NY Love.

We are now home from New York and I will be catching up on posts and blog reading!  Also, if you haven't entered my Lemon and Orange Stevia Giveaway you can do so here.  I am extending the giveaway until Tuesday 17th, 2012.

We stayed in the Upper West Side of Manhattan at The Lucerne Hotel.  

I was extremely impressed with this hotel.  The rooms and beds are small, which is typical for NY, but the bed was the most comfortable I have ever slept in.  The service, location and amenities are also great.  I would definitely stay in this hotel again.

Another place that I will visit again and have frequented each time I have been in NY is Zabar's.  This is the greatest foodie market, grocery store, deli, etc..  We ate a few breakfasts there throughout the week.

 

 

 

The deli across form our hotel also had a good breakfast and a wide selection of food for those on the go.  It would be very easy to live in Manhattan without a kitchen ... unless of course you are like me and looove to cook.

We dragged our friends to Levain Bakery and forced them to try a cookie ...

I ate about 1/2 of this ginormous double chocolate cookie.  

 

Toooooo much sweeeeet, but oohhhh so good!  When I am not in NY I can just make my version of these cookies at home.

As we were wandering the streets of Tribeca one evening we happened upon a group of people smoking pineapple hookah at a table of a restaurant patio.  We got to chatting with them and they told us about a new German bar and bakery that had just opened.  We crossed the street to check it out.

We were instantly impressed with Landbrot.  This is the only place outside of Germany that sells the draft on their menu.  They also bake bread and other goodies fresh every morning and sell those as well. 

I tried one of the brews and then we liked the place so much that we came back a couple of nights later and visited with the staff and owner over a pint.  The service was spectacular.  

 

 

They must have liked us too, because they bought us a round and sent us home with a giant goodie bag of baking.

 

No complaints here!  Can't wait to go back to Landbrot.  It is a Manhattan gem that is sure to do very, very well.

Do you have any favourite restaurants/bars from your travels?

Back, Back in the New York Groove

Friday morning a cab picked us up around 5:30 to take us to the airport for our 7:37 flight.  After checking our luggage we picked up breakfast at the airport cafeteria.  It was nasty.  I ate about half of this sandwich and then slept the 2 hours to Chicago.

 We picked up Jamba Juice in the Chicago airport just in time to board our flight to NYC.  

On the flight I checked out the "Sky Mall" magazine, which always amuses me.  Need more protein in your diet?  How about 15 grams in your ketchup!!!?  Seriously.  Do people buy this stuff?

Check out the name of the president of sky mall ...

Luckily I was able to sleep the rest of the way until we touched down in Brooklyn.  We immediately found a taxi and headed to our hotel to check in.

 

 

The bed is a little small (supposed to be a queen ... doesn't look like it!), but the WiFi is free, so I will deal.  Our friends Emma and Dalton were at the hotel already, and came to our room to get us after we showered.  I snapped a quick photo while we waited for the elevator.

We wandered around the upper west side for a bit before settling in for dinner at Trattoria dell'arte.  

 

 

 

We ate at this restaurant last year, and loved it, so we were happy to be back.  The service is spectacular.  It is rated #4 on Trip Advisor's picks of where to eat in NYC, and well deserves the high rating.

The olive oil that is served with the bread has so much flavour.  It is the best I have ever had.

 

We shared a pepperoni and arugula pizza to start.  It is ginormous, but really, really thin, so it was the perfect amount for 4 to share. 

My entree was the carbonara, of which I ate about half.  I LOVED the fried egg on top with the runny yolk.

We wandered around Times Square after dinner ... saw a guy doing chin ups and push ups in the crowd of people ...

We spent the rest of the evening at a pub taking in some live music.  We were a bit disappointed to find out that it was cover music, but they did play classics like No Diggity, Doo Wop (That Thing), and Waterfalls.

We stopped for a cookie on the way back to the hotel and called it a night.

What have you been up to this weekend?  What is your favourite 90s song to dance to?