Tag: Chelsea Market

New York City (October 2024)

The whole idea that started this trip was a simple conversation from a year ago with my cousin on joining her for a dinner. She mentioned that she’s in NYC every year for her husband’s work function and always thought of skipping out on a boring work-related dinner where all the people did was talk shop and enjoy a delectable meal. As this year’s work event got closer, D and I checked in with the cousin and she said that dinner was a go if we wanted. So we booked our flights and hotel stay for NYC for October. We actually went in October of last year for my friend’s business grand opening.

This time we flew out of LAX and took a direct JetBlue flight to Newark. We landed around 7:30 pm and caught a cab into the city, which took about an hour. After dropping our bags at our hotel in Midtown East at the Intercontinental New York Barclay, we walked over to PJ Clarke’s for a much deserved drink and late dinner. This bar/restaurant opened in 1884 and is particularly known for having a good burger. D had the burger and fries while I had classic fish and chips. To drink I had a Smoky Old Fashioned while D had the 1930 (Elijah craig small batch bourbon, lime juice, st. elizabeth allspice dram, simple syrup, angostura bitters, orange peel).

We stopped for a night cap at the hotel bar (we had a $30 credit for each day of our stay).

The following morning I woke up and headed to get bagels for us while D got ready for the day. I went to our normal spot, Ess-a-Bagel, (that we went to the last 2 times) as it was just up the street. By the time I got there (around 10am?) the line was out the door. Luckily it moved relatively smoothly and I got our bagels and a coffee for D (I had a coffee with the hotel room’s Keurig).

This time it was a bit of a disappointment. The bagels themselves and their crumb didn’t seem as chewy as normal (maybe a little dense). I kind of wonder if they’ve grown too much that quality control isn’t as good because they’re so busy.

We wanted to check out Harlem and Sylvia’s (one of the oldest classic southern fare food in the area). To get there, we walked down to Grand Central Station and hopped on a subway to head up to 125th street. I’ve found that every neighborhood in NY has their own feel, from midtown to LES to Chelsea to Brooklyn.

Harlem was very musical – lots of music just everywhere. The two places we had looked up were Sylvia’s but also Red Rooster (Marcus Samuellson’s place that he opened up in 2010). They were actually just down the street from one another. We settled on Sylvia’s and had some yummy food. I had the lunch special which was a fried chicken leg with some collard greens and D had the chicken and waffles. Both were very good.

We also walked over to the Apollo Theater, a classic institution for music, comedy, and other performances.

NYC Day 4

With our NYC vacation coming to an end, we had a rough outline of what we wanted to do before heading to JFK and flying back to Sacramento.  We had to check out of our hotel by noon so by 11 or so we checked out of the room and the hotel was kind enough to store our bags until we left for the airport that afternoon.

Our first stop was for food since we hadn’t had breakfast.  I figured since we wanted to check out the High Line, we would look for a brunch spot near there.  Many of our friends had told us that we had to “brunch” while in NYC so figured this was our last chance.

I found a place called Cookshop.  I thought it was funny that the brief description on Google maps said “Farm-to-hipster American dining.”  At first that made me not want to go there but it had some good reviews on the food and that really was all I cared about.  D started with the Beignets and then had the Poached Eggs (with beefsteak tomatoes, basil, herbed breadcrumbs, and cheese fonduta).  I started with the House smoked Arctic Char (with horseradish creme fraiche and toast) and then had their Fried Egg Sandwich.  The Beignets were good, though not the traditional light airy ones that you think of.  They have ricotta cheese inside their batter and made the internal part of the beignets more cake-like than airy.  Overall the food was great.

Not too long after we ordered, there were two young women sat right next to us.  Now they were not quiet nor shy about their conversation.  From the conversation I gleaned that they were most likely towards the end of high school (suspect senior year) but they lived a fairly privileged life.  One girl talked about how she spent the summer traveling through Europe and the other through Africa.  What struck me as outrageous was one girl talking about how she was dating a boy but was very attracted to another guy on her trip and was proud of herself that she didn’t cheat on the boy she was dating.  And I quote, “I didn’t kiss him, though I did shower  with him.” um…WHAT?!? The conversation was filled with ridiculous things like that and distracted me from a nice brunch.  Kids these days…

After lunch, we trekked over to the High Line.  The High Line is essentially an old elevated railroad track that was converted into an elevated urban park walkway.  Honestly, coming from Sacramento and the City of Trees, it wasn’t all that impressive to me.  I can see how it is a nice getaway from the concrete and skyscrapers of NYC though.  So I can appreciate it as a nice thing for people who live in NYC.  However, the High Line is now a touristy thing that it was fairly congested and filled with tourists (like us).  It was also a bit warm being elevated and not having much shade.

One thing that D wanted to see was the old cobblestones of New York.  I told her that one place you can still see it is the Meat Packing District.  We got off the High Line and found ourselves in Meat Packing and D got to see the cobblestones.

I needed to use the facilities and so while D was browsing in a store, I walked over to Chelsea Market.  Now I thought the High Line was packed with people walking, but Chelsea Market was even more packed.  I felt like a sardine.  We grabbed some water here and then jumped on the subway back up to Columbus Circle (at the southwest corner of Central Park).  We also used the bathrooms at the Essex Hotel so got to see the nice architecture in the lobby and registration area.  We then just chilled on a big rock in Central Park until it was time to head back to the hotel and head for the airport.

It’s a good thing we decided to head to JFK early because there was a ton of traffic on the roads back tot he airport.  Luckily we were able to get there with plenty of time to grab some food.  Course it helped that our flight ended up being delayed because the co-pilot wasn’t at the airport in time.  You would think as your job you’d try to get to the airport on time or early (it was an evening flight).  The gate people came on once saying that the co-pilot was in a cab, that some people commute to work.  Um, unless you work at home, everyone commutes to work, and plans as such.  We ended up arriving home a half hour after our normal scheduled time.

That’s a wrap on our NYC trip, overall was a good time.  Definitely left more stuff to do so maybe one day we’ll head back.

-StewsCat