Five Foto Friday (September 12, 2014)

One of the projects I've been working on for the last few years is the redesign of the plaza at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  This week, after three years of design and construction, the plaza was "unveiled."  I got to go to the morning ceremony and the final product looks great!

First, here is a view from the steps, looking north to the fountain and bosque of trees with seating.

The second picture is from the northern most end of the plaza, looking south through the tree Allee.

Here is a nice video of the inaugural fountain dance, to New York, New York.

Picture from across 5th Ave.

And finally a view of the plaza and famous Met stairs.

It was a fun event to celebrate everyone's hard work on the project and hopefully I'll be back on a sunnier day with less barricades for some better pictures.

I Shariously recommend a visit to the new plaza!

NY Fridays (Food Tour)

I am so lucky to have great friends and family who were so excited for my marriage and made the celebration of my then upcoming wedding so special.  Since our wedding was in October, I knew it would be tough to get everyone together for pre-wedding festivities (Bridal Shower, Bachelorette Party etc.) which would take place in the summer, due to vacations and the abundance of summer activities. Since a few of my close friends are unavailable for the weekend of my bachelorette party, they planned an amazing day out in Manhattan to make up for it!

The day started in Soho with a "Downtown Chocolate, Dessert and Wine Tour" with City Food Tours.  It was a really nice walk with some knowledgeable, friendly and funny tour guides. Between the stops the guides were full of neighborhood history. There was also another Bachelorette Party group on the tour with us.  The below is a summary of the spots we hit up on the tour:

Food tour spots (Photo Credit: A. Katz)

• Kee's Chocolate - where we got a chocolate truffle
• Xocolatti - where we sampled some unusual chocolates with chili 
• Le Palaid des Thes - at this tea shop, we heard about the history of tea, had plenty of samples in the store and came out with some tea samples to take home
• Papabubble - this Australian candy shop makes all their own unique candies right in the shop - of course, again lots of samples
• Oro Bakery - at this French bakery we got one of the best brownies I ever had.
• Di Palo Fine Foods - At this stop the guides picked up some delicious cheese from this Italian cheese and meet shop for us to eat with wine at our final stop.
• Puro Wine - a Chilean wine store where we enjoyed plenty cheese, bread and wine

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After the wine tour we all went to get manicures for some spa relaxation at Spa Belles.  I guess the other girls were feeling blue, the color that is, but my nails are in hot pink in the picture on the left.

With nails and the weather  dried up, we took a stroll over to the Lower East side and had a delicious dinner at Stanton Social (a favorite of our group for special occasions).

It was a Shariously great day and I can't thank all the lovely ladies who organized it enough!

Favorite NYC Spring/Summer Activities Part 3 (NY Fridays)

Here it is, Part 3 of my Favorite Spring/Summer Activities:

5. Outdoor Waterfront Bars - Two great places to spend a sunny day with some friends, food and drinks are Pier 66 Maritime (more commonly known as the Frying Pan), and The Boat Basin Cafe.

Frying Pan/Lightship Bar

The Frying Pan/Pier 66 Maritime  is a barge on the Hudson and adjacent sunken ship that was raised and now serves as a venue for bar and restaurant.  It's a very casual place that's always packed on sunny summer eves and weekends.  Their pitchers of sangria, buckets of beer and platters of food are great for groups.  As a bonus, you can tour the boats which have been restored to its 1929 look.

The Boat Basin cafe has a similar atmosphere, great for groups on a nice day.  It sits adjacent to the Hudson River in Riverside Park.  You can sit at a table outside or hang out at the bar underneath an overpass - which actually is much cooler than it sounds.

As I was writing this, I saw Gothamist had a similar post here.

6.  Free Kayaking in the Hudson - if you are looking for some water sports action, try some kayaking and you don't need to go very far.  The operators make you stay pretty close to the shore, but it's still  a neat feeling to see the city from right on he water.  Just make sure it has been a week since the last heavy rain.  In case you didn't know during heavy storms, the combined sewer overflows in to the rivers - that includes sanitary flow! Gross. (There's some of my civil engineering dorkiness melding into the blog).

Just some more Shariously great ideas for the summer!

Favorite NYC Spring Activities Part 1 (NY Fridays)

For the next few Fridays, I'll try to write about some of my favorite Springtime  activities in NYC.  In reality, many of these activities can be enjoyed anytime of year, but those first days of warm weather like we had a few weeks back makes everyone want to get outside!

1. The High Line - the High Line is one of the coolest places in the city!  In case you haven't heard, the High Line is an abandoned elevated freight train line which has been converted into an elevated Park.  It runs from Ganesvoort Street in the meatpacking district up to 34th Street between 10th and 11th Avenue.  The first phase of the High Line opened in the summer of 2009 and became an instant hit.  Last Summer the second Phase opened.  This particularly excited me because now one end is only a block from my office.  It's a great place to take a short walk or eat lunch during the day.  When visitors to the city ask me where to go this is always the firs thing I tell them.

View of the High Line below the Standard Hotel

2. Softball in Central Park - Since I started working in the city, I have been on our corporate softball team.  The first two seasons we were in this random league up in Harlem that drew more crowds of friends who had time to practice than the corporate atmosphere.  In the history of our company team, I don't think we had ever won a game in that league.  Some one finally took action and got us into a league in Central Park!  Now, as a team of engineers, we're not that great in recent seasons we've hovered around .500.  But it doesn't matter much because we have a great time.  The fields are in great condition, it's a convenient location and has a great view.

One of the funniest things about playing in central park is the people watching, and by people watching, I mean the tourists who watch us.  I'm serious - every game, without fail, foreign tourists will wander  into the stands and treat us like the Yankees.  They cheer and take pictures.  There must be tons of pictures of me in foreigner's Facebook photos up at bat.  If they only knew that what they were watching was a bunch of engineers playing corporate softball.   But it does feel good, and I kind of like being a tourist attraction.

From this picture you can see the 5 ball fields all back to back!

When you're done reading this, Shariously go outside and enjoy!

Coffee with treats (NY Friday)

I'm on a mission to find cafes that serve coffee with treats:

When I spent a semester in Brussels, our go-to chocolate shop was Leonidas.  Leonidas is like the Pinkberry of Brussels, while there isn't one on every corner there's always one in walking distance. And it was so cheap!  When I came back I brought everyone chocolate pralines, a 1KG box (that's 2.2lbs!) was maybe 30€.  A 2lb box in NY it's $72, and if you stop in the store  a handful of pieces can be a dollar or two a piece.

A friend devouring chocolate bunny in Bruge

I stopped in their Madison Ave shop with a friend not too long after we returned from Brussels because we needed a yummy memory, but I had never returned because it was so expensive. I hadn't smelled the Leonidas air again until about a year ago.  I was at a meeting in the Financial District, where they have one of their 4 US stores and decided to stop in because I noticed they sold coffee as well.  I walked in to the cute shop and up to the mezzanine level where I ordered a coffee.  To my delight, when handing me my coffee the barista asked if I would like a chocolate with that.  She then asked me if I wanted milk, white or dark.  She saw how excited I was that she even offered me another piece getting to try two of the flavors.  Yay! Just like in Belgium, where you always get a chocolate with your café. 

Last Friday, I was in the FiDi with a co-worker who asked to stop by Starbucks on our way back to the office.  I had a better idea - Leonidas! Why get Starbucks when you can get a coffee drink with Belgian chocolate on the side?

Then, this morning, after another FiDi meeting, I asked if he wanted Starbucks or Leonidas.  I was glad his response was that after last week's deliciousness he wouldn't be going to the Starbucks when Leonidas was right across the street.   As we were walking over, we noted a bunch of other cute places and decided to stop in the Financier Patisserie. We opted to try a new place turning down a delicious praline, but to our delight we noticed the customers on line before us were getting little madeline cakes which turned out to be Shariously delicious!

From Financier Patisserie

We'll be back downtown next week so if you know any other places (anywhere in NYC) that give out fun treats with coffee drinks leave a comment and let me know where I can find them!