Adventures in the Big Apple

Last weekend was the perfect autumn weekend in NYC! The air was crisp and the sun was shining. We were excited to go out and about for some fun family-friendly activities.

On Saturday, we ventured to Brooklyn for the Brooklyn Local - a collection of local vendors selling their products and offering food and wine tasting. 

We took the baby on the subway for the first time for his first trip to Brooklyn. This was a real team effort to carry the stroller up and down the stairs to get in and out of the subway. Some subway stations have elevators but not all, so it was good to have more than two hands to get baby up and down. I wouldn't try the subway by myself with the stroller unless I knew for sure there would be an elevator. Seriously, help a sister out if you ever see a mom with a stroller trying to get up and down stairs in a subway station!

Once across the East River, we strolled to Brooklyn Bridge Park where the event was taking place. There was mandatory stroller parking, so Dad ended up holding baby the whole time as we walked through the rows of vendors. A baby carrier would have been more convenient but Dad didn't mind holding the little bug. The baby loves being able to look around at anything and everything and being a part of the action. He loved the hustle and bustle. Eventually, he fell asleep on Dad's shoulder. It was sweet...

We tasted really great local wine from upstate New York and Long Island. There were spicy pork sausage sliders, mini hotdogs topped with macaroni and cheese, green bean salad, cheesy foccacia bread, bacon bourbon flavored popcorn, and cookies and chocolates galore! It was a sweet-tooth's paradise!

To top it off, I crossed paths with a girl I knew from college who is now the founder of her own bakery out of Brooklyn called The Good Batch. She makes the most delicious ice cream sandwiches I've ever tasted! Sea salt is the magic ingredient... if you've ever dipped french fries in a Frosty, you know what I mean.

I really had fun for the first time in a while! It was nice to do something that was fun for adults and also included the baby. Plus, we also brought a friend and my grandma with us so it was a good company. 

After the market, we strolled around the Brooklyn Heights Promenade along a street of old Victorian mansion townhomes overlooking the water and southern part of Manhattan before heading back to NYC.

Sunday was another fabulous relaxing day. We packed up the family and took the subway to Columbus Circle (which has a great elevator by the way) en route to Central Park for a picnic. First, we stopped by the Whole Foods in the Time Warner Center to pick up our picnic lunch. The Whole Foods is AH-mazing! And fun fact from my husband: it's the highest grossing Whole Foods in the nation (I see why). I'm glad we stopped there because it also made me realize the TWC is the closest thing to a mall we have in NYC which may come in handy on cold days this winter when I want to walk around somewhere.

Then we found a grassy spot in Central Park to eat our lunch, drink a bottle of wine, and doze off! Ahhhhhh... Before heading home, we walked the Park taking in the nice weather and scenery. It's so quiet in the park. Even near the surrounding streets, the trees and kids playing really muffle the typical NYC traffic. A true oasis in the middle of the crazy Big Apple!

Craving NYC Burgers and Fries & French Toast and Waffles

While I’m not sending my husband out in the middle of the night for pickles, I do love eating two things right now: burgers and fries and french toast and waffles!

They taste exceptionally yummy lately! So yummy that I dedicate my weekends in NYC to trying a new restaurant offering one of the above. And of course, you can't go to the same place twice in NYC so I've eaten many different burgers and french toast plates. I’ve also been trying to eat only organic meat throughout my pregnancy. In addition to health benefits, organic meat really does have more taste and flavor. You’ll see all the burgers below are without hormones and mostly locally farmed.

Here are my favs in order of Good, Better, Best:

Burgers

6. Shake Shack – ShackBurger single …$4.55

- American cheese, lettuce, tomato and ShackSauce. (100% all natural Angus beef. No hormones and no antibiotics ever. We grind our proprietary Shack blend fresh daily.)

5. Minetta Tavern - Minetta Burger …$17

- with cheddar and caramelized onions. (I went with the smaller burger, although they are known for their Black Label Burger made from a selection of prime dry-aged beef cuts, $26)

4. Bareburger – The Original 6 oz. Burger … $9.65

- Organic Beef, brioche bun, colby jack, lettuce, tomato, raw red onion and bareburger special sauce. (all Bareburger meats are free-range, pasture raised, antibiotic and hormone free. Choice of burger includes organic beef, organic turkey, veggie burger, organic portabella mushroom, free-range chicken, lamb, wild boar, elk, and organic bison.) (pictured R)

3. The Green Table - GT Burger …$16

- Wrighteous Organics beef, kimchi, bacon & tomato relish, Amy’s roll. (All food is sourced from local family farms exercising humane and environmentally friendly practices.) 

2. Tipsy Parson - Grafton Cheddar Cheeseburger …$15

- 8 oz. house-ground organic patty, Grafton cheddar, red onion, potato bun, with fried pickle spear & fries with old bay aioli, with bacon ADD 1.

1. Smorgas Chef - Smorgas Burger ...$13 

- Grilled sirloin, lettuce, dill dressing, tomato, pickles (local, sustainable, and all-natural ingredients. Smorgas owns and operates its own 150-acre farm in the Catskills.)

French Toast & Waffles

5. Jane - Vanilla Bean French Toast ...$15

- brioche bread, crème brûlèe batter, Vermont maple syrup.

4. Alice's Tea Cup - Wonderland Waffles ...$10
- served with homemade blueberry compound butter and real maple syrup, add mixed berries ADD $3. (pictured R)


3. Intermezzo - French Toast …$11

- crème brulee rum sauce, with strawberries and bananas ADD $4. (this was on their menu of day’s specials.)

2. Sarabeth's TriBeCa - Apple-Cinnamon French Toast with Bananas and Raisins ...$15.50

- served with warm organic maple syrup from doerfler's farm.

1. The Garage Restaurant & Cafe - Vanilla Bean Soaked French Toast ...$16.95

- served with syrup and your choice of homemade macadamia coconut rum butter, sliced fresh bananas and homemade chocolate sauce, or our chef's cinnamon apple compote. (I ordered it with all of the above.) (pictured R)

Now who’s hungry? 

My tea party shower in the city

This past weekend, I was joined by friends and family for my baby shower at Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon at the Inn at Irving Place.

As we all know, space is the biggest challenge for New Yorkers. I couldn't host a traditional shower in my apartment due to a max capacity of 4 people. So finding a venue that could accommodate a flock of excitable women "Ooooing and Ahhhing" over baby things became the first priority. With a guest list of approximately 20, it was no easy task to simply make a lunch reservation.

I explored a few different restaurants and tea parlors looking for a venue that could provide a private space and a suitable ambiance for a baby shower including Alice’s Tea Cup and Sprinkles Cupcakes before selecting Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon.

A traditional 5 course English tea service – a first for most of us – in a private salon in a beautiful Victorian inn made for a truly perfect shower!

The Elsie de Wolfe salon was reserved for my guests for 3 hours (so we had plenty of time for chatting, eating, game playing, and opening gifts). I loved the gold walls and Victorian décor and the formal china table settings laid out for us made it very elegant. For city folk and out-of-towners alike, the tea party was a unique occasion for us to dress in our Sunday best and even show off our best interpretation of an English hat or head piece.

The 5 course tea service included:

Champagne Cocktail

Butternut Squash Amuse Bouche (a mini quiche)

Tea Sandwiches:

Smoked Salmon with Dill Cream Cheese on Pumpernickel

Cucumber with Mint Crème Fraiche on Brioche

Classic Egg Salad on Rye

Smoked Turkey & Cranberry on Seven Grain

Scones with Devonshire Clotted Cream & Strawberry Preserves

Cake with Raspberry Coulis

Assorted Cookies & Chocolate Covered Strawberries

And of course, freshly seeped teas throughout.

My lovely hosts (two friends and mother-in-law) personalized the event with games including celebrity baby names quiz, guess how round my belly is, and how many animal crackers in a tea pot. They had a framed ultrasound image of our baby and asked guests to sign the matting (like a guest book). For favors, each guest took home a tea cup and saucer containing candies and customized tea bags printed with my baby’s name and due date. It was the cutest thing ever!

In the end, New York City pleasantly surprised me by offering a totally unique baby shower experience! While defying the mold of a traditional baby shower, I think all my guests agree it was fun to try something totally new!

NYC restaurants have high chairs! …Oh, and I saw Debra Messing

Last night, my loving husband took me to Almond, an American/French bistro type restaurant in Flatiron boasting market fresh ingredients and a good wine list. This was the first of our newly inaugurated weekly dates in which my husband plans to leave work early so we can spend some quality time together (his idea).

We made a 6 pm reservation on Savored.com which gives you 30% off your total bill of food and drinks for a nominal $10 reservation fee. It’s a great way to explore the NYC dining scene and save a few bucks.

Since we want to take advantage of the warmer spring evenings and daylight hours, we made it an early dinner. Not to mention, my pregnant stomach is grumbling around that time. (So long to trendy late night dining, unless it’s second dinner!)

Well our 6 pm reservation introduced us to a whole new dining scene. First, people in NYC do eat before 9pm! The restaurant was packed. Second, people in NYC do eat at restaurants with their children!

I don’t know why I found this out of the ordinary, but seeing a wooden high chair (red lobster style) at a trendy NYC restaurant triggered the song “one of these things is not like the other” in my head!

I thought “cool” and checked out the mom who was “cool” enough to bring her baby out on the town. Well, there sat Debra Messing, even “cooler”! She was dining with another female companion who I presume was the mom since Debra has a 7 year old (I googled it). I promptly sat at my table facing her table so I could spy on her and observe the babe in the high chair.

Debra left shortly after I arrived (probably because she was appearing on David Letterman that night, so pops). Lucky for my husband, my attention shifted back to the restaurant and my date.

Until I was expecting, I didn't really notice how kid-friendly the city can be. In fact, I thought the opposite. Now, I see pregnant bellies on the subway everywhere I go. And 90% of the time, someone will offer me their seat. I’m constantly straining my neck to check out the brand of strollers rolling by. (Yes, I've even stopped someone and asked them how they liked their UppaBABY Cruz). And apparently when the timing is right (early dinner or brunch), kids are brought to hip restaurants and waiters break out the secret stash of high chairs. After all, parents eat too, just a little earlier!