Little Tokyo Street

This section of the St. Mark's is known as Little Tokyo and has some good Japanese restaurants. East 9th Street between 2nd and 3rd Aves, in particular, is where Sake Bar Decibel, Otofuku,
and Yakiniku West are located. The building at the corner that also houses the St. Mark's bookstore contains Sharaku, Village Yokocho, and Angel's Share.

LUNCH - Sharaku is a reliable place to go for Japanese food. The main draw is their lunch specials, which include sushi and soba lunch combos and a good salmon bento box.

DINNER - Next door to Sharaku on the upper level is Village Yokocho, open from 5 PM to 3 AM. It's in the style of a Japanese pub so instead of ordering one large meal, you sample a little of this and a little of that (which really add up so beware of the large bill at the end of your meal).

Village Yokocho was down-the-stairs out-the-door crowded the two times we went.

No sushi bar here. This is their yakitori bar.

Village Yokocho's menu is extensive, diverse, and kind of all over the map. The menu options are so large that it actually takes a long time to figure out what to order. It's not the standard menu consisting of the typical sushi/donburi options/teriyaki options. This rich, buttery mushroom dish was delicious.

Village Yokocho also has Korean dishes on its menu, like this pajan (a.k.a. Korean Pancake). We love when Pajan is extra crispy on the outer edeges.

We wonder if the Otofuku guys just bring this up to them from their tiny hole-in-the-wall a minute away?

Fresh, healthy chirashi bowl to offset the heaviness of the buttery and greasy dishes above. (Note: These photos were taken about a year ago, so well in advance of my food poisoning incident - it's hard enough for me to just look at photos of Ikura now).

COCKTAILS - And while you're sitting at your table at Village Yokocho, you'll notice people walking in and out of an unmarked door inside the restaurant. You know it's not the restroom. You ask, is it a private room? Nope, much greater than that - it's Angel's Share.

So what was behind this secretive, unmarked door oddly placed inside a bustling, yakitori-smelling Japanese restaurant? When we walked in, we were pleased to find a quiet, small, serene dimly lit elegant parlor. The large mural lit above the bar gave it a dreamy ambiance, and looking around at all the couples, a popular date spot. The two Japanese bartenders looked like they were handling their business efficiently and politely, while wearing their crip white shirts, black ties and black vests.

We somehow lucked out on seats overlooking the East Village street. Angel's Share has a no-standing bar policy, probably in order to maintain a relaxed, quiet environment, which is almost unheard of at other New York City bars and lounges on weekends. There's also a strictly enforced rule where only groups of four or fewer can be seated.

The cocktails were expensive so we sipped our one cocktail each very slowly. The downside was that due to the limited seating space, we felt a bit pressured to order more to keep our seats (since we saw people attempting to enter the bar then being turned). Nevertheless, it's a cool little bar with some interesting drink options (we stuck to beer and sake because the mixed cocktails were buco bucks). They also offer interesting food options (prepared in the Village Yokocho kitchen).

Fish + Milk @ Chelsea Market

Whenever we walked into Ronnybrook Farm Dairy at Chelsea Market, we had to remind ourselves that we are lactose intolerant. Ronnybrook Farm Dairy's milk bottles are so visually appealing, we almost wanted to forget the aftermath of drinking a straight glass of milk.


For those that have had the phrase "lactose intolerant" handed down to you, Ronnybrook Farm Dairy makes you want to challenge that diagnosis when you're at a milk playground like this.


Ronnybrook is known for their milk shakes and ice creams, but they also sell organic eggs, drinkable yogurts, spreadable cheese, and free range chicken sandwiches. Ronnybrook's other comfort food items include their mac & cheese and their Shakshuk eggs (tomato-vegetable stew over two sunny side up eggs).

The one thing we disliked at Ronnybrook was their extremeley tart atomic green mint with crushed ice drink shown in this photo. Stick to the dairy.


Their sandwiches are healthy so don't expect one of those mindblowing Katz's pastrami experiences, but the food is fresh, it's good for you, the place is clean, the service is usually pretty good, and it's nice to sit at the circular counter eating lunch that won't break your bank like some of the other Meatpacking lunch spots.


Chelsea Market also has a fish playground called The Lobster Place.



In addition to being New York City's larget purveyor of live lobster, they have one of the city's largest selection of fish, they sell clambakes, smoked fish, and more. This is the place we liked buying our salmon from since the salmon at the grocery stores in our neighborhood looked a bit schpent and unhealthy. Here, we were confident that we were getting the fresh goods. (Perhaps Sakagura should buy their fish from here and learn how to discard old fish).



You can also have a raw bar event at the Lobster Pound. Fresh oysters and hotate - our kind of party. Great idea for a company Christmas party. Think outside the hotel/banquet box people!

The Lobster Place also sells (fairly pricey) prepared food: soups like lobster bisque and Manhattan clam chowder; crab claw cocktail and smoked salmon cocktail (six slices of Norwegian smoked salmon served with their scallion cream cheese, capers and Amy's bread); "Shack-in-the-back" rolls (served on a buttered and grilled top-split bun) like tarragon shrimp roll (sweet shrimp tossed with fresh tarragon, capers, comichons, parsely, chives). Other menu items include seared ahi soba noodles and curried tuna salad wrap (fresh steamed yellowfin tuna mixed with madras curry, golden raisins, red onions, cilantro).

And of course, they sell sushi! The sushi bentos are also expensive but remember they're fresh - prepared right there for you and this place has a high turnaround.


Their lobster roll sushi is delicious but they don't give you very many for the price. It actually leaves you feeling unsatisfied. If you're going to splurge on semi-lobster, spend your money on the Red Hook Lobster Pound lobster roll instead, which we're craving like no one's business right now.

You know you're going to get good bread at Amy's Bread when you watch the workers through the glass in their bakery next to their small store making the bread (it's the area where tourists are taking photos). The bread is made by hand daily, they use organic whole grains and unbleached flour, and they offer an excellent selection. They also offer cookies, muffins, almond brioche toast, chocolate cherry rolls, coffee cakes, lowfat applesauce doughnuts, biscuits, scones, freshly baked pizza, quiche, focaccia diska, a very European looking sandwich menu, and layer cakes. See their complete menu. Their Chelsea Market location is quite small and always crowded so it's better to take their food to go. Grab one of their sandwiches and walk over to the Highline Park (they actually sell picnic sandwich boxes during summer).

Who wouldn't want to receive Sesame Street and burger and fries cakes?

Chelsea market always has photos dislayed on its walls.


And there's music, usually jazz, that's great while you're having lunch.




This is sort of torture thinking about places you can no longer walk over to or call for delivery, like right about now during dinner time we'd be calling Chelsea Thai Wholesale and getting pad thai noodles delievered to our apartment. It's still the best pad thai we've ever tasted and still a great deal at $7.85 (despite the fact that the price has been slightly raised). We don't think you can order a bad thing off of their menu.

We Missed Stevie Wonder

If we were still living in New York City this year, we would have stayed home a month to pay for two concerts that took place in and around New York. First for us would have been a short flight to Norfolk, VA to see Stevie give a three-hour concert that was described as "a perfect concert." I cry.

Second concert on our list would have been the first night of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary show at Madison Square garden. The amount of music legends in one room . . . unfreakinbelievable: Paul Simon, Jerry Lee Lewis, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band, Billy Joel. There were tributes and dedications. John Legend dedicated a song to Marvin Gaye. Stevie Wonder did a "stunning" homage to Michael Jackson with "The Way You Make Me Feel." I cry. Stevie also did duets with Smokey Robinson, John Legend, Sting, and B.B. King. Oh Beejeezus. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band did a version of "New York State of Mind" with Billy Joel. Once in a lifetime event. We should have been there.

Night two of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary show also had some incredible talent. Aretha Franklin paid homage to our favorite city with her version of "New York, New York." Also performing were Annie Lennox, Lenny Kravitz, Jeff Beck, Metallica, Lou Reed, Ozzy Osbourne, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen again, U2 and a surprise appearance by Mick Jagger.

If anyone hears that Stevie Wonder will be performing on the west coast, please let us know ASAP!!!

Party Animals

If we were celebrating Halloween in New York, these are the people we'd party with - people dressed in creative costumes, not the predictable of-the-moment fad that people our age and younger can't help but wear every Halloween, people who can shake their tooshies to both "Monster Mash" and Missy Elliott's "Get Ur Freak On.

Lost in the Wilderness

This great quote on the exterior wall of the Rubin Museum has new meaning in our lives. At this moment in time, we are very lost. I suppose this means we will be finding ourselves soon.

Living Large in New York

You haven't seen rich people until you've lived in Manhattan. They're a separate breed from other "wealthies" in the rest of the United States. Just walk into Bergdorf and observe the folks with personal shoppers. It's actually quite startling if it's your first looksie in Bergdorf, then quite amusing. Or walk down Madison Ave or walk by Columbus Circle and see the long lines of personal drivers waiting in shiny black Mercedes for hours until their bosses wearing Tom Ford suits are ready to be driven just one block away. So where do these wealthies live? They live in the Dakota-esque buildings with doormen wearing suits nicer than your nicest suit. They live in the big fat large condos - in the West Village, the lofts in SoHo, the large condos on the Upper West side overlooking Central Park.



It's always insane when we see real balconies in Manhattan. Our balcony was the glamorous fire escape with a view right into someone's messy bedroom in the opposite building.

Not big fans of the expensive, trendy SoHo neighborhood, but we'd love to live in any of the spacious lofts there.



There's so many elegant as Cary Grant apartments on the Upper West Side, especially the buildings closest to Central Park. You can lick the sidewalks there. It'd be a great place to raise a family.



The coveted top units. We'd always look up at apartments like this and wonder what the rent must be like and how great it'd be to have some margaritas on top outside during the warm months. And we'd wonder if the people living in these gorgeous apartment appreciate living there, just as Andie asked Duckie in Pretty in Pink.


This apartment was one block from our apartment. We always passed this apartment on the way to the Chelsea Market. We like the look and charm of the older buildings in New York, but hell we were ready to pack our bags and roll our stuff across the street here. It didn't matter that it's right across from the hospital.

This multilevel top story apartment with the spiral staircase in the LES stood out since it was the only one with a modern design on a street, and area, consisting of mostly older buildings. The people who built this definitely wanted to be "seen."

We once went to an open house in the West Village to torture ourselves. Sometimes we're sick like that. It just looked like a typical New York apartment from the outside but when we went in, we fell in love. It was two bedrooms (gasp), had its own separate kitchen (almost fainted), had a huge living room and dining space, had gorgeous brick walls throughout the apartment. The apartment was also the only apartment on the third floor so there were windows on all sides. It was love until the realtor told us the rent was $4,000/mo. Don't get us started on apartments in DUMBO right by the Brooklyn Bridge or the ones at the Brooklyn Heights Esplanade.

Restaurant Advertising

Jekyll and Hyde Club might not be the kind of place we'd go to drop money for a meal, but we have to give it to them for their eye-catching advertising gimmick.


I'm sure the boss didn't mind that the driver was parked here illegally while getting his pastrami sandwich if he saw how many people were taking photos of the car, which includes their web address as well.

Ruben's Empanadas

Sigiri Sri Lanka Restaurant was closed so we decided to lunch it at a small empanada take-out joint Ruben's Empanadas in the East Village (122 First Ave., near 7th Street). Ruben's Empanadas has been hand wrapping and baking empanadas out of their Brooklyn Factory since 1975. All empanads are about $4. We ordered their lunch special - $7.38 for one empanada, rice and beans, cup of coffee, and a bottled water.


We were starving so we very pleased when we saw the huge plate of rice and beans included in our empanada lunch special. Unfortunately, the rice and beans were too dry and turned out to be too much to finish.

We were equally pleased when we saw the size of the empanada.

However, the taste was lack luster. Although the spinach tofu empanada was proportionately stuffed and tasted decent, the other empanadas tasted flat. My ham and cheese empanada (not pictured) was very disappointing. It looked nicely stuffed from the outside, but when I broke it in half, there was hardly any filling. Did it evaporate? Where did my filling go?

The empanadas were so flavorless and dry that even madly dipping them into the hot sauce didn't help. There are so many places to eat in the East Village that we wouldn't go back even if they offered $1 lunch specials.

The $3 Lusso Sangria

We miss unplanned, relaxing 3 pm Sangria happy hours. We miss dirt cheap $3 Sangrias that taste like 15 bucks and that are served all day even more. We miss Lusso's Sangrias! And don't ever call it fruit punch for adults.


Drinking a happy hour priced drink without the loud happy crowd in New York City is priceless.


Painting of Lusso in Lusso.

Fond memories of walking around the NYC streets and seeing bargain drink signs everywhere will never fade.

Housing Works Thrift Shops

There's many things to like about Housing Works thrift shops: chic eye-catching window displays, great bargains (although it can be hit and miss depending on the day), high-end fashion merchandise at greatly discounted prices, 40 to 50% off sales on already slashed prices, and an absolutely fantastic mix of unique furniture pieces, most at affordable prices. Because New Yorkers are such savvy, quick shoppers, the best furniture pieces always have a "sold" on them.

But the best thing about shopping at Housing Works is that purchases help their efforts with AIDS and homelessness. Housing Works is the largest community-based AIDS service organization in the U.S. and since 1990 has been providing housing, medical and mental health care, meals, job training, drug treatment, HIV prevention education, and social supports to thousands of homeless and low-income New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS.

Although Housing Works has seven locations in New York City (and one in Haiti), we've only been to our neighborhood Chelsea location on West 17th Street and the store in Brooklyn. We're not sure what the other stores are like, but we have a feeling the West 17th store is the best (the Brooklyn store, for example, was much smaller and carried a less diverse merchandise).


If we were staying in New York for the long haul, we would have absolutely bought this shelf/storage unit. This swiveled around 360 and has a full-length mirror on the back as well as coat hangers on one side. A good looking functional piece and a good deal for $50.

In any other state, a man wearing this jacket might look a bit special or even criminal. But we're pretty sure a man in New York could style this and pull this off any time of day to any place.

This barber's chair was expensive at almost a thousand dollars but if you have the money, like many people in New York do, then what a great buy.

And even if you walk out of the store empty, it's always a fun visit - listening to workers singing to an old Madonna hit or watching customers furniture battle or observing girls stalk other girls for boots and dresses. Housing Works also has some great events. I really wish I could be at their Bride on a Buck 2 event. I'm sure the event will be nutty and the dresses will be sold out in under an hour. Someone should definitely tape the scene of women at the fiercest moment - bargain shopping competition.

After a Housing Works visit, walk across the street to Angel Street Thrift Shop. That's where I scored my Phillip Lim coat. Fun times shopping in New York in the fall!