FRIDAY
TRAIN
Last weekend I ended up in NYC for 36 or so hours. After a discussion with my husband about his work travel schedule and a last minute decision to book a train, early Friday evening I found myself on the NE Regional train heading to Penn Station. We planned to spend the evenings together in the City for the weekend. We met at Penn Station and walked about 15mins to our hotel, The Springhill Inn & Suites on W. 37th St. As expected in NYC, the real estate was tight. But the room was nice, neat and well decorated. And, most importantly, the hotel was in a good location and at a special rate of $109 a night, we were definitely satisfied.
PUB
For dinner, we ventured out in search of a sports bar within walking distance. Let’s not forget, it’s March and it’s NCAA tournament time. Our main focus was finding a bar with lots of TVs and with seats open for us in front of them. We ended up at Playwrights Irish Pub near Herald Square. Playwrights has a more modern and trendy take on an Irish pub with lots of beer options, lots of wood décor, lots of TVs, loud music playing and even a sofa/lounge area for congregating. It had pretty good bar food with an Irish and American mix. My burger was quite tasty and so was my husband’s corned beef sandwich.
SATURDAY
PARK
Saturday morning I decided to go for a jog to Central Park. During the 1.2 mile jog there, I thoroughly enjoyed the scenery. NYC is pretty much a concrete jungle with little surprises within, which is fascinating to me. I entered the south entrance of Central Park and was greeted by The Pond and reminded of my hometown of Seattle (which I posted a visit about in February). I jogged up and around and found myself on a pathway with many people of similar mind who were getting it in that Saturday morning as well.
MASSAGE
This trip was mainly unplanned with it being so last minute. However, I did manage to plan a massage, thanks to a spa-finder gift card I had received! There were only so many options that were in somewhat close proximity and didn’t excessively go over my $100 gift card. So I settled in with The Mandarin Spa (not to be confused with The Spa at the Mandarin). I ended up with a 90 min combo of Japanese-Style Shiatsu Massage (60mins) and Foot Spa and Reflexology (30mins) for $120. I highly advise folks to google Shiatsu massage before participating in it. I must say, this was the most intense form of massage I have ever had. The masseuse (or Olympic Style Athlete) used her fingers, thumbs, palms, elbows, knees and feet to massage and stretch my body. There was some serious stretching going on and some serious release of every pressure point in my body from my ears to my toes. It involved the masseuse climbing on the table, and on top of me, at certain points. This massage is not for the faint of hearts. At one point, I was sitting cross-legged leaning forward and my masseuse had me put my arms up for stretching purposes, next thing I know she locks me in and flips me backward laying above her with her knees in my lower back, elbows in in my shoulders, and arms hung out to the side, and she is keeping me afloat above her. Intense! But all in all, pretty awesome! Every muscle in my body felt more relaxed. I highly recommend, if you are comfortable with the description (I added a photo from the internet as an example of a move).
WINE
After the massage, I stopped at Rockefeller Center and ended up grabbing a glass of wine and bite to eat at Morrell Wine Bar across the street. With it being across the street from Rockefeller Center, it was a little more expensive per glass than I would normally like to pay and it had no wine flight options (which, in my opinion, every wine bar should have). However, it does have an award winning wine by the glass selection and overall is a very nice wine bar. I did enjoy my glass of Te Mata Estate Sauvignon Blanc and my order of crab stuffed mushrooms was delicious, as it should be.
COFFEE
From there, I ventured to Gregory’s Coffee shop on 44th. Gregory’s Coffee is a chain that has several locations throughout NYC and is all about maintaining the quality of the fresh roasted coffee beans which they import from farmers all over the world. This particular shop had a good vibe going; it was busy, but not too busy, no long lines, no waiting for a seat even though it was pretty full, and, of course, it had good music playing. There were a mix of people hanging in there from friends catching up, to people doing work, to people just taking a minute to sit down, relax, and enjoy their espresso, like myself.
CHAMPAGNE
At Gregory’s, I was googling another wine bar to pop into, when I came across a champagne bar called Flute Bar. Flute Bar is where speakeasy meets champagne bar and it’s pretty damn cool. In 1997, it took over a speakeasy space and Flute oozes it as you walk down underground entering into a dimly lit scene of plush sofas and curtains and leather chairs. I sat down at the bar and ordered their champagne flight, which was all things good. The owner of the restaurant also brought me a ginger champagne that he had been working on developing, which was very good as well. I spent the next hour talking with the owner and bartender about the bar and its history, their champagne school and classes, and, of course, just about life in general. I highly recommend an evening drink at this very cool place.
DINNER W/TVs
Though I really wanted to go to back to Flute that evening, Flute did not have TVs and remember it is March and NCAA tournament time. So we ended up at Brendan’s Bar and Grill. This restaurant near Harold Square is basically a more upscale Irish pub. But Brendan’s had what we were in search of: TVs and a menu selection that was beyond just pub food. The Maryland Crab-cake salad was very good and so was the Spicy Lemon Penne Shrimp pasta, however, my husband’s Black Angus Steak was very overcooked.
SUNDAY
We left the city pretty early to get a jump start on our 3.5 hour drive home. I have no regrets of my decision to embark on this last minute weekend trip. I enjoyed my evenings with my husband and thoroughly enjoy wandering around the city on Saturday. It was short and sweet and a nice little weekend adventure.
