This is a Buddha's Hand citrus that we saw at a market in SoHo during our trip to New York.
Good food porn for us hybrid citrus fans!
Good food porn for us hybrid citrus fans!
Showing posts with label New York. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York. Show all posts
Monday, May 7, 2007
New York Image I - Sopranos at Aqueduct
Here is Bruce at Aqueduct with Gandolfini (Tony) in the background. Tony was taking pictures of his children who were posing at a table nearby.
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Bruce-a-lot (New York Part V)
We awoke to a cold morning and cigar breath. We washed away the remnants of the night before and bundled up for a new adventure. We decided to go back to The Cupping Room for breakfast. It was a Sunday morning and the place was packed. Young couples, old friends, and families with children in tow were lined up in the bar awaiting a table. We lucked out and were seated at the last table for two. We ate quickly and then caught a cab up to Central Park. I had decided that I couldn't go to New York City and not visit the park. On our first night in the city we could see one corner of the park, while we dined at PerSe. But I wanted the real experience, a walk in the park.
It was still cold when we started our walk and we kept our jackets closed and walked quickly through the mostly deserted park. We passed many of the famous landmarks of the park. Each new scene we came upon made me think of all the movies and television shows I had seen with these vistas as the backdrop. Similar to places in Los Angeles, these were landmarks that the world recognizes, but these places truly are familiar and part of home to some. And here we are soaking in it; New York City, breathing it in.
We wander over to Rockefeller Plaza towards the Theater District. We had tickets for the afternoon matinee of Monty Python's Spamalot at the Schubert Theater. Rockefeller Plaza was in the midst of being decorated for the coming Christmas season. The tree was erected and had scaffolding surrounding it and going up... what seemed like 100 feet high. There was a Santa Clause in the FAO Schwartz building, looking out on the scene and waving at the crowds below. People idly ice skated about below and we decided we'd had enough of this scene. We walked on towards the Schubert in hopes of finding some food before the show started. We came upon Sardi's and had to take the opportunity to check it out. Sardi's is an institution in the Theater District. It's where theater people have eaten for generations. There are caricatures all over the walls boasting the long tradition of theater. Well, the place was a mad house, crazy busy. They were quick to seat us, but then we were ignored in our little corner table. Ten minutes clicked by and we were never seen by a waiter. We spent our time laughing at the out dated menu and ridiculous prices and just about crying for the sad people who had saved their money, come to New York to see something on Broadway and someone tells them that this is the place to get the best true theater dining experience. The over worked waiters and tattered room make the place just seem sad and shabby. We walked out. We decided to do the real NY thing and eat a hot dog off the cart down at the corner. The hot dog was perfect... well the idea of the hot dog was perfect, the dog itself was bland and not Kosher beef, which I prefer.
Bruce and I are not into musicals. As a young musician in a youth orchestra he was often called upon to play all the Broadway favorites. He knows his Music Man from his South Pacific and he hates them all with a passion. Their simplistic melodies and repetitive nature are enough to drive a young mind to join a Punk band.
I however found musicals very entertaining, when I was 12 years old. That was when I tired of them as well. My mother subscribed to the local civic light opera and dutifully took her daughters to see all their productions. I think of musicals as entertainment, for children.
So Spam-a-lot might not seem the obvious choice of things for us to do during our trip to NY, but we are both big Monty Python fans and I thought it would be cool to see it in NY before it was sent around the country (the deal for which had not been announced at the time of our trip).
I bought great tickets from an online broker. We were right up front to the right in about the 3rd row. The play was very funny and well done. I even loved the costumes, beautiful dresses are one of my weaknesses.
Near the end of the play, at just about the climax of the show, a large artifact is unveiled on the stage and needs to be interpreted. I stared at that thing as the cast bantered back and forth "CIOI? C101? Chaio?" "what does it mean?"
I leaned over to Bruce, "That is your seat number."
Bruce just has a chance to feel under his seat to see if there is something there, when...
At that moment one of the cast members jumps down into the audience, pulls Bruce from his seat, dumps the holy grail into the seat and proclaims Bruce to be the "Best Peasant". Bruce is pulled up on stage, the cast sings a song to him, a picture is taken, an award and certificate are given to him.
I am in shock. I can't even take a picture, Bruce had the camera in his pocket. A nice lady sitting next to me in the audience took a picture and my address (she really did send us the snap shots too!).
Bruce returns to the seat, and he's in shock too. Wow.
After the show ends, the cast is selling items as a charitable fund-raiser. We buy the poster signed by the cast and while we're standing at the booth buying it, Bruce was asked to sign another person's poster, so that it has the "whole cast".
We wander out and catch a cab back to the hotel. Wow, this has become an incomparable city adventure.
It was still cold when we started our walk and we kept our jackets closed and walked quickly through the mostly deserted park. We passed many of the famous landmarks of the park. Each new scene we came upon made me think of all the movies and television shows I had seen with these vistas as the backdrop. Similar to places in Los Angeles, these were landmarks that the world recognizes, but these places truly are familiar and part of home to some. And here we are soaking in it; New York City, breathing it in.
We wander over to Rockefeller Plaza towards the Theater District. We had tickets for the afternoon matinee of Monty Python's Spamalot at the Schubert Theater. Rockefeller Plaza was in the midst of being decorated for the coming Christmas season. The tree was erected and had scaffolding surrounding it and going up... what seemed like 100 feet high. There was a Santa Clause in the FAO Schwartz building, looking out on the scene and waving at the crowds below. People idly ice skated about below and we decided we'd had enough of this scene. We walked on towards the Schubert in hopes of finding some food before the show started. We came upon Sardi's and had to take the opportunity to check it out. Sardi's is an institution in the Theater District. It's where theater people have eaten for generations. There are caricatures all over the walls boasting the long tradition of theater. Well, the place was a mad house, crazy busy. They were quick to seat us, but then we were ignored in our little corner table. Ten minutes clicked by and we were never seen by a waiter. We spent our time laughing at the out dated menu and ridiculous prices and just about crying for the sad people who had saved their money, come to New York to see something on Broadway and someone tells them that this is the place to get the best true theater dining experience. The over worked waiters and tattered room make the place just seem sad and shabby. We walked out. We decided to do the real NY thing and eat a hot dog off the cart down at the corner. The hot dog was perfect... well the idea of the hot dog was perfect, the dog itself was bland and not Kosher beef, which I prefer.
Bruce and I are not into musicals. As a young musician in a youth orchestra he was often called upon to play all the Broadway favorites. He knows his Music Man from his South Pacific and he hates them all with a passion. Their simplistic melodies and repetitive nature are enough to drive a young mind to join a Punk band.
I however found musicals very entertaining, when I was 12 years old. That was when I tired of them as well. My mother subscribed to the local civic light opera and dutifully took her daughters to see all their productions. I think of musicals as entertainment, for children.
So Spam-a-lot might not seem the obvious choice of things for us to do during our trip to NY, but we are both big Monty Python fans and I thought it would be cool to see it in NY before it was sent around the country (the deal for which had not been announced at the time of our trip).
I bought great tickets from an online broker. We were right up front to the right in about the 3rd row. The play was very funny and well done. I even loved the costumes, beautiful dresses are one of my weaknesses.
Near the end of the play, at just about the climax of the show, a large artifact is unveiled on the stage and needs to be interpreted. I stared at that thing as the cast bantered back and forth "CIOI? C101? Chaio?" "what does it mean?"
I leaned over to Bruce, "That is your seat number."
Bruce just has a chance to feel under his seat to see if there is something there, when...
At that moment one of the cast members jumps down into the audience, pulls Bruce from his seat, dumps the holy grail into the seat and proclaims Bruce to be the "Best Peasant". Bruce is pulled up on stage, the cast sings a song to him, a picture is taken, an award and certificate are given to him.
I am in shock. I can't even take a picture, Bruce had the camera in his pocket. A nice lady sitting next to me in the audience took a picture and my address (she really did send us the snap shots too!).
Bruce returns to the seat, and he's in shock too. Wow.
After the show ends, the cast is selling items as a charitable fund-raiser. We buy the poster signed by the cast and while we're standing at the booth buying it, Bruce was asked to sign another person's poster, so that it has the "whole cast".
We wander out and catch a cab back to the hotel. Wow, this has become an incomparable city adventure.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Tiffany and The Sopranos (New York Part IV)
We awoke groggily with Champagne hang overs and vague memories of making plans to go to a racetrack. Our friend called to arrange a time for us to meet them at the owner's boxes. We looked up Aqueduct online and found it located roughly between Queens and Brooklyn out near JFK in an area described as Jamaica, Queens. It looked like an adventure.
We were hungry to start the day and had heard many good things about Balthazar and decided to walk by and see if we could get in for breakfast. It was packed, people pouring out the door. We continued our walk through SoHo and then slowly north and ended up at a place called NoHo Star and it was great. Clean, great creative menu, hot tasty food, what's not to like? But it was getting close to lunch time by now and we needed to do a little shopping before hitting the track.
Bruce had promised me a little Tiffany gold for my 40th birthday gift. We also needed to pick up a sport jacket for him to appease the turf club's jacket-required dress code. So we hopped in a taxi up to the big Tiffany & Co. store on Fifth Ave. and speed shopped for some beautiful gold jewelry. We found what I wanted rather quickly and then wandered around the store diamond and people watching. We loved looking at the over the top super duper pieces and even asked one of the workers to hold up a piece (similar to this one) to let us see if it makes tinkling noises when the chains bump into each other (no real tinkling was detected). Finally, our pieces had been placed in cloth pouches and the pouches into hard hinged jewelry boxes and the boxes put into Tiffany blue cardboard boxes and wrapped with white satin ribbon and wrapped into tissue and put into a bright blue Tiffany & Co. shiny paper shopping bag. Whew, thank you, beautiful, let's get out of here. Over to...
Hugo Boss, speed shopping now, we only have 1 hour to get out to the track. We wander up and down through the store and eventually find something that will work fine. We go to pay and now our fine financial institution has decided that this isn't a normal day of shopping for B&V and wants us to jump through a few maiden name hoops before allowing us to pay for the jacket, remove the tags from it and put the Tiffany jewelry on before jumping into a cab and heading towards Queens.
There is traffic, tons of traffic. It takes forever. Our friend calls to make sure we are okay. We eventually get dropped off by the cab on the wrong side of the track. The entrance is closed, but Bruce uses the information we have and inquires through the cheap bourbon fumes wafting out of the booth "It's Bruce and Vickie, we were told you'd know us and that we shouldn't pay the $2.00 fee?" The guy looked at Bruce like he was nuts and pointed at the old yellow school bus turning around just in front of the booth in the parking lot. We got aboard and it took us around to the main entrance and we found the turf club entrance. They DID know who we were and didn't even ask for the fee, just rushed us upstairs to meet our friends, but not before asking if we were with the Soprano party. Baffled, we rushed upstairs and to the restroom before asking the host to seat us. He promptly asked if we were with the Sopranos. We said no and thought it a bit strange that now two people had asked this same mysterious question. We followed the host to our table... just past, oh my god, it's them, Tony, Paulie and the guys - the four tables behind us filled with the cast of the Sopranos show on HBO. They were there celebrating a birthday. We did our best not to stare but did manage to get a few pictures of each other with Tony in the background. The races whizzed by and neither Bruce nor I won much if any money. We did have the opportunity to meet and become acquainted with the trainer for our horse. He is from France and travels around the world with his horses, visiting some of the richest places on earth and flying on specially configured airplanes. When it was time for the big race of the day we moved down to the paddock so we could watch the race from ground level. We met the jockey and the horse. The Soprano's horse was running against ours and so the guys were all down at the track rubbing shoulders with us. I'm sure it gave them a thrill. Luckily our horse did NOT win, but neither did the Soprano's horse, so we all left the area without incident.
Bruce and I did our best to get out out of there fast in order to get back into the city for a dinner reservation at Daniel. But when we take the school bus to where we think a subway station should be, we are encouraged, by the policemen attending the exit, to return to the club house to call a cab. So we board the bus again and when we get to club house we run into our friends from the owners table. They board the bus with an adventurous attitude toward the subway station and we follow like good little tourists.
One of the friends is a NYC native. She calls the port authority to ask when we should expect a train and where would be a safe place to change trains on our way back to MidTown Manhattan. I remove my Tiffany jewelry and put it in my purse, but I'm still holding my bright blue bag which seems to at this point be glowing and pulsating. Our train arrives and the cast of characters couldn't have been better. All colors, all shapes, all sizes, hair nets, tattoos, piercings, but my favorite is a guy with a golden bicycle. Bruce offers up his seat to a few people and gets a few takers - what a nice guy!
We emerge, three trains and 50 minutes later, three blocks from our dinner reservation at Daniel. I stop outside the door to put my Tiffany gold back on, smooth down my hair. We enter a jewel box of calm sophistication. They bring us to a corner table which is in a beautifully colorful tent. It's luxe in every way. They bring a small plush seat for my purse and I try to remember where I have dined that has done this before (I still can't remember). They make Bruce keep his jacket on, house rules, even though he is over-heated from the quick walk to the restaurant. They treat us like kings and we indulge in a wonderful meal. The wait staff takes a liking to us and recommends a place called Lexington Bar and Books for an after dinner drink and a cigar. Ah, what a great suggestion.
We waddle out of the restaurant and up to the bar. We are buzzed in and seated at a cozy table. We indulge in cognac, single-malt Scotch and a cigar each. Wow, what a day. Wow, New York City!
We were hungry to start the day and had heard many good things about Balthazar and decided to walk by and see if we could get in for breakfast. It was packed, people pouring out the door. We continued our walk through SoHo and then slowly north and ended up at a place called NoHo Star and it was great. Clean, great creative menu, hot tasty food, what's not to like? But it was getting close to lunch time by now and we needed to do a little shopping before hitting the track.
Bruce had promised me a little Tiffany gold for my 40th birthday gift. We also needed to pick up a sport jacket for him to appease the turf club's jacket-required dress code. So we hopped in a taxi up to the big Tiffany & Co. store on Fifth Ave. and speed shopped for some beautiful gold jewelry. We found what I wanted rather quickly and then wandered around the store diamond and people watching. We loved looking at the over the top super duper pieces and even asked one of the workers to hold up a piece (similar to this one) to let us see if it makes tinkling noises when the chains bump into each other (no real tinkling was detected). Finally, our pieces had been placed in cloth pouches and the pouches into hard hinged jewelry boxes and the boxes put into Tiffany blue cardboard boxes and wrapped with white satin ribbon and wrapped into tissue and put into a bright blue Tiffany & Co. shiny paper shopping bag. Whew, thank you, beautiful, let's get out of here. Over to...
Hugo Boss, speed shopping now, we only have 1 hour to get out to the track. We wander up and down through the store and eventually find something that will work fine. We go to pay and now our fine financial institution has decided that this isn't a normal day of shopping for B&V and wants us to jump through a few maiden name hoops before allowing us to pay for the jacket, remove the tags from it and put the Tiffany jewelry on before jumping into a cab and heading towards Queens.
There is traffic, tons of traffic. It takes forever. Our friend calls to make sure we are okay. We eventually get dropped off by the cab on the wrong side of the track. The entrance is closed, but Bruce uses the information we have and inquires through the cheap bourbon fumes wafting out of the booth "It's Bruce and Vickie, we were told you'd know us and that we shouldn't pay the $2.00 fee?" The guy looked at Bruce like he was nuts and pointed at the old yellow school bus turning around just in front of the booth in the parking lot. We got aboard and it took us around to the main entrance and we found the turf club entrance. They DID know who we were and didn't even ask for the fee, just rushed us upstairs to meet our friends, but not before asking if we were with the Soprano party. Baffled, we rushed upstairs and to the restroom before asking the host to seat us. He promptly asked if we were with the Sopranos. We said no and thought it a bit strange that now two people had asked this same mysterious question. We followed the host to our table... just past, oh my god, it's them, Tony, Paulie and the guys - the four tables behind us filled with the cast of the Sopranos show on HBO. They were there celebrating a birthday. We did our best not to stare but did manage to get a few pictures of each other with Tony in the background. The races whizzed by and neither Bruce nor I won much if any money. We did have the opportunity to meet and become acquainted with the trainer for our horse. He is from France and travels around the world with his horses, visiting some of the richest places on earth and flying on specially configured airplanes. When it was time for the big race of the day we moved down to the paddock so we could watch the race from ground level. We met the jockey and the horse. The Soprano's horse was running against ours and so the guys were all down at the track rubbing shoulders with us. I'm sure it gave them a thrill. Luckily our horse did NOT win, but neither did the Soprano's horse, so we all left the area without incident.
Bruce and I did our best to get out out of there fast in order to get back into the city for a dinner reservation at Daniel. But when we take the school bus to where we think a subway station should be, we are encouraged, by the policemen attending the exit, to return to the club house to call a cab. So we board the bus again and when we get to club house we run into our friends from the owners table. They board the bus with an adventurous attitude toward the subway station and we follow like good little tourists.
One of the friends is a NYC native. She calls the port authority to ask when we should expect a train and where would be a safe place to change trains on our way back to MidTown Manhattan. I remove my Tiffany jewelry and put it in my purse, but I'm still holding my bright blue bag which seems to at this point be glowing and pulsating. Our train arrives and the cast of characters couldn't have been better. All colors, all shapes, all sizes, hair nets, tattoos, piercings, but my favorite is a guy with a golden bicycle. Bruce offers up his seat to a few people and gets a few takers - what a nice guy!
We emerge, three trains and 50 minutes later, three blocks from our dinner reservation at Daniel. I stop outside the door to put my Tiffany gold back on, smooth down my hair. We enter a jewel box of calm sophistication. They bring us to a corner table which is in a beautifully colorful tent. It's luxe in every way. They bring a small plush seat for my purse and I try to remember where I have dined that has done this before (I still can't remember). They make Bruce keep his jacket on, house rules, even though he is over-heated from the quick walk to the restaurant. They treat us like kings and we indulge in a wonderful meal. The wait staff takes a liking to us and recommends a place called Lexington Bar and Books for an after dinner drink and a cigar. Ah, what a great suggestion.
We waddle out of the restaurant and up to the bar. We are buzzed in and seated at a cozy table. We indulge in cognac, single-malt Scotch and a cigar each. Wow, what a day. Wow, New York City!
Monday, April 23, 2007
New York Part III
Our first full day in New York was gorgeous. It was crisp and sunny outside, the perfect Autumn day. We had decided on the plane that we had to go see the Borat movie during our trip. Before we even went downstairs to breakfast I had looked up show times at a few theaters and picked one a good walk away from our hotel.
We made a serious effort to eat breakfast at our hotel. We were seated and then ignored. We were starving and didn't think the service would improve anytime soon, so we left. We walked down one block and found the perfect breakfast spot. It's called the Cupping Room. They make all their baked goods on site and we were not disappointed by anything we ordered. It's warm and cozy with a real local feel to it.
Once fortified with coffee and food we proceeded on foot towards the East Village. We arrived at the City Cinemas Village East theater just in time for an early afternoon showing which did not disappoint but made us writhe in our seats with laughter.
After the movie we were free for the afternoon and wandered through Chinatown and Little Italy with a few stops for shopping down Elisabeth Street. We found a wonderful vintage handbag store and Bruce was kind enough to indulge me while I looked around and picked out a beautiful brocade clutch about 2' long from the mid 1960's.
We rushed back to the room with our purchases and changed for dinner. We had to meet a friend for dinner at Wd-50.
The friend we met for dinner has a home in Manhattan Beach and we met her about a year ago. She and her husband get along with Bruce and I famously. They travel - A LOT - and she happened to be scheduled to be in New York during our visit, so we decided to make a date to go out together.
Wd-50 is a very trendy restaurant with a chef, Wylie Dufresne, who is quite famous for being one of a handful of pioneers in tech-cooking. These new chefs us techniques and chemical processes to create stylized food the likes of which most of the world has never seen (other than Spain and if you have to ask why Spain, well then you shouldn't bother going to Wd-50!). These new food warriors can take any liquid and create stable liquid balls - like caviar. Or thicken any sauce, hot or cold, to the exactly desired consistency. Sousvide is also hugely popular. It's a hot water bath that you place plastic wrapped food into and it cooks very slowly and without any browning to change the flavors of the ingredients within... tender pink precious meats are the result.
We had a heck of a time finding the place and it's in a somewhat dodgy neighborhood. But if you know Bruce and I, you know we have no problem handling ourselves in just about any neighborhood, so we just kept walking back and forth until we found the place. It looks almost like a diner inside with basic booths and a few pieces of large art on the walls. Our friend was waiting for us.
We had a marvelous meal of de-consctructed foods that were described as dishes you know and love but were transformed on the plate. It was all tasty, well prepared and the service was good too. In fact the waiter was so nice that we got to talking about food and drinks. He was impressed by enthusiasm for a creative cocktail and gave us the phone number for a very cool bar called Milk and Honey located on the lower East side of New York City that you have to make reservations for to get in. And you can't just look up the phone number either, you have to be given the number by someone 'in the know'. So now, we are appearing pretty hip in this big city! (Side note: we never did get to try Milk and Honey as our schedule just didn't have time to fit it in.)
By the end of dinner our friend had talked us into meeting her and her friend (a race horse owner) at the owners box for some horse racing out at Aqueduct the following afternoon. We didn't have any plans for the day and we thought it would be an interesting if not unique experience. Wow, were we right.
We left our friend that night after dinner and returned to our room. Bruce had an arrangement of orchids delivered as well as a bottle of nice Champagne. Such a nice guy!
Stay tuned for part IV - The Sopranos!
We made a serious effort to eat breakfast at our hotel. We were seated and then ignored. We were starving and didn't think the service would improve anytime soon, so we left. We walked down one block and found the perfect breakfast spot. It's called the Cupping Room. They make all their baked goods on site and we were not disappointed by anything we ordered. It's warm and cozy with a real local feel to it.
Once fortified with coffee and food we proceeded on foot towards the East Village. We arrived at the City Cinemas Village East theater just in time for an early afternoon showing which did not disappoint but made us writhe in our seats with laughter.
After the movie we were free for the afternoon and wandered through Chinatown and Little Italy with a few stops for shopping down Elisabeth Street. We found a wonderful vintage handbag store and Bruce was kind enough to indulge me while I looked around and picked out a beautiful brocade clutch about 2' long from the mid 1960's.
We rushed back to the room with our purchases and changed for dinner. We had to meet a friend for dinner at Wd-50.
The friend we met for dinner has a home in Manhattan Beach and we met her about a year ago. She and her husband get along with Bruce and I famously. They travel - A LOT - and she happened to be scheduled to be in New York during our visit, so we decided to make a date to go out together.
Wd-50 is a very trendy restaurant with a chef, Wylie Dufresne, who is quite famous for being one of a handful of pioneers in tech-cooking. These new chefs us techniques and chemical processes to create stylized food the likes of which most of the world has never seen (other than Spain and if you have to ask why Spain, well then you shouldn't bother going to Wd-50!). These new food warriors can take any liquid and create stable liquid balls - like caviar. Or thicken any sauce, hot or cold, to the exactly desired consistency. Sousvide is also hugely popular. It's a hot water bath that you place plastic wrapped food into and it cooks very slowly and without any browning to change the flavors of the ingredients within... tender pink precious meats are the result.
We had a heck of a time finding the place and it's in a somewhat dodgy neighborhood. But if you know Bruce and I, you know we have no problem handling ourselves in just about any neighborhood, so we just kept walking back and forth until we found the place. It looks almost like a diner inside with basic booths and a few pieces of large art on the walls. Our friend was waiting for us.
We had a marvelous meal of de-consctructed foods that were described as dishes you know and love but were transformed on the plate. It was all tasty, well prepared and the service was good too. In fact the waiter was so nice that we got to talking about food and drinks. He was impressed by enthusiasm for a creative cocktail and gave us the phone number for a very cool bar called Milk and Honey located on the lower East side of New York City that you have to make reservations for to get in. And you can't just look up the phone number either, you have to be given the number by someone 'in the know'. So now, we are appearing pretty hip in this big city! (Side note: we never did get to try Milk and Honey as our schedule just didn't have time to fit it in.)
By the end of dinner our friend had talked us into meeting her and her friend (a race horse owner) at the owners box for some horse racing out at Aqueduct the following afternoon. We didn't have any plans for the day and we thought it would be an interesting if not unique experience. Wow, were we right.
We left our friend that night after dinner and returned to our room. Bruce had an arrangement of orchids delivered as well as a bottle of nice Champagne. Such a nice guy!
Stay tuned for part IV - The Sopranos!
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
New York Part II - Per Se
The flight to New York was uneventful. We snacked lightly looking forward to our huge dinner at Per Se. It was raining when we landed and the taxi ride seemed magical as we watched the skyline get closer and closer.
We were dropped at the SoHo Grand and checked in. The new cruelty has a tight hold on this place. The lobby was so dimly lit that I couldn't see across the room. It had an industrial feel to it and was smartly decorated with creative flair. But no one even offered to show us to our room or help with our baggage. We were on our own and it certainly wouldn't have taken any one's help to find your way around the minuscule room... but it did have a view over the corner into TirBeCa with all it's quaint water towers.
We spread out, unpacked and put on some music, got dressed and were ready to go to dinner. The taxi ride was blustery and the city lights were blurred by more rain. We were dropped in front of a large elegant corner mall overlooking a corner of Central Park. Per Se has a decidedly sophisticated city-sleek air about it. It's in stark contrast to the charming warmth of the French Laundry, Keller's other flagship restaurant. But the entrance into Per Se gives a nod to the garden courtyard on the property of French Laundry in Yountville, CA with a few wooden benches, an archway entrance and flower beds which I'm sure are used as a waiting area on busy nights. That night however, there were no crowds. We seemed to be among the last to arrive for the night, our reservation being for 10:30pm.
I'm not going to go over each dish here, I just won't . I can't remember it all and there were LOTS of courses. I believe we opted to add in the fois gras to our menu. We had wines paired with each course. Everything was wonderful. I spotted a crosne on at least one dish (article to follow). The only dish I had a problem with was the lobster. I always have problems with the lobster. I couldn't eat the lobster at French Laundry and I couldn't eat the lobster at Per Se. They were just too tough. Poached in butter, but as far as I'm concerned, too tough to eat. Yuck. But the rest, phenomenal. The service? Fantabulous. Absolutely attentive but only as chatty as you'd want them to be. They could tell we were excited and happy to be there and they were too!
We rolled out of there around 1:30am. Taxi'd back to the room to pass out. Day 1, done.
We were dropped at the SoHo Grand and checked in. The new cruelty has a tight hold on this place. The lobby was so dimly lit that I couldn't see across the room. It had an industrial feel to it and was smartly decorated with creative flair. But no one even offered to show us to our room or help with our baggage. We were on our own and it certainly wouldn't have taken any one's help to find your way around the minuscule room... but it did have a view over the corner into TirBeCa with all it's quaint water towers.
We spread out, unpacked and put on some music, got dressed and were ready to go to dinner. The taxi ride was blustery and the city lights were blurred by more rain. We were dropped in front of a large elegant corner mall overlooking a corner of Central Park. Per Se has a decidedly sophisticated city-sleek air about it. It's in stark contrast to the charming warmth of the French Laundry, Keller's other flagship restaurant. But the entrance into Per Se gives a nod to the garden courtyard on the property of French Laundry in Yountville, CA with a few wooden benches, an archway entrance and flower beds which I'm sure are used as a waiting area on busy nights. That night however, there were no crowds. We seemed to be among the last to arrive for the night, our reservation being for 10:30pm.
I'm not going to go over each dish here, I just won't . I can't remember it all and there were LOTS of courses. I believe we opted to add in the fois gras to our menu. We had wines paired with each course. Everything was wonderful. I spotted a crosne on at least one dish (article to follow). The only dish I had a problem with was the lobster. I always have problems with the lobster. I couldn't eat the lobster at French Laundry and I couldn't eat the lobster at Per Se. They were just too tough. Poached in butter, but as far as I'm concerned, too tough to eat. Yuck. But the rest, phenomenal. The service? Fantabulous. Absolutely attentive but only as chatty as you'd want them to be. They could tell we were excited and happy to be there and they were too!
We rolled out of there around 1:30am. Taxi'd back to the room to pass out. Day 1, done.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
The Tale of the New York Trip (part 1)
We had never vacationed in New York City together. We had a layover once on a long flight and managed to squeeze in dinner at Gramercy Tavern and live Jazz at some club, but that was the extent of my New York experience.
For my big Four-Oh, we decided to plan a long weekend in the late fall. But where to eat? So many choices, so few vacation days.
Daniel
Per Se
Mesa Grill
Les Halles
wd~50
Balthazar
The list kept growing. We had to weed through them all and plan accordingly. We called Per Se 3 months to the day before the Friday of our stay. By the time I got through on the phone, only lunch reservations were available. Now that may not seem like such a bad thing. But we had been to French Laundry only once and it was for lunch. I really wanted the dinner experience. I asked the nice reservationista if there happened to be anything available late the night before (the night we were flying in). Yes, she said that someone had called in and cancelled a 10pm reservation and that it was available. I snagged it. Our flight was scheduled to arrive around 6pm. Ten pm eastern time is seven pm pacific time, which was just perfect.
As the trip got closer we booked other dinners, wd~50 (Wylie Dufresne, uber-tech-chef); Daneil (Daniel Boulud, class act French chef) and bought tickets to the Sunday matinee of Spamalot.
Well travelled friends recommended the SoHo Grand hotel. We booked a corner room. Two weeks later I saw that the Oprah show's designer guy picked it as his favorite place to stay in NY. We were set.
Two weeks out we found out that the well traveled wife would be in NY during our stay. We added one to our reservation at wd~50 for Friday night.
A coworker of Bruce's who telecommutes and lives in NY wanted to arrange to meet us for dinner one night. We offered him our last night in the city, Sunday, after Spamalot. We were looking forward to meeting them in person.
For my big Four-Oh, we decided to plan a long weekend in the late fall. But where to eat? So many choices, so few vacation days.
Daniel
Per Se
Mesa Grill
Les Halles
wd~50
Balthazar
The list kept growing. We had to weed through them all and plan accordingly. We called Per Se 3 months to the day before the Friday of our stay. By the time I got through on the phone, only lunch reservations were available. Now that may not seem like such a bad thing. But we had been to French Laundry only once and it was for lunch. I really wanted the dinner experience. I asked the nice reservationista if there happened to be anything available late the night before (the night we were flying in). Yes, she said that someone had called in and cancelled a 10pm reservation and that it was available. I snagged it. Our flight was scheduled to arrive around 6pm. Ten pm eastern time is seven pm pacific time, which was just perfect.
As the trip got closer we booked other dinners, wd~50 (Wylie Dufresne, uber-tech-chef); Daneil (Daniel Boulud, class act French chef) and bought tickets to the Sunday matinee of Spamalot.
Well travelled friends recommended the SoHo Grand hotel. We booked a corner room. Two weeks later I saw that the Oprah show's designer guy picked it as his favorite place to stay in NY. We were set.
Two weeks out we found out that the well traveled wife would be in NY during our stay. We added one to our reservation at wd~50 for Friday night.
A coworker of Bruce's who telecommutes and lives in NY wanted to arrange to meet us for dinner one night. We offered him our last night in the city, Sunday, after Spamalot. We were looking forward to meeting them in person.
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