usa – Eat On Edgecliff

5/9-11, 2025

Sophie and I went on a weekend New York City Trip. We had a 2:50PM flight from CLE and got into LaGuardia around 4:30.

We took the free bus from LaGuardia to Queens subway station and then took the subway to Manhattan. The subway was super quick but the bus from the airport took forever due to Friday rush hour traffic. We quickly checked into our hotel and dashed out the door…

…as we had 7:00PM tix for show on Broadway about six blocks from our hotel and we made it by the skin of our teeth with about 10 minutes to spare. Exhale. The show was great in every way: original – based on a crazy true story, great music and singing. Dead Outlaw. We also won them via the lottery so they were only $35 apiece with no fees – and the seats were great.

Pumped after seeing a great show… and famished as we hadn’t eaten in a long time we walked around looking for a place to eat. We walked past Joe Allen and I remember reading about it and we were able to get a table right away. It was a perfect place where we had Manhattans, I had a cheeseburger et frites and Sophie had meatloaf, mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach which won the prize.

We got to talking to our super nice waiter and turns out he grew up in Willowick. Small world indeed.

Apres dinner we strolled for awhile. We stopped at Magnolia bakery and got a vanilla cupcake and banana pudding. The cupcake was just meh but the banana pudding was a winner… good stuff.

…and ended the night in Times Square oggling at all the people and lights.

They have a show at midnight where all the billboards display a video installation. A different artist every night. Not too exciting this night but was pretty cool.

After a great nights sleep we hit the pavement bright and early. First stop was a Russ and Daughters outpost that was just a few blocks down. Sophie got a sesame bagel with cream cheese, sauerkraut and red onions. Good stuff.

We walked the High Line that was not crowded at all early in the morning. It’s such a unique thing and I was happy to be there when all the trees, plants and flowers were blooming. Amazing gardens at every turn.

The day started out chilly but quickly was warming up into a beautiful late spring day.

We jumped on the subway after walking through Chelsea Market, the Starbucks Roastery in Meatpacking district and took the subway to Brooklyn.

Our goal was to go to the vintage flea market that was under the Brooklyn Bridge. Lots of vendors with different stuff and lots of people. Sophie bought some sunglasses (I think that is the only thing any of us bought all weekend that wasn’t food or drinks) and then walked along the river with great views of the bridge and Manhattan.

We found our way up to the Brooklyn Bridge and joined the crowds heading across.

There are not too many things as beautiful as the Brooklyn Bridge… especially on a beautiful May day with bright blue skies.

We walked downtown after the bridge. We checked out a couple of cemeteries looking for Alexander Hamilton and Eliza but pretty sure that section was closed off.

We stopped at Les Printemps, a new department that just opened up downtown about a month ago. I had to take a picture of the bathroom as it was as beautiful as the whole store.

This was the cosmetics tunnel – so cool.

This was the red room in Printemps that was covered in amazing mosaics. The building was an old bank building that they restored.

We headed up toward ground zero checking out the 911 memorial area…

We were hungry at this point so hopped over to China town and walked around looking for a good place. We put our name in at Joe Shanghai and got a table after about 20 minutes. We had an excellent meal of soup dumplings, fried dumplings, scallion pancakes and Heineken. mmmmmmmm.

We walked through Bryant Park, went into the NY Public Library and then went to our hotel for a quick siesta.

Feeling refreshed we jumped on the subway and headed uptown to walk through Central Park.

It was a perfect late afternoon and no better place to be.

The sheep meadow filled with lots of people.

After spending a few hours in the park we headed back downtown to Greenwich Village. Washington Square was hopping.

We had drinks sitting outside at a great little Italian bar called Bar Pisellino in the West Village. Perfect spot.

We then stopped at another spot in the neighborhood and had pizza… and had espresso martinis.

We then stumbled upon a greek natural wine bar that we had to stop in too.

On our way back after an excellent evening.

Next days bagels were at Black Seed Bagels – not as good as previous morning’s but still pretty darn good.

We walked to Grand Central and explored the beautiful building.

We walked up 5th Avenue. It was still pretty early so none of the stores were open. The Louis Vuitton store was impressively decked out as a Louis trunk.

We walked through Central Park again because it was so nice out and made our way to the Met. A John Singer Sargent exhibition was our primary goal. It was interesting.