Trip Report 5/20/09 - 5/25/09 Part Two

Friday, May 22

Day three of our trip and another beautiful, sunny day. We met again at 9:00 in the lobby and grabbed some coffee at the Times Square Starbucks before taking the yellow N/R line to Spring Street in Soho. As we came up out of the subway, we were facing one of Dean %26amp; DeLuca’s main stores, so we browsed there for a while before heading to Balthazar for brunch. I had the best quiche I’ve had in my life. It had caramelized onions, red peppers, and Gruyere cheese in it and was so rich and creamy. Coleen and Larry got scrambled eggs and asparagus in puff pastry, and Steve got the hazelnut sour cream waffles with warm berry compote. John got French Toast. We all shared a basket of baked pastries from the Balthazar bakery and fresh-squeezed orange juice. A wonderful meal.

After brunch it was time for Soho shopping! I stumbled onto a 70% off sale at Kate’s Paperie and bought more writing paper with avant garde hues and patterns. They even gave me a 10$ off coupon to use online before I left. Then we hit several stores on Broadway in Soho including Kenneth Cole and A/X again. The guys went to the Lucky jeans store, and Coleen found Victoria’s Secret. John and I filled out a survey for Kenneth Cole and each received a $25 gift card to use online. Sweet!

When we were all finally shopped out, we started roaming the streets through Soho and Greenwich Village. We made our way up to Washington Square Park near NYU and found some delightful tap dancers and street performers in the park. Upon exiting the west side of the park and walking down a little way, we passed the Blue Hill restaurant (I must remember this location for next time) and gradually ended up near Christopher Street/Sheridan Square. We showed everyone the Stonewall Bar, the birthplace of the gay rights movement back in 1969. We spent some time browsing in Three Lives %26amp; Company bookstore. I bought a couple of books there because I like to support independently owned bookstores. Then we made our way to The Strand bookstore on Broadway. Eighteen miles of books!! We spend a good hour perusing the aisles there before it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for dinner.

We allotted an hour to shower and dress for our dinner at The Four Seasons on East 52nd Street. Most of us got the $59 prix-fixe menu. I don’t remember what everyone had for every course, but here are the highlights: I had seafood risotto to start, followed by red snapper, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. John ordered bison, and we also shared a side dish of potatoes gratinee. Coleen had duck and chocolate velvet for dessert. For Steve’s and Coleen’s birthdays they even brought out an extra dessert tray of delicious cookies and chocolates and four complimentary flutes of champagne. A thoroughly enjoyable meal!

Then it was on to the musical revival of “Hair” at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. What a hippie, trippy, rollicking fun time! The cast was so great, and the ending. Wow! It got to me, and – you guessed it – I cried. The music was outstanding, and the cast came out into the audience several times to distribute flyers and flowers and just to rev up the crowd! We had fifth row mezzanine seats yet felt like we were in the thick of everything. It was SRO that night, and everyone was feeling the groovy vibe! After the curtain call, the audience is invited to come dance onstage with the cast. I raced down and participated, and IT WAS A BLAST!! We all were jumping around singing “Let the Sunshine In”. So much fun. More stage door autographs afterward. No pictures, though, because the crowd was too thick to get close enough to the actors.

No one was that hungry after “Hair”, so we went back to the hotel. Coleen came up to our room, and we talked until almost 12:30 a.m. about the show and all our interpretations of it. Another late night, but well worth it.

Saturday, May 23

We met at 8:30 a.m. this morning and walked up to Sarabeth’s again for brunch so Steve and Larry could eat there. Another great meal. I had the red omelette with salsa and sour cream and a raisin scone…and yes, more Four Flowers juice! I can’t recall what everyone else had. This provided a perfect jumping off point to explore Central Park. We walked up through the center of the park past the Sheep’s Meadow and the Carousel, through the Mall, and to Bethesda Fountain, where we found a terrific group of string musicians called Break of Reality playing. They were so good that we bought some of their CDs. Another perfect weather day – we were so blessed with great weather the entire trip. After lingering at the fountain, we walked past the Boathouse, up through the Ramble to Belvedere Castle, and on to the Reservoir at 86th Street. We didn’t have time to walk around the Reservoir (next time), so we made our way out to Central Park West and headed south to the Dakota building at West 72nd Street, where John Lennon was shot and killed on the sidewalk. We re-entered the park here so we could see part of Strawberry Fields and the tiled “Imagine” monument to Lennon.

We made a detour onto West 65th Street to Le Pain Quotidien for a quick lunch before hopping the subway in Lincoln Center and arriving just in time to be seated at the Shubert Theatre for a 2:00 matinee of Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” with Rupert Everett, Jayne Atkinson, Christine Ebersole, and Angela Lansbury. What a cast! And what a script! Such a funny play with language you could feast on. They don’t write plays like this anymore. A great British drawing room comedy, and Lansbury got rounds of applause every time she appeared on stage. I was hoping to get autographs and pictures afterward, but the only cast member to come out was Susan Louise O’Connor, who was a stitch as the maid, Edith. I can understand why the rest of the cast didn’t come out considering they had another show to perform that night with only a three-hour break.

Steve and Larry wanted to take a nap before our big night out at Daniel, but Coleen, John, and I were still feeling adventurous. So after a quick restroom pit stop at Hard Rock Café, we hopped the red 1 line all the way downtown to the last stop – South Ferry. We did the Battery Park City Walk card, which gave us great views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, some of the Jersey shoreline, and took us on a riverfront promenade past the Fritz Koenig sculpture that survived the 9/11 attacks and serves as a memorial to those who died that day. At the end of the walk, we walked around the perimeter of the World Trade Center disaster site (not much progress made at all – still a gigantic pit in the ground) and caught the subway at Chambers Street back up to Times Square.

We had an 8:15 p.m. reservation at Chef Daniel Boulud’s eponymous restaurant on the Upper East Side. We were dressed to the nines and ready for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Daniel did not disappoint us. From the moment we whisked through the revolving door into this enchantingly elegant space to the moment we reluctantly left four hours later, we were treated like royalty. I have never had a better dining experience or a better repast in my life. There simply aren’t words to describe how blissful our time was there. It wasn’t pretentious. It was sophisticated, yet we felt completely at ease. Not only were we treated like royalty – we were dining with it! Halfway through our meal, we thought we noticed the Queen of Jordan, Rania Al-Abdullah dining five tables from us. (A quick Google search after departing the restaurant confirmed that it was, indeed, her.) We suspected as much because Daniel Boulud sat down at her table toward the end of the evening and spent a significant amount of time talking and drinking wine with them. He had circulated around to our table earlier. It was a surreal experience meeting a world-renowned chef. I unabashedly asked for a picture, and he said, “Oh, we’ll take care of that later in the kitchen.” WHAT?? Now we were really excited at the promise of a personal kitchen tour. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Once he sat down at Queen Rania’s table, the rest of us were forgotten.

The décor at Daniel is sumptuous. White columns, fulsome, colorful bouquets of flowers, and bold paintings on the walls. We dined on Tiffany china designed especially for Daniel. The service was unparalleled. They anticipated our every need, answered questions graciously, and there must have been at least 10 people who waited on us throughout the course of the evening. They managed to deliver perfect service without being obtrusive. Whenever they served anything or cleared anything from the table, there was a waiter or waitress for each one of us, and everything was done in perfect synchronization. Our sommelier poured the wine without one errant drop escaping the bottle.

Let’s get to the food. Oh, the food! Based on Larry’s recommendation, we selected a Duckhorn Merlot that was $130/bottle. We had one bottle with our appetizers and another with dinner. It was a superb wine and complemented the meal wonderfully. There was a waiter who came around periodically with the bread basket. There were at least 10 choices of bread. I tried two of them. I had wanted to sample more, but I filled up and simply didn’t have room. I can attest that the raisin/walnut bread and the black olive bread were delicious. John said the garlic bread was fabulous, too. Next came the amuse bouches. A wooden plank with three petite white ramekins was placed across our plates. It was a trio of sweet-pea inspired delicacies. The first had a chunk of lobster meat and a dollop of curried mustard. The second contained a sweet-pea mousse that I wanted a whole course of it was so good. The third had some kind of fish (can’t remember), but it was delectable, too.

After our palates were tantalized like that, we couldn’t wait for dinner. We had all opted for the $105 three-course menu. To start, I had savory and fava beans with some kind of ham, Oregon porcini mushrooms, and delicate agnolotti pillows in a rich, mushroom cream sauce. I wanted to lick the bowl clean. My God, was it good! For his appetizer, John had the paprika-crusted lobster tail with tempura broccoli. Think of every superlative in the English language, and you will come close to describing how divine our food was. It was a religious experience – no exaggeration. For my main course I ordered the Black Sea Bass with a Syrah reduction, pommes Lyonnais, and solid squares of leek paste – a.k.a. heaven on a plate. The fish was so delicate that it fell apart by barely touching it with my fork. John had halibut (filleted tableside) baked on Himalayan sea salt with curried yogurt and Thai basil. For dessert, John had Tainori chocolate dacquoise with rice krispy, lemon curd, and dark chocolate ice cream. I opted for Warm chocolate coulant with liquid caramel fleur de sel. Coleen and Steve each received an extra dessert for their birthdays – one rhubarb themed and the other with the freshest mango I’ve ever eaten. By this point, we were all in food comas, but they weren’t done with us yet! We received two baskets full of hot, airy Madeleines and a tray of succulent petit fours. With our desserts, everyone had smooth Rwandan coffee, while I had Chamomile tea with hints of Egyptian flowers, apple, and Chardonnay.

Now all of our senses were satiated, and we realized we had been at Daniel for almost four hours. It felt like a blip in time because we were enjoying everything so much. Then our bill arrived. We had planned for this to be our splurge meal and were prepared to part with a lot of money. After all, an experience like this isn’t cheap. Total for our table of five: $874.00. We split the bill three ways (40% me and John, 40% Steve and Larry, 20% Coleen). Our bill (me and John) came to $419 (with tip). I can honestly say it was worth every penny. Everyone should scrimp and save (as we did…for months) to afford a night at Daniel. I will remember that evening until the day I die.

After leaving the oasis of Daniel, we were all so full we felt like walking a bit. We walked down Central Park West to the 59th Street subway, and took the N/R to Times Square. We then went back to the hotel to change into comfy clothes. This was to be our night out on the town. We took the red 1 train down to Christopher Street in the West Village and then walked to Marie’s Crisis on Grove Street. Marie’s Crisis is a really fun piano bar where everyone gathers around and belts out show tunes. We got there around 1:00 a.m., and the place was hopping! It was a really festive crowd, and we sipped beers and sang our hearts out. I’m always amazed at the theatre queens who seem to know every lyric to every song played. I remember tunes from “Annie”, “Hair” (appropriately enough), “The Sound of Music”, “Rent”, and others. Around 3:00 I started hitting the wall and falling asleep, but when they launched into a medley of songs from Stephen Sondheim’s “Company”, that perked me right up!! We called it a night around 3:30, took a cab back, and were in bed by 4:00 a.m.

Sunday, May 24

Since we were out until the wee hours belting show tunes, we planned to sleep in and meet in the lobby at 10:30 a.m. We took the red 2 line up to 72nd Street on the Upper West Side and walked down to Holy Trinity Lutheran Church at the corner of 65th and Central Park West. It was a lovely service with a lush pipe organ and talented cantor. Very meditative. After church we grabbed a quick lunch at Le Pain Quotidien again before utilizing the 65th Street transept to cross Central Park to the Upper East Side. From there, we walked north to 70th Street and the Frick Museum, which houses the private collection of steel baron Henry Clay Frick. He lived here for many years, and the edifice is still lived in on the second floor. The first floor is open to the public, and we spent almost two hours here exploring the galleries. What an impressive collection of artwork, Limoges, statuary, and furniture! There are works by Titian, Vermeer, Gainsborough, and Boucher, to name a few. There is also a tranquil garden and courtyard area with a pond. The audio tour was very educational. T.S. Eliot once read his poetry in the courtyard, and violinist Isaac Stern once performed there as well. I would definitely recommend the Frick Collection for someone looking for a museum experience that won’t overwhelm them (as the Met or the American Museum of Natural History might). I would definitely go back.

After the museum, Steve and Larry wanted to do some Madison Avenue shopping, John wanted to go take a nap, and Coleen and I were up for another City Walk. We first walked through Bryant Park to the New York Public Library on 42nd Street and 5th Avenue. There was a group of talented contortionists and hip-hop dancers performing on the steps of the library. We watched them for a few minutes before leaving. Unfortunately the library itself was closed, so we could not see the inside of it. We decided to explore the Chelsea neighborhood, so we caught the blue A/C 8th Avenue line down to 23rd Street and roamed through Chelsea. The streets were filled with quaint brownstones and gardens. We loved the feel of the neighborhood. As we got closer to 11th Avenue, we passed several buildings that housed multiple art galleries. Unfortunately, they were all closed (something else for next time). The building at 529 West 20th alone had 29 galleries in it! We encountered more cool buildings, including the Frank-Gehry designed corporate home of the Home Shopping Channel. We also found the Chelsea Piers, a massive, four-block-long sports and entertainment complex. We walked down Pier 59, which they turned into a long golf driving range. We saw people practicing their drives by hitting golf balls down the pier. They were on multiple levels and were hitting golf balls from ledges as high as four stories! Out by the water we saw a couple of private yachts.

It was now getting near dinnertime, so we started walking back to the 14th Street and 8th Avenue station and took the subway back up to Times Square, where we met the guys and decided on dinner at Trattoria Dopo Teatro. It was just okay. I would say it was the most mediocre meal we had (and definitely overpriced), but it was close to the hotel, and the food was decent, so it served its purpose.

After dinner, it was time for Coleen to catch a cab because she was flying back to Columbus. It was sad seeing her leave. We couldn’t believe our magical five days in the city had passed so quickly! Steve and Larry went to see a movie, while John and I went to our fifth and final Broadway show of the trip. And what a show! We saw “Next to Normal” at the Booth Theatre, an original American musical about a family trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy after a tragic set of circumstances. I don’t want to give too much away because everyone should see this masterpiece. Let me just say that once again, I was profoundly moved in the theatre. During the last 15 minutes of the show, I had tears streaming down my face almost to the point of sobbing. It was a gut-wrenching, emotionally churning experience. The acting, the score (37 songs!), and the story were thrilling. More autographs at the stage door afterward, and I got a picture with the fierce Alice Ripley, who will most certainly win Lead Actress in a Musical this year!

We capped off the night at the Roxy again for cheesecake with Steve and Larry before going back to The Algonquin to pack and prepare for our return flight home.

Monday, May 25 (Memorial Day)

We met at 9:30 a.m. and, based on a recommendation from the concierge, sought out breakfast at The Brooklyn Diner on 43rd Street between 6th %26amp; 7th Avenues. Terrific suggestion, and another new discovery in the world’s best city. John’s noodle kugel was delish, and my cinnamon raisin pecan French toast with strawberries and homemade whipped cream was wonderful, too. It was a nice way to wind down a marvelous trip. So many memories made with good friends. Two celebrity sightings. An abundance of great food. And five Broadway shows. In addition, we were blessed by the good Lord with perfect weather. And again I was filled with melancholy as our cab left and the Manhattan skyline receded behind us. New York will always feel like a second home to me. My heart will always be on Broadway.

Those who know me well know I love lists, so here is how I rank the Broadway shows we saw. I’ve also included point counts with 100 points being the highest:

5. 9 to 5 - 90 points – light, fluffy fun

4. Blithe Spirit – 94 points – witty and hilarious

3. Hair – 96 points – still relevant and just joyous

2. Next to Normal – 99 points – Very tempted to put this in a tie for first as it was one of the most moving nights I’ve ever had in the theatre, but it was so emotionally intense and dark that I felt I had to award first place to a more balanced show:

1. BILLY ELLIOT – 100 POINTS – Four Words: You Must See It!

Trip Report 5/20/09 - 5/25/09 Part Two

Wow-great trip. Your dinner at Daniel sounded fabulous. Did you phone book a month ahead-I am looking for a special restaurant for a special birthdays meal-sounds perfect!

Trip Report 5/20/09 - 5/25/09 Part Two

Excellent trip report! I have made several notes.

I especially appreciate the commentary on Daniel as I will be dining there Tuesday at 8:15 with 2 dear friends from England! (I thought about the Black Sea Bass.)

I know there are other restaurants that probably have equally delish food but the review on the service at Daniel is what sold me on trying them over others. Thank you for confirming those reviews!! Was it really just absolutely marvelous?!? And did they bring out the amuse bouches or did you order those? (I have chill bumps!)

Marie Crisis sounds fun as well, if I can convince my friends to go! I will be staying a short while at the end of the week on my own so I might just check it out then!

And thanks for the tip on the Brooklyn Diner as that will be fairly close to the hotel we will be staying the first part of the week.

I leave Monday AM and I cannot wait. Thanks again and I hope to have a Blessed trip as well!! (I am positive it will be, rain or shine!)

One little trivia bit for you - remember the church that the giant Marshmallow Man squashes in the movie ';Ghost Busters';, which so outrages the ghostbusting team? That was the one you attended; the apartment house next door is the one that is the setting of the climax of the movie.

Yes, I made our reservation for Daniel by phone exactly one month ahead of time. It was so worth it! It truly is an experience you won%26#39;t ever forget, and it%26#39;s a perfect choice for special occasions. They don%26#39;t rush you at all. We were there for four blissful hours, but it really felt like no time at all because we were all enjoying ourselves so much.

Go and have a great time. Tell us all about it when you get back!

Thanks for that piece of trivia! I had no idea Holy Trinity Lutheran Church was featured in Ghostbusters! I went there during the two years I lived in New York and studied acting. My first year I lived at the West Side YMCA, which is just a couple blocks away, so it was a quick walk.

Have a fantastic trip! It has taken me all week to readjust to being back home. We%26#39;ve all had a bit of post-trip sadness. There just isn%26#39;t any place else on earth like New York City.

Yes, Daniel was marvelous!!! You won%26#39;t regret splurging and going there. And enjoy the Black Sea Bass - an excellent choice. Three of the five of us went with it. The fish was so tender I would barely touch it with my fork, and it would fall apart. They brought out the amuse bouches, madeleines, and petit fours without us requesting any of it. They pamper you like you are royalty.

Marie%26#39;s Crisis is a lot of fun. Try to make it there.

I look forward to reading your trip report!

Great trip report, YoungRestlessOne. I love the details! I%26#39;ve taken some suggestions from your trip, and while Daniel may be a little more than my group can handle, I think we may try the Brooklyn Diner one day on our June trip. You have made me even more anxious for Billy Elliot - we have tickets WAY in the back of the mezzanine, but at least we%26#39;re in the building! 3 weeks and 3 days and counting!

I absolutely LOVE your joy and zest for NYC!! I bet you are a fun traveling companion. :D

You%26#39;ve sold me on Daniel! I know I can%26#39;t go when we visit NYC in July, but I will plan on splurging on a return trip.

Thanks for including so many details and reflections of your experiences. It was an awesome read!!