New York, New York (Part 1)

I recently embarked on a great 3 day jaunt in New York City with the ladies. Originally conceived months ago because Jen was feeling the urge to empty her bank account for handbags, we had a total of 6 (Jen, Jessica, Pam, Marina, Jodi, and Myself) departing for the Big Apple Friday morning.

Memorial Day weekend is the start of the Summer season for New Yorkers. If you are somebody or know the right somebody, you are spending your weekends in the Hamptons on the weekends as soon as weather permits. It's nice because the city becomes a tad less crowded than usual. We arrived at LaGuardia on-time and 20 minutes later were on our way in a spacious cab headed for the island. The Affinia Dumont, our accommodations for the trip, was located in Murray Hill, a quaint and unique residential neighborhood with a long and rich history of preservation efforts by its residents. We checked in, dropped our bags, and headed to find some lunch.

My original choice for lunch was Markt, a bar/restaurant with good belgian fare. Armed with my Zagats guide from 2006, I led us to it's Meatpacking District location only to find that the building is being rehabbed for a new office/retail complex. A native New Yorker would have known that the restaurant had recently moved to 6th & 21st. Sigh. Fortunately, it's hard to starve in NYC and we walked across the street to Vento, a casual/cool Italian trattoria with a great outdoor seating area. After filling our bellies with good food, we headed down 14th street to check out the bevy of high-end retail here. Among the stores we visited were: Scoop NYC (an expanded location sectioned off by "street", "kids", "men", and "women"), Diane Von Furstenberg, Tracy Reese, Charles Nolan, Theory, and the illustrious Jeffrey New York.

While we found some great pieces Friday afternoon, the highlight of our stop in the Meatpacking District was me spotting Todd Oldham while perusing the shoe department at Jeffrey. I love watching Todd on Bravo's Top Design. He started out doing fashion and has branched into furniture, photography/art, and interiors (check out The Hotel in South Beach). The guy was dressed like anyone else who was walking around the city: t-shirt, cargo shorts, backpack. You'd think it was just anyone, but nope...Todd Oldham! Spotting fashion designers is even more amazing to me than spotting regular old celebrities. I would love to see Isaac Mizrahi or Michael Kors in the flesh!

We wrapped up the first night in the Big Apple by dining at the swanky Lower East Side gem, Stanton Social. We started with cocktails that were divine (loved the Social Tea) and feasted on a variety of plates on the menu -- everything had a twist to it, and was, of course, delish! Marina & Jodi decided to hit Times Square post-dinner, and the rest of us took in one last drink at a restaurant/lounge called Thor, part of the Hotel on Rivington. This place had my favorite drink of the day, made with: Vodka, Red Bull, berry puree, and Pop rocks. I think there was another ingredient, but that is the gist. It was excellent!

Finally, in the not too wee hours, four tired but happy girls dragged themselves back to the hotel for much needed sleep...

Stay tuned for the next recap!