Both fantabulastic and hurtsmyfeetandbrain. We stayed in Midtown, on the east side - across Times Square from the theaters and Hell’s Kitchen. So we always had to cross Times Square when we wanted to do something. This is bad. Times Square is just too overwhelming; I’m finding that I don’t do crowds and visual over-stimulation anymore. I think in high school I thrived on it, but now I can’t handle it. My brain gets all schizy and my sphincter clenches. The best times we had were in Lower Manhattan and on the West Side: Greenwich Village, SoHo, Chelsea, the West 40s. Even though those were still Manhattan it seemed like they were neighborly, inwardly-focused. One day we walked all the way from our hotel near Grand Central Station down to SoHo. We ate at a cool Mexican restaurant, I bought myself douche-wear (pre-torn jeans and tight knit shirts), and Jerry shopped galleries. He was a little disappointed in the galleries. He said that the galleries all held works by famous names. We were hoping to find more galleries with works from local artists. I guess that scene has moved to the Meat Packing District. Next time we’ll make it down there.
As usual we had some great meals. Our best were at Gotham Bar & Grill and Esca. We liked Esca a little bit better because it was a surprise to us. We were just strolling through the West 40s and we came across it. We shared a salt-crusted whole sea bass in olive oil. It was to die for. Our most relaxed-but-good was at Jack. Our biggest disappointment was at Serendipity 3. Don’t believe the Oprah-hype. When we weren’t feeling like interloping child-molesters due to the high female tween population, we were being assualted by Victorian kitzch. The frozen hot chocolate - their signature item, the confection that a Food Network star described as complex and rich - was nothing more than a Starbucks mocha frappuccino. Luckily Jerry fell for the hype instead of me. I enjoyed a delicious peanut butter sundae.
We saw Spring Awakening
We walked a lot, as was our intention. Since I knew we were going to eat a lot, I wanted to maintain some semblance of health by walking. Consequently I was tired the whole time. Next time we’ll plan on eating less, walking less, and staying near NYU. That seemed to be the area that was central to all the places we liked the best. And we won’t be duped into Oprah’s recommendations.
We plan on gong to London early next year. I think I’m going to ask my doctor for an anti-anxiety medication. Hopefully that will help me to relax and enjoy myself more.
karlwinslow | 24-Sep-08 at 10:49 am | Permalink
i loved the time that i spent there last summer, and although i didn’t have enough cash to go out to eat every night, the few times we did it was really delicious. don’t ask me to remember the name of the restaurants.
the rest of the time it was pizza. which is still really delicious.