After a long travel day, Kimberly and I slept in, instead of waking up early for The Today Show and took our time getting ready. When all was said and done, we were "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" by 11:30am, haha! We of course just skipped breakfast and headed to lunch at MacarOn Cafe, which is where I HAD to go to try some lovely macarons. When we arrived though, we realized that it wasn't a place to have a relaxing lunch since it was so tiny with just a few seats that were already full. It was a cute little shop, bustling with business during the lunch rush. I went ahead and grabbed a few for the tour bus and man, oh man were they great!
Aren't they just beautiful? They are even better than they look! Light and fluffy with a rich flavor.
Pictured left to right: Lavender Honey (close 2nd), Lemon, Matcha Green Tea (FAVORITE!), Blackberry, Apricot, and Raspberry.
We decided to find another place to eat, so we found The Bread Factory Cafe where we enjoyed a filling lunch. It also was a busy place, but had ample seating and quite the variety of soups, sandwiches, wraps, salads and pastries. We even met a true "New Yorker" who graciously offered to take our picture. He went on to tell us not to believe everything about New Yorkers being mean, as he was born and raised there.
After lunch, we hopped on our tour bus with the tickets we had purchased on the way to lunch. There are so many street vendors for these double-decker bus tours on almost every corner, and we found a man that was so nice the not pushy at all, thank goodness! I hate that I didn't take a picture of our bus :(. Even though it was pretty cold and windy, we wanted the best view of the city, so we decided to sit on the top deck at the back of the bus. The tour ran from Times Square all the way south to Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan and back. We had different plans though and took a break in SoHo to shop at H&M, since I really needed something nicer than what I brought to wear to our dinner that night at Bobby Flay's Bar Americain.
After about an hour and a half shopping, I finally found a fun black dress to wear, along with some other casual shirts that I love and Kimby found a cute outfit, as well. By that time, it was later than we anticipated (around 5:30), so we were able to push our 7:00pm reservation to 8:45pm. We were still full from lunch earlier anyway, so it worked out perfectly! We hopped on the subway system back to the hotel to rest for a minute, get showers and beautify for our big dinner! Fast forward a couple hours and there we were a few blocks from our hotel at Bar Americain.
We enjoyed impeccable service and outstanding food. Kimberly and I shared the Raw Bar Shelfish Cocktails for our appetizer, which consisted of three shot sized servings; Lobster-Avacado, Shrimp-Tomatillo & Crab-Coconut. Hands down the Crab-Coconut was the most delicious. We also loved the tomatillo sauce for the shrimp cocktail. While we both thought that we would like the Lobster-Avacado the best, it came up short for us because of the seasoning. I THINK it had curry in it, which I like in certain foods, but not as much this time around.
We each enjoyed a glass of wine; Kimberly with a Sauvignon Blanc, Root 1 2011 Casablanca Valley, Chile and I tried the Cabernet Sauvignon, Powers 2009 Columbia Valley, WA. Our entrees soon arrived and we couldn't wait to try them! Kimberly ordered the Braised Swordfish with Red Chile, Orange, Zinfandel and Creamy Hominy. Of course, we had to try each others dishes and it was phenomenal. IF I ever get to visit again, I would choose this as my entree.
My choice, the Porterhouse Lamb Chops with Mustard Barbeque Sauce and Sweet Potato Gratin, was delicious. The chops were so tender and cooked to a perfect medium-rare, and the Sweet Potato Gratin was savory and sweet...just what I expected it to be.
To top off the night I enjoyed the Blackberry Souffle...although, I forced Kimberly to have a bite! Oh man - I'm so glad that I didn't turn down dessert! It had just the right amount of sweetness and was topped with Lemon Creme Freshe, which made the dessert - yum!
Since the night was still young...10:45pm...we decided to have a "night cap" at Three Monkeys, which was right next door to our hotel. I tried my first Blue Moon beer and it was pretty good, although I'm not a big beer drinker. We finally were tired and made the short few steps back to our hotel. Day two couldn't have been better!
Aren't they just beautiful? They are even better than they look! Light and fluffy with a rich flavor.
Pictured left to right: Lavender Honey (close 2nd), Lemon, Matcha Green Tea (FAVORITE!), Blackberry, Apricot, and Raspberry.
We decided to find another place to eat, so we found The Bread Factory Cafe where we enjoyed a filling lunch. It also was a busy place, but had ample seating and quite the variety of soups, sandwiches, wraps, salads and pastries. We even met a true "New Yorker" who graciously offered to take our picture. He went on to tell us not to believe everything about New Yorkers being mean, as he was born and raised there.
We enjoyed impeccable service and outstanding food. Kimberly and I shared the Raw Bar Shelfish Cocktails for our appetizer, which consisted of three shot sized servings; Lobster-Avacado, Shrimp-Tomatillo & Crab-Coconut. Hands down the Crab-Coconut was the most delicious. We also loved the tomatillo sauce for the shrimp cocktail. While we both thought that we would like the Lobster-Avacado the best, it came up short for us because of the seasoning. I THINK it had curry in it, which I like in certain foods, but not as much this time around.
We each enjoyed a glass of wine; Kimberly with a Sauvignon Blanc, Root 1 2011 Casablanca Valley, Chile and I tried the Cabernet Sauvignon, Powers 2009 Columbia Valley, WA. Our entrees soon arrived and we couldn't wait to try them! Kimberly ordered the Braised Swordfish with Red Chile, Orange, Zinfandel and Creamy Hominy. Of course, we had to try each others dishes and it was phenomenal. IF I ever get to visit again, I would choose this as my entree.
To top off the night I enjoyed the Blackberry Souffle...although, I forced Kimberly to have a bite! Oh man - I'm so glad that I didn't turn down dessert! It had just the right amount of sweetness and was topped with Lemon Creme Freshe, which made the dessert - yum!
Since the night was still young...10:45pm...we decided to have a "night cap" at Three Monkeys, which was right next door to our hotel. I tried my first Blue Moon beer and it was pretty good, although I'm not a big beer drinker. We finally were tired and made the short few steps back to our hotel. Day two couldn't have been better!
3 comments:
So fun! I took the exact same photo of Bar Americain's menu last night! Ha! And Casey has the same entree you had. I got the rabbit. We really enjoyed it! (I had a glass of the Cabernet too!) your bus looks so fun! I love reading about your trip!
It all sounds great! I want to go if you all go again! Ha. Ha!
So fun. I feel like I was there with you. I could just imagine how it all tasted. :). Thanks for sharing. Kep them coming.
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