Day #11- Saturday

We slept in on Saturday, and enjoyed a leisurely morning where we didn’t have to work. For brunch, we went to the neighborhood Corner Bistro. Scott had heard that they have a really good burger here (surprise, surprise) J This place was like stepping back in time. It was an old bar and grill, and looked to be unchanged since they opened in the early 1900’s. They even had one of those old school cash registers, like the kind you see in old Western movies. It was an original manual register, it looked like it should belong in a museum! So obviously, only cash was accepted here. We walked in, and the owner motioned for us to sit at a table, and told us that the menu was on the board of the wall. Here is what was on the menu: Cheeseburger. Hamburger. Grilled Cheese. Grilled Chicken Sandwich. Chili. Chili Burger. BLT sandwich. French Fries.

That’s it. Literally. So, I got the Grilled Cheese sandwich (which ironically, is actually what I was in the mood for before we even went inside... good thing since that was one of the only choices!) And Scott got the burger, of course. I’ll have to say, the burger is the thing to get there. It was really good (not Shake Shack good, but what is). I even really liked it, despite my slight distaste for burgers. My grilled cheese was really pathetic. I like the occasional cheap, crappy Velveeta grilled cheese from time to time, but this one just wasn’t good. The key is to have it extra buttery, and grilled till it’s just on the verge of being burnt- this bread was neither of those. Oh well, every meal can’t be great!

After our brunch, we decided that we needed to get some good exercise in, so we planned on walking to Central Park. As the park is 50 blocks from our apartment, we thought that would be good exercise, and then we could walk more once we got into the park.

As we walked, we stumbled upon a street fair, so did some walking/shopping through the streets. A lot of the vendors from Chinatown come to set up at these street fairs, so we had lots of things to look at. "Designer" purses, jewelry, clothes, belts, leather goods, sunglasses, knick knacks, and NYC souvenirs were abundant. I decided on buying these:

You can never have enough pairs of gold earrings!

We took our time, wandering around, exploring different areas as we walked closer to the park. I stopped to get my picture taken with Bobby Flay:

Haha... I wish :-)

We then stopped at the TKTS booth in Times Square because we want to see some Broadway shows, and TKTS has discounted tickets for them. After waiting in line for 30 minutes, we discovered at the ticket window that the only seats left for that night for almost every show was in the front orchestra section, and tickets were $70-$90. While this is a discount from what those seats normally cost, we don't like sitting in that section. We like to be in the balcony, where we can see everything. So, we walked away empty handed.

At this point, we had been walking (and standing in line) for close to 3 hours, and we still had another 15 blocks to even get to the beginning of the park. We decided that we had had enough (my feet were already shot from the night before- I had several blisters on my feet from those shoes), so hopped on the subway back to the apartment. Oh well, we'll get to the park another day.

As it was almost 6:00, we went ahead and got showered and changed for dinner.

We walked up to an area of town called Chelsea to a pizza place called "Co." (pronounced Company) We each got a pie. Scott got the meatball pizza, which had veal meatballs, tomato, mozzarella, caramelized onions, olives, and oregano. It was fab! (And yes, I even had some, but of course picked the onions off mine!) I had the special of the day, which had a garlic and parmasean base, shitake and oyster mushrooms, a bechamel sauce, and shaved jalapeños. Talk about delicious! Wow. So, so good!

As if that wasn't enough food, we split a dessert. It was called "Affogato and Abalone", which means espresso poured over vanilla gelato and a chocolate pudding filled donut on the side (loosely translated). The chocolate pudding filled donut was ridiculously good! Soft and chewy, with a burst of creamy chocolately goodness inside. Wow.

After that carb filled meal, we knew we had better walk to our next destination or fall asleep sitting in a cab or subway. As it was Saturday night, we went to visit our favorite once again, Don't Tell Mama piano bar. Man, this place is so much fun! We had a great time singing along with the piano player and the other patrons. After many songs of Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, and countless Broadway show tunes, we went home with "Sing us a song, you're the piano man" playing over and over again in our heads. Another successful night in New York City!