NYC Trip Report
 

NYC trip to visit my dear daughter, July 14 - 18th. Stayed with her in her apartment in the West Village. This is a mini-report and the highlights of the trip:

Arrived Jet Blue at JFK at 6 PM. For the first time I took the Airtrain from JFK to 4th Street Station. PIECE OF CAKE and $7.25. Took me exactly one hour from Airtrain terminal to her front door. I will never take a cab again unless I absolutely have to. I kick myself to think of the $$$ I've wasted on cabs when this was so easy. (Going back on Sunday I took the wrong A train but was able to change at Euclid)

Restaurants:
Cornelia Street Cafe - lovely fresh dinner, great service, reasonable price. My daughter had an amazing crab cake, perhaps the best ever. The Melon soup was also delish. We filled up on cheeses from Murray's earlier so each of us had a salad. Perfect.

Quinto Quarto (Bedford) is a small, family run real Italian restaurant. Its a return trip for me. Amazingly reasonable pasta dishes (average $11) which includes bread. Wines for $34 a bottle. We also recieved a complementary tasting from the chef.

8th Street Wine Cellar (near 6th Ave) We went during their happy hour. $18 bottle of wine, nicely made tapas. We had the bruschetta, cheese platter (they use Amy's breads) This is a small venue and I'm glad we got there early (5:30) this was our pre-theatre choice and no where near the theatre, so we ate early.

Alta - W. 10th (btwn 5th/6th) this was our favorite. HUGE list of tapas (yes, we love tapas!) We ordered 4 and also recieved 2 complementary dishes. fried goat cheese with lavendar infused honey was simple and memorable, White Truffle and Porcini Deviled Eggs were the favorite, crispy brussel spouts were even better than mine, and spaghetti Pepperocini was surpringly good. (recc by waitress) Huge wine list (tasty rioja from Alta was perfect) great service. Only negative is that the place is noisy. Can't wait to go back.

Entertainment: La Cage Aux Folles - Loved it loved it loved it. Made me laugh and cry. Great performances.

Comedy Cellar on MacDougal. Laughed so hard we cried. We tried to go one night but they were sold out of all 4 shows. The next night all we could get was the 7:30 show. Make a reservation and GO!

Alta is by far the greatest place in NYC. I'm so happy that you enjoyed it!

I'll be in NYC for a quick weekend trip in Sept...the restaurants/wine bar in your report sound like my kind places!

Thanks, Austin! Good tips all around and glad you enjoyed your visit.

Austin - sounds like a thoroughly delicious trip! Tell your daughter to try (if she hasn't already) I Sodi, small newish Italian restaurant in west village - chef is Rita Sodi from near Florence - very good but not inexpensive. And I felt exactly like you did when seeing La Cage.

What a nice report; thanks for sharing. It makes me want to book a flight for NYC and follow in your footsteps.

Tell your daughter there are other fine places on Cormelia including Le Gigot and Home.

Audchamp, We saw Home and decided we WILL go there next visit. Looked like "our" kind of place. I'll tell her to try it in the mean time. ;-) There was always a line (even before they opened) at Pearl, an oyster bar restaurant on Cornelia. Have you been?

CPG, I will tell her. Thanks for the tip!

I once gave a reading at the Cornelia Street Cafe before the turn of the century.

We like Le Gigot and Home but have not gone to Pearl.

We love to food shop at the foot of Cornelia. There is Murray's, arguably the best cheesemonger in the city. Amy's bread which has a wonderful assortment, we are partial to the potato dill and black sesame semonlina and Faicco's. It is an old style Italian butcher complete with the schtick. It is throwback when to the days when the neighborhood was Italian and Irish. Try the rice balls.

Across the street is Matt Umanov's Guitars. It is the opposite of Guitar Center. It is populated with adults who know their stuff and if anyone called you 'dude' they'd be hung up by their g-string. On occasion you will see one of their better known clients. Matt is an old Brooklyn boy.

Then for dessert go to Cones for some store made ice cream and gealti.