Rekindling A Love Affair With Manhattan

View from the 103rd floor of the Empire State

Street view of the Empire State from the lower east side

I have always been a fan of New York.  I lived there a few months in my teens and couldn't wait to go back when I turned twenty.  Exciting and full of energy, forward looking, a city could not be more attractive to the ambitious and adventurous young person. I've been back a few times over the years, with only work on my mind, for a few days here and there.  This time, I spent 12 days there, to settle my daughter into university, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself with her whilst also seeing some of my old mates.  It brought me back to the early eighties when I had some of the best times of my life.

Once I had my very large cappuccino (yes, bowl size) with my Belgian waffle, I was ready to explore.

Nothing like a calorific American breakfast with maple syrup.

The rebuilt World Trade Centre Complex

A lot has changed, of course, post 9/11.  There is a more visible police force everywhere, the city has been cleaned up, feels infinitely safer and some ways less cutting edge than London, but nonetheless as exciting, with an intense atmosphere you cannot find elsewhere.  Of course, the centre of this energy has changed, from the conservative upper East and West side, towards the West Village, Soho, Meat Packing district and of course, the younger and trendier Brooklyn and Williamsburg. Many of the new trendier restaurants and bars are located in this area. As a Londoner, the same thing has happened in London...all roads lead to the east side for the young here.

I have to keep up my training, even on holiday,  for my upcoming trek in Japan, so I spent many an hour trying to accumulate my 15-20 km walks daily discovering streets in the Village, Soho all the way down to the World Trade Complex, on streets I have never seen before.  It was an extremely pleasant way to exercise, even though a bit on the hot and humid side, as my hair frizzed and make up melted. 

 West 4th, West Village

I walked all around the Meat Packing district, full of galleries, restaurants and of course, sauntered  down the High Line to get my mileage up, a linear park built on a historic elevated freight line on the streets of the West Side.

View of the Frank Gehry designed ICA building

I continued the miles uptown. I walked past numerous famous buildings and museums in New York, one of which is the Guggenheim museum, containing impressionist, post impressionist and contemporary art. The building is really wonderful.

The Guggenheim designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

The Metropolitan Museum of Art had a wonderful exhibition when I was there called Manu x Machina, Fashion in the Age of Technology. The exhibition was about how fashion designers are reconciling hand made and machine made materials into couture and ready to wear.

The Met

Manus X Machina exhibition 

Now that I've spoken about exercise, let's get on to more important things, food and bars!

Speaking about trendy eating, modern American/Indian seems to be a hugely popular and it's quite good.  The flavours are unexpected, touches of Cal-Ital with hints of Indian spices and ingredients. We ate at Tapestry in the West Village (Greenwich Avenue) and were very pleasantly surprised how well the subtle delicate indian flavours enhanced more traditional American/Italian fare. I specially liked the thin strips of crispy okra (as in courgette fries).  There were many more new restaurants that were Indian inspired and I shall try more on my next trip. 

Southern fried chicken with Indian spices
photo by Sal D'Alia

Seabird on the lower West Village is also a fun place to have a few cocktails and nibbles.  Newly opened, you can sip on Californian wines in the outdoor cafe with oyster tacos and crab/artichoke nachos. 

Bell, Book and Candle is a popular bar in the West Village, if you're there,  and Quality Meats in the same area is also a good place for good American food. (I stayed in the West Village the first week and obviously explored the area).

For fun Italian in the East Village, go to Lanterna di Vittorio, very reasonable, with an extensive wine list, indoor garden with tables (insist on sitting in the garden area) and some nights even feature live jazz in their cave section. It's very busy and has a lively atmosphere, great large martinis and a pretty good lasagne.  I hear the pizzas are good, too, all food that doesn't break the bank.

En route to Soho from the village and the long established Balthazar (more fun than the London one), try Jane, a casual American restaurant, with a good brunch and perfectly fine reasonable dinner. Bar Sardine is good, too. There were so many concentrated restaurants in the area that I definitely didn't even begin to scratch the surface. I also didn't want to fine dine.  There's enough of that in Europe.

I was invited to a Brazilian restaurant by some Brazilians, Churascarria, in the West side, Midtown.  You need to be very hungry, since the food arrives non stop, with lots of meat (vegetarians would be traumatised). And you have to be ready to feel like a beached whale after the dining experience. I must admit to really enjoying it.  I don't know if it was because we were with Brazilians who knew what they were doing or there was just a lot of good grilled meat (don't expect beautifully presented plated meat...it's gigantic skewers).

Flatiron building by Daniel Burnham

I also ate in Atoboy in the Flatiron district, with a chef from the two starred Korean restaurant Jungsik, Mr. Park (of course). It's fusion Korean and I must admit not recognising the Korean, but it's interesting, shared plates and very on trend.

By the way, before I continue on, NYC is not cheap, very comparable to London, post Brexit exchange rates, glasses of wine are always 15 dollars everywhere, with a 2 dollar tip per glass.  You need to tip for everything (15-20%) since the waiters get paid a token wage and make their income on tips.

And to continue...The Nomad bar is still fun, if you are looking for a bar to have cocktails (again in the Flatiron district) and Shake Shack for a good American fast food burger in that area (my daughter swears by it and says it's much better than the London version).  To be fair, most of my meals were good in the city, with the exception of Soho house.  That was unacceptably poor.

You can't go to America without having a steak. We had a steak at Wolfgang's on Park Avenue. Been there for ages. Simply delicious.  This photo says it all. Only complaint is it's just a bit noisy, so don't converse and definitely don't have a business or romantic dinner there.  Just tuck in!

Porterhouse for five

And not a bad place to eat a delicious New York Cheesecake!

If you want just fast food, the trend again is fusion, with Poke restaurants (Hawaiian/Japanese), dumpling bars, bao bars, and udon bars everywhere in the village (students abound from Parsons and NYU) , and can be found around Manhattan, as well (Momofuku Noodle is delicious on lower East side).  The world's love affair with Japanese (and other oriental)  inspired food continues....

 Poke (raw fish with various seasonings and rice)

 Bao dumplings with various fusion ingredients

Fried gyoza with fusion ingredients

After all that eating, time to think exercise again... go run around the reservoir in Central Park.  It's such a pretty part of the city and the perfect place to power walk after stuffing yourself silly with all that fusion food!

View of Manhattan from the reservoir in Central Park

As my long city break finale, it was time to go see US Tennis Open. It's very different from the other grand slams, very loud (they play dance music in between points), chaotic (everyone is always standing up coming and going with food and beer and no one says anything) and quite warm (heatstroke hot, really). But again, it's fun in that larger than life,  New York way.

 Unisphere in Flushing Meadows

The new retractable roof on the Arthur Ashe stadium (centre court)

And to top off the tennis experience, Phil Collins sang between the Nadal and Djokovic matches to celebrate the new roof!  Everything just has to be bigger, louder and definitely more memorable in this great city. Can't wait to go back and visit again.

Phil Collins singing in the tennis court area. 

photo by Grace Hennessy