Marina and I arrived in New York on Friday evening. We stayed at the amazing Ace Hotel, which was not only very well located to the Javits Center, but also extremely nice. The lobby was constantly abuzz with activity, and all the employees were shockingly attractive. Our room (which was upgraded by my awesome cousin) was huge and very comfortable- we loved it! Our first night there, we ate at the Breslin restaurant, which was good, but I think we missed out by not bringing a large enough group to order the whole pig. But the decor was perfect (really, everything in the hotel was perfectly designed, down to the tip envelopes and key cards), and we loved the drinks!
On Saturday morning we got up early for our annual pilgrimage to Doughnut Plant before heading over to the Javits to set up the booth. We finished set up in a record four hours (!), and then went back to our hotel for sandwiches at No. 7 Sub Shop (their Yuzuade is amazing!), which we took down to Madison Square Park for a picnic, as the weather was gorgeous. We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and running errands. I really wanted the Orla Kiely knockoff scarf above, but it was only being sold wholesale. By dinnertime we'd ended up on the East side, conveniently close to Saravanaa, so we stopped there for some paratha and dosa before rolling ourselves into bed.
Sunday was the first day of the show. It was really busy and we barely had time to be bored. Afterwards we celebrated with Laurie and Carrie from Two Trick Pony, and our mutual rep and friend Carina from Crow and Canary, by trekking over to Mama's Food Shop on the lower East side. I probably say this every year, but there is really nothing like a piled-high plate from Mama's after a long day!
Monday was also very busy, and afterwards we went back to our hotel, where Nole from Oh So Beautiful Paper was throwing a little cocktail reception. We had a drink with our Hello! Lucky friends Kelly and Shauna, but were too tired to hang around too long. We went upstairs, ordered room service, and watched Desperately Seeking Susan before hitting the sack.
Tuesday it poured. I mean, downpour and crazy winds that caused the rain to go sideways, rendering umbrellas useless. This made for poor attendance at the show, and we were really excited to get out of the convention center at the end of the day. Since our plan was to walk down to Barbuto for dinner, we begged for some trashbags from the janitorial staff, which worked better than any poncho I know. I wish we'd gotten someone to take our pictures in them; everytime we walked past a reflection in a window we would laugh ourselves to tears. Anyways, the route from the Javits to Barbuto happens to go along the Highline, and even in the rain it was really lovely. We got the whole place to ourselves, too, except for a couple of security guards who barely contained their snickering at our silly outfits.
We ditched the trashbags a block before the restaurant, sprinted through the rain and were seated right away. Dinner was fantastic- salumi, tagliatelle with broccoli rabe and chilis, leg of lamb with baby turnips, roasted potatoes, and for dessert, perfectly ripe strawberries with a moscato zabaglione (above). We split a bottle of rosé Sancerre, and were excited to see Eli Kirshtein of Top Chef eating across the room.
Wednesday was a half day at the show, so we got to pack up at noon, and we were out of there in less than a half hour. Our setup mostly consists of cheap IKEA furniture, hot glue and contact paper, so we usually have very little to take home with us- it's almost all trash. Because we got out of the Javits so early, we were able to drop things off at the hotel, and then head back down to the West Village, where we had lunch at Little Owl (which was excellent) and then spent the afternoon wandering around and taking photos. I will post those later. Eventually we made our way over to the East Village for drinks at Death & Co.. We got there early enough to try a few cocktails and enjoy some of their bar food, too. The cocktails were outstanding; I would definitely go back. Afterwards we went by Caracas for some arepas, but we decided we weren't hungry enough for the wait.
Thursday we checked out of the hotel early and met up with Shauna from Hello! Lucky to check out the Biennial at the Whitney. It was much better than the previous Biennial, and included some really moving and interesting pieces. Then we walked through the park to the Momofuku Milk Bar in the Chambers Hotel, where we gorged ourselves on Crack Pie and cookies before we had to head to the airport.
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