Watch out New York, here comes Katie

Katie visited me in the city for the first time last weekend and we had a fantastic time, exploring my hood, Chelsea, Union Square and SoHo.

The weekend kicked off with dinner at Lombardis, the SoHo pizza parlor that battles with Grimaldis and a couple others for the title of best pizza in the city. Better than Grimaldis? That’s hard to say. But it was fantastic! Matt recommended adding a bit (just a bit) of fresh garlic to the pie, which really added to the flavor! Not only was the food awesome, but the three of us thoroughly enjoyed watching 2 guidos (and their Barbie doll dates) try to talk their way to a table, negotiating first with the hostess and then the manager. But the staff was as steadfast as the quality of the pizza and the B&T (bridge and tunnel) people had to wait to a table just like us:-)

Katie got the grand tour of Brooklyn Heights on Saturday morning and then it was off to Chelsea Market. Katie was hoping to see Rachel Ray. No luck there, but the market is fantastic and we went into a couple stores that I missed on my last visit. I could have dropped some serious dough at the Italian market--pasta, cheese and a 3 kilo jar of Nutella, choices, choices! We tried the newly opened Ronnybrook Dairy Bar for lunch. My egg salad sandwich, Katie’s chicken sandwich and our peanut butter cup milkshake were all spot on! The décor was neat too. We moseyed through Chelsea and tooled around the Union Square market next, but didn’t buy anything fresh as we had more walking (in the 90+ degree heat) ahead of us.

Why do I go to SoHo on the weekends? It’s so cool but man is it crowded! We shopped through a few “cute little shops” that Katie hoped to see, but were probably most happy when we came across the Dean and Deluca’s that we fondly remember from our trips into the city when we first moved to PA. The afternoon ended at Café Borgia for a coffee with ice cream and orangeade with orange sorbet. We felt very hip:-)

We had no reservations for dinner, but got right in to Lantern on Montague (currently labeled my favorite Thai restaurant.) Then it was off to see No Reservations, a wonderful movie if you want to see a cute movie with a happy ending.

Minus the dirty subway (the picture shows Katie’s attempt to not get germs on her hands) and the guy at Penn Station who told her he liked her toes, I think Katie had a fun time. I know I sure did!