I loved NYC before Sex & the City and well before Gossip Girl. My love for the city started in middle school. I was exceptionally lucky to visit my father’s dear friend and surrogate uncle there once or twice a year. I did all of my school clothes shopping in the city and even spent the 1999 New Years Eve in Times Square with my family and best friend. New York is a city like no other. If you visit, I highly recommend the following:
Some of my most favorite places to eat are:
- Russ and Daughters (179 E Houston St New York, NY 10002) THE place to get bagels and lox.
- Gray’s Papaya for a hot dog (2090 Broadway New York) There are TONS of locations and all of them are good.
- Another NYC institution is the famous Katz’s Delicatessen on East Houston Street.
- One of my most favorite places to eat in the entire city is Union Square Cafe. It where I first had tuna tartare and beef carpaccio. Amazing!
- The Jordan Lobster Farms (1 Pettit Pl, Island Park, NY 11558) in Island Park is really good
There are often other places I love like Prosperity Dumplings (now closed) and Izakaya Ten (also now closed), but like lots of great things in NYC change happens. I always like finding new places every time we visit.
Places to see/visit
- The High Line (West 29th Street near 10th Ave) This is getting more and more built up and it’s amazing. I had some of the best street popsicles I’ve ever had there.
- Museum of Natural History (81st Street and Central Park West)
- The NYC Public Library. I’m a sucker for Old Winnie the Pooh and the originals are there!
- No trip to NYC is complete without a walk through Times Square (it’s super overwhelming regardless of time or day)
- The Post Office by Penn Station is a great place to sit and people watch for a bit.
- The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum is a lot of fun and worth the price of admission. (J and I trade museums. I like art and history and he likes military and history so it works out = )
- Of course the Shopping in SOHO is amazing.
If you’re looking for a day trip, I cannot recommend Fire Island enough. It was pretty heavily damaged by Hurricane Sandy, but they’ve done a lot of rebuilding. It’s one of my favorite places in the continental United States. While there the fish tacos at Castaway are really good. There’s a pasta place Dinner at Michael’s Ristorante & Pizzeria which has delicious Spaghetti Militare.
Have fun!