Lydia and I made a triumphant return to NYC at the end of April, and this time we had a special guest – Lyd’s 13 year old son Ethan! We were excited to show him all our New York faves, and I was excited to eat like a teenage boy for the weekend. We ended up going to a combination of old faves, new places, and one special restaurant I’ve been waiting to go to ever since our trip in 2009 when Lydia was pregnant with Ethan! Here’s the rundown:

• Taim: I went to Taim on my solo trip to NYC in 2014, and think about their falafel pretty much all the time. Luckily there’s a location right by our hotel, so once we checked in on Thursday night, that was our first top. I had a falafel pita and fries with two dipping sauces (saffron aoili + harissa ketchup = I feel passionately about dipping sauces) and they had cans of Spindrift too! I was in heaven right away, and Ethan tried falafel for the first time and liked it, so that was a win right off the bat!

• Ess-a-Bagel: This is a New York bagel institution, and I can’t believe we have never been in all of trips! We lined up for about 30-40 minutes on Friday morning and when we finally got inside it was a classic NYC experience of shouting our orders over the counter in an absolutely chaotic environment and hoping we didn’t get yelled at my anyone (failure on my part as the cashier shouted at me to move over). In any case, I had a classic Bacon, Egg & Cheese on a plain bagel and it was fantastic. Lyd and Ethan liked theirs too, although Ethan had a salt bagel and we had to pick the salt off because it turns out a salt bagel means it is literally coated in coarse salt (not sprinkled as I thought).

• Grimaldi’s: Okay this is the big one. In 2009, our friend Devon took us to explore Brooklyn and we passed Grimaldi’s where she told us Beyonce and Jay-Z like to eat. I wanted to go SO BAD but Lydia was pregnant and hungry and the line-up was SO LONG, so we ended up going somewhere else. Thirteen years later, we finally got to go back and it lived up to the hype! We had a pepperoni pizza with olives on half and it was so good and even got a great review from Ethan (the next day, sometimes his feedback is delayed, LOL).

• Choate Nawab: I find it SO hard to make a choice when it comes to dinner because there are just too many restaurants to pick from, so I did what I always do, which is watch Deb’s NYC IG Story Highlights to see what looks good. That’s how I found Choate Nawab, where we tried Samosas, Aloo Tikki Chaat, Chicken Dum Biryani (baked in a clay pot with naan overtop!), Chicken Tikka and lots of Garlic Naan. Everything was great, and although a little spicy for our gang, we still enjoyed it.

• Juniors: On an episode of Making the Band about 20 years ago, Puff Daddy made the contestants walk to Brooklyn to bring him some Juniors Cheesecake. This immediately popped into my mind when we passed the location that’s now in Times Square, and of course I got a slice of Brownie Explosion Cheesecake to eat in bed while Lydia and Ethan had hot Krispy Kremes also from Times Square.

• Shake Shack: After walking all over midtown on Saturday morning in the pouring rain, we were starving for lunch and I was so excited to introduce Ethan to Shake Shack. Lyd and I first had it in 2014 and there are locations everywhere now, including across the street from our hotel. We had ShackBurgers and Crinkle Fries and this must be opening in Toronto sometime soon, right? It’s SO GOOD.

• Petit Chou: I had a small list of new bakeries I wanted to try, but with the torrential downpour, distance from our hotel and early closing times, it seemed like too much rush/work to venture out and a warm nap at the hotel won out for Saturday afternoon. Luckily one place was open late AND in the same neighbourhood as our dinner reservation, so off we went to Petit Chou. Everything in this cute little bakery looked amazing, and it was so hard to decide what to try! I ended up choosing a Passionfruit & Raspberry Puff and a Kalamansi Tart and they were almost too pretty to eat! Next time I’m in NYC, I’m going here first to get a huge box of pastries to snack on in the hotel the whole time I’m there.

• Momofuku Noodle Bar: Ethan loves ramen, so Lydia’s one foodie request was to go to Momofuku Noodle Bar, so that’s where we headed for dinner on Saturday night. I’m not a soup person, so I had the Seared Shrimp Buns and Green Salad with Miso Vinaigrette, but also had the most fun cocktails – Spiked Yuzu Lemonade & Spicy Lychee Slushie, which tasted like Lyd’s Bachelorette Party in 2007.

• Chelsea Market & Friedmans: I think Chelsea Market and The High Line might be my favourite place in NYC, and I was excited to show Lydia & Ethan since this was another place I went on my solo trip in 2014. We got there super early, so explored all our brunch options before settling on Friedmans where I had a BELT, Lydia had the Nova Benny and Ethan had french toast, and everyone loved what they ordered. We then went for a walk on The High Line while waiting for everything else in the market to open up, which was the perfect way to spend our last morning in the city.

• Creamline: In a wonderful twist of fate, we were in NYC at the same time as Claire Saffitz was doing a fun partnership with her husband’s restaurant Creamline (which is in Chelsea Market), where she created milkshake and cookie pairings, and she baked the cookies herself! The duo for our visit was a Banana Honey Milkshake with Peanut Butter Cookies, and I can’t lie, I was hoping she’d walk in as I was eating them!

• Levain Bakery: Funnily enough, while I have eaten these iconic cookies a few times thanks to amazing friends who brought them back for me (and even re-created them at home), I’ve never actually been to a Levain in person! I was so excited to finally go to the location in NOHO, and it was just SO cute, I couldn’t take it! I got a few different kinds to take home (which are now lovingly wrapped in plastic and in my freezer) and tried not to hype it up to Ethan too much before he ate his!

Other non-foodie related notes:

• We stayed at the Sheraton Times Square, and while it was great to be central to a lot of things we wanted to show Ethan, I never want to stay in that area again! Back to The Village we go!
• Day 1 Itinerary (just the evening): Times Square
• Day 2 Itinerary: Walk Across Brooklyn Bridge, Explore DUMBO, Ferry back to Manhattan, Battery Park, Wall Street, Ground Zero/Freedom Tower
• Day 3 Itinerary: Walk up and down 5th Avenue (Lego Store + Nintendo Store + Apple Store for Ethan, NBA Store for me!), Plaza Hotel, peek into Central Park, East Village for dinner
• Day 4 Itinerary (just the morning): Chelsea Market and The High Line