Bored/Sick Question!

choagie42

So I'm home sick and bored, and figured I would crowdsource my mini-vacation coming up.  This weekend I'm going to NYC and have never been there before.  I know there's not a whole lot of time to see much (I'm planning on going back some other time to see and do more), but I have one whole day that has nothing planned.  Any suggestions from people who've been there about a "must-do"??  (We're going to a concert on Friday night and fly out on Sunday, so Saturday is really the only day we have to explore).

I'm all ears!!  

Lobsters25

Fun!  We spend TONS of time there.  Are you staying in the city- if so what part? (This will help me gauge suggested to-dos )

choagie42

we are staying with a friend in brooklyn.  she has a car and we'll have good subway access to get around to other stuff.

Lobsters25

Ok-here are my thoughts and opinions, hope they are at all helpful! 

Top things I've ever eaten in the city:

-Brunch at the National (Geoffrey Zakarian's restaurant)

-Dinner and beer on the rooftop at Birreria, staring right at the Empire State Building (in a place called Eataly - also a good place for wandering and celeb citings.  phenom gelato and prosciutto downstairs, too)

-pizza from either Grimaldi's (Brooklyn-and our favorite of them, hands down) or Totonno's (Coney Island traditionally but there is one in the city) 

 

Please do me one favor and don't eat in Times Square.  You will never get your money or tastebud's worth of food there.  Also, one thing you may, or may not, LOVE about eating there is that by NY (or maybe just NYC) law, restaurants are required to give the nutritional content.  So, you'll see it on menus, on displays next to your Starbucks drinks, etc.

 

Tourist/City things:

-Do walk through Times Square, it's fun.  While there, do NOT take your pictures with any of the characters.  One actually pushed a kid down bc the parent refused to pay.  It doesn't take long to see, but it's fun, and the signature tourist thing.

-The best walk in the city is from Madison Square Garden all the way up 5th.  You can do one or two block detours here and there, kind of zig-zagging your way up, and see all of the following (and it will end you in Central Park): Bryant Park (think fashion week), the public library, Serendipity (like the movie, and the awesome frozen hot chocolate), the original Saks, Roc Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Tiffany's, and an awesome Nike store.  This, of course, mixed with lots of normal fun shopping and stuff.

-Walking the Brooklyn Bridge is lots of fun, too.  We walked to the pizza place over there - it was long and hot but a nice trip.

-The Met.  It really is an amazing museum, and great for a rainy or for a too-hot day.

 

I am sure I will think of more as the evening continues, so don't mind the train-of-thought posts...  Feel free to ignore them as/if they come

 

choagie42

Thanks, these are all awesome!!!

Lobsters25

edits: I think the nutrition applies to chain restaurants, but some non-chains have done their due diligence.

Also forgot to include Dylan's Candy on the 5th ave/off-5th tour.  Totally not GIS-approved, but I love everything about it.  If you don't know the back story - Ralph Lauren decided to give his kids business start-ups rather than money (serious respect to him for that), and this is his daughter, Dylan's.  She's since opened more locations, and it's just awesome.

jennylee813

Ooohhh - cool!

I just found out that we're going to be in NYC for New Years. FSIL is getting married there, and wants to do the whole NYE in Times Square. I've never been to NYC, so I'm curious about recommendations too.