2011 Wrap-Up

Because of the recency effect, I can't help but think mostly of our fall haunts when naming favorites. It's hard to believe that two vegetarians would choose a restaurant called Prime Meats as the year's most beloved spot, but there's plenty on the menu to keep us happy. Also gratifying is the same warm, laid-back vibe we love so much from older sibling Frankies Spuntino. Our top bar of 2011 is a no-brainer. Henry Public is sun-filled and sleepy during weekend brunch but dim and packed on any given night. No matter what time we visit, we walk out proclaiming it our favorite bar. I love the ancient cash register, the knowledgeable bartenders, and the old-timey decor. Wonderful meals were also had at the following new restaurants: Tertulia (tapas, West Village), Barboncino (pizza, Crown Heights), Danji (Korean, Hells Kitchen), Chuko (ramen, Prospect Heights), Edi & the Wolf (Austrian, East Village), and Buvette (French, West Village).I expanded my culinary horizons first with ketchup (to think I missed out on 31 years of fries without this condiment!) and then the wild world of beets. They aren't the slimy, stinky vegetable I had imagined them to be. I probably would have tried them earlier had it not been for restaurants' penchant to pair them with goat cheese, which I find vile.My tastes in liquor have evolved quite a bit: in college you would find Bartles and James wine coolers in my fridge if you peeked inside. I graduated to cosmopolitans and chocolate martinis, then shaken gin cocktails. This past year I developed a strong preference for spirit-forward drinks. No fruit juice. No sweet liqueurs. Preferably with rye whiskey.Bill Cunningham New York was one of the few movies we saw on the big screen (we're theater-averse), and well worth it. It's available on Netflix instant and hulu for free (for US residents) - now you have no excuse not to watch it. I've finally come around to Wilco after years of indifference; I still can't stop listening to The Whole Love. (Admittedly, I haven't kept up on new albums.) And Michael Crummey's epic novel Galore, set in Newfoundland and spanning decades, kicked off my whale obsession. Personal highlights of 2011 included a trip to Paris, a promotion, our move from Manhattan to Brooklyn, and the incredible real-life bonds I began to form with several gals thanks to blogging. (That striped dress is apparently my warm-weather staple. How embarrassing.) In 2012 I hope to make a triumphant return to marathoning and start graduate school (I'm registered for entrance exams in January, eeek).

My fondest memories from 2011 include seeing myself On The Street and in print, ferrying out to Governors Island for the Jazz Age Lawn Party and the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic, visiting the Rockaways for the first time, burning myself out on macarons, and leaving my heart in San Francisco.

Thank you for your readership this past year. You have no idea how much it means to me.

Photo credits: Prime Meats, Henry Public, Tertulia, Barboncino, Danji, Chuko, Edi & the Wolf, Buvette, beets, whiskey, Bill Cunningham.

Christmas lights in Dyker Heights

Day 17 of the advent calendar had us visiting the southernmost part of Brooklyn to view Dyker Heights' famed Christmas lights. Shawn was absolutely enthralled by the neighborhood's most over-the-top houses; I found them to be garish displays of wastefulness and excess (bah humbug!).







Many more wonderful pictures of the Dyker Heights lights can be found over on one of my favorite blogs, We Heart New York.

Some of the other advent calendar gifts in the past few days included a donation to one of our favorite charities, Furever Dachshund Rescue, and tickets to see the American Ballet Theatre's Nutcracker (my favorite rendition of it yet) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. And with that, I'm wrapping up my Christmas-themed posts (I don't know about you, but I am exhausted by the subject).

Have a safe and happy holiday - I'll be back early next week.

NYC Diary: Amanda of Slow Like Honey

Although I love sharing my favorite NYC places, my friends are also a wealth of knowledge, which is why I'm starting a new feature on Embarrassment of Riches: NYC Diary. Each week one of my favorite people will spill their city secrets. First up is Amanda of the lifestyle and baking blog Slow Like Honey. We became friends a while back on Twitter, and I'm happy to say we now meet up regularly in real life for coffee, cocktails, sample sales, and dinners.

Thanks for playing, Amanda!

Eat It: Mille-feuille's croissants

I discarded a lot of sub-par pastries in Paris last April. Parisian patisseries should really be ashamed of themselves.
While Paris's croissants are on a downslide, New York's offerings are looking up. While the specimens in the city's generic grab-and-go spots taste like defrosted, day-old Sara Lee, the croissants at Ceci-Cela and La Maison du Macaron are pretty good. Almondine and Balthazar Bakery's are a tier down, but will do in a pinch.

The very best croissants I've had in New York (or anywhere, for that matter, because Paris's were so disappointing) are at a newish bakery called Mille-feuille in Greenwich Village. They are fresh and crisp and soft and buttery. I normally don't like almond croissants because they are traditionally made with day-old pastries. But Shawn's croissant aux amandes (pictured above) at Mille-feuille was a revelation. If I hadn't had my own marvelous pain au chocolate, I would have been jealous.

They take credit cards (no minimum!), sell delicious macarons, and have soy milk. Plus, the owner is incredibly nice. Once it's nice again, I foresee many croissant breakfasts in nearby Washington Square Park.

Deck The Halls

Until Friday, I had yet to visit a holiday market in this city that impressed me. The majority of the merchandise strikes me as either too precious (put a bird on it!) or too crunchy. I am just not a fan of crafty things.

Deck the Halls, a collection of merchants housed in a former public school on the corner of Prince and Mott Streets, was mercifully free of twee. It's definitely worth a visit.

City Grit was selling all sorts of delicious food, including this hot buttered rum mix that I'm dying to try. They were also serving up $7 cups of mulled wine.

BKLYN Dry Goods had the raddest brass bookends, plus Pendleton blankets and all sorts of clothes perfect for my urban woodsman.The American Vernacular sold the sweetest vintage pieces, including a little navy number with rope trim (so nautical!) that I knew I'd kick myself for not buying.

My only quibble? After being greeted by the third shop-tender to breathlessly announce "everything is made in Brooklyn," I stopped feigning interest and instead tried desperately not to roll my eyes. I mean, COME ON.

Deck the Halls is open daily from 12 - 8 through December 22.

Bergdorf Goodman's Holiday Windows: Part 3

What the windows on the 58th Street side of Bergdorf Goodman lacked in glitz or humor, they made up for in sentimenality: I knew Shawn would love the photography theme. He has recently taken a shine to large-format photography, so this display really resonated with him.

Shawn, ever the glutton for punishment, took his Hasselblad medium-format film camera when we visited Bergdorf Goodman last Wednesday night. He has the patience of a saint (after all, it's why he is able to be married to me) because he somehow managed several beautiful shots of these windows, despite the fact that we were in Midtown during rush hour. I looked nervously on as there were almost fisticuffs with the iPhone "photographer" he gently tapped on the shoulder to move out of his frame.

Bergdorf Goodman's Holiday Windows: Part 2

Bergdorf Goodman's men's store, across Fifth Avenue from their flagship, has some pretty phenomenal holiday windows of their own: masculine, sometimes creepy, always clever.

P.S. It's hard to believe two years have passed since I blogged about their Fantastic Mr. Fox windows.

How the Grinch Warmed Up to Christmas

My fondest holiday memory as a child was placing the tiny plastic lights in my mother's ceramic Christmas tree, which was handed down to her from her grandmother. I loved making sure the colors alternated - that no one color repeated itself too soon. I have talked about that tree ad nauseum, but haven't seen it in years - it's in storage at my parent's house in northern Michigan.

And...cue the tears. This is where I get misty. Shawn had been scouring ebay, with help from my Mom via email and texts, to find me my very own ceramic tree. I had no idea what he was up to til I came home yesterday to it sitting on our mantel. I'm shocked that he was able to keep it a secret. It's a Christmas miracle!

The timing was pretty incredible: just yesterday I had posted about the advent calendar I made for Shawn. This December, I've sat out the sample sales and resisted the enticements of e-tailers because I've enjoyed delighting Shawn instead. Besides, I have everything I could ever want anyway - including, now, a ceramic Christmas tree.

The 24 Days of Christmas

While I like the lead-up to Christmas about as much as your average American (with occasional forays into Grinch-dom), my husband downright adores the holiday season. This year was the first that I had gotten my act together in time to make an advent calendar for him. (The apparent absence of a biological clock doesn't mean I can't funnel that spare maternal energy toward Shawn and our dog.)

Let me tell you, making 24 various-sized paper trees for our mantle was (and continues to be) a labor of love. I used a cone template, PaperSource's gold and silver glitter wrapping paper, and their recommended Super Tacky Tape. (Each tree has a number, fashioned from a pipe cleaner, sticking out of the point at the top.) Every morning, "Santa" wakes up and painstakingly re-tapes half of the trees, because PaperSource lies.

2011 also happened to be the first time we bought a full-sized, freshly-cut tree. Our old ornaments were misplaced in the move, and because they always trimmed a small table-top fake, they were probably too diminutive for this year's tree anyway. Conveniently, the advent calendar has been a good way to populate our bare fir. I've loved picking out meaningful ornaments:





The advent gifts aren't necessarily ornaments, though. Sometimes, the present of the day is a few sea-salt caramels or macarons (counterproductive to our supposed diet). Once, it was a batch of Shawn's favorite homemade sugar cookies. As Christmas approaches, I have a few experiences up my sleeve: yesterday, it was a note saying we'd be meeting after work for a hot cocktail. Not wanting to scoop myself, I won't mention what I have in store for the remaining 11 days, but as you can imagine, Christmas in NYC affords us plenty of options!

Bergdorf Goodman's Holiday Windows: Part 1

Part 2 and Part 3.