John's Pizzeria...

Yesterday was Jonny's last morning at work, and as Darren's over from the Leeds office this week (to sort out a load of IT stuff) and Eliot was in town (from Chicago) we went out for a work lunch - we went to John's Pizzeria in the village, which apparently is famous in New York.

It was a small place, there weren't many tables or booths in there, but it wasn't very busy either as we went quite early. It's all deep red and wood colours inside, so it felt quite cozy - I imagine it has a good atmosphere at night.

Along the walls, and the benches, and the backs of the benches people had carved their names in the wood - unfortunatley our tables weren't wooden so we couldn't carve our names in... maybe next time.

It was mighty fine pizza but I have to say, it was no where near as good as Lombardi's - that's still top of the list for me.

The Caliente Cab Company...

I've noticed this little cab many times when I've been down in that area of the village and I've always thought how lovely and friendly it looks - it looks like a cartoon car. The Caliente Cab Co. is actually a Mexican Tapas restaurant, not a cab company - I wish all the cabs looked like this in New York!

How Could I Forget...

I completely forgot to say that on Saturday, late afternoon/early evening I went for a run in Central Park with Jonny... I say run, I sorted of jogged and then staggered, and then walked and then stumbled along for a bit.

I think I probably managed about 1 mile non-stop running... pretty poor really - but it was nice to be out in the park and be running along the roads. It definitely made me want to start running again and to go to the park to run a bit more - maybe I can build it up like I did in Arkansas and work my way up to running round the whole park...

We went from the 5th Avenue entrance to the park and made our way up to the reservoir, I thought it'd be nice to run round the reservoir (not realising how big it was), but then I saw it and had second thoughts... it's big.

It was a lovely view though.

Just like my target in Arkansas was to manage 10 miles, my target will be to run round the park (which I think is about the same) without stopping... then the marathon! Ha ha.

Birthday & Belated St.George's Day Tea...

On Monday it was Jonny's birthday (and his last full day - after 3 weeks of being with us, instead of the 10 days he was meant to be!). I asked Jonny what his favourite food was in all the world and he said steak and ale pie, so I investigated the best places to get such a thing in Manhattan - and so we went out for a birthday meal at Tea & Sympathy!

It seemed very fitting to be going to an all British restaurant on a cold, wet and dark Monday evening - it was pouring with rain outside and the restaurant was a little nippy, but it was incredibly cozy and it did feel like we were back home for bit.

Tea & Sympathy's split into two shops, one is a small shop selling tea and beans and chocolate and other British goodies (like Myers of Keswick) and the other is a little tea room serving lots of yummy foods...

(Lots of goodies for sale in here)

(The walls of the restaurant are covered with teapots and cream tea trays)

It was odd how excited we all got over the smallest things, we were all Ooing and Aahing over the fact that they had Ribena (and hot Ribena) on the menu, and you could get a side of Heinz Baked Beans if you wanted (yuk!), you could have Colemans mustard or Mint Sauce as a condiment and the menu was chocked full of the best of British grub at the best of New York prices... Jonny and I shared sausage rolls for a starter -2 sausages rolls (no bigger than a Greg's one) with a token salad for $14!!!!

Abi had a scotch egg for her starter, which was delcious but it also cost $10! So Tea & Sympathy are certainly onto a good thing... but it was worth it. They even had IRN BRU!

I'm actually quite glad it was cold and wet, I think it would felt a bit funny eating our Steak and Guinness pies and Tweed Kettle pies if it was lovely and sunny and warm outside, it was proper comfort food...

The 5 of us shared some sticky toffee pudding and custard for pudding, the waitress was lovely enough to put a candle in it and then sang Happy Birthday to Jonny in Irish (while the rest of us just sat there trying to work out what she was actually saying - we couldn't really join in).

It was a very fun evening and Tea & Sympathy is a great little place, I think it'll be a while before we go back though - it's more of a treat to go there (although having I think I'd pay $14 for another plate of sausage rolls - I miss sausage rolls a LOT!). The food wasn't a patch on proper home cooking, but it made a good enough substitute and will keep us going for another few weeks or so.

Brooklyn Flea...

Sunday was a grim, grey and wet day - luckily we had no plans and nothing to do... We decided to go to Target in Brooklyn (not the most exciting thing to do I kn0w), so we got the train to Atlantic Avenue (a few stops away from our apartment) and made our way there.

On the way we saw a sign that said the Brooklyn Flea Market was on, and on for the next 12 weeks too - so hopefully we'll be able to go back and get some more stuff for the apartment, or hidden treasures.

The building that the market was in was a very grand, veeery tall building - it felt really special wandering around, looking up at the ceiling and all the arches and then seeing all the interesting things for sale, all the old bits and pieces and all the crafty things that people had made.

One man made jewellery out of old vinyl records, one lady made some lovely little animal cushions, other people had screen printed tshirts they'd made and tote bags, there were some artists in there, some people were selling coffee beans and chocolate then there were all the flea market stalls too...

I thought this little chap looked a lot of fun - he reminded me a bit of Wall•E...

I think we'll be going back there to have a better look, we were a bit wet and cold and hungry - so we went on to Target (stopping off for a hotdog on the way!) and got a couple of DVDs for other rainy days (we got Avatar, Up and The Muppets Take Manhattan!).

Ducati...

Meatpacking Mural...

I saw this while I was walking along the Highline - there's lots of great street art in the Meatpacking District, but this looks completely different to anything else that's around there - it's great.

Bright Benches...

These are some of the picnic tables/benches by one of the entrances to the Highline - the colour of the benches against the tarmac looking rather striking I thought...

Stained Glass...

Theses beautiful windows are in the part of the Highline that's undercover - the light coming through the matt glass made each pane look like a colour swatch or something, I love it.

Back to the Highline...

On Saturday Abi and I met up with Jonny for lunch, we went to The Diner in the Meatpacking District - then we wandered over to the Highline Park.

Just as it's been lovely seeing Central Park through the different seasons, it's great being able to go to the Highline throughout the year and see all the plants growing and thickening out, and also to see the park being developed. Since the last I'd gone they'd opened up another section running for another 9-10 blocks.

It was a beautifully sunny afternoon, with a bit of a breeze in the air so all the trees were rustling and everyone was enjoying the sunshine... including us!

You can see the Empire State Building from the new section of park, and it looked like they're already working on the next stretch too. It's such a great idea and I can see why it won Wallpaper Magazine's 'Life Enchancer of the Year' Award last year.

Kick Ass Burger...

Hello, I'm sorry I've been rubbish with putting things up on the blog - this past week has been a bit busy at work (good busy though)...

After the busy week though, Abi and I went on another date on Friday. We went for a quick drink after work with Jonny at The Coffee Shop on Union Square and then walked down University Place to Stand Burger. Stand Burger was one of the first burger restaurants I went to when I got here (nearly a year ago), I went there before going to see a film about Milton Glaser... and Abi and I also went when she came in the summer last year - so it was lovely to go back again.

Whilst enjoying our burgers and shoestring fries we came to the conclusion that Stand Burger is (so far) the best burgers we've eaten in New York, we decided that our Top 3 is:

1. Stand Burger
2. Shake Shack
3. Tick Tock Diner
3. BLT Burger

I think some more extensive research is needed, but so far - that's our Top 3.

After our grub, we went to go and see Kick Ass at the cinema on 14th Street - it was BRILLIANT!

It was incredibly funny and terribly violent and like nothing we'd seen before - a very good recommendation from Mister Tom. The whole cinema were interacting (you would have been in good company Pops), Ooohing and Oowing and laughing out loud. It's always fun seeing films in American cinemas because they seem to get so much more involved - and not in an annoying way... well, not all the time anyway.

It was a lovely evening - and I have to admit, writting about the burger now has brought all the flavours back and now I'm craving one. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Under The Bridge...

(This Saxophonist was playing under one of the bridges in Central Park on Sunday)

Sunday Afternoon in the Park...

This afternoon we made the most of the little sunshine we've had this weekend and headed to the park to see some of the blossom. The sun seemed to come out extra strong once we got there, it was lovely...

We didn't walk around too much of the park, as we wanted to get to Whole Foods to get some food for tea (we had roast chicken!), but there was some beautiful blossom around - and some really lovely white daffodils. If the weather's nice during the week it'd be nice to get to the park in the evening and walk around a bit more...

There were loads of people in the park - out walking, running, playing baseball, walking their dogs, playing kick ball... I love Central Park at the weekends, we're really looking forward to the lovely hot summer weekends when we can go to the park with a blanket and our books and spend the day there - eating hotdogs all day.


It was a very relaxing way to spend the afternoon - it's been a very busy week or so, so it's been nice to do bugger all today and just mooch about (and the roast chicken that Abi's just cooked was absolutely delcious and has made this a really great Sunday!)

Junk...

After brunch we went round the corner to the Junk shop, Abi and I were feeling all inspired after watching a programme about a family who do up houses around Manhattan - in the programme they went over to Brooklyn to the flea market and bought some cool old stuff for their house, so we thought we'd look and see what we could find...

This is my new, old, $50 guitar - it needs a bit of a clean and some new strings (and I need to flip the nut over to make it left handed) but I think it's a little beauty - I'm going to try and find out how old it is.

We also found this FANTASTIC old Coca Cola crate - it also needs a bit of a clean up but it's now home to all our booze (which all remains unopened apart from the Jack Daniels - so it's not as bad as it looks!)...

We can't wait to go to the flea markets and see what else we can find .

Brunch in Brooklyn...

Well, due to strange volcano's erupting and ash flying out and making it's way over Europe, Jonny's stranded in New York (I can think of worse places to be stranded). He was due to fly out on Thursday, his flight was then pushed to Friday, then Saturday night and now it's looking like he'll be flying out on Wednesday afternoon (fingers crossed).

So we used his delayed departure as a good excuse to go for brunch in Brooklyn on Saturday... I say brunch, it was pretty late for just standard lunch, it was about 3 o'clock ish when we turned up at Acqua Santa on Driggs Avenue (just opposite the Argentinian Restaurant from the other day).

I'd been wanting to go to Acqua Santa for AGES, Julia had a matchbox from there in the bathroom at my old apartment and I'd walked past it lots of times last summer and thought how lovely it looked in their courtyard bit - I'd really wanted to go with Mops and Pops (so maybe next time you visit we could go?!).

It was just as lovely as I'd hoped it would be, we sat in their 'garden' which was a glass roofed courtyard area, with a trelace roof with grapevines growing all over it. All the chairs we white iron, they all looked different but had all been upholstered in the same aqua green material so they all matched.

They had a very good little brunch deal, a mimosa, a main course, a pudding and a coffee all for $20! Bargain.

It's a lovely restaurant, it felt really calm and relaxed - I think Abi and I are going to try and go back there one evening, we've walked past at night and it looks beautiful all lit with candles and fairy lights.

230 5th Avenue...

After stuffing our faces with pizza we got in a cab and went up to 230 5th Avenue. We showed our ID to the man on the door, and walked over to the lifts, got in, pressed the button for the 20th floor and zipped up... When we got out onto the 20th floor a lady asked us if we'd like a table, which we did, so she asked us to follow her up some steps and through a door, so we did. As we walked through the doors, this was what greeted us...

It's a rather swanky roof top bar with the most fantastic views of the Empire State Building (and all the other surrounding buildings). The terrace was filled with patio heaters and tall tables and chairs and the walls had lots of twinkly fairy lights in them. There were rails full of red robes for people to wear if they get too cold, and each table had a blanket by it too.

(You can see the robes to the right)

It had a very interesting and varied mix of customers, some old, some young, some yuppie types, some tourists, some classy looking, some sleezy looking... and us. We all ordered different cocktails - Jonny had a Raspberry Mojito (which tasted like the ground), Abi had a Go Man Go (a bright yellow Martini made with Van Gogh Mango Vodka - hense the name) and I had a Cherry Coke (Coke and Cherry Vodka) - all of which were yummy.

Wednesday Night...

Wednesday night was supposed to be Jonny's last night here in New York, so we went out for some pizza at the famous Lombardi's Restaurant (where Tom and I went) in SoHo. We were going to have a team evening, but Malvina and Amelia dropped out (shame) so it was just the three of us again.

Lombardi's makes delicious pizzas in their stone-baked ovens, you order a 14" or and 18" and then choose which toppings you'd like them to put on for you, you have as many or as few as you like, we decided to have a lot of meat on ours - and here it is...

Beautiful.

Eisenberg's Sandwiches...

On Wednesday, Jonny and I walked up to Eisenberg's on 5th Avenue for one of their tasty sandwiches. Last time I went I had a humongous Meatloaf sandwich - it was absolutely delicious. This time we both had one of their hot pastrami sandwiches, which looked a little something like this...

Not quite as tasty as the Meatloaf sandwich - but mighty fine all the same.

On My Way To The Office...

I don't think seeing this will ever get old...

El Almacen...

Last night Abi and I took Jonny to Williamsburg for a little look around - we were going to go for some pizza at Fornino, but when we got to Brooklyn we changed our minds and decided to try something different.

So we ended up going to a place called El Almacen, an very unassuming looking place of Driggs Avenue (the road that runs parallel to Bedford Avenue). It had a rusticy well loved sign outside, and beautiful lettering painted on the windows and from what we could see through the windows it looked lovely and cozy.

(I didn't take this photo, it's off t'interweb)

We went in and soon realised that it was an Argentinian restaurant, with everything on the menu being in Spanish and the Argentinian beer and wine. We went from being not very hungry to being starving after reading the menu - it all sounded delicious.

Abi had chicken enchiladas, Jonny had chicken roulade and I had a paella, we all tried a little of each others and all of them were DELICIOUS!

It was a lovely, warm and inviting little restaurant with rickety tables and wobbly chairs - none of which matched each other, all the decorations were old, with old butchers equiptment, old bakers baskets hanging up on the walls and lovely decorative mirrors. It had a great atmosphere.

I think Abi and I are going to try and explore a bit more in Brooklyn this weekend and try some new places that neither of us have been to before, so I'll keep you posted on what we find...

Empire Diner...

For Sunday lunch, Abi and I met up with Jonny at the Empire Diner (22nd Street and 10th Avenue - just up from the Meatpacking District) - which is a typically American looking diner that was used in the Men in Black films.

It was a beautifully hot and sunny day - I wish I'd bought some sunglasses because the sun was pinging off all the white tables. The place was heaving with everyone sitting outside getting brunch and burgers, having lunch with their friends and their dogs. It was lovely.

After we'd finished our burgers (Abi had salad?!?!), Jonny and I went off to Bloomingdales and Dylans Candy Bar and Abi went off to Topshop, then we'd arranged to meet up again for tea...

A little later on we all met up again at the Hard Rock Café in Times Square for a little tea and a couple of (ridiculously overpriced) beers. We had some mighty fine Pulled Pork Sandwiches and Abi had a Chili Burger... we've realised that we need to start eating more salad and fruit, our diet's becoming incredibly burger heavy... but we love it!

Saturday Night at the Movies...

On Saturday night Abi and I went on a date, dinner and the flicks and a stroll through Manhattan... what could be better?

Our date started in Union Square, we both met there as I'd been with Jonny and Abi had been doing some work at the apartment. Then we went up our old favourite, Wild Ginger by the Pod Hotel for some Chicken Satay and Duck Fajitas. I think it might have been Abi's 6th time of going there (3 of those times were in one week during the summer!).

Then we strolled over to the cinema, it was a bit of a walk but we walked via. the Rockefella Center and Radio City Hall. We even stopped off for some pudding from the Magnolia Bakery.

The trees at 30 Rock look beautiful at night, they have hundreds of little bulbs in the branches and up the trunks, it looks magical - and the ice rink is still at the bottom of the building, so that was lit up and looked really pretty. It wasn't too busy either, so it was nice and peaceful strolling around...

By the time we'd been into Magnolia Bakery we'd realised that we'd missed the showing of the film - so we decided to walk around a bit more, it was such a mild evening and we were feeling a bit giddy and overwhelmed realising that we were just casually strolling around Manhattan and that we LIVE HERE! It's a funny feeling that comes washing over me sometimes...

We took our little cup cakes and ate them in the middle of Times Square underneath all the flashing lights and TV screens, surrounded by all the crowds - eating cupcakes and people watching...

We finally made our way over to the AMC Cinema, near the Tick Tock Diner, we were running a little late - so we got our tickets and went straight into the cinema only to find that the only seats available were on the VERY front row!!! We sat down, cricking our necks and started to watch the adverts. I don't think we'd even watched the whole of the first advert before we walked out again - I felt so sick being that close, it was horrible.

Luckily, the cinemas in New York are designed in such a way that you can buy one ticket but go and see films all night - they only check your tickets in the lobby, and then you go up the stairs to all the screens so you can dip in and out of them all. So we decided we'd wait an hour and go and see the next showing...

Luckily, we managed to be the first ones into the cinema for the next showing and got our seats, smack bang in the middle of the room. We were feeling a little bit sleepy at this point as it was 11pm already and the film hadn't started... but eventually it did, and we saw Date Night!

It was great fun - it was a nice funny, silly film and it was set in New York so it was funny thinking that we'd just been walking around Manhattan that evening too.

We didn't get out of the cinema until past 1am and it was nearer 2am before we got back to the apartment, but it was a lovely night - and about bloody time that we actually got to spend some time together... trips to Miami has consumed all weekends up to now.

Bridge & Blossom...

All the blossom is looking beautiful around New York at the moment, I'm determined to get to Central Park at the weekend, apparently there are some beautiful tulips too...

Painted Door...

Saturday Stroll with Jonny...

On Saturday I met up with Jonny for some lunch at the South Street Seaport, it was gloriously sunny and blummin' boiling in the sun - so we sat outside and had some fish and chips and a beer. Then we made our way towards the Brooklyn Bridge...

It was lovely walking over the bridge in the sunshine, you could see the skyline of Manhattan so clearly from half way across.

When we got to the other side, we walked around the boardwalky area underneath the bridge. As ever there were lots of wedding photos being taken, lots of different parties or different sizes, lots of interesting styles of dresses and suits. There was also a veeeeery interesting wedding car - I wish I'd taken a photo of it. It was a stretched Hummer that had some extras added, they'd put an extra bit on the roof so that people could stand (or nearly) stand in the middle bit, then at the back they had some strange section that looked like the back of a boat - it had some open air seating with a canvas roof over it. I'll try and find a photo, I think Jonny took one.

We walked around DUMBO for a little bit, the cobbled streets and old factory buildings are fantastic around there and the views of the bridges and the Manhattan skyline are beautiful, it's now wonder it costs so much money to live there...

(You can't really tell from this shoddy photo (it was on my phone) but you can see the Empire State Building in between the legs of the bridge... I might retake the photo on my proper camera.)