Volume 07.
We feel lucky we get to travel to New York City four times a year for market week. That's four weeks a year we get to be in this vibrant, buzzing, and fashionable city. It's now been seven years of making NYC our little home away from home, and we decided it was time to put together a list of some of our favorite things to do while there. This is where we eat, sleep and explore when in the Big Apple...
When it comes to NYC, we are downtown girls, and prioritize walking whenever we can. We stay on the LES (Lower East Side) for the Shoppe Object Show, and we head west when attending Brand Assembly.
Where to Sleep
When on the LES, we stay at the always cozy and chic Ludlow Hotel. The lobby fireplace is always glowing and flickering. Their bedrooms are quaint and well appointed. Their restaurant, Dirty French, has a lovely little bar and the very best martinis (always served with extra olives). When our show takes us west - we go back to our roots in the West Village (Amy lived here for a decade in her 20s) and mix it up between The Standard, High Line and the High Line Hotel. Both are charming boutique hotels, smack in the middle of our favorite NYC neighborhood—Right near everything we love about this city.
Breakfast in The City
While there are many amazing breakfast cafés, diners and restaurants in NY, we have limited time for such luxuries in the morning, so we keep it easy with a grab-and-go variety. Apollo Bagels in the West Village and Russ & Daughters in the East Village are the very best of the best when it comes to bagels. Plan ahead for long lines—We always find it's worth it.
Drinks & Dinner
The highlight of our busy days during market week—Our chance to really unwind, to relax, and to enjoy one of our favorite things about NY. We have so many favorite restaurants - here is a sampling to add to your list. Buvette comes up #1 on our list because we simply go every time we are in NY. It's like a tiny French cafe in Paris, but on a quaint tree-lined West Village street. Charming and tiny, this candlelit spot creates beautiful French dishes, tartines, and warm bowls of Coq au Vin that feel like a warm embrace after a long day of work. The bar at Il Buco is one our favorite places to saddle up and have wine and homemade pasta. Because we are never organized enough to book reservations in time for Via Carota, as a party of two, we often end up getting lucky with seats at the bar there too. They serve up some of the best Italian in NY and it is as delicious as it is fun. When we are feeling like we deserve to be pampered, we sometimes splurge and dine at The Waverly Inn, which is a classic NY spot with a spectacular dining room and a very unique history dating back to the 1920s. And excellent people watching.
What to Do, See & Explore
Our free time is very short, however, we always make time for a few things every trip. Walking The High Line is a must. It runs all along the West Side, through the galleries of Chelsea and down through the Meatpacking District to the West Village. This elevated walking path is a park of sorts, where you see beautiful gardens and vantage points of the city, as well as look out at the Hudson River or explore the newly constructed Hudson Yards. Musicians and artists line the pathways, as well as vendors selling coffee or fancy ice creams. There are areas to linger and people watch and it's a great way to get a nice long walk in after traveling cross country. We always make time for some art while in the city, and our favorite museums are The Museum of Modern Art, where we usually do an abbreviated visit on the 5th floor to see some of our favorite pieces of contemporary art (Helen Frankentheler, Jackson Pollock and Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' that always leaves us feeling a bit star-struck ourselves) and The Whitney, another contemporary museum that carries so many classic and impressive works of art. This one is located right off The High Line in the Meatpacking district - so it's an easy one to walk to and zip around for an hour to get in our culture fix.
A perfect afternoon itinerary for us would be a long walk down The High Line to The Whitney to take in a few exhibits, followed by lunch at Pastis, a lively French restaurant with the best oysters and salads and amazing people (and street fashion) watching. When it comes to shopping, we will highlight one of our favorite lifestyle shops that we always try to find time to visit Clic. We are dazzled by this globally inspired shop - art, photography, home goods and some very cool fashion—It's one of our favorites to be inspired by and to pick up something you won't find anywhere else. They have several locations in NY and CA so if you have one near you, we hope you will plan a visit of your own soon.
Just writing this list makes us excited for our next trip, coming up in February. We hope you enjoyed our little guide. Please let us know if we missed any of your favorites - we would love to add them to our list for next time.
xx THATCH
