27.10.09

My favourite places in NYC


1. Baby Cakes
Of course, this was my favourite place. Every pastry girl's dream come true. Completely unpretentious, adorable, and tucked away in the smallest possible space in the Lower East Side. Babycakes is surrounded by ultra cool overpriced boutiques but they still have their feet on the ground. This pastry shop is not only vegan, gluten-free and Kosher, but they also use agave nectar to sweeten their desserts, as well as natural colours. They have a delicious assortment of cupcakes, but you MUST try their raspberry filled donut. I have never been in donut heaven until now. I have a reason to die.


2. Wecksler's Currywurst.
3. davidbouley.com
This man owns a lovely bakery, cafe and restaurant. The concept of the bakery kind of reminded me of a small scale, high quality Movenpick Marche. Something for everyone from specialty coffees, artisan breads, French pastries, fresh sandwiches, salad bar, hot and cold to go items as well as fresh cuts of fish and meat with hefty price tags. I had a butter and ham sandwich on sourdough. It was really good. I also tasted 3 different flavours of mini financiers cakes which I loved. All three with chunks of marzipan inside. YUM!

4. The Tenement Museum
If you go to NY and can't decide on a museum, this is IT! Take a step back in time and feel what it was like to be one of NY city's first immigrants, back from the 1860's to the 1930's. The museum is viewable by tour only, with very knowledgeable tour guides. The tour takes you on 1 of 3 levels of an old tenement residence, left untouched for many years. I liked the oldest wooden banister remaining in the city, as well as the layers and layers of flooring and wallpaper.

5. porchettanyc.com VS. lukeslobster.com
Only in NY can you charge $14 for a sandwich, and have a line up out the door, all the time. These 2 sandwich joints specialize in a very simple business model which consists of selling one thing, and one thing only. They make it look so easy you'll consider dropping everything and opening up a food stand on Ossington.


6. Wall Street.
I loved wall street. I didn't take any photos because I was pretending that I lived there, and was hoping that tourists would take photos of me. Wall street is HUGE and gothic, and beautiful! Who knew?

7. Grand Central Station's Oyster Bar.
Where else can you see a 6 year old mahattan child east oysters for lunch? We can't keep up with them. I also liked the seats at the bar where you can watch mexicans shuck oysters all day (gateway to america!) as well they have these steam soup makers to make soups on order. Pretty cool and also Grand Central is the nicer than any other train station I have ever seen!

8. Bubby's Diner. When I read that Justin Timberlake prefers their brunch to any other brunch in the world, I knew I had to go. By the time we found Bubby's, at 3 am, we felt elated, and happy that is it open 24 hours. It also happened that by that time, due to the dark and stormies (see below), that I for some reason thought that this was the place that serves JT's favourite Mazzo ball soup. (Don't ask). So I went there and had the soup, and got some cherry pie, and got the cookbook. I will reproduce his favourite brunch myself at home.


9. Thompson Smyth Tribeca Hotel. A nice place to stay even though everyone that works there is much cooler than us. The restaurant is not open yet, but I think it will be a nice addition once it does. Anyways, I watched this movie called the Girlfriend Experience and it was filmed in that hotel, so I got a good feel of what it is like being a high end hooker in NY.

10. Dark and Stormy drinks at Smith and Mills. This is maybe a good place to meet New Yorkers, unless they are already much too wasted to make sense. Get there early? Also it would be a good place for a diner date, and romance.

1 comment:

jlee said...

oh, so you really DID stay at the same hotel as the hooker!

Love your list, I want to eat brunch at 3am and go to that museum and do all the same things you did.