New York City (September 2016)

My spouse and I spent two days in New York in late September 2016. We stayed overnight at the Hampton Inn SoHo, where we stayed once previously in 2012. The landscape has changed a lot in four years – the garage where we previously parked at the corner of Varick and Broome Streets was torn down, and the buildings next door to the hotel (towards Varick Street) were also demolished in order to build a new residential building. On Saturday, we had planned to walk around Little Italy, because it was the Feast of San Gennaro festival, but instead, we won a Broadway ticket lottery for the show "An American in Paris” ($40 front-row orchestra seats), so we had a last-minute change in plans. We had planned to eat lunch at Balaboosta near Little Italy, so instead, we found ourselves looking for a restaurant in Midtown. Of course, first we had to travel to Midtown from Downtown, so we arranged a ride with Uber. It must have been the driver’s first day, because before we knew it, we found ourselves in line to enter the Holland Tunnel to travel back to New Jersey! An hour later, and two trips through the tunnel, we reached Midtown. After filing a complaint with Uber (our promised $15 ride turned out to be $75 with the additional tolls and time), we ate lunch at Blue Fin in Times Square (at the W Hotel). After the show, we tried to find a nearby bar to watch some college football, stopping at three different bars on 46^th Street (Pig n Whistle, O’Lunney’s, Connolly’s), where we struck out at each and were made to feel less than welcome. So we ended up at the TGI Fridays! (With all of the unique choices in NYC, we ended up somewhere that we could have visited in our own hometown!) Later, back in SoHo, we had happy hour drinks and snacks at Lupe’s East LA Kitchen, then dinner at Piora (courtesy of a gift card from our sister/sister-in-law). Before returning to the hotel and calling it a night, we enjoyed drinks at City Winery. The next day, we had a great lunch at EN Japanese Brasserie. On our way back to the hotel to retrieve our luggage, we saw the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride, which is a charity event to benefit prostate cancer where riders from all over the world dress in their finery (suits and ties or tuxedos) and ride around different cities. Very cool!

Hotel:

·         Hampton Inn SoHo Link to my review

Restaurants:

·         Blue Fin Link to my review

·         Piora Link to my review

·         EN Japanese Brasserie Link to my review

·         Lupe’s East LA Kitchen Link to my review

·         City Winery Link to my review

Activity:

·         An American in Paris Link to my review

• Distinguished Gentleman's Ride Link to my review