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Carbone – best Italian meal in Manhattan so far
I took my friend here for dinner. I’m not going to lie it’s pricey, but it’s soooooooooooooooooooooooo goooooooooooooooooood.
The dishes were so big that we shared, the antipasti of baked clams, the pasta, which is probably the best pasta I have had in a very long time and the ribs. Never have I seen the ribs so big in my life and I have eaten a lot of places. It’s not an easy restaurant to get into, but it is worth it. For somewhere so good I thought the service was attentive and not in the least bit snotty. It has a real family feel inside in both senses of the word. If you want good Italian, I highly recommend the place if you want to go eat good food, drink from an extensive wine list and pig out completely.
Photo is taken from their website.
Hustle in the Bustle
Things that annoy me greatly in New York, are people asking for money just because they are on the hustle.
On the Subways the rides can last a minute. Some old sod will get on the carriage and say ‘Hey Everyone I’m going to sing A Song’. They are not homeless, they are not desperate, they are playing on the need people have to give to charity, even if they don’t understand what they are giving to.
They then sing the chorus or verse of the song as tunelessly and loudly as they can and before the minute journey is up have their hat out for you to give them cash.
They then move onto the next carriage.
If they get 2 dollars from one carriage and that’s per minute then they are onto a big hustle.
Manhattan Hotel Bars
No Diving unless you are a tadpole.
OK not the best photo but I had to take a sneaky photo of the pool on the roof top of Jimmy’s Bar in The James Hotel in Manhattan. It is the size of a pond and as shallow as a puddle so I’m glad they put the No Diving because you know. we were all wondering there for at least two seconds.
Now I’m a bit of a hotel bar slag. I love a good cocktail but, Manhattan your service and clientele are disappointing me. Jimmy’s bar had so many questions to get into the place from security I thought I was going through customs again. And surprise surprise, there weren’t that many people upstairs; and neither it seems was a waitress. Oh wait there was one but just not one for us. In fact I’m not sure who she served. One barman on and one man behind him with not much to do but shuffle lemons place to place and look at the floor with a face saying please don’t ask me anything. Getting a drink felt like an eternity
The seats outside by the pond are park benches. Yes the view is great. That is all that is. Google images make it look a lot better which is why I put my rank photo.
Taken from their site so it will look good
The Thomson hotel well that one was even worse. After looking nervously at a very vexed security guard to again get up stairs and feeling like you are dealing with a headmaster we got sent to the top floor only to be sent back down for half hour to the middle bar where the DJ, who did look amazing, decided she would like to play the music really loudly whilst attempting to ‘scratch’ the records. Painful to all involved. Again service pretty dismal.
We made it to the top and these seats are much comfier and the place more relaxed and chilled. Service was much better. However who you get to sit next to is roulette. You’d think if you wanted a private conversation you wouldn’t bother with others listening, but no. We got to listen in on a guy introducing his boyfriend to his very straight parents whilst the boyfriend said the classic line. It’s not just women who have a biological clock, I do too…. I almost spat my drink out at this point. After they moved we thought hurrah and then got the drunk couple making out. Fail….
Taken from their site and looks better than this
But there is a winner and no it may not have a rooftop but for great service and excellent cocktails and that’s the Crosby Street Hotel. We had someone come over and say they could make us anything we wanted. They put food on the table, they smiled without willing us to curl up and die. They genuinely wanted us there. Bar Staff and any Waitresses. Best cocktails, best atmosphere. Only moan is the bathroom is a mile away.And even though these bars are expensive, best priced. I had an espresso Martini. Delicious. I have been there about three times since. So nice to find a place where the staff don’t think they are more important then the customers.
Philadelphia and New York – Days 42 to 48
After recovering for a few days from Road Trip a friend and I took a long hot drive to Philadelphia because my favourite sandwich is a Philly Cheese Steak and why not have it in Philly? So he very kindly drove us the three hours – I had in my head it took an hour and a half. We stopped along the way where I was introduced to Cinnabon which has massive cakes that look like deep filled chicken pie. I couldn’t do it, I had to choose the cheese steak there was too much riding on it.
Two rivals opposite each other Pats and Genos. We went to the one with the bigger queue which was Pats. The pressure was on to make sure the order was correct. It seems there is an etiquette as to how to order and how to get it right. The sandwich did not disappoint and was demolished probably a bit too quickly. The kind of quick where you sit wondering just how loud your stomach can get digesting. Within half hour we were back on the road. Five hours of driving for a sandwich, crazy I know. But there wasn’t anything else to see in Philly on that baking hot day bar a wall with some street art so we left.
My favourite restaurant in Manhattan is Stanton Social on the lower East side. It’s a place that does Tapas style food and Beauty and Essex is the sister restaurant around the corner. They are a little bit up themselves in there unlike Stanton and so are the clientele. I don’t like it really if the person asking you if you would like a drink is looking at you like a bored soon to be ex.
I don’t know if it’s a one-off or standard but in the ladies bathroom separated in a changing area they give away free champagne. I delighted in taking this offering (tipping of course) and watching the look of amusement on my friends faces as they waited to get served and I swanned upstairs with a glass of bubbly. Why we didn’t just traipse up and down all night I do not know. The waitress wouldn’t have noticed.
Later in the week, I walked the Highline which apparently on, online dating is the equivalent of going to Borough Market in London, as in everyone does it. It’s alright; kind of cool to see the city from a height, but not that mind-blowing however to walk on some concrete at a height. If I had gone on a date there I would have been pissed right off.
But New York had to have a quick goodbye for a couple of weeks after that as I made the next journey to Vegas, Miami and Tampa Bay once more.
New York – Days 24 to 35
I had a good friend in Town so we decided to do what I should do and don’t and that was go to the Museums. So we made arrangements and toddled over to the to Met Museum to find it closed. The Met is closed on a Monday to the Public should you need this info. So we went to the Natural History Museum to see the Whale Exhibition which was actually pretty good.
We had to go through the dinosaur exhibition to get anywhere and being a City girl I was immediately annoyed that I couldn’t just get direct to where I was going. Past childhood why on earth would you want to see a bunch of dinosaurs? But no I take it back. It’s pretty amazing and worth the walk. The only thing the museum could have done with is a good dusting. Some of the exhibits are behind glass and look like no one has cleaned the filth accumulating inside for as long as the items have existed. Get a duster Natural History.
We made it to the Met a few days later to the see the Punk Couture exhibition which would be great if you didn’t know anything about punk but I thought it was pretty lame in general. It’s a lot of clothes in rows and quite dull. But I’m from London and a musician so I know all about punk so I’m probably just being over picky. It didn’t stop me buying a CBGB t shirt at the end though. I once played there so I figured I had the right.
And in this amount of time there had been a ridiculous amount of food in amazing places. I do like a munch on the crumbs of life. Stanton Social on the Lower East Side, The Tangled Vine wine bar on the Upper West, Del Frisco’s amazing steak house in the Mid West, The Magnolia Bakery and their ridiculous Banana Pudding. And the cocktail bar of the hotel which killed it with their amazing mixology at The Crosby Hotel. I will name and shame the waiter in Sara Beth’s on the upper West Side for purposefully not trying to bring back change for a bill which meant he would have taken a 40% tip. And he was not making an error. When I complained he couldn’t even look me in the eye as he brought the change back. I am no tourist here now sir, so take the shame.
I also got stuck in a rainstorm. As it was warm and rainy I waited inside a toy store not looking suspicious in the slightest as I played on my phone. In the end my time of dawdling had run out and I decided to make a dash. Sure I might get a little wet but how much worse could it get? Well it gets much worse in New York as the sheets of rain hit. This is rain unlike any other I have experienced . I felt like I had been caught in a monsoon yet I was in the centre of New York. So if in doubt in the rain over here, just don’t.
And to top it off I l have been learning that the measurements of alcohol in drinks here is nothing like the paltry measures back home. I’m a practicing lush and I’m having to learn to take it slow on the consumption. Well I’m trying. After on a Monday night downing a few Espresso Martinis at the Crosby Hotel I went onto a friends bar where I ended up being the only proprietor. This ended with me getting over excited by the DJ playing a random selection of 80’s and running up to the booth like a fan and making him put on Don’t you Want me Baby by the Human League at full volume and making him sing it with me. Alone in the bar with my friend and two other co workers watching. The dangers of mixing the drinks is a lesson learned here. Maybe not adhered to but learned all the same. I felt very quiet the next day. Never have I willed a natural fruit juice to heal me more; It didn’t.
New York – Days 17 to 23
Be good to the people who work in the bars and clubs and they are good to you.
Things I have discovered.
1) Again I ended up somewhere twice in one week that if you sit at the bar and get wasted you end up with not much of a bill to pay. . Be nice to the bartenders and they are really nice to you. They free pour the spirits here so you end up with a glass of vodka and not much else to flavour it. This would never happen in the UK. Never. Well unless you were home doing the pouring.
2). You can get your nails done in every block here and your eyebrows too. How there are so many nail bars and brow bars in business is a mystery. Great prices and can always walk in. What a treat for the hands and feet.
Sickly Sweetness
3) I met an old friend and went walking, walking, walking around the city streets to buy as much sweets to make us sick as possible. The girl in a Disney like candy store looked and sounded like she was sugar rushing to the moon. Never has someone spoke so much crap so fast. I left my friend to deal with her. Note to self, don’t work in candy stores.
4) They like to have big menus here to match the portion size. See the burger menu and the beer menu.
- Any beer or ale you desire. Well alot of it.
5) Clubs here are still like clubs ten years ago. It was a weird experience to be back in a nightclub. I don’t think I had been in one for years. I knew I could have talked to loads of people but I was just enjoying watching the crowd and thinking of days gone by. And as they prance by with their not so creative face paint and sparkly tutus (just the guys) I wondered in ten years time whether they would be the one like me staring back at them thinking – ooh how boring.
6) Everyone has a dog. Big or small. None of these dogs bark. Weird.
7) If you want to play catch the Frisbee in Central park the pre requisite is to be in your early twenties and have a six-pack. Good thing I don’t like catch the Frisbee.
New York Day 16 – Lower East Side
Mary Poppins Comes to the Lower East Side for one night only.
I’ve discovered the app HopStop. This is amazing in NYC for someone like myself who gets lost turning around. The only problem is that it tells you at the end of a subway stop to go in a compass direction which is an immediate fail for someone like me. Luckily on day 16 the friend who called me to do coat check called me as I got out of Canal Street and asked what way the traffic was going and told me it was the wrong way and to turn around, This was repeated on Day 17 too. Day 18 someone showed me that there was a compass on the iphone. Life is complete.
Day 16 was a Saturday and I was out in Soho wandering around with a friend trying out various vessels of white wine in various bars, which is always going to create a more than drunk night. You never know which way it will go but becoming utterly wasted is always a certainity. I get a call from my friend who has the direction of a magnet asking me to do coat check in his bar. I was drunk so it seemed like a fab idea.
I didn’t really want to do coat check but I had blabbed on about how i would do any job the week before if someone asked me just to try it once and of course when you brag it comes back and hits you in the face. So off I went. A thirty something in a twenty somethi ng lower eastside bar. It was like a drunk Mary Poppins had come to town. ‘Oh do have a fabulous time tonight’ I crowed in a posher than normal voice as I tried to contain my OCD with arranging the tickets as they came back. I thought people would be really rude to me but they weren’t and it was fun until the hangover kicked in at 3am The rail behind me, of course, fell down.
One particular individual eyed me up suspiciously and said ‘What’s going on here?
What do you mean ? I relplied . ‘Your’re far too cute to be running coat check’ I went up to his face and said ‘ you are right – I am too cute to be doing coat check. I’m filling in for a friend.‘What do you do when you are not running coat check?’ he enquired.
‘Run An Empire’. I deadpan replied.
Thank you Pinot Grigio you served me well.
New York Days 11 to 15
So I moved into my gaff in the week. Advertised as a B and B but really like having a small studio apartment on the Upper West Side. I love having the space to myself even though I’m not used to a one room space. I’m obsessed with watching rubbish TV on Netflix as I haven’t watched TV in ages. The main thing that I worked out very quickly is that they deliver anything. And we’re not just talking food. They deliver – Wait for it – Wine, well alcohol in general. It’s already on speed dial and I was a regular within minutes. This is surely worthy of a blog on its own? I’ve also discovered a deli called Citarella that makes Marks and Spencers in the UK look like a corner store. Anything you want it’s there. Like restaurant food without having to sit down. I’ve been twice but I’ve managed to hold back a bit. It’s not been easy.
I got to have my first problem encounter with a neighbour upstairs who sounded like she was dragging furniture around at one in the morning Turns out she was. Being too polite to confront her myself I left a note grassing her up for the housekeeper. I don’t know what I expected to happen but he went straight to her and grassed me back up. On my return home I had a pack of earplugs and an apology note and then the worst case scenario, a knock on the door. I dealt with it by blaming the house for being so creaky not her neurotic behaviour and rather than ending it with a bye then said,
‘You really must come down before you leave and have a glass of wine.’
Why Why Why? So far no knock. I’d only turn the lights out and stand still for an hour if she did.
Manhattan is such a great place to wander around but I’m struggling with the fashion. There doesn’t seem to be any on the streets like London. Pretty generic and sporty. In London more than most have a particular sense of style. Most people I’ve noticed on the street or subway look like they picked up their partners clothes and threw them on, backwards. So much for Sex and the City. I can’t say I’m a sporty dresser so that’s a no. But then the designer discount stores are always worth a visit. Century 21 and Loehmans. Hold me back, I’m about to get into debt.
New York, New York Days 7 to 10
Spring in New York
So after resting up in Florida and moving onto New York I turned up still exhausted. Who on earth escapes from a city like London to come to a city like New York to rest? Lucky for me that I have a couple of very good friends in New York and I was looking forward to spending some quality time. I didn’t have an apartment arranged until Day 11 so I stayed with a good friend until then on the Upper West Side.
The Upper West Side is probably my favourite area of New York to be situated in. It’s residential but has a lot going on with cafe’s, supermarkets and of course banks. You can’t not look up and see a bank so no need to worry about that for a second in Manhattan. Banks that have the biggest waste of space known to man. I entered through the door and then turned to left and walked what felt like a mile to some cash machines. There was nothing in that empty space apart from my thoughts. I could have moved into that space and it would have been bigger than an average studio apartment in Manhattan.
Although I was staying in an apartment that had a married couple and two small children it ended up being a pleasant experience. The little girl aged three could rationalize like a thirty-three year old so that proved challenging at six in the morning when the life, universe and everything needed to be discussed. Even trying to convince her when she put the light on that maybe we needed more sleep time I was met with ‘ No it’s daytime and in the day time we get up and are awake.’ By day eleven, the conversation was flowing with
‘Morning’
‘ Morning’
‘Sleep well?’
‘ Yeah.’
‘ It’s awake time? ‘
‘Yeah.’
End of any argument.
The second child who I stayed with is an anomaly to all babies. At five months old I’ve never seen such a happy chilled out little chubster. I was told that if you get the timing of the milk wrong by the minute you will certainly hear about it but honestly I was present in the room whilst the baba was changed and bathed over half hour and I didn’t even realize that had happened. His mother’s nightmares are that she forgets him somewhere because he can be so quiet. She is not wrong.
A place to walk
So the first few days I was in family land. Eating home cooked food and chilling out. Watching rubbish TV and going to bed early to rise early. Central Park has become a place to go walking. I didn’t realize that from Broadway you can walk a few blocks one way and come to Riverside and walk by the Hudson and go the other way and you are in Central Park within ten minutes. And Central Park is huge. A sudden haven in the concrete jungle. I already have a favourite place to walk around which is the Jackie O Reservoir.
Day 9 the Sunday I ventured out to a place in the Lower East Side called Fat Buddha. And one thing I love about New York bars is that if you sit up at the bar and you are friendly enough the drinks start coming for free. Yes you heard it free. You don’t know this is happening until the end but when would that ever happen in London? The place where alcohol is measured by a thimble, here they may as well be holding you down and pouring it down your throat and for a borderline British alcoholic and most definitely a lush this was Manna. The next morning of Monday (day 10) waking up at half six to work was most certainly not.
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