We had a great experience in the city arriving on our anniversary with a driver awaiting our arrival. We were quickly loaded and chauffeured to our hotel, The Surrey. The hotel spent the last year undergoing a $60 million renovation and only recently re-opened, which afforded us the opportunity to grab a promotional 'grand opening' fare. We had a perfectly equipped salon room on the 14th floor. We had a view of Madison avenue and, from the 17th floor rooftop terrace, a view of the park tree tops and downtown.
We were at 76th street and Madison - right in the center of 'Museum Mile'. We were one block east of the park and situated between the two transverse drives that cross the park. We wer six blocks from both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick Collection - across the street from the Whitney and ten or so blocks from the Guggenheim and countless others. Also across the street - the famed Carlyle hotel and Bemmelmen's bar. We spent some time in the bar on Wednesday night and passed right by Paul McCartney as he entered the hotel. He didn't invite us up. Ha!
After strolling the neighborhood a bit for the early afternoon we returned to our room to find a bottle of chilled sparkling rose courtesy of the hotel to celebrate our anniversary. A nice treat that perfectly set the mood for our evening ahead. We had dinner Friday night at the Surrey hotel restaurant, Cafe Boulud, of acclaimed chef Daniel Boulud. A special treat, he briefly emerged from the kitchen to acknowledge a few patrons sitting next to us. We were pleasantly surprised that he was in the restaurant that night and presumably had a hand in our meals.
It was a wonderful meal complete with a memorable bottle of Sevigny Burgundy and several great courses. Sara had a house made tagliatelle with beef short rib ragout and I had a house-made ravioli with spring vegetable filling. Then for main courses I had a pair of lamb chops and Sara a pan seared halibut filet in buerre blanc. For dessert, we shared a deconstructed apple tart with pecan bourbon ice cream and creme anglaise and coffee. And then a second dessert of miniature Madeline cookies, courtesy of the house! Our exciting Bemmelman's bar experience followed.
Thursday was a slow day - we ordered coffee to the room and didn't emerge until noon. We had a nice lunch at EAT on the UES (spun-off from Zabars) and then window shopped the ultru-high fasion. We did the Met for several hours and took it all in. We saw all of the major works on permanent display - VanGogh, Renoir, Degas, Monet, Manet, Gauguin..you name it.
I loved the statuary, artifacts and the 'rooms' including a full room reconstruction of a 16th century castle courtyard featuring aMichelangelo sculpture on loan from France. Also interesting was a temporary exhibit of 'mourners' - about a hundred or more statuettes about 18-24 inches high featuring robed people of all classes from the court of Burgundy depicting the time during the burial of a famous count and his son. Their permanent home in Burgundy has them displayed underneath the coffins of the two men seemingly in motion. Very interesting.
We spent some time after walking the park. It had been cloudy both Wednesday and Thursday and we caught some drizzle during our walk in the park both days. Back to the hotel to clean-up and rest before making our way to midtown for a dinner reservation. A short walk to a cute bookstore and baby boutique, and then a cab down to 34th where we were going to kill some time doing...whatever. Timing worked such that we got to go up the Empire State Building to floor 86 observation deck (of 102) and got a grand view of the city from all angles. Amazing. Hard to contemplate the magnitude of this city in any real terms, especially those relating to capital and the social impact of the place. Wild. We had this on our agenda but were anxious about long lines and hadn't yet reserved our viewing - but tonight, no lines and we went straight up!
We walked to our evening spot - Artisinal Fromagerie and Bistro in lower mid-town a few blocks east and down 32nd. A bit early, our table was ready just before our 8pm reservation. We enjoyed a cocktail and an early coarse of fondue, then steak frites, a few glasses of wine, and finished with a lovely molten chocolate cake.
Friday was another full day. We started much earlier and crossed the park to have breakfast on the West Side at Sarabeths, a favorite of ours and a haunt from our last trip with A&A. A great breakfast and then walked over to Zabar's market. Classic. We were at 80th and Amsterdam - walked a block over to Broadway and headed again to midtown - maybe to 54th or so. We hit FAO Schwarz and wandered the place for an hour or so. This was fun now having our own little girl waiting at home for something special! Ha! We got her an FAO Schwarz elephant and Sara designed Abby's very first Barbie doll. Ha!
More shopping and walking and more walking...and then we're back up to 67th for lunch at Ollie's for Chinese (different location than we went with A&A last time around but Sesame Chicken every bit as good!). Lunch for $15 - that was new. Yay!!! A little more shopping and walking and realizing some very tired paws, we grabbed some coffee at Le Pain Quotidien and took a load off in the park for a while. Many people to watch! Back at the hotel we rested a bit and found a dinner spot - we didn't have a reservation set for Friday. We found a little Mexican spot on 93rd on the UWS and took a cab over from the hotel. It was good - local but not amazing. A good experience though and so busy it was fun. We walked down to 83rd for desert at Cafe Lalo - another of our favorites and featured in the Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan movie 'You've Got Mail'. Thanks again to Am for sharing this great spot below her old digs! Fun stuff - super small but a great Latte and Apple Walnut pie. We grabbed a dozen bagels at H&H Bagel's at 80th and we were spent. A cab back across the park and we were done for the day.
We had a nice morning today. Breakfast at the hotel, super tasty (house-made yogurt and fruit, basket of French pastries, Belgian waffle with house-made Fuji Apple butter) but slow. Then we walked down to the Frick Collection - home of Henry Clay Frick, a steel and coal magnate of the late 1800s. It was an amazing home with a more amazing art collection now a museum. A contemporary of JD Rockefeller, JP Morgan and Andrew Carnegie, he purchased this land and resurrected a beautiful space at 70th and 5th Ave in 1910 with the intent to 'make Andrew Carnegie's home look like a miner's shack'. It was amazing!!! Hard to imagine how some live.
We walked a bit longer, viewed the products of seemingly every high-fashion designer through the windows, quickly grabbed a few products at Diptyque on Madison and finally back to the hotel to wrap-up and go.
It was a full trip and we had a lovely time. Three days felt like a week and we were eager to get home to our sweet Abigail!
We were at 76th street and Madison - right in the center of 'Museum Mile'. We were one block east of the park and situated between the two transverse drives that cross the park. We wer six blocks from both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick Collection - across the street from the Whitney and ten or so blocks from the Guggenheim and countless others. Also across the street - the famed Carlyle hotel and Bemmelmen's bar. We spent some time in the bar on Wednesday night and passed right by Paul McCartney as he entered the hotel. He didn't invite us up. Ha!
After strolling the neighborhood a bit for the early afternoon we returned to our room to find a bottle of chilled sparkling rose courtesy of the hotel to celebrate our anniversary. A nice treat that perfectly set the mood for our evening ahead. We had dinner Friday night at the Surrey hotel restaurant, Cafe Boulud, of acclaimed chef Daniel Boulud. A special treat, he briefly emerged from the kitchen to acknowledge a few patrons sitting next to us. We were pleasantly surprised that he was in the restaurant that night and presumably had a hand in our meals.
It was a wonderful meal complete with a memorable bottle of Sevigny Burgundy and several great courses. Sara had a house made tagliatelle with beef short rib ragout and I had a house-made ravioli with spring vegetable filling. Then for main courses I had a pair of lamb chops and Sara a pan seared halibut filet in buerre blanc. For dessert, we shared a deconstructed apple tart with pecan bourbon ice cream and creme anglaise and coffee. And then a second dessert of miniature Madeline cookies, courtesy of the house! Our exciting Bemmelman's bar experience followed.
Thursday was a slow day - we ordered coffee to the room and didn't emerge until noon. We had a nice lunch at EAT on the UES (spun-off from Zabars) and then window shopped the ultru-high fasion. We did the Met for several hours and took it all in. We saw all of the major works on permanent display - VanGogh, Renoir, Degas, Monet, Manet, Gauguin..you name it.
I loved the statuary, artifacts and the 'rooms' including a full room reconstruction of a 16th century castle courtyard featuring aMichelangelo sculpture on loan from France. Also interesting was a temporary exhibit of 'mourners' - about a hundred or more statuettes about 18-24 inches high featuring robed people of all classes from the court of Burgundy depicting the time during the burial of a famous count and his son. Their permanent home in Burgundy has them displayed underneath the coffins of the two men seemingly in motion. Very interesting.
We spent some time after walking the park. It had been cloudy both Wednesday and Thursday and we caught some drizzle during our walk in the park both days. Back to the hotel to clean-up and rest before making our way to midtown for a dinner reservation. A short walk to a cute bookstore and baby boutique, and then a cab down to 34th where we were going to kill some time doing...whatever. Timing worked such that we got to go up the Empire State Building to floor 86 observation deck (of 102) and got a grand view of the city from all angles. Amazing. Hard to contemplate the magnitude of this city in any real terms, especially those relating to capital and the social impact of the place. Wild. We had this on our agenda but were anxious about long lines and hadn't yet reserved our viewing - but tonight, no lines and we went straight up!
We walked to our evening spot - Artisinal Fromagerie and Bistro in lower mid-town a few blocks east and down 32nd. A bit early, our table was ready just before our 8pm reservation. We enjoyed a cocktail and an early coarse of fondue, then steak frites, a few glasses of wine, and finished with a lovely molten chocolate cake.
Friday was another full day. We started much earlier and crossed the park to have breakfast on the West Side at Sarabeths, a favorite of ours and a haunt from our last trip with A&A. A great breakfast and then walked over to Zabar's market. Classic. We were at 80th and Amsterdam - walked a block over to Broadway and headed again to midtown - maybe to 54th or so. We hit FAO Schwarz and wandered the place for an hour or so. This was fun now having our own little girl waiting at home for something special! Ha! We got her an FAO Schwarz elephant and Sara designed Abby's very first Barbie doll. Ha!
More shopping and walking and more walking...and then we're back up to 67th for lunch at Ollie's for Chinese (different location than we went with A&A last time around but Sesame Chicken every bit as good!). Lunch for $15 - that was new. Yay!!! A little more shopping and walking and realizing some very tired paws, we grabbed some coffee at Le Pain Quotidien and took a load off in the park for a while. Many people to watch! Back at the hotel we rested a bit and found a dinner spot - we didn't have a reservation set for Friday. We found a little Mexican spot on 93rd on the UWS and took a cab over from the hotel. It was good - local but not amazing. A good experience though and so busy it was fun. We walked down to 83rd for desert at Cafe Lalo - another of our favorites and featured in the Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan movie 'You've Got Mail'. Thanks again to Am for sharing this great spot below her old digs! Fun stuff - super small but a great Latte and Apple Walnut pie. We grabbed a dozen bagels at H&H Bagel's at 80th and we were spent. A cab back across the park and we were done for the day.
We had a nice morning today. Breakfast at the hotel, super tasty (house-made yogurt and fruit, basket of French pastries, Belgian waffle with house-made Fuji Apple butter) but slow. Then we walked down to the Frick Collection - home of Henry Clay Frick, a steel and coal magnate of the late 1800s. It was an amazing home with a more amazing art collection now a museum. A contemporary of JD Rockefeller, JP Morgan and Andrew Carnegie, he purchased this land and resurrected a beautiful space at 70th and 5th Ave in 1910 with the intent to 'make Andrew Carnegie's home look like a miner's shack'. It was amazing!!! Hard to imagine how some live.
We walked a bit longer, viewed the products of seemingly every high-fashion designer through the windows, quickly grabbed a few products at Diptyque on Madison and finally back to the hotel to wrap-up and go.
It was a full trip and we had a lovely time. Three days felt like a week and we were eager to get home to our sweet Abigail!
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