Just met some friends in the Big Apple. The real reason for the trip was to see Jane Fonda's play 33 Variations, see previous post at http://sonasez.blogspot.com while celebrating my birth month. However, we wanted to catch some other cultural activities while we were there.
We stayed at the Le Parker Meridien, an upscale W Hotel without all of the uppity attitude. It was a perfect location, between Times Square and Central Park and close to 5th Avenue Shopping. We loved the hotel. It had everything: the Burger Joint, (one of the best burgers/fries/and draft in a diner style with unpretentious booths); Knave, a European Espresso/Bar that truly makes the best Cafe Americano in NYC; Gravity Fitness center (not really needed with Central Park next door); and large rooms. The smallest rooms are over 300 square feet, nothing to joke about in NYC. When the city's typical boutique hotels rooms are just shy of 100 square feet, we felt like we were at home in the spacious rooms. Since it was my birthday, they upgraded my room, never heard of that one, but really liked it. We entered the room to find a bottle of Champagne, fruit basket, flowers and a massage gift card, chocolate dipped strawberries, all from friends and family wanting me to celebrate well while in the Big Apple. All was great until we left the hotel. The NYC cab drivers get a bad rap for a reason. My stomach churns every time I get into one. I am not used to their driving. We were so excited to get tickets to the Martha Stewart show. The best thing about it was her audience warm up guy. Martha comes out, looks straight into the camera and gets down to brass tacks. She did not get her reputation from making subtle niceties with her guests. I don't think she looked at one person in the audience and certainly never interacted with them. Her guest on our visit was Ray Liotta, (Corrina, Corrina, Good Fellas). He even commented on how on edge Martha was. She rarely cracks a smile. Definitely not a visit I would repeat.
We went to Balthazar for some great European Pastries, and the almond and chocolate croissants are some of the best in the city. I had lunch there once at the invitation of chef Alice Waters and it was one of the best lunches of my entire adult life. What you realize when you visit a place like NYC is that there are so many great things but just like everything good, there is always a price to pay. The city has some serious smelly cats. At almost every turn, you smell a foul odor, I never have this experience in the ATL. When out and about in Manhattan, from Madison Avenue, to Harlem to Soho, or Central Park, there are always plentiful odors emanating: from the sewer vents, to the garbage, to the urine smells to doggie and horse poop all over Central Park. I guess the sheer number of people makes it a logistical nightmare to keep the city free from vile odors.
Despite the ever-persistent smelly cat, we had some very tasty food while in the city. The Modern at MOMA is one of the best deals for Foodies in NYC. They have a great wine list, a beautiful restaurant and bar, and exceptionally good tapas size dishes for a good price. The duck breast with pistachio truffle oil, the fish of the day, and the tarte flambee are all winners. The service was exceptional also. Our next highlight was sitting in the Orchestra Box at the American Airlines Theatre. After all of the Lincoln at the Ford Theatre jokes, all of my friends thanked me for the great seats. If only the play had been worthy. We saw Hedda Gabler. We thought it had to be good with one of our favorite Showtime actors, Mary Louise Parker (Weeds, Fried Green Tomatoes). We should have known from Ibsen's first run of the play in 1891 opening to negative reviews, that it wasn't going to be any better this time around. We never could figure out the point of the play. It was supposed to be the story of a free spirited 19th Century Woman who gets what she wants. In the end, she talks her previous lover into killing himself to find out that he was killed by someone else in a drunken state at a brothel using the gun she gave him to kill himself. When an evil judge decides to have his way with her because he knows who's gun it is, she decides to shoot herself in the temple. It seemed like a story about an unhappy housewife that was bored with life. This play should have never been on Broadway, maybe not even off, off Broadway. If you ever have the chance to see it, don't... It is definitely not worth it even in the Orchestra Box and with Mary Louise Parker as Hedda Gabler.
We also shopped all up and down Madison and 5th Avenues. We couldn't get into the Cartier store because we were 3 minutes before opening time. I thought we were in a recession but clearly, Cartier does not need the business. We also were met with great skepticism at Ralph Lauren, Brooks Brothers, David Yurman and all of the other supposedly fine stores in NYC. The only place where we were welcomed was Thomas Pink's Shirt store. The retail sales people in NYC should all be sent to the ATL for a lesson or two in courteous retail training. You would never experience the utter rudeness at Phipps or Lenox that we experienced in the Big Apple. We left Madison Avenue to check out Harlem. We kept hoping to run into President Bill Clinton, but no such luck. We only ran into more rudeness and chocolate salesmen. About the best thing about our trip to Harlem, was our trip back out of there. We tried to experience all the Big Apple has to offer in 3 days and I think we got around to some of the highlights. Would love to hear about your last trip there.....
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