Saturday, April 19, 2008

Girls’ Trip to New York, Chapter 1

On Sunday we flew from Oakland to JFK on JetBlue and arrived in New York on time at about 5 PM. Is every airport in the country in a constant state of construction? We had to take a shuttle from our gate to get into the terminal. But NY is very organized. We went to Ground Transportation and a line of travelers were efficiently ushered into waiting cabs. It was overcast and threatening rain, but none appeared. The drive from Kennedy to Manhattan was remarkable for the traffic in Queens which our cabby dodged and the many flowering trees. April is a wonderful time to go to New York!

By the time we reached the New York Helmsley Hotel on east 42nd Street, we barely had time to change out of our travel clothes and dash to meet my son for dinner. He was waiting for us at craftbar, Broadway and East 20th . This is the more casual Tom Colicchio restaurant my travelling companion Linda and I had learned about as avid Top Chef viewers. My handsome son, Andrew, was waiting at the bar and we were shown to a spacious banquette. We were sustained by wonderful breadsticks while we perused the menu. We loved the pecorino fondue with hazelnuts and honey appetizer.

Robin had the escarole soup and the orecchiette with fennel sausage, roasted tomatoes, and ricotta salata (which was delicious!). Linda and I had the baby beets with blue cheese and walnuts, and the daurade with potato gnocchi, morels, and ramps. Andrew had the sirloin with smoked mushrooms, jalapeno, and lime; and the crispy potatoes.

Since it was our first night, we had to have dessert. We shared the butterscotch pudding with gingersnaps and the hot fudge sundae with coffee crunch ice cream. Ah, excess!

So we walked 24 blocks up Park Avenue, back to the hotel, with a slight detour at Grand Central Station and called it a day. Overcast, chance of rain, high of 53°F, low of 40°F.



1 comment:

Christine Thresh said...

Glad to see you are posting again. Let's see some pictures, especially of your handsome son with a few New York sights.