Well thanks for all the tips. Here’s a quick synopsis of our quick trip into NYC last week. First let me offer a thousand apologies for not offering to get together with anyone. This was a two day trip that was family only. My wife is pretty tolerant of my habits but this would have been a bozo no no. Arriving late wed. pm we were staying at the Sheraton on Canal and took a brisk walk to Lombardi’s for some pizza. My daughter didn’t want pizza so she had the meatballs. Needless to say 4 orders of meatballs and 2 pizzas hit the spot along with a few beers for daddy and mommy. Success.
Night two my nephew was in town for some hub bub at Columbia so we met him at Momofuku Noodle Bar. Very cool and loved the energy. Every restaurant owners dream is to have a small packed place nightly. Loved that they offered kids ramen and plain buns. We ordered some pork buns and ramen for the adults also. Loved the ramen but IMO I don’t get why some hold it to a mythical status. There is certainly good and bad ramen but anyway I digress. What I thought was weird is the children’s portion seamed to have a distinct fishy flavor to the broth and neither of my kids liked it. Anyway we went next door and grabbed some pizza and meatballs. (Get the pattern). Anyway we headed downtown as this was 9/11 and went to the memorial around 10:30 at night. My niece was with us and is 13 so she really got something out of this. My 8 and 7 year old spoke with some New Yorkers about that day and experienced some very real emotions. When one guy broke down and started crying my son just looked at me wondering what to do. Still breaks my heart. Anyway after a discussion of what happened that night 13 years ago we headed back to the hotel. Long walk carrying a sleeping baby. Oh by the way we took a double decker bus tour during the day. Never did that but it was kind of fun.
Friday we headed down to Battery Park where my wife arranged a private tour of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Again I had never done anything like this so even though I’ve been to NY 6 or so times this was a first. Plus with my parents being immigrants the Statue of Liberty has special meaning to my family. After we walked down to The street festival of St. Someone or other. The only thing I know is the games were tremendously expensive but one of the ride guys let my kids go on repeatedly. The food there smelled amazing and I was a little pissed we had dinner plans. Anyway we grabbed some meatballs to go and ran back to the hotel. One of the board members politely suggested some child care and she was amazing. My kids loved her and her great positive energy. Thanks again. Wifey and I had dinner at Marea and brought a 2000 Leflaive Chevy from home. The wine was outstanding and still in the zone. I’m going top miss this one when they are gone. Dinner was better than the wine. Seriously one of the better experiences I’ve had. We did a 4 course dinner and added Crudo. The Crudo was excellent and accompanied a vintage champagne they offered by the glass. Next course was the lobster with burrata and fried oysters. Truth is I never thought the lobster would work but it did. Fabulous. For pasta we did the fusilli with bone marrow and octopus and the gnocchetti. both were great but I preferred the gnocchetti. For mains it was dover sole and grilled prawns. Again delicious and just the way we prefer to eat. Service was both efficient, professional and most importantly friendly. We had a wonderful time with our waiter who exhibited a great sense of humor.
The next day the family did a little shopping at Pink, American Girl and FAO and off to Atlantic City.