After our day at the Met on Thurs. Dec. 12th, Mom and I went to the south end of Central Park.
i’d hoped to see the Christmas decorations in different hotel lobbies and stores. I had a list of hotels, a few of which were right there on 57th Street, on the south edge of the park.
First was the Plaza. But we couldn’t even go inside – they were only letting people in who had room keys. Damn.
We were able to go in a side entrance but it only led to the basement which was basically a food court/mini-mall. stuffed full of people. Yuck.
We quickly got out of there and headed for one of the hotels on my list, the Essex House. On my list it said “art deco icon!”
Well, it was fine. maybe there were more lovely art deco-inspired things somewhere else besides the lobby.
But at least they let us in the door, and we sat quietly on a comfy couch in the lobby and regrouped.
In hindsight I should have researched the hotels more thoroughly. We could have gone to the St. Regis, just a block or two away, and sat in the famous King Cole bar and sipped bloody marys – according to their website, this is the first place in the US to serve a Bloody Mary.
Oh well, coulda shoula woulda.
We marched on and found the Christmas Market at Columbus Circle just down the block. It wasn’t crammed with people and there were many cool things.
We saw this fabulous dog there.
I almost bought a lovely trivet from some other country; they had an array of different brightly-colored ones but i couldn’t make up my mind plus i didn’t want to carry it around plus mom isn’t super keen on shopping.
So instead we went over to the huge glass Columbus Circle Mall across the street. These beautiful stars hung from the ceiling, and changed color.
While we were there Kevin sent me this funny selfie. Maybe this is the second selfie he’s tried? He and Lester both look so serious!
We eventually made it over to the theater to see “come from away,” a great musical i’d seen when i was in new york with bev a few years ago. We were very close to the stage.
I’m glad mom got to see the show because it’s so good. some of the people in the production were the same, but many were different. there are only about a dozen actors in it, all memorable.
When we got out of the play we were hungry and when we got off the subway back in Brooklyn we decided to venture up the street . We walked into this little pizza place and it smelled so good. Mmm….i had been waffling about going to dinner because it was so late; i told mom that if it’d been just me i’d have gotten a sandwich to go at some sandwich place.
I’m so glad we went to this restaurant instead. In the background you can see the guy in the red cap taking a pizza out of the oven. Mmmmm….
It’s called Barboncino, a Neopolitan-style wood fire pizza place. If you’re ever in Brooklyn you should definitely go there.
We were almost the only people there over the age of 35. It was warm and cozy with nice lighting and OMG the pizza! We split a bottle of Lambrusco, delicious.
Me, eating dinner at 10:00 at night!
The place was packed with people eating dinner. who eats dinner that late? especially on a week night?
New Yorkers. Young, hip New Yorkers. Brooklynites. And me and mom. our waitress was about six feet tall, and so willowy that she reminded me of Audrey Hepburn. She had to crouch way down to take our orders, and she was very nice to us despite the fact that we looked like the only tourists in the place.
We didn’t linger too long after polishing off the pizza and the wine, and safely made the short walk back to our apartment.
I took this picture of the stairs going up to the next level from out place when we got back. I asked our landlords about what was up there, but it’s the roof! it looks like it should be another apartment.
Here’s the bathroom door, I should post it on a “thursday doors.” the place was all updated but this door was incredibly old with many coats of paint.
one more day left of our trip!
ok then,
mrs. h., still in the throes of a wicked cough here in the new year.