christmas in the city: day three

I've been slacking this week with the holiday on Monday and various things going on, but I did manage to crank out the next NYC recap post. Enjoy!

Friday, December 7

• We headed out of the hotel bound for FAO Schwartz. Our plan was to hit it up early before the massive crowds gathered. Good idea in theory but massive crowds nonetheless.





Even big kids love a huge toy store!

• All those kids and fun toys can make you hungry. Next it was time for lunch at Burger Joint, a cool dive restaurant in the Parker Le Meridian hotel. So yummy!

• During Christmas the Parker Le Meridian also has showcases gingerbread houses constructed by local bakeries in the lobby. Very cool thing to see. 



Lincoln was our fave gingerbread creation!

• We bounced over to Bloomies next. A lot of you know that I try to collect an ornament from each of our trips, and this one was no different. After browsing all of the ornament displays, I settled on the Radko NYC ornament (shown in this post).



Bloomies!

• Tea has become a must-do for me whenever I'm in the city. It's so fun to get dressed up and enjoy a formal tea service with a girlfriend. All of the hustle and bustle from the street outside just fades away as you sit down to the white table linens, fine china, polished silver, and beautiful tray of finger sandwiches and scones. After Bloomingdales, Kat and I had reservations at the St. Regis for afternoon tea. Astor Court does a wonderful tea service that I highly recommend for any of you fellow girly-girls. Meanwhile, the boys headed to Park Avenue Tavern for something a little more manly (aka beer via self-serve taps).  

• After our tea reservation, we met up with the guys at Park Avenue Tavern then headed to Grand Central. I did not think it was possible for this landmark to be any more gorgeous but Christmas at Grand Central certainly proved me wrong. We wandered around taking in the beauty and browsed some of the holiday market shops (noticing a pattern?) before heading back to the hotel to freshen up.

• Next we hoppped on the subway bound for Brooklyn. We had dinner reservations at Peter Luger and the guys had been looking forward to this meal the entire trip. You see, Peter Luger has consistently been voted best steak in NYC and our guys love their red meat. If you are planning to visit NYC with a man, go ahead and put this place on your to-do list and be sure to order the following- Appetizer: Bacon, Shrimp, Tomato, and Onion chopped and mixed together. Entree: Porterhouse for 4 with spinach and potatoes. We got advice from a local on what to order and hit the jackpot. Our meal was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! The steak was wonderful, but I have to admit that I fell in love with the spinach most of all. 

  

  The aftermath





Post-Peter Luger = Happy Husby


• After dinner, we were ready for some fun so we headed to a flip-cup bar. While I can't remember the name of this bar, it is known for hosting flip cup and beer pong tournaments. It was a bit of a dive, but lots of fun.

• We had met up with some other NYC friends of Katharine's at the flip cup bar who insisted that we should check out a "country bar". So off to Johnny Utah’s we went. Country bar it was NOT. The presence of a mechanical bull and the occasional country song played by the DJ does not equal a true country bar. It was, however, very fun and entertaining. We had a blast here and even coaxed one of our party to give the bull a shot.

• Fun night complete, it was off to hotel and the bed for us!

Day Four (the final recap post) to follow soon!