Weekend in Manhattan - still magic

The highlight of this visit was being able to see and feel the activities and high emotion surrounding Ground Zero. There's no denying that staying at New York's Essex House was a thrill and that having the view of Central Park South was serene. We enjoyed an extended walk on Broadway downtown until our feet were crying for help. We rode the buses and subways exclusively, and that was a change of pace to say the least. We discovered a wonderful new Turkish restaurant on the way to dinner!

Quick Tips:

Buy a Metro Card! There are all sorts of Metro cards, but whichever you decide to get, it makes hopping on a city bus or train a cinch. End the tyranny of coins: you can now purchase a Metro card with your credit card. Details at your local train station. NO kidding! Put on your walking shoes and do Broadway as we did. Some of the suggested stops: Pearl Art & Craft on Canal Street, Dean and DeLuca, Sephora, Kate's Paperie, a series of stores offering clothing all along lower Manhattan, Victoria's Secret, Armani Exchange, Culinary Institute (you can reserve to have dinner here)and of course, the sidewalk peddlers. Ride a horse drawn carriage which you can pick up at any point along Central Park South from 5th Avenue to almost 7th Avenue. Have a nutella crepe at Maximilian's on 7th Avenue.

Best Way To Get Around:

Subway to go from downtown to uptown and vice versa. Taxis for short distance hopping, such as hotel to restaurant and back. Your faithful feet for the rest.

For more stuff on New York, go to

Queens
World Trade Center
New York City

For venturing ouside New York City

Long Island
Tarrytown
Nyack
Westchester

My understanding is that the $250/night was a special offer. So under normal circumstances, expect to pay more.

New York''s Essex House has been around for awhile. I don''t know how long it has been under the Westin umbrella, but to New Yorkers, this is still the Essex House. It faces Central Park, and is considered to be one of the ritzier hotels in the city. With reason. It was built in the 1930''s in art deco style which you can experience in the confines of the elevators. I was charmed by the presence of a single white orchid in one of the elevator corners. It still has its original rooftop sign, and was previously owned by Mariott, the Nikko hotel chain, and now Westin.

It rises 43 floors above the city, and our room was only on the 6th floor! Hotel was sold out for the weekend, as apologies came to us that an upgrade couldn''t be had. The fluted black marble columns adorn the main lobby where there are portraits of what looks like Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, he with a sports car and she with a dog by her side.

Our room was small by comparison to Westin''s other properties, but it does not leave you for wanting for anything. The bed was queen-sized and offered a wonderful night''s sleep on down acessories. TV, exquisite snack bar with, gulp, macadamia nuts! Two safes for my non-existent jewels; an in-room fax machine, 2 telephones (one in the bathroom, ultimate decadence), a small chest of drawers, and a low armoire in the hallway in addition to the clothes closet which had an iron, ironing board and dry cleaning rates.

Room service available as well as all-night dining menu. Concierge was helpful on a couple of occasions for restaurant recommendations. There is a business center on the premises, however, I did not see cable or DSL computer lines in the room.

The bathroom, although small, had a divine hand held shower, as well as a conventional overhead one. The soaps and bath liquids and lotions were all English and smelled like heaven. Yes, hair dryer and magnifying magnificent mirror. None of the original 1930 fixtures here, with the exception perhaps being the shower and bath knobs. They have restaurants on the premises, including the famed Ducasse, and Café Botanika which appeared quite busy on Friday night. I recommend this only to the affluent and business traveler on an expense account. You are minutes away from quite a few of Manhattan''s landmarks; Carnegie Hall is within a stone''s throw.

We had brunch here on Saturday morning. We saw the restaurant during our amblings the day before and decided it would be great to have breakfast here. They labeled themselves as a "creperie" and that made our mouths salivate.

Maximillian's would be termed an "intimate" restaurant, as it is rather small, and there is not much space between tables. But the food is excellent and the choices are refreshlingly different. It was not particularly crowded, but I did spot Bonnie Franklin paying her tab and leaving before we did. Surprise! The menu is visible on a chalk board and the wait staff will bring you paper ones if you wish. The crepe menu was so overwhelming in its choices, that I ended up with eggs instead. Whole Wheat toast and Earl Grey for me and coffee for Chuck who opted for a mozzarella/prosciutto omelet.

They also offer teas, waters, cakes, salads for sale, and they have a take-out menu. Let me whet your appetite with some of their offerings: From the Creperie Banana Grand Marnier, Chestnut, Nutella Whip Cream; on the sandwich board, you could have Ham/Brie/Lettuce & Tomato or Pate Truffle Mousse on Baguette; Omelettes include Spinach & Cheese, or Salmon You can also have a capuccino or mochaccino for $2.50 which is a bargain in this area. For dessert, how about cheese cake or tiramisu? I'll go back and do the crepes next time. They looked too good on other people's plates.

We took a cab from the hotel and had decided to try Planet Hollywood, one of the theme hotels in New York that is probably not going to last much longer. On the way there, our driver was going down 47th street, and as always both Chuck and I sweep each side of the street to either find something new or recognize an old friend. We both saw the word Dervish and asked the driver to stop. That was going to be the place for dinner!

We were seated immediately, and it seemed that for a Friday evening, it was unusually quiet. Our table was by the window, and it was quite cozy. There was a hint of Turkish music in the background, and it was just enough to transport us back to Istanbul for a few minutes. I spotted through the glass doors an Iznik tile mural and grinned. Yeah, we had been to Iznik; see travel report About Iznik

The menu is fairly simple and for appetizers, we had the taramasalata, which is fish roe caviar whipped with lemon and olive oil and served with piping hot pita bread. Chuck had wine and I stayed with water. For the main course, I had the char-grilled kofte which comes with delicious rice pilaf and for Chuck, he had the lamb kebab, also served with pilaf. The meats were perfectly spiced, except that my kofteh may have still been moving; I don't really like it unless it's very well done. They feature fish dishes on the menu, as expected, with shrimp kebabs, grilled striped bass, swordfish and salmon.

Though we did not have dessert, baklava was available as well as a Turkish version of rice pudding. If you're driving here, they offer discount parking, most likely across the street where there is a garage. Excellent food and atmosphere.

We dropped in for lunch; we were on our way to take the subway from 57th street heading downtown and realized we were starved. It was a bit early for the Russian Tearoom, and after a half hearted spin through Cosmetics Plus on the corner of 6th and 57th, we made a right and spotted wonderful promises in the Villagio's window. Chuck has told me many times that I take things that are "New York" for granted.

The majority of pizzerias in New York are now adding divine ingredients to their open faced and closed pizzas besides cheeses and tomato sauce. The earliest development I recall was the white pizza, which is an all-cheese triangle with mounds of ricotta and mozzarella that will throw your cholesterol readings into the ozone layer. Subsequently, we had the mushroom, pepper, sausage, olive toppings. Now we have a vegetarian deal which includes them all with broccoli or spinach, topped with gooey mozzarella; by the way, this is the one Chuck and I chose for lunch, along with garlic knots which are essentially bits of pizza dough generously armed with garlic. And I mean, generously. The stuff is fabulous, but your breath won't be. Take adequate measures.

There are also meatball pizzas, chicken pizzas, pizzas with ziti, pizzas with eggplant, and even diet pizzas. I presume they use fat free cheeses on these. There is also the salad pizza which promises exactly what it says. Nutritionists have now decided that pizza is a healthy food because of the lycopenes which are present in the tomato sauce, and the protein in the cheese. So, if you're going to blow the diet, this is a great way.

Villagio is fairly simple, with the prerequisite red checkered tablecloths which are seen in Italian restaurants. There are many tables in the rear section of the place for those who want to savor their pickings slowly. There are cold drinks and carbonated beverages, as well as Dansani, which is New York's contribution to bottled waters. Juices too. We had 7Up.

What was particularly wonderful, aside from the pizza itself, was the crust. And it's not the size, but it's the crispness and the lightness of the dough itself which made me notice this crust in particular. It was almost like pastry, with no burn or char marks anywhere. It was hard to keep it in one piece, as in New York, you do not eat pizza with a knife and fork, as I have seen done elsewhere and actually, refuse to do. Pizza is meant to be folded and devoured from the end tip first heading toward the crust last. An entirely wonderful experience which gave us the fuel necessary to brave the steps of the New York subways.

Fifty Seventh Street is a major artery in Manhattan as well as a shopping mecca for the affluent. This is where you'll find upscale galleries, the Ritz Fur Shop, rare antique boutiques, the Avon Building, Cosmetics Plus (chain will be closing soon), Levi, Nikes, Henri Bendel, Bergdorf Goodman, Tiffany's and it goes on. As a footnote, it might interest you to know that real estate on East 57th Street is upward of $700/square foot, making this the most expensive shopping street in the WORLD.

On the West Side, a brand new, 300,000 square foot facility is being developed as the New York Cyber Center. Also there were CBS Studios' headquarters at one time, and when I worked across the street, I used to see some of their anchormen coming to work in the morning.

We did not walk for a very long time on 57th Street, but it's a great place to spend the hours of a sunny weekend day. This is also the home of Carnegie Hall, the Russian Tearoom (which was recently renovated) and the beautiful Rizzoli bookstore where every book becomes an art form. The folks who help maintain the high rents are the likes of Hermes, Burberry, Chanel, Escada, Ann Taylor etc...When you tire of either walking or spending money, you can sip something hot beneath a bamboo tree in the IBM Building Atrium on 57th Street and Madison Avenue. Or you can do as we did: stop for a bite of at a 57th street pizzeria called Villagio!

In a city the size of New York, the subway can offer some relief from the above ground congestion of its streets. Although I do not ride the subways as often as commuters, I find that it is extraordinarily fast, efficient and cheap by comparison. It's $1.50 no matter how far you want to go, so there are no zones to figure out. There are no tokens anymore, and that is actually a blessing. The Metro Card is the neatest thing they've thought of yet. You can even buy it online, so if you are from out of town, and know you're coming to visit, you can log onto link and buy one. It can be used in city buses and trains. There is one which is suitable for the express bus, and I'll tell you about that separately. There are 7 day cards, unlimited cards for 30 days (the best deal), the weekend card which offers unlimited rides for the weekend all over the city. When you run out of money, you can automatically add more money to your card at any station, or purchase a new one.

If you visited New York more than 5 years ago, I will tell you that the subways are much cleaner, safer than they used to be. There are police officers in most stations, especially in the evening. Most are air conditioned in summer, and unfortunately, on one of our rides this weekend, we had a car that wasn't, but this small inconvenience was allayed by the fact that we had an express train (which we didn't know) that delivered us uptown from dowtown Fulton Street in all of 3 stops. The subway system is huge, and can be confusing at times, for the uninitiated. I think we were going the wrong way twice, and caught the error after a stop. I was very surprised by a passenger who inquired as to our destination, and gave us lengthy instructions on how to get the correct line and the correct train. This is, once again, testimony to the fact that New Yorkers have changed, have softened and are kinder to one another.

We managed to get back to our original stop and took this bullet that was going past the stations so fast, I hardly had time to read where we were not stopping. All I remember is that we both couldn't stop laughing, as we always have mishaps on the subway, but I recommend it nevertheless. And remember, not all stops that say 59th street are the same. We got out at 59th, but at Lexington Avenue rather than 6th or 8th which would have been a much better idea, considering we had been walking for close to 5 hours, and that I had braved a stilled escalator with lead feet. However, we saw this as an opportunity to see Bloomingdale's which is right there.

Should you wish to see some of Chuck's subway photos, go HERE. I am amazed at his courage at managing these shots.