Detours and Tastings

Christie and Raman graciously hosted our NYC trip September 22-25. We had quite a few adventures planned for the weekend but the rain forced us to take several detours, which in turn “forced” us to have a bunch of tastings.

One of the cool things about writing a blog now is that we were able to relive our adventures through our photos. Of course, talking about the trip and writing a blog are two worlds, so when we sat down to write it we realized that it would be endless. So instead we decided to detail our adventures based on our FourSquare check-ins (hopefully you can figure out who wrote each section).

Wednesday, September 22, 2011

Cactus Taqueria: We enjoyed a delicious pre-flight meal with the Lappins; if you haven’t been, try the tacos.

Lark Creek Grill: We had a couple drinks to help us “sleep” on the flight.

Virgin America – SFO: Hands down, the best airline.

Thursday, September 23, 2011

John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK): I somehow managed to talk Katie into taking the red eye so we could hit the ground running on Thursday. Flying on the red eye is a great idea unless you don’t sleep…needless to say we didn’t sleep much on the flight. Luckily we had the coolest cabby on the way into Manhattan; we both passed out and slept about an hour while we were sitting in morning traffic.

National September 11 Memorial: We knew the rain was coming so we decided to see as much of NYC possible as fast as possible. We took our first ride on the subway to the 9-11 Memorial. Words really can’t describe the experience. We were both in awe of how well the memorial was designed and how profound of an impact it has on New Yorkers and visitors alike.

Tribute WTC Visitor Center: There is a souvenir shop just outside of the actual memorial. They show an awesome video of the work that is going into the new buildings and the memorial itself.

Charging Bull: Following the memorial we took a walk toward Battery Park and on the way took some great Bull “ball-shots”.

Battery Park Pier: We took some photos of the Statue of Liberty. Tickets to the Crown were sold out so we didn’t head out to the island, we’ll have to check it out on our next trip.  Battery Park is one of the stops for the Hop On-Hop off bus so we hopped on and rode it around for the rest of the day. Here’s a run-down of all the things we saw: Wall Street, Greenwich Village, Times Square, Soho, Chinatown, Central Park West, and a few others that we can’t remember (We didn’t check-in on Four Square unless we hopped off and walked around).

Pier 17

Central Park – Pond

Times Square

Top of the Rock Observation Deck: Katie managed to get reservations right at sunset. It was simply amazing and it was one of our favorite parts of the trip.

Momofuku Bar Bar & Momofuku Ssäm Bar: We met Raman and Christie for pre-dinner drinks at Bar Bar and had dinner at Ssam Bar. All of the food was phenomenal and we really couldn’t do it justice by trying to describe it. We definitely recommend it!

Urban Outfitters: Christie and I decided to stop in as we were walking by. Nothing like some post-dinner perusing!

Bua: This place was cool, quite a few interesting drinks on the menu. On our way there we tried to stop by a speakeasy called Please Don’t Tell (enter through the phone booth in Crif Dogs). We didn’t get in because we didn’t have reservations but it’s definitely on the list for the next trip.

16 Handles: Froyo!

Finnerty’s Irish Pub: NYC’s SF sports bar. The coolest thing is that you can reserve a private table with personal beer tap.

Artichoke Basille’s Pizza & Brewery: Late night pizza, crazy delicious!

Friday, September 23, 2011

Shake Shack: Raman had to work on Friday so Christie took us to Shake Shack for lunch. Ray was finally able to complete the trifecta (i.e. In-N-Out, Shake Shack, Five Guys) and he says that In-N-Out is still the best. The Concretes are AMAZING!!!

Eataly: While we were eating, it started pouring rain so we sought shelter at Mario Batali’s Eataly. Not only did the store have everything you could possibly need to make a great meal but also the rooftop restaurant/bar was a bonus.

Birreria at Eataly: La Birreria has a good beer selection and Dogfishhead was holding a special event for NYC Beer Week. Somehow, Katie and Christie managed to talk the bartender into sharing a few tastings.

Shake Shack: Raman met up with us after work and since he was hungry I accompanied him to Shake Shack for the second time in 4 hours (Katie and Christie decided to go shopping while we went to eat).
ABC Carpet & Home: An awesome and unique home store…Christie and I were able to get some pretty cool two sided oven mitts.

Fishs Eddy: An eclectic collection of house wares….LOVE IT!!!

Union Square Greenmarket: After lunch we stopped by this farmer’s market; we enjoyed some cider tastings and ended up buying some cider. Once the tastings started we basically couldn’t stop.

Good Beer NYC: This is one of Raman’s favorite craft beer shops and most importantly they have beer and cheese tastings!

Grand Central Terminal: We had tickets to the Red Sox vs. Yankees game, but MLB kept delaying making a decision on whether the game would be played. Since no decision was made, we took the subway out to the stadium. On arrival we saw a hoard of people leaving the stadium. The game ended up being postponed so some quick decision-making led us to check out Grand Central Station.

Magnolia Bakery: These cupcakes are not only beautiful but they are DELICIOUS!!! 

The Ginger Man: Christie and Katie did some impromptu shopping while Raman and I checked out a couple bars. This place has an extensive whiskey and beer selection. 

Mé Bar (Closed): The drinks were cheap, the bartenders were hammered, and Raman realized that he had made a terrible fashion decision. Sadly, the bar lost its lease and is now closed. 

KyoChon: We ended the night by having some late night Korean chicken.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

East River Ferry Terminal East 35^th Street/Midtown: We had tickets to Oktoberfest on Saturday via a boat cruise, but the event was cancelled due to the rain. We took the ferry to Brooklyn instead.

Smorgasburg: This is place is right off the ferry landing in Brooklyn; it’s kind of like a farmer’s market with all sorts of different types of food.

Artists and Fleas: Basically a high-end flea market with a lot of amazing stuff.

Brooklyn Brewery: We didn’t take the brewery tour but we did get to taste almost all of their beer.

Barcade: After lunch we “worked off” the calories by playing 80s arcade games and drinking more beer.

Fette Sau: My 2^nd favorite establishment in NYC…Fet Sau. Katie and Christie ordered an assortment of BBQ meats while Raman and I ordered a half-gallon of beer. Bryan and Jane joined us for lunch and we promptly ordered another gallon of beer.

DUMBO Arts Festival: An art festival that was REALLY interesting and sometimes a little odd. The location provided for a cool photo op.

Lightsaber Battle 2011: Katie and Christie thought that Raman and I were huge dorks, but we couldn’t help ourselves. It was definitely the dorkiest moment of the weekend.

Rocco’s Pastry Shop and Espresso Café: Christie and I stopped in to try some mini éclairs. YUM!

John’s of Bleecker: More pizza!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Jade Asian Restaurant: As Wang would say, “Dim sum, the breakfast of Asians”. This place was out in Queens and the food was delicious.

Highland Park: Raman and Christie’s local sports bar. Katie ordered the taster but it wasn’t available due to the football rush so we ended up ordering pitchers instead.

MTA Subway 161^st & River Ave: This check-in give us the opportunity to talk about one of the coolest subway stations in NYC, 14^th Street and 8^th Avenue. This station has bronze statues by artist Tom Otterness all over the place. The exhibit is called “Life Underground”.

Yankee Stadium for Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees: I dislike the Yankees as much as the next guy but Yankee Stadium is a “must-see” place for any baseball fan.

Highland Park: Twice in one day! And this time we got the taster…this place is MONEY!!!

Monday, September 26, 2011

John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK): Sad to leave NYC and even sadder to leave Ristie but we had an AMAZING vacation. We really can't thank Christie and Raman enough for their hospitality and we can’t wait to come back!!!

San Francisco International Airport (SFO): Home sweet home…

New York by the Numbers

April and I visited New York almost two months ago now. Hard to remember everything we did (I feel like we did a lot). Lucky for me I'm a digital girl living in a digital world, so between Facebook, Foursquare, and Google Calendar there's an almost-complete record of our trip online. So with thanks to our digital overlords, I present a breakdown of our trip in numerical format:

Time in New York: 83 hours 22 minutes

States visited: 2 (NY, NJ)

Boroughs visited: 2 (Manhattan, Brooklyn)

Eateries eaten at: 11

Bars drank at: 12

Breweries visited: 1 (Brooklyn Brewery)

Historic sites visited: 2 (911 Memorial, Teddy Roosevelt's birthplace)

Earliest meal: 7:30am (Bagel from Vic's)

Latest meal: 2:01am (Chili cheese fries from Carl's Steaks)

Earliest I was at a bar: 10:06am (Mad Hatter, for the Manchester City game)

Latest I was at a bar: Last call (The Ginger Man)

Hours elapsed between ordering a whiskey flight at The Ginger Man and ordering a beer at The Mad Hatter: 7.5

Most beers drunk in one day: 13 (Saturday)

Manhattans drunk in Manhattan: 1

Boots of beer drunk: 0.5 (split with Raman)

Cabs stolen from a celebrity: 1 (David Duchovny and, presumably, Tea Leoni)

The Roc's in the Building!

If the cancellation of the first few weeks of the NBA season, meant that I had the opportunity to watch Jay Z and Kanye West perform at Madison Square Garden... Well currently I feel like I came out on top.  A last minute concert was added when the NBA cancelled the first month of basketball and as soon as I heard, I knew I was going no matter what.  It was only 2 weeks before the concert was scheduled to happen when the tickets went on sale, I asked all my direct reports at the time to work on a high priority project that morning.  Get me tickets to the concert!  We all failed the initial challenge, but the good thing is that there was a secondary market ready to give me a ticket at the right price.  That right price meant that I bought tickets in the highest section possible, but I was in the building!

Watching a concert at Madison Square Garden has always been a goal of mine since moving to NY.  But watching a Jay Z concert in NYC at MSG was on my bucket list.  I never thought I would have the opportunity but the timing worked out great.  You have NOOO idea how excited I was for this concert.  I can't think of another concert I would rather go see.

So we got there a little early.  The ticket said 7:30, so obviously Christie and I get there right at 7:30.  But Jay Z and Kanye weren't showing up on stage till 9:30.  So we had 2 hours to hang out at MSG.  I guess everyone else knew when to show up as it was a packed house when the show started.  Why don't they just put both times on the ticket?

Finally 2 hours later the concert started and it was the best concert I have ever been to.  They performed for 2.5 hours from 9:30 - midnight.  No stops, no opening act, and no dancers.  Just Kanye and Jay Z. It was amazing!  They just went back and forth and performed together.

Below is the set list:

Throne Music 

H.A.M. 

Who Gon Stop Me 

Try a Little Tenderness 

Otis 

Welcome to the Jungle 

Gotta Have It 

Where I'm From (over "Angels" instrumental) 

Nigga What? Nigga Who? 

Jigga My Nigga 

Can't Tell Me Nothing 

Flashing Lights 

Through The Wire 

Jesus Walks 

Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix) 

PSA 

U Don't Know 

Run This Town 

Monster 

Power/Power Remix 

Made in America 

New Day 

Hard Knock Life 

Izzo 

New York, New York (Frank Sinatra) 

Empire State of Mind 

Runaway 

Heartless 

Stronger 

D.A.N.C.E. (Justice) 

On To The Next One 

Dirt Off Your Shoulders 

Give it to Me 

That's My Bitch 

Good Life 

Touch The Sky 

All of the Lights 

Big Pimpin' 

Gold Digger 

99 Problems 

What a Wonderful World 

(Louis Armstrong cover)

No Church in the Wild 

Lift Off 

Niggas In Paris 

Niggas In Paris 

Encore:

Niggas In Paris 

Encore 

Lucifer 

Money Ain't A Thang 

Can I Get A... 

Money, Cash, Hoes 

Get Em High 

All Falls Down 

Why I Love You 

My half birthday walk!

I know it's taken me a while to write up this post, but i've been really busy adjusting to the weather change and day light savings.

My half birthday is labor weekend (which most will know is also my parents actual birthday) and as a present to me they told me they would take me on a walk up to central park!  Now I have been up to Central Park many times this summer, so I really couldn't think of a better birthday present (well except for maybe a large pepperoni pizza, but we all know my mom will not let that happen under her watch).  So walk to the park it was!

We started at our apartment on 34th and made it into the park at 59th.  We continued up into the Park for what seemed like forever - where were they taking me.  We had to stop a few times so that I could rehydrate and rest in the grass.

By rest, I really mean roll in the grass:

I was having such a great half birthday!!!

We walked all the way up to the reservoir which is at 86th street and then started the trek back.  We took a brief break at the Met where I decided to channel my inner Gossip Girl and sit on the Steps of the Met:

We kept walking home but by 60th street i was too tired so convinced my parents to hail a cab for the rest of the way home.  We were able to catch up pretty quickly as it is NY and there are thousands of cabs.

All and all it was a great half birthday walk with my parents!  I'm looking forward to future walks up to Central Park, but maybe next time I'll see if we can just hang out in the park around 65th street where the grassy fields are!

Most Inspiring day of the year - The NYC Marathon!

When we had moved to NYC, we asked around to see what were a few of the events in the city that we absolutely could not miss.  We were told one of them was the ING New York City Marathon.  It happened today on November 6, 2011 and lived up to all of the hype.

The NYC Marathon starts on Staten Island, goes over the bridge into Brooklyn, up Brooklyn to Queens, over the Queensboro bridge into Manhattan, up 1st avenue into the Bronx then back down into Central park and ends 26.2 miles in Central Park on the west side.  26.2 miles - all i can think it how is it possible for any human to run 26.2 miles.  I can barely run 4 (we tested this out with our friend Katrina, who visited two weeks back!)

We had heard that not only are there thousands of people who come out to run the marathon, there are 100's of thousands of people who come out to support and cheer for the runners!

Raman and I got up and took the 6 up to 86th street.  We walked over to 1st avenue and were able to see the pro women's and pro men's 1st place runners!

I think they all ran the marathon in no more then 2 hours!  Crazy!!!  From there, we walked to grab some Shake Shack prior to dropping Raman back at the 86th Subway station to head home (he as been fighting a fever all weekend) and i walked to Central Park to see the end of the race.  I walked up to 90th street where I was able to enter the park and walked slowly along the route through the park.  It was so inspiring to see everyone out clapping, yelling, and cheering for each runner that ran pass!

I walked the course from 90th to 59th street, breathing in the energy of the Marathon, the inspiration of the runners and the spectators!  I now see why everyone says the NYC marathon is a must see event in NYC!!!

It all started with a text message

It all started with a text message, "Just bought 2 tickets to NBA draft... Wanna go?  Center stage 15 rows up..." out of the blue.  I remember sitting at my office when my phone buzzed and the screen flashed the above words.  my first thought was, what the hell is Raman talking about?  I can't go to New York for the NBA draft it's less than 5 weeks away, tickets will be too expensive, I can't take the time off work, and we have so many summer plans there is no way it will work.  Then I started thinking about the positives.  I would be the first one to visit Raman and Christie since their east coast swing to NYC.  When am I ever going to schedule a trip around the NBA draft, for that matter any draft?  He already bought the tickets, screw it, if I can find a plane ticket for a reasonable cost, I am in!  A few Kayak price alerts and searches later, I had bought a ticket for a weekday trip to NYC.  I was pretty excited and I know Christie was excited because now she didn't have to go to the draft.  I couldn't imagine anything more boring for her.  Now I will walk you through some of the events that went down that week:

Tuesday - Decided to take a flight in the morning and "waste" a day flying because I can't sleep on planes and a Red Eye seemed like not a fun way to start off my trip.  A few beers and movies later I arrived at JFK and took a cab to Murray Hill.  Got out of the cab and turned the wrong way, realized I went the wrong way, and then corrected myself.  Raman was out walking Chester.  I must say it was kind of weird at first seeing him on the street there as I have come to associate New York with Danielle's family and friends who we regularly see when we visit.  Checked out their awesome apartment and Christie was nice enough to make dinner for the three of us.  I'll continue with the foodie tradition and describe the meal for you.  Pan seared scallops (I'll put the sear job up against Collicho any day), flank steak, and asparagus. Food was great and company even better. After the meal Raman and I decided to check out a bit of his neighborhood and by neighborhood I mean bars by his house.  We checked out Gingerman, Galway Hooker, and Rattle N Hum.  We were out that night until after midnight.  The thing that always shocks me about NYC is that at any time of the day or night there are always people out doing things.  When leaving the bar, people had just ordered shots, I thought about work the next day and how that would be a mistake. Shots would come back to haunt me.

Wednesday -  Cleared it with my boss before the trip that I would be allowed to work during the whole time in NYC so I didn't have to take anytime off despite not being in the office.  I have some business partners that work in NYC, so I was all setup at a place in the office located in TriBeCa.  The office was pretty sweet I must say.  Wait a second, how could a office building be sweet?  nevermind.  I did hear that the chef from the cafeteria was a former contestant of Top Chef.  I told them I would be the judge of that.  Not much happened other than the fact I was tired and work sucked.  After work I went to this hip (at least I thought it was hip) pizza joint with my friend Jessica.  Place was in the east village and called Motorino.  Foodie trend:  We split the octopus salad, margarita, and anchovy pizza. All the food was very good.  After the meal we went out on the town for a little while and my good friend Brian came and met up with us.  One thing led to another and we were in the East Village until 3 in the morning when I realized I still had to go to work the next day.  Christie was sweet enough to send me a text in the night asking if I was still okay.  I know what you all are thinking, no way I could be out until 3:00 without falling asleep but I promise you I did not.  Somehow made it back to the crib and passed out face first on the air mattress.

Thursday - Somehow I was able to get up, showered, and down to TriBeCa for work by 9:30 AM.  I honestly have very little idea how I set my alarm and actually woke up to when it went off.  Maybe it was because it was Draft Day!  The leading reason for the visit (other than seeing two of my favorite people).  Work was pretty terrible.  Imagine a very drunk night with very little sleep, 80% humidity, 6 million people, and sweat.  Pretty much sums up my work day.  Raman and I met up at the crib before walking over to Penn Station to take NJ transit to the Rock (prudential center).  On our way over we went to a few sporting stores to try and find Raman a Warriors hat.  Somehow, at a footaction, which was a last ditch effort, they had throw back Warriors logo hat that was perfect.  The draft, as previously described in a post, was a super fun event.  Pretty much a geeky NBA fan's type of event that I thought was way more fun that could have been imagined.  On our way back into Manhattan we decided to eat at a very hip pizza joint, perhaps you heard of it, Sbarro?  Pretty much exactly what you imagine.  That night I can't even remember which bars we went to.  Basically we did a makeshift bar crawl down 2nd ave hitting up a bunch of college style bars.  At our final place I decided it would be a good idea to take shots.  I opted for jager and Raman with tequila.  Let me tell you think, at 2:00 AM the last thing you need is shots.  This ended badly for the next day....

Friday - Raman and I both took the day off with hopes of playing basketball, maybe doing sight seeing, hitting up the highline, or some other fun NYC activity.  Because of the shots, none of this happened.  We strolled out of bed sometime past noon to get Carl's Cheesesteaks and head back for another nap.  Finally we went and shot around a basketball court next to his house.  Some random guy showed up and played horse with us for a bit. This basically got Raman pretty gassed so we went back to the house and got ready for our dinner reservations.  We were headed to this super duper hip speakeasy mexican place called La Esquina.  In order to actually get reservations we had to make them at 6:30.  Foodie Time: Fluke Ceviche, Quesadilla de Huitlacoche, Scallops, Octopus (I was really into it at the time) and Steak tartare Tostadas, and some black beans and rice.  The meal was top notch and margaritas very good.  So we decided to go out for the night afterward.  We went to a few bars in the same area but mostly hung out at a New Orleans themed place called the 9th ward.  We drank beers for a few hours while a slow flux of people I knew (basically my buddy Brian and Danielle's friends and family from New York) who live in NYC came to meet up with us at some points.  i thought it was a pretty good way to introduce Raman and and Christie to some new people and let everyone know how great they are.  Bottom line, I made it home at 4:30 AM and almost got a tattoo of a thunderbolt on my bicep.  Let's just say that Danielle's cousin Timmy is quite and original and fun individual.

Saturday - Slept until I had to go to the airport and flew back to SF.

My trip to NYC was great and I lagged more than anyone on putting up my post.  I also visited again in September and had a fun night out for R & C's birthday before their west coast trip but I am sure you all know about that.  Did you ever think I would make a post Raman???