Weekend Wandering

I was looking forward to this weekend since it'd been a while since I've been both in the city and here without visitors. It was packed with reconnecting with old friends and lots of food.  Bare with me for all the reviews!  Friday we had a happy hour to welcome Brian to NYC at Brinkley's.  The bar was adorable with its checkered floors and beach cruisers hanging from the ceiling.  The food was better than your typical "bar food".  They served brussel sprouts and kale, so that should tell you something.  It's a great spot in SoHo if you are looking for after work drinks and good noshes.

A day of art

Saturday morning one of my faves from the Bodega house came to visit from New Jersey. We started out taking SoulCycle with Emily.  Nothing like creating another SoulLover, bouncing around to awesome tunes, and sweating out the vino from the night before. After class we picked up Chopt' and sat in the grass in Union Square. Since it's been raining for what seems like an eternity, I needed to get some much needed Vitamin D.  Next, we strolled over to the west side and came across a group of people throwing paint against a wall. Trottski and I were intrigued so we wandered over to see what was going on.  It was part of a three day interactive project called Art in Odd Places (AiOP) put on by students from the Parsons school along 14th street between 6th and 7th Avenue, encouraging the public to take the time to appreciate art and its effect on social interaction.  We passed four of the exhibits but the best was embracing the five year old within and throwing paint around.  Continuing on down 14th street, we also wandered into a modern art exhibit called Open Your Eyes by Roy Nachum.  The exhibit is presented in four parts but the most interesting aspect was that on each canvas, under the paint, was a poem written in braille.  I would highly suggest everyone check it out over the next month.  After a lovely walk on the Highline, I dropped Trotta at Penn and then headed over to the rooftop of Centro for some lounging, wine, and Westville.  If you haven't been to one of their three locations, you should get there stat.  Their wide variety of vegetables are all incredible, it's always hard to pick a favorite, and their veggie burger is one of the best in the city.  The night was capped off with Flavaboom on the walk home.  It may not hold a candle to 16 Handle, but it satisfied my sweet tooth.

AGK w our romantic dessert

Sunday started with brunch at Peels with AGK.  We split an egg white omelette with spinach and onions, and the build your own biscuit with eggs, pepper jack and avocado.  Both were amazing but the biscuit brought me right back to my childhood, it was flaky, buttery and delectable. Because I couldn't be with my momma on her special day, AGK was gracious enough to let me order some monkey bread in her honor (she always made it for us growing up) and we topped it off with a Bloody Mary (her favorite morning cocktail), Lady and the Tramp style.  The restaurant has a warm farm-style feel to it, which naturally appeased the country girl within me.  After brunch, we bounced around SoHo for hours of shopping, stopped by a street fair, and did the usual Sunday shop at Trader's.

Last stop on the weekend express train was dinner at Saxon + Parole with Brian and Kurbs.  We each got a Sunday night bevy but Brian's Manhattan with a side of accoutrements took the cake for presentation.  The restaurant is well known for their cocktails so I'd recommend going back with a big group for a fun Saturday night out or for their Bloody Mary bar at brunch.   The food shouldn't be discounted either.  For appetizers we shared the beet salad and asparagus topped with a poached egg and truffle hollandaise, both scrumptious.  Then for our main course, we got the butternut squash risotto and fries.  The restaurant takes your typical recipe and adds a unique flare to it, exemplified by the risotto, made with barley and kale chips, and the blue cheese mayo and chilli ketchup sauces that accompanied the fries.  The second amazing meal of the day on Bowery.

It was a fun filled weekend to say the least.  Hope you all had a good one and Happy Mother's Day again to my momma!!