Life Beyond The List » restaurants

NYC in the Fall – my hot spots

loulala — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:04:12 +0000

Rick and I just got back from a ‘mini-moon’ – a long weekend in NYC the week after our wedding. It was great to be on the East Coast in the Fall. I love any chance to wrap up warm in cosy hats and gloves, and go walking, so this was the perfect time of year to do that.

NYC is also one of the rare times i get to bust out an outfit that doesn’t involve flip flops in some way. You know I love the West Coast, and believe me, i’m not complaining about the weather, but San Francisco is just sooooo casual. You can feel over-dressed if you wear proper shoes with no fleece! In NYC, you have to step it up a level, even for casual days. So, i enjoyed the opportunity to play a little ‘dress-up’ and glam it out at a few restaurants and bars we were dying to go to. I also kick started my wardrobe overhaul, finally!

My top NYC spots from this time around?

CraftBar - yes, i have an obsession with Top Chef, and spent weeks literally drooling in advance after perusing the menus of Tom Colicchio’s various restaurants. CraftBar had this wonderful chicken consomme with home-made tortellini and a fresh farm egg. Delicious! Cool spot too.
Balthazar - i still love this place! Even though they didn’t have my favorite eggs in red wine and bacon sauce this time around. An NYC classic.
Spotted Pig – we didn’t get to eat here, but spent a very cozy and late Sunday night propping up the bar. Of course, i felt right at home, as it’s styled like a classic English pub. Albeit a classic English pub full of young New York hipsters, clawing their way to the front of the line.
Top Shop – you can’t understand the excitement this store causes for an English girl living in the States. When will Top Shop come to San Francisco?? Poor Rick was dragged around 4 floors of fabulous, and fell asleep waiting for me to try things on. Oops! Worth it though.
City Bakery - I don’t think Rick will ever forget the hot chocolate they serve at this place. Ridiculous. And the candied French toast? Divine. We had to go back twice for the hot chocolate alone.
Central Park – still wonderful, even when it’s raining!
Uniqlo – way too busy and overwhelming. But cool, stylish basics. Again, when will SF get a store?
SoHo – just in general. My favorite part of the city, no doubtt.

Here are a few snaps of the stay – enjoy!

Balthazar

What used to be Buddha Bar

City of contradictions

Again, the contradictions

Coolest revolving door EVER

NYC nights

The elevator at Tiffany. Sigh.

Window dressing

Guess who?

Ugly beautiful

Cental Park

View from our hotel room

Flying the flag in SoHo!

A little macabre in SoHo

What’s your favorite San Francisco neighborhood?

loulala — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:38:02 +0000

One of the things I love most about San Francisco is its unique take on the ‘neighborhood’. Even more so than London, where I lived in my 20s, SF never fails to charm and amaze me with its raggle-tag collection of districts, cultures, flavors, sights and sounds. Traverse the city and you could cross from Mexico to France to Italy to Russia, all in one afternoon.

It’s hard to pick a favorite, although my current happens to be where i live – a slightly off center section of lower Pacific Heights, near the wonderful street that time and Twitter forgot, Sacramento. Here you can still find Italian food with avocado and prawns as key ingredients (sooo good though!), shop a high-end consignment store for designer cast-offs of the seriously wealthy, and end up with the chicest cocktail of the day, a Fresa Fresca (basil, black pepper, fresh strawberries, cranberry juice and premium tequila – oh my!), at the beautiful restaurant, Spruce. All while walking your dog down a quiet oasis where strangers still say hi to you, you can hear the birds singing and you still kid yourself that you live somewhere with a neighborhood movie theater that only plays one movie at a time (the wonderful Vogue). It’s not trendy, but it’s a welcome respite from all the hipster-ness on display elsewhere and is a great anti-dote to high octane city living.

It seems as if San Francisco bible, 7×7, shares my love of the SF ‘hood. Its most recent issue is dedicated to all things neighborhood and is a great read, especially readers’ love letters and photos to their own particular piece of the city. I submitted mine (see if you can spot it!).

Sonoma – lunchtime cocktail hour

loulala — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:27:34 +0000

Yesterday I was in Sonoma for the day. Not really for wine tasting, although we did stop by Benziger Family Winery (delicious bio-dynamically farmed grapes) and Ledson (having a strangely off day, and also recently blighted by pestilence – i did cave for a bottle of the Legend though, couldn’t help myself – thanks to Bride In Exile for her recap of this delicious red blend). No, we were there for lunch at The Girl and the Fig, one of my favorite restaurants. We sat in the lovely covered patio, and thank goodness it was covered, due to the blazing 90 degree heat. And yep, I’m a typical Brit in that I crave the sun, and then complain loudly when i get too hot. To be honest, it was too warm to fully enjoy the food, although it was wonderful, a fig and arugula salad being a highlight. No, I was really there, after an hour-long drive, for one cocktail.

The Girl and the Fig serves beautiful and refined cocktails, with the First Street Cosmo being my absolute fave. It’s a cosmo with premium tequila instead of vodka. I know, I know, it doesn’t sound too good, but trust me. Looks like Betsy Husband agrees with me. Very delicately flavored, it’s a blend of Arette Tequila, St Germain elderflower liquer, fresh lime juice and cranberry juice. It’s beautiful too, the palest rose pink in a chic little martini glass. This is my favorite cocktail of all time and i’ve tried many times since (way too many, according to my boyfriend) to replicate it at home. After a few disastrous attempts, I’ve come pretty close (the trick is not adding very much cranberry juice, but stop by the restaurant for the actual measures, after you’ve ordered one of course), but it’s still not close to the one they serve at the Fig. If you’re ever in Sonoma, skip the final few wineries and head for one of these beauties instead.

My version - still not pale enough!!