Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Overjoyed in Manhattan: Day 1 - The Day of Random Food Discoveries

I heart NY. No, seriously, I do. I was really excited when my family decided to visit in December for my Grandma's 75th birthday. I always said that I wanted to see Manhattan dressed up for Christmas. People liked to discourage this idea in me because of the cold, but honestly, it wasn't that bad! I honestly think I over-prepared for the cold. A few days, I was downright sweaty from clothes that were too thick/insulating for the 30-40F weather. Anyway, 12.06.10 was our first day in Manhattan, and we spent the day roaming our old stomping grounds from a previous visit--5th Ave. It's an easy walk from my Aunt's building to Bloomies, so we decided a walk around the areas we've previously visited would be nice for our first day.



Random Awesome Food Find #1: a second floor pizza place (somewhere in the vicinity of big stores and Central Park) with some really delish non-NY style pizza.






Apple Store


Wandering Central Park with my parents





We found a mansion for sale!


Random Awesome Food Find #2: Payard Chocolate Bar. We really wanted something hot to drink (our first day in the cold weather, and there were snow flurries), but for some reason there was no Starbucks in sight! Unheard of, right? My mom and I stopped to look at the display of a store next to some jewelry shop, and my dad says, "Oh! Chocolate bar! Let's go!" Ummm...there were no signs or storefronts for a chocolate bar. Just a menu of a chocolate bar out on the sidewalk in between two shops. For a second, I thought this chocolate bar was about to pull a Grimmauld Place and pop into place between the two shops after we'd discovered the "secret" from the menu. Probably noticing our confusion, the security guard for the jewelry shop goes, "The chocolate shop is right through here. Walk to the back of the store and take the elevator up." Yup, you enter a jewelry shop, walk through the store to the elevator in the back and ride it up to the chocolate bar. Random, but oh so worth it.





We headed to Chelsea Market for dinner since the website said it closed pretty late. Unfortunately, though the building itself is open pretty late, the shops inside close early. Boo.









Random Awesome Food Find #3: Since we couldn't eat at the market, we wandered down the street towards food...and picked a restaurant at random--Chelsea Ristorante. It was actually pretty darn good!









That's all for Day 1. Next up: Greenwich Village Food Tour! yum...

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