Five Trips in Five Years...NYC May / June 2016 - Day 2: Ellen's Stardust Diner and Central Park

[moosha]

Day 2 - Sunday 29th May 2016

Of course we were up early this morning because of the jet lag, I'm going to assume it was sometime between 4 and 5. We were using the early start to our advantage and planned to get in line for breakfast at Ellen's Stardust Diner pretty much as soon as it opened. Before we went out each day poor Seren had to fit in some 11+ studying as she was due to take her 11+ exam a few months later. All the studying paid off though as she passed .



I'm pretty sure we didn't make it out of the door quite as early as planned as we (especially me) are prone to faffing. We took the subway (must have been a 1 train) from Chambers Street up to either Times Square or 50th Street (think it was the latter as we try to avoid Times Square wherever possible).

We found Ellen's quickly and were pleased to see the line was nice and short (probably about 10 parties in front of us). We hadn't made it in time for the 7 am opening, I think it must have been about 7.30 am when we got there. Ellen's only take reservations for groups of over 25 so we knew we'd have to stand in line which is why I thought going early for breakfast when we had jet lag was the best plan. I know the line can get a bit horrendous later in the day. We only waited about 10 - 15 minutes I think, despite a massive school band party arriving around the same time as us which was a bit of a concern. However they had booked out the mezzanine level so didn't impact on the regular line / guests.

We were really excited about visiting Ellen's as we love musicals and I loved the TV show Glee with its copy of Ellen's. If you don't know anything about it, the wait staff are aspiring Broadway stars who I believe are generally studying theatre arts at one of the NY universities. They work at the restaurant to pay their way through college and get experience at the same time. One of the staff goes around with a big black bucket throughout the day collecting tips for the performances which funds their college courses apparently. The bucket came around twice while we were there and the host was quite vocal about repeating a few times what they were collecting for during the 'show' but it wasn't annoying or over the top.







Anyway, the singing was brilliant and pretty much non-stop throughout the entire time they were there. All of the wait staff took turns singing mostly songs from musicals including lots of Disney ones (I remember them doing A Whole New World and Let It Go.) They walk around and climb on the tables and stuff and it's lots of fun. Our waitress (who was possibly called Alia judging by the receipt) was lovely, really sweet and she was definitely the best singer we saw perform, which the girls told her. The entertainment side of the meal was top-notch and if you like that kind of thing (like us) I would definitely recommend it.



I had read that the food was average at best and I would agree with that, but it is very expensive too. I guess it's expensive in order to fund the operation they have going there, and because they can charge those prices and still be packed all day, they do. I had the Napa Hash which is a vegetable hash served with eggs any style (I had poached) and 'fingerling potatoes' which turned out to be like a cross between home fries and potato croquettes, straight from a packet from the freezer . I think we all had these included as part of our breakfast (mine made up about 50% of my breakfast) as I guess they're a cheap way to fill the plates. Mat had the Brooklyn Bagel which had scrambled egg and cheese on, Seren had a vegetable omelette and Freya didn't like anything on the menu so asked if she could have sunny side up eggs and toast. Someone also had a chocolate croissant according to the receipt.

When Freya's food arrived, she had one egg and two slices of toast. She enjoyed it and it was fine that she had only one egg, until the check arrived and we found they'd charged us something like $7.50 for the egg, plus $1.50 for the toast . We raised it with our server as we thought that was a crazy price for one fried egg. She didn't realise we'd only had one egg as a runner had brought the food out. She agreed that was too much to pay for one egg but had to get it sorted with the manager. In the end, they took the egg off and we only paid for Freya's toast which was sweet of them. Mat and I also had cocktails but I can't find the descriptions for them anywhere. I had an Ethel Mertz and a Lucy Ricardo, and Mat had a Bloody Mary. I think mine were mimosa type drinks and if I recall one was orange or peach and the other was strawberry but I could be wrong.



We left feeling satisfied and having enjoyed the experience. We will probably return.



Today was to be a Central Park day as sunny Sundays often are for us in New York. I'm pretty sure we walked up 7th Avenue towards Columbus Circle (we always seem to enter the park at the south-west corner). It was only about eight blocks from Ellen's but I think we stopped at Zibetto Espresso Bar on the corner of 56th and 6th Ave to get a coffee. Mat had discovered this place on his previous work trip to NYC as his company's office is nearby. And thank goodness he did as it was the best coffee I had in New York all week, joint with Grandaisy Bakery in TriBeCa. FIKA (Swedish coffee shop) would come in just below that. We drink black Americanos and like it relatively strong but still tasty. Some of the stronger coffees in New York just taste like what I imagine petrol would taste like but we'll come to that later. Anyway, Zibetto is very good, and they have a few of them in Manhattan.

We took our coffees into the park, covered the girls in sunscreen and then they were off up the shist to do some climbing while we finished our drinks and creamed ourselves up too.





The plan was to take a slow wander up the park stopping at all the usual sights with our final park destination being the girls' favourite playground in Central Park, the Safari Playground at W91st Street, or as we call it, the 'Hippo Park'. That was thirty blocks north though, so we knew it would be a lot later when we finally reached it.

There was an amusement park set up where the ice rink goes in the winter so we watched that from the outside for a few minutes. It was ridiculously expensive just to enter and then you had to pay for the rides on top once you got in. No thanks.





Quick rest stop (so early on ) at the chess and checkers pavilion:



Seren equipped with a Central Park map:







We had a lovely few hours exploring Central Park and the girls went on the Central Park carousel for the first time (they've been on the Brooklyn Bridge Park one and the Bryant Park one but never this one before).





Cute detail on the fence around the carousel:





We walked up to Strawberry Fields which was rammed unfortunately so we didn't stop there long and didn't manage to get any photos because of how busy it is (I have some from other years though).

This looks quite cool:









We call this building 'Bono's Place' as we were told on one of those open top bus tours a few years ago that he has the penthouse there:



We walked over the Bow Bridge (as seen in Enchanted among many other things):



Bethesda Terrace:









We passed the Alice in Wonderland statue and had a rest at Belvedere Castle which was crazy busy so we didn't go in., just took a few photos at Vista Rock as it's the highest point in the park.





continued below...

[moosha]

...continued

Shakespeare Garden:



Seren's into her Shakespeare so she loved walking through, reading all the quotes and matching them to the plants. Apparently they have every plant and flower mentioned in Shakespeare's plays.







We spent a good few minutes at the Turtle Pond. They were so cute. Seren had been moaning about walking but the turtles really lifted her spirits. She was really excited about them and wanted to stay the longest which surprised me as Freya is the big animal lover.









We had a little water break and then walked the last ten blocks or so to the Hippo Park. I think we arrived there about 2 pm. Mat and I sat on a bench in the shade and the girls climbed the climbing frames and on the hippos. It's a nice little park as it doesn't get very busy and it is well shaded.









After about 20 minutes we rounded the girls up as it was time to leave Central Park. We took the subway from 86th Street. I think we took a train down to Chelsea (1,2 or 3 train) as we were planning to get something to eat from Chelsea Markets.

My Fit Flops were rubbing my feet really badly and I was struggling to walk by this point, so we popped into a CVS or Duane Reed and I bought some cheap pink flip flops to get me through the rest of the day. They were about $8 for a pack of two.

We then went to a bagel shop, I think it was Murray's Bagels, in Chelsea and the girls had cream cheese bagels for tea.





Mat and I got salads from Beyond Sushi (another amazing find of his from his work trip). It's basically vegetarian sushi and salads. It takes them a few minutes to make the salads up fresh for you but it is well worth it. I had the Nerdy Greek which was black rice, baby greens, eggplant, kalamata olives, cumin roasted chickpeas, sundried tomatoes and almonds with tahini. It was definitely one of the best salads I've ever eaten, absolutely delicious (wish I'd taken photos). Mat had the Zen which was black rice, baby greens, avocado, English cucumber, mango, portabella mushrooms, cashews and cilantro with jalapeño peanut butter sauce. We got a piece sampler of the veggie sushi which were charred corn with harissa and cilantro, curried cauliflower with almond pesto, roasted tomato with tomato guajillo and seaweed salad with chilli flakes and sesame seeds. Again the sushi was delicious.



It was almost 5 pm at this point according to the receipt. We took the salads up onto the High Line and ate it at one of the covered tables where the food stands are.

When we'd finished eating we walked 'down' the High Line:



She always has to read all of the signs (bookworm) :









We walked down to the southern exit (pretty sure it's at 10th Street):







Then we walked down the Hudson River Park again back to TriBeCa.







We popped to Best Market (grocery store) a few blocks from our hotel on the way back. It's a lovely little food market selling mostly healthy food. They have lots of fresh produce and I think the girls chose a piece of fruit each. We stocked up on water, and Mat and I treated ourselves to a San Pellegrino fizzy fruit drink each to have back at the hotel as we were so thirsty which went down a treat. Then we all chilled out before falling asleep.

[sheluk]

You guys look like you belong there - chilling out in Central Park on a Sunday

One thing though... tahini-yuck! I tried this recently and it wasn't for me. Love a good coffee though & know what you mean about NY strong lol

Enjoying following along thanks for sharing xx

[moosha]

Originally Posted by sheluk

You guys look like you belong there - chilling out in Central Park on a Sunday

One thing though... tahini-yuck! I tried this recently and it wasn't for me. Love a good coffee though & know what you mean about NY strong lol

Enjoying following along thanks for sharing xx

See more...

Aah, thanks Michelle . We definitely have an affinity with New York City and when we thought we were moving there, we could definitely see ourselves enjoying the city on weekends .

I'm trying to remember what the tahini dressing tasted like now... I think it was a very thin dressing with tahini in rather than just tahini on the side of or in the salad and I don't remember it being overpowering. The salad was soooo good though .

Thanks as always for reading and commenting xx

[abiknox]

Another beautiful day, such lovely weather.

I haven't read about Turtle Pond before, that's top priority for me now on our Central park visit! Can't wait

[moosha]

Originally Posted by abiknox

Another beautiful day, such lovely weather.

I haven't read about Turtle Pond before, that's top priority for me now on our Central park visit! Can't wait

See more...

I know, we were so lucky with the weather . Yes, you must visit the cute turtles...we could have stayed all afternoon . Thanks as always for reading and commenting .

[RachelM]

What a beautiful day you had.

[duchy]

Great report. I have to agree with you about Ellen's. We did lunch there and the theming was fabulous but the food overpriced and meh . One of those glad to have done it once experiences but not on the do it again list for me.

[Guest]

I loathe potatoes for breakfast - it smacks of parsimony.

But yay to the schist and Turtle Pond - I had forgotten about that...and what a lovely snap of BC beyond the pond. Could be a postcard, it could.

[WileyCoyote]

What a lovely day , Central Park looks so gorgeous. I made notes, lots we need to go back and see. Ellen's is really quite pricey for average food, it is quite and experience but not great dining ! And that was one pricey egg. Pleased they sorted that out for you. Loved your pics from today.

Oucha to the rubbing flip flops, that's painful.