New York Adventure Day #3

Friday morning was sunny and cool. It was off to breakfast at Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner Center by Central Park. After wandering all over the Center (the ground floor is a humongous Whole Foods), we finally found it tucked away by the elevators. The bakery is run by Thomas Keller and all of the pastries and bread are French. I got a cherry danish and it was the best cherry danish I've ever eaten in my life. This isn't what we ate (see Jackie's blog for that) but it gives you the idea.After the bakery, it was off to the madness that is Century 21 Department Store.

This place is a madhouse and we were overwhelmed- everything is designer labels and discounted- but we're used to the Old Navy discounted section- not Versace. It was fun but we had to hurry over to the Lower East Side for our scheduled walking tour with Big Onion. Big Onion does walking tours all over Manhattan. The one I signed us up for was the Eating Tour of the Lower East Side. After buying Jackie a Diet Coke so she could use the restroom at Popeye's Chicken, we were off exploring the Lower East Side with 20 other people and a doctoral student in history at Columbia University. We had Dominican Republic Fried Plantains, pickles from Jewish picking company, dried rose petals and plums in the Asian section, meat and cheeses at an Italian deli and cannoli's in Little Italy. It took 2 and a half hours and it was great.

After the walking tour, we went to Pomme Frites in the Village. They were closed when we went last summer so we were so happy to find it open (and busy). Other than burning my mouth with fresh hand-cut Belgian style fries, it was amazing.

After our salty nourishment, we went to the Seaport to pick up our discounted tickets for our Friday night show and our Saturday matinee. Even though it was only discounted 25%, we got tickets that night for August: Osage County. Our friends (the Coxes) saw it over the summer and loved it- it also won Best Play and the Pulitzer. We knew the show was long so we headed up to SoHo for a little chocolate sustenance. We headed for Vosages Haut Chocolate.

After a hot chocolate (as in both temperature and spices) and curry ice cream, we were off to the show.

August was amazing. The 3 and a half hours flew by and the actors were amazing. It was funny and sad (like a Eugene O'Neil drama- but contemporary- meaning it has F-words). The set was also phenomenal. Check out the clip for an idea.

After the play, we were hungry for real food so we went off to The Burger Joint inside Le Parker Meridian Hotel. We love their Norma's restaurant for breakfast, but this place was supposed to be good (and cheap). The hotel is 5 stars- and looks it. There is no sign up for the Burger place- you just have to go behind a big curtain and it's like you're in another world.

Lobby Burger Joint

The food was great and we went back to bed with sore feet from all the walking. Another great day in NYC.