NYC…the city that never sleeps!

Karen and I only get to see each other 1 time a year if we are lucky, so we both knew we had a lot of catching up to do! Once we lugged my “stuff” up to her 4^th floor walkup (which was absolutely adorable by the way!) & after getting primped and hydrated- we took off in search of a low-key restaurant nearby in Hell’s Kitchen that would allow us to gab away for a couple hours. A couple blocks north of her sits what’s called “Restaurant Row”. Basically it’s a street of back-to-back restaurants serving cuisines from around the world.  We choose Meson Sevilla– a tapas place. Although the place was actually quite boorish, the food was amazing & very authentic to Spain, plus their pitchers of Sangria were mixed just right for a girls night out!

After we caught each other up, we went on in search of the perfect bar to continue on with our kick-off of Girls Weekend 2011 NYC! Karen led me to The Mercury Bar. It was still in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood and an old watering hole of hers. The music was great, the bar packed, drinks were a flowin, and random foreign guys a plenty- the perfect start to our weekend!

After such a late night out, Saturday was a slow start. But, in true rock-star fashion, we powered through it and got moving! This time we headed down to the trendy Soho area. All around Soho sits cool clothing boutiques, funky cafés, and eclectic home furnishing stores. We happened upon a great store Karen had known of from her time in Connecticut. The store was called LF Stores and they were having a massive sale!! Oh my gosh was it packed and everything was ridiculously cheap. We both walked out with great purchases- her with a top and me with a new purse!

Off we went in search of our next sale. As luck would have it, we walked straight into the new Dash Manhattan store. Of course we weren’t stupid enough to stand in line (like many others) in the freezing cold to wait our turn but we did stop to take a picture🙂.

                           For lunch we found an amazing little Mexican restaurant in the area from my UrbanSpoon app called Papatzul. Holy moly their guacamole & micheladas were out of this world and we shared the carne asada & fish tacos. Heavenly and just what the doctor ordered! We continued on with the day shopping and shopping some more! I did end up finding my “New York City” purchase at a local boutique called Tangdance. Very chic!

Saturday night Karen had lined up dinner & drinks in the ever popular Meat Packing district. We had dinner reservations for 9pm at Fig & Olive– a Mediterranean haute and all I can say is WOW!! Phenomenal food, awesome wine list, totally hip atmosphere, and once again, long overdue conversation! After dinner (if you can call dinner several appetizers and 2 bottles of wine!) we headed over to STK for drinks. Karen had been to STK for dinner before and she says the food is great, but we just enjoyed our drinks. There was a huge crowd but the bar areas were so large, you didn’t feel too crowded.  The DJ had on an awesome playlist and once again, we drank & danced the night away…..well, as much as we could given that we just aren’t as young as we used to be- LOL.

Sunday Funday right?! Wrong! After 2 nights of “overindulgence”, we decided to take it easy. We got on our walking gear and headed to Times Square in search of some breakfast. Pigalle was the place and man did it hit the spot! Perfect east coast diner atmosphere and great but not too greasy, breakfast food.

The rest of the day we spent walking around Mid-town. I had not been to NYC in over 4 years and since then, I found that they blocked off a huge part of Times Square to cars so pedestrians could roam around- its great! We went over to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Rockefeller Square, Bryant Park, and generally just people watched! On our way back to the apartment to freshen up for dinner, Karen took me to a great little boutique called Coup de Coeur in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood where we both found more loot to buy- yea for us:-)!

Of course a huge attraction in New York is to go to the top of the Empire State building or to the Top of the Rock for a view of the famous Manhattan skyline but neither of us are fans of crowded, too small areas so we decided to try something different. There is a hotel on the west side of Manhattan in midtown (right next to the piers of Hudson Bay) called Ink 48. It’s actually a small boutique hotel that caters to pets…. random I know; BUT, they have an amazing rooftop bar area that enables you to see a huge part of the famous Manhattan skyline. We sat up there enjoying the colors change as the sun was setting and enjoyed a great local IPA beer. Heaven. After that, we ended up back in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood for sushi at Ajisai, a Japanese Fusion place. The specialty rolls were awesome and the sashimi top-notch!

Monday was President’s Day so the usual crazy rush hour madness was not too bad. Since we are both in various sectors of the finance industry, we decided to head downtown to Wall Street. We found the NYSE and of course…. took pictures with the Raging Bull!! Hilarious and a must do when visiting NYC!  Overnight on Sunday it had snowed a bit so although it was freezing, the views were spectacular! We ventured down to Battery Park and walked amongst the snow-covered trees as well as found we could see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty- very cool.

We finished off our day downtown on Stone Street. This adorable little cobblestone street is a major lunch & happy hour pit stop for the various bankers & worker bees. We jumped into The Dubliner for some authentic Irish fare & Guinness’s. A great way to spend a snowy day!!

Well, that about covers my NYC Girls Weekend 2011 with my dear friend Karen! What an amazing time we had and were actually able to pack quite a bit into the few days we had together. Although we were not able to see a show (the lines were HUGE for tickets and we didn’t plan ahead) we got to spend some great quality girl time together. On another note I found the locals in NYC much nicer than my previous visits….or maybe it was because I had a true New Yorker by my side to defend me- whatever the case my by, the trip was worth every cent spent!

Thank you Chi-Chi for your hospitality….you know I love you to death!! xoxo