Tag Archives: 5th Avenue

New York City – Part 4

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Fourth day in New York!

Started the day with lunch that was a 12 minute walk from our hotel at Midtown East (same area where I got the bagel from Pick a Bagel):

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2021/11/26/turkuaz/

Midtown East is a neighborhood I would consider living. It looks pretty clean, and close to Hell’s Kitchen. Only thing is that it doesn’t seem to have newer type buildings. Would want a place with high rises.

After brunch, made our way to the Rockefeller building to check out a bar that overlooks a skating rink. Unfortunately that was closed (likely due to COVID). Would try and check that out again, plus the Fao Shwarz toy store that is nearby (a giant toy store that seems very New York City-ish).

Since we were already close by, headed to 5th avenue to do some shopping at Saks. Got a $300 Uggs scarf. Gotta say shopping there was a great experience. Didn’t feel pressured or judged by the sales people, and the store was well lit. Would go back there to shop again. Saks also has a light festival musical showcase outside the building walls during the holidays. For shopping at 5th in general, next time would probably check out Bloomingdale’s and the Nike store.

After, had drinks near Grand Central called Park Avenue Tavern (see the review about the type of bar):

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2021/11/26/park-avenue-tavern/

After, headed over to get dinner at a really good italian restaurant called Carbone (recommended from a friend). Food was really good. The place was in Greenwich Village (didn’t really have time to assess the neighbourbood in terms of living, but it’s near West Village, so probably an ok area to live):

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2021/11/25/carbone/

New York City 2021 – Part 2

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For the first 4 nights we stayed at the Warwick Hotel just south of Central Park. The location is great. You can walk to a Broadway play in 12 minutes, or shop at Saks on 5th avenue. Also very close to Central Park itself of course. Great location for visiting (but it is slightly touristy, so not sure if it would be a good place to live).

The second day of the trip we took it pretty easy because of the night before. Started off brunch by going to this Italian Restaurant near our hotel:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2021/11/26/pazzo-notte/

After, we decided to see if we can get last minute tickets for the Book of Mormon. We tried first at the ticketing section at the bottom of Times Square. They did not have anything (and they said they usually don’t for that show). So we then showed up at the ticketing office at the Eugene O’Neill theater (where the show was at). Basically we showed up at 6pm, and they said they had 2 mezzanine tickets for $199 each (and that they could release them at 6:30pm once they were confirmed they would be cancelled). Fortunately for us, we got them at 6:30pm (below you can see how great our spot was). Will say the play was good, but might have been super hyped up. (Haha Salta Laka City, Ootah, Neutrogena).

After the show we headed to West Village to try our luck to try and see a show at the comedy cellar. We basically stood in the stand by line at 11pm, and they confirmed at 11:30pm if we got in or not (and yea, we got in). Before entering, they did require that we seal our phones and watched in a bag (so we don’t record anything). Also a 2 drink minimum was required (they stamp your receipt on exit). Overall, would go back there, but I did like the ambience of The Stand better. (By the way, we went to a local bar, Minetta Tavern, near by while waiting for 11pm, and gotta say, it’s definitely a student area, with great looking people). In general, the west village is better than the east village (see Part 3 post), but there was a lot of trash at the West Village the night we went.