So on Wednesday and Thursday we tried out Shake Shack, Veselka and Momofuku Milk Bar. They were mostly winners so we were psyched for Friday!
We started our morning at The Breslin, the super hip April Bloomfield restaurant in the Ace Hotel. As you can probably tell from the following photos, it was quite dark inside the restaurant. It was full of dark wood and antlers, basically like a hipster version of an English Pub. Katy and I were surrounded by hungover industry types who were slightly annoying, but the food more than made up for it. And the coffee was good!
I started with the Grapefruit with Ginger Sugar and Mint. It was $5. For half a grapefruit. But it was somehow so worth it. In fact, a month later, I'm still thinking about that grapefruit. Something about the ginger sugar plus the mint and perfectly ripe grapefruit was just exactly what I needed that morning. I also had the Baked Eggs with tomato and chorizo. They were so flavorful and delicious. Served piping hot in a little cast iron dish, the eggs were just the right amount of runny, perfect for poking with the included toasts.
Katy ordered the Seasonal Frittata with ricotta cheese. That day the vegetable was Broccoli Rabe. She was just as happy with it as I was with my food. The eggs were rich and satisfying with just the right balance of veg to egg to cheese. Overall it was definitely not a cheap breakfast, but we think it was worth the expense. It definitely started our day off right. We needed the energy for our day of shopping! After lots of shopping (I got the cutest little retro timer at Anthropologie) we got some culture on at the 2010 Whitney Biennial. And then we were more than ready to rest our feet and stuff our faces.
Breakfast was so satisfying that we didn't even bother with lunch, we soldiered on and had an early dinner around five pm at Grand Sichuan in Chelsea. We might have had a snack somewhere in the meantime but all I remember is endless Passionfruit Shaken Iced Teas from Starbucks (very refreshing). Grand Sichuan was another major win. Easily some of the best Chinese food I've had in my life.
We started out with the Sichuan Wonton with Red Oil. They were plump little porky dumplings swimming in spicy chili oil. Mmm, so good. After we finished up the dumplings we made a good call and kept the leftover oil to use with our veggies.
We shared the Sauteed Pea Shoots and Baby Bok Choy with garlic. Both were super fresh and delicious, they tasted like springtime. The vegetables were a great with the chicken entree we ordered, Aui Zhou Spicy Chicken. The chicken was just as fabulous, maybe even better actually, than the vegetables. It was a bit crispy, spicy, sweet and moist but it wasn't battered and drenched in sauce. It was all extra delicious when we added the leftover chili oil.
After dinner we headed south to ride the Staten Island Ferry. It was a bit chilly and windy, but we picked the perfect time to ride. It was just past sunset so we got the pretty colors plus the city lights at night. And you can't beat a free boat ride!
We capped the night off with a another stop at Shake Shack for some custard. The line was pretty darn long at 10 pm on a Friday night. Luckily we skipped over to the "B Line" since we were just getting ice cream. We ended up waiting around 10 minutes for some super yummy Fluffernutter custard. We liked it a whole lot, especially the peanut butter swirl, but agreed that it wasn't quite as good as the Strawberry Blonde custard we had on our first visit. No picture, it was pretty dark out and I was feeling lazy.
That's it for Friday, I'll be back with Saturday and Sunday soon!
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