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Old 30 Jan 17, 04:49 PM  
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Five Trips in Five Years...NYC May / June 2016 - Day 3: The Odeon, MoMA, Grand Central and Sarabeths

Day 3 - Monday 30th May 2016

This 'photo trip report' is taking longer than planned to post because it seems I am completely incapable of posting a photos with captions report and have resorted to my usual very long waffling instead, so apologies .

We had a breakfast reservation this morning at The Odeon in TriBeCa, just a couple of minutes walk from our hotel. We had decided to make a couple of breakfast reservations this trip as we tend to snack / graze throughout the day in New York because there are so many foods we want to try or revisit. So we thought a couple of proper sit down breakfasts were a sensible idea to make sure we were getting some good 'square meals' and also so that we got to enjoy sitting in a restaurant a few times. Plus breakfast tends to be cheaper than lunch and dinner.

We knew there were lots of good restaurants in TriBeCa so we did a bit of research and settled on two breakfast venues that we really liked the look of. One was Bubby's which had great reviews, a fantastic looking menu, and we knew that Taylor Swift had eaten here. She has an apartment in TriBeCa and we took a photo of her building, hopefully I can find it and include it in the report. We're all big Taylor Swift fans, especially Seren, so if it was good enough for Taylor it was good enough for us .

The other restaurant we had chosen was The Odeon which has quite a history and that's half of the reason why Mat and I wanted to go there (the other half was the good reviews). In the 80s it was apparently 'the' New York restaurant when TriBeCa, and the city in general, was a dark, dangerous place. The Odeon was an insalubrious venue itself, rife with cocaine use and celebrities hanging out and doing their thing: Andy Warhol, Robert De Niro, John Belushi. Mat and I have a love of 70s / 80s seedy and dangerous New York history and culture (yes maybe we're a bit odd ) so we were really keen to visit. It's also on the cover of one of Mat's favourite books, Bright Lights Big City by Jay McInerney:



So all of this meant we were definitely going there. Today was Memorial Day so we wanted to head out onto the streets early, thinking everywhere would be busy. We had booked our breakfast reservation for 8am, the time The Odeon opened. When we arrived, we found that because it was a public holiday, the rest of New York were either still in bed or had gone out of the city for the long weekend. The staff told us that on a non-holiday Monday they would be quite busy first thing with breakfast meetings etc, but while we were there today only one other party arrived to eat. It was a bit of a shame because obviously this meant there was no atmosphere, but other than that, we loved our meal at The Odeon.







The staff were very professional and the service quite formal but they were still very friendly. The food was fantastic, we really couldn't fault it in any way. We had a window table and enjoyed watching the very quiet city outside. There are full length mirrors on the side panels either side of the window which meant that every time we saw someone in the mirror who was outside walking down the street towards the mirror, they would then appear in front of the window from the other direction. So the way we thought they were walking was in fact the opposite to the way they were going which was quite amusing.

The Odeon had white paper tablecloths on top of the regular tablecloths and the staff had given the girls crayons but no paper. We've never been to a restaurant where they invite diners to draw on the tablecloths before, but we knew that's what they were suggesting with the crayons. The girls weren't convinced that they were allowed to do that so we made them ask the waitress who confirmed it was fine.









At the end of the meal, Seren wrote a note of appreciation for the restaurant on the tablecloth, saying she loved The Odeon and that it was 'better than Ellen's Stardust Diner'. When we returned from the restrooms, the staff had cut that little piece out of the tablecloth when they had removed it from the table. They said they were going to add it to a wall downstairs where they pinned up tablecloth art and notes that they wanted to keep which made Seren happy.

Restroom floor pattern. The restrooms were quite impressive, you could almost feel the history down there as well:



I had a mimosa, but Mat just had an orange juice (I think he was suffering with a cold), and Seren had two apple juices and a tea (the first time she's been served tea in a cafetiere which confused her.) Seren had poached eggs on toast, Freya had sunny side up eggs on toast, and they both had a side of sliced banana. Mat had 'grains and greens' (featuring quinoa, avocado and poached egg) and half a grapefruit (which was $6 - is he mad?) I had avocado on gluten-free toast with a poached egg, and a side of breakfast potatoes. It was all absolutely delicious. We would definitely recommend The Odeon for breakfast and I'm pretty sure we'll return.









Blurry fried eggs:









Now, today's weather forecast had been thunderstorms and rain for the entire morning, and when we had realised that the day before, we had booked tickets for the Museum of Modern Art. We've been to MoMA a couple of times before and although it wasn't exactly first on our list of places to visit again, we'd had to come up with some sort of indoor plan for today. With it being Memorial Day we'd tried to think of somewhere that wouldn't be too busy, if such a place exists in one of the most popular tourist cities in the world on a wet public holiday. Although at this point it was pretty warm and although overcast, there was no sign of any rain. It was misty though; One World Trade Center wasn't looking very tall:







Pounding pavements:



We figured we'd get there in time for opening and hoped we'd be all done by the time it got too busy, and that any bad weather would have cleared when we left too. We took a wall down to Chambers Street to get the subway, and Mat took some photos of some graffiti we saw in the area still being constructed down there.





Mat's favourite beer:



Still missing the top half even close up:



We took a 1 train up to 50th Street, popped to Zibetto Espresso Bar to grab another delicious Americano and then walked over to MoMA.







It was still about 15 minutes before it opened at 10.30 am at this point. We were a bit concerned by the queue barriers set up outside indicating that they were expecting a lot of guests today. Still, at least we were here early and we already had our tickets so didn't need to waste time queueing for them.

The foyer area was already open and we all needed to restroom so we went in but found the restrooms don't open until the exhibits do (only the ticket area and cloakroom). We asked a security guy and he directed us to Starbucks or the Hilton to use the facilities. We decided to pop over the road to the Hilton Midtown to use the restrooms there as we were pretty desperate. I'm not usually one to use the loos at a hotel I'm not staying at or a restaurant I'm not eating at but needs must, plus the security guy had suggested it so I assumed it was something lots of people do. The Hilton Midtown is a massive hotel with a big conference centre and doesn't exactly offer a personal guest greeting when you enter because of the sheer size of the place. You have to walk right to the back of the massive lobby to get to the restrooms, and the entire ground floor was really crowded, but the toilets were quiet and clean. Usually when we stay at Bryant Park we wouldn't have a need for a public toilet in Midtown, but as we were a very long way from TriBeCa, it was good to know these restrooms were here and we used them another couple of times during the week. The American Girl store on 5th Avenue also has big clean restrooms (upstairs), so there are my Midtown Manhattan public restroom tips .

Back to the museum we went which was now just opening. We headed first to the 1880s - 1950s collections exhibition on floor 5 as we thought Freya would like to look at the Degas ballerina paintings. The exhibition was already heaving. We took a quick walk all the way around looking at the art but it was too busy to get a proper look and really enjoy the paintings / stop as long as we would like in front of them. We couldn't get anywhere near Monet's 'Water Lillies' which was a shame as the girls have learnt about Monet at school. Mat likes Rothko paintings so he hung about looking at those for a mo.



The 1960s gallery on floor 4 was not as busy as the 1880s – 1950s, thank goodness, so we had a good look at the Warhol's and Lichtenstein's which is much more my thing than the older art. Seren had just done a 'Campbell's Soup' painting at school so she was excited to see the originals here.









Continued below...
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Old 30 Jan 17, 04:57 PM  
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...continued:

We took some photos of the view from MoMA...not looking very stormy at the moment, is it?





There was a lovely 60s music / psychedelia exhibition which we all really liked:







Pretty Warhol book:



By the time we got into the contemporary galleries on floor 2, Freya and I were flagging. I'm not a massive printed art fan although I do like some modern art especially photography (admittedly I spent several hundred pounds on Bruce Davidson's book Subway which I absolutely love - back to that gritty 1980s New York thing I mentioned earlier). I find in any art gallery or museum I get to the point after a while where I've had enough and I just want to go. Freya felt the same, so the two of us had a rest while Mat and Seren looked at some of the sculptures (my least favourite type of art). Freya just before we slumped on some stools:



The view from the ground floor. The outdoor terrace was closed today due to construction:



Eventually we were ready to leave. Back outside we were pretty sure that the threatened rain and thunderstorms had not materialised so we hadn't really needed to spend the $50 to visit MoMA ($25 adults, children free) and the weather seemed to be improving.

Next up we headed to Junior's Times Square as part of our ongoing research into the best cheesecake in New York. We had considered Junior's for a meal on previous trips after seeing the Brooklyn branch featured in the Sex and the City film, but the menu is too meaty for us so we'd settled on testing out the famous cheesecake only. At the Times Square restaurant, they have a separate bakery counter with separate outdoor seating so this was perfect for our needs. We really dislike Times Square as previously mentioned so this was longer than we wished to spend in the area, but at least it was a shaded sit down. The plan was to get the girls a 'Little Fella' mini cheesecake each and for Mat to have a full slice of another cheesecake, but Seren wanted raspberry swirl which wasn't available as a mini. So we got a mini plain (Mat), chocolate swirl (Freya) and a slice of raspberry swirl (Seren). I just had a water and a taste of their cheesecakes as I'm not really into desserts anymore. It was nice cheesecake but definitely didn't beat our favourite, Eileen's Special Cheesecake in Little Italy, which we will revisit later in the report.







Refreshed and reenergised, we hit the streets again...



...and walked to Grand Central Terminal for some photos, the inevitable trip to the whispering gallery, and a bit of shopping.







Whispering Gallery:



We'd found some discount vouchers online for quite a few stores before the trip but I think we only used the Little Miss Matched one in the end as we're not big shoppers. We went in a lovely little stationery shop and then spent too much time and money buying socks for the girls in Little Miss Matched (I do love that shop). Mat and I wanted to try the coffee in Cafe Grumpy as it's regularly named the best coffee in New York. I could only manage half of mine as it's that really strong, petrol-tasting New York coffee (in my opinion), which was a disappointment as I was expecting to really enjoy it. I love the logo though:



I had been craving a green juice (my usual daily breakfast at home) so we went to Urbanspace Vanderbilt food market next door to the Liquiteria juice bar there. New York City has a lot of juice bars (I'd done my research before we went) and I found Liquiteria to be the best of the three chains I tried - Liquiteria, Juice Press and Joe and the Juice (although Joe and the Juice which we also have in the UK comes a close second, mainly because of their very gorgeous male staff, but we'll get to that in due course).





I ordered myself a Mean Green which was delicious and I wasn't impressed when Seren tried to steal it, so I got her one too.







Mat got a salad from Two Tablespoons and let me share it, bless him.





This was also really tasty but I can't find a receipt or menu to find out what was in it. Freya was also hungry so she got a slice of pizza from Roberta's and we went and sat down in the central dining area where they had lots of bench seating while she ate. Urbanspace Vanderbilt is definitely worth a visit for a snack or drink in my opinion, we thought it was lovely. There are other Urbanspace locations in New York too.

Excited about pizza:







So after more food and drinks we were back out on the streets. The Chanin Building on East 42nd Street:





We walked past the Chrysler building which is our favourite skyscraper in the city.



I'm not sure we've ever walked right past the building so we took photos of the entrance and peered through the windows into the lobby which looked equally beautiful.







We took a photo outside the New York Public Library...



...and walked through Bryant Park which was weird because it's usually our home here and today we were just passing through. We looked longingly in the window of the Bryant Park hotel, wishing we were staying there again this trip, and then crossed over onto Sixth Avenue. We hadn't told the girls where we were going as it was a surprise for Freya. Literally 150 metres from the Bryant Park hotel, Kinokinuya, a massive new Japanese book / stationery store had opened since our last visit. Freya loves Japanese culture and has Japanese friends so she was so happy when she saw it.

We spent a pretty long time in Kinokinuya and the girls bought a soft toy each. We also bought Freya a Japanese girls' magazine which had some amazing Disney merchandise advertised in it. We had planned to visit Sarabeth's in TriBeCa for happy hour and bar snacks this evening, so we took the subway from Times Square back down to Franklin Street. Happy hour at Sarabeth's is every day from 4.30pm - 7.30pm and they have five simple cocktails / spirits and mixers on offer at $6 / $7 each, as well as $7 glasses of wine and half price draft beer. They also have a tasty looking bar menu including pizza during happy hour.

We arrived at a pretty empty restaurant about 5pm and were seated by a pretty grumpy hostess. She put us towards the back of the restaurant even though there were barely any other diners in there. The front section by the bar in front of the windows is lovely but where we were was pretty dark. We assumed it was because we had children with us and they didn't want to put off any more desirable guests.

The girls with the toys they got in Kinokinuya:



Mat and I both ordered a drink, I had my old favourite Cuba Libre and Mat had a gin and tonic. A nice friendly member of staff, I think he was the manager, came over to have a chat with us about what we'd been up to and he offered to take a photo of us. I started to feel a bit happier with the place at that point.



The girls only wanted some fries and they didn't really eat them as I think they were 'posh' fries and had some sort of seasoning on them or something. The girls with their fries 30 seconds before they stopped eating them :angry::



Mat and I ordered shrimp poppers, guacamole and chips with crab meat, and truffle fries.







The food was all pretty good, not amazing, and we decided we'd probably come back for the cheap drinks (unlikely to find many other places in Manhattan serving $6 rum and Cokes) but wouldn't bother with the food again because it makes a visit very expensive and kind of wipes out the value of the happy hour, which I guess is their plan. We'll see how that works out over the next few days .



Mat and I had a second drink (it would have been rude not to at those prices) and then we popped to Best Market to stock up on water and the girls got a piece of fruit each. Then it was back to the hotel to crash out after another long day.
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Old 5 Feb 17, 10:24 AM  
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Fab reports. going to NY in April for DS birthday. he will be 21 years old. I'm so looking forward to it
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Old 6 Feb 17, 03:22 PM  
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Originally Posted by dozy View Post
Fab reports. going to NY in April for DS birthday. he will be 21 years old. I'm so looking forward to it
Wow, sounds fab . I'm sure you'll have an amazing time. Thanks for reading and commenting .
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Old 7 Feb 17, 12:21 PM  
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Great read again.
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Old 9 Feb 17, 01:01 PM  
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Originally Posted by abiknox View Post
Great read again.
Thanks for reading and commenting Abi .
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Old 8 Apr 17, 10:17 PM  
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What a busy day. Looks like you are all having a great time though.
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Old 19 Apr 17, 09:20 PM  
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I laughed out loud when I read your introduction to this day - I found my first trippie such a slog that I swore I'd only do a food report for Florida. You know how that turned out. I'm currently writing up Day 25!

Museums (esp. crowded ones) in NY make me cross. We have such amazing free museums here in London - I begrudge shelling out all that cash only to have to bob and weave to look at the art. But it's lovely to see another "plus kids" trippie with some culture.


Though If I ever meet your husband I won't tell him that I'd rather stick forks in my eyes than read Bright Lights, Big City again...
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Old 29 Apr 17, 07:48 PM  
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Nice price cocktails but pricey snacks ...

Love the pics in the museum and fascinating to learn about that Odeon place.
Lot of walking again today .. Tired legs !
A nice day ..
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Old 6 Jan 18, 01:22 PM  
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Another great day. The Odeon is definitely on the list for breakfast, looks yummy!
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