeasy type places. We basically came to a random door in the middle of a street corner. Ebonee opened the door and I was like “where are we”?? Looking for a sign, I couldn’t even find one. The door opened straight into nothing but a stairwell. Once downstairs, it was a dark, quiet, jazz type bar. It smelled sooo amazing, too. We asked our waiter what the smell was and he wasn’t even sure, but guessed it was from all the mint they use in their drinks. It smelled like a day-spa! The waiter also pretended that we were actually back in the 1920’s, so when someone mentioned something about vodka, he acted like he had never heard of it. We just stayed for one drink – they’re really expensive- and by the time we left, there was a wait at the door (they have a maximum # they let in). It was fun to sit and chat and enjoy a new place though!

Sunday, I did more laying-out at the park on the river, followed by a run in Central Park. CP was crazy this weekend. I think everyone is panicked that we could be in our final days of summer to enjoy the sunshine and heat! Everyone in Manhattan must have been out there!

I went to church last night – we just started meeting at a new location and I really liked it. Afterwards, I went with two friends to a Cowboys watch-party. My friend, Erin, goes to a lot of these. It’s basically a group on the internet that all come to this bar to watch the games. It was a pretty random crowd, but really fun! The bar has a pretty good sized room in the back filled with couches and comfy chairs and a big flat-screen, so it was a great place to watch the game. I only stayed until a little past half-time, but I hope to watch again with the group sometime this season. I think I might be becoming a Tony Romo fan!