Nine

Yesterday we met family for brunch at 9.

I had their Marscapone French Toast and it was amazing!  It didn't even need syrup, just a thin strawberry juice drizzled around the plate over fresh berries.  My husband had their short rib hash and said it was excellent as well.  I highly recommend this place for brunch if you are near 9th Ave and 53rd.

Sardi's

I haven't been to Sardi's in a while unfortunately, but the last time I went by I took a picture for you because I wanted to tell you how awesome Sardi's was for dessert!  My friend Amy and I went there after seeing Equus on Broadway a couple of years ago and got dessert.  It was scrumptious!  During dessert we struck up a conversation with the couple at the table next to us and they were so fascinating that we talked for hours and closed down the restaurant.  It was an amazing night.

For those of you who aren't aware of what Sardi's is famous for it is the decor.  The food is great too, of course, but Sardi's is the restaurant with all of the caricatures of famous people on the wall.  It has been featured in loads of movies but my favorite of them all was the scene in The Muppets Take Manhattan where Kermit is trying to make himself seem like a big-shot producer and he sneaks into Sardi's and takes down Liza Minelli's photo and replaces it with one of himself.  That was comedy gold to a six year old, let me tell you!

Lederhosen

Today for lunch we took a trip downtown to one of our favorite places.  Lederhosen is a lovely German restaurant in the West Village.

The food was fabulous, as always!  The place can get a little loud at night as it is a bar as well as a restaurant but everything else about it is perfect.  They offer traditional German fare at a very low price (especially with their lunch specials) and there is a beautiful mural painted along the back walls of the rolling hills of Germany.  If you are in NYC and looking for good German food this is the place to go!  Check out my lunch today!

Fresh Direct

One of the most awesome things about living in NYC is grocery delivery.  You can get all sort of things delivered here from chinese food to shampoo but the very best delivery of all is groceries.  At www.freshdirect.com you can shop online for almost anything you can get in a standard grocery store, as well as prepared foods and bulk items, and they will bring it right to your door.  I've found that they are pricier than a standard grocery store but that I spend much less on groceries shopping this way because I don't have to walk by displays of cakes, cookies, candy bars, or other delicious items to get to the things I am there to buy.  I have very little will power when it comes to sweets so I love that I can avoid those things by ordering groceries online.

If you live in NYC or the surrounding area go check them out and place an order.  They are fantastic!

Dinner at Angus McIndoe

Last night we met my husband's aunt at a restaurant downtown called Angus McIndoe.  We had a great time!

The food was really delicious.  My husband had their conch chowder and I had their le burger superieur and we both thought they were excellent.  Our waitress was wonderfully attentive and the restaurant was lovely.  It was a little pricey but we had a gift card so it wasn't too bad.  The best part was that they were wonderfully understanding about our bringing the baby with us.  She stayed quiet the whole time and everyone made funny faces at her and told us how beautiful she is so we were very pleased that they were so understanding about having a baby in the restaurant.  If you are in the theater district and looking for a good place to eat I highly recommend it. 

Here we are enjoying dinner!  I put black bars over our faces for privacy purposes but this way you get to see the inside of the restaurant (and the baby in all her cuteness!)

Discount Week and Other Fun Stuff

It looks like there is a ton going on this month in NYC!

First up is Restaurant Week.  This is a fabulous time to go to dinner someplace that would normally be out of your price range.  I personally suggest 21 Club or Bobby Van's for dinner because they are both delicious.  Then after dinner you can catch a half price Broadway show during Broadway Week!  Today started the New York Jewish Film Festival and currently you can see the caricature and satire exhibit Infinite Jest at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  All of these things look fantastic for those people who aren't at home taking care of a newborn.  Please go out and experience the wonder of the city so that I can live vicariously through you.

Stand Up at Carolines

On Wednesday my husband and I went to Carolines to see my husband's favorite comedian, Jeff Ross, perform.  We had a great time!

I will say that, as nice as Carolines was, we have other comedy clubs that we prefer in the city.  The only reason we went to see Jeff Ross was because the tickets were a gift from my husband's aunt, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to afford to go.  On top of a fairly pricey ticket they also have a 2 beverage minimum so you aren't getting out of there for less than $120.  We typically will go to Dangerfield's with their online coupon or to the HA! via street hawkers if we want to see some stand up comedy.  The comedians aren't as famous but the prices are significantly better.

I do have a picture but I have to upload it from my husband's phone tonight so it will be up later.  Have a wonderful New Year's Eve (and please don't stand in Times Square for 16 hours to see the ball drop...just go to a party or stay home and eat chinese food like the rest of the sane people in NYC.)

The Philharmonic

Last night I went with a friend of mine to see Handel's Messiah at Avery Fisher Hall.  It was fabulous!  I consider myself very lucky that she had a spare ticket as they are so expensive that I wouldn't have been able to go otherwise and it was a wonderful performance.  The only bad part was that the Tenor became ill and his part of the show was cut after the first act, but frankly most of the people there were simply there to see one thing anyway so it wasn't the most terrible thing to have happen.  I ran out the door without my camera unfortunately but I did take a picture of the program when I got home!

I'm so glad that I got a chance to get out and do something "Christmas-y" this year.  With the baby at home we've been very busy and mostly home bound so we haven't had a chance to do the things you normally do in NYC during the holidays like seeing the tree at Rockefeller Center or the decorations at all the stores on 5th Ave.  We haven't even had snow yet this year except for one freak storm in October!  Usually I'm a big fan of this time of year but this year it seems like we are putting the holidays on pause and making up for it next year instead.

Sucky Winter Weather

I love cold weather.  LOVE it.  For my honeymoon my husband and I traveled to Finland in November and went up to the arctic circle where we did snow tubing and dog sledding.  We are really into cold, wintery weather.

So, of course, this year it has been 60 freaking degrees every day.  We have the air conditioner on and it is December 7th!  I'm dreaming of a white Christmas and instead I'm getting a warm, wet, gross winter.  Sigh.  At least the lights are still up all over the city so I'm enjoying that!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  I'm still here, I promise, but man am I busy.  Last week the baby was born and since then we've been sleeping in shifts and I've been surviving on percocet after a very difficult c-section.  I'll be back eventually with all sorts of New York-y things for you once I've had a chance to heal and sleep a little.