Mar 29th- Bubble Lounge

Ryan taking his first sip of Dom Perignon

<3

The Dom

So what happens when two teachers go to a bar that specializes in champagne and sparkling wine? Well, they act and spend like they're not teachers!! There are fewer things in this world that Ryan and I love more than champagne (Sadie is one of those things). So we were in high heaven when we went to the Bubble Lounge in Tribeca. It was a cool place, although a little dead (supposedly because of Passover and Easter Week).

We totally splurged and split a glass of Dom Perignon. Wow. Wow. We restrained ourselves by only having 1 glass and switched to a bottle of Iron Horse (a really good sparkling wine from Sonoma). Here are some pictures of our fun night at Bubble Lounge. (after Bubble Lounge we ended up at a private party in SoHo, but that's a whole other story!)

Mar 29th- Dinner, Back at Cercle Rouge

kumamoto oysters

escargot

enjoying our cozy spot at the bar

Told ya, we'd be back! We went and sat at the bar at this Tribeca bistro. We had the nicest bartender too (I think she was from the Ukraine or someplace like that). Great place to check out!

We split a couple different things and enjoyed some nice wine and cocktails. To eat, we had kumamoto oysters, escargot, and hangar steak with bone marrow sauce and gratin potatoes. Everything was delicious. I was surprised and proud that Ryan tried (and liked) the escargot. The fact that they were oozing in butter and garlic helped!

More Le Bernardin Pictures

passion fruit birthday dessert

vanilla, basil, and blueberry dessert

chocolate and peanut butter dessert

crispy black bass (they did a thing about this on "Best Thing I Ever Ate" on the Food Network)

March 29th- The meal of the century...Le Bernardin

http://www.le-bernardin.com/

Whatever you're doing...take 2 minutes and look at Le Bernardin's website. Once you've done that, start saving for the plane ticket to get to New York and the cost of the meal. This is, without a doubt, the best meal of my life. I've been to some really good restaurants before (Bartalotta, Craftsteak, etc.), but this is so beyond even those. It isn't even fair to comprare any other restaurant to Le Bernardin. It really is in a category all of it's own. The food, service, atmosphere, even the flowers are incomparable. I will try to do my best to describe our meal there, but it really is hard to put into words.

Quick side note, we had a crazy morning before our 12:30 lunch reservation. When we were getting dressed, Ryan noticed that his trusty sportscoat had lost a button. Now if this were any other restaurant, it wouldn't have been that big of a deal...but this was Le Bernardin! Jackets required! (or should I say "le jacket"?) So we got onto the subway as fast as we could (it's pouring rain), and went to Macy's. Now I realize this is the shopping mecca of the world, but hey I had a 20% star rewards coupon that I wasn't about to go unused! So after running around the 30 floors of the men's department, we finally settled on a grey pinstripe Tommy suit. Now we were off!!

Well, one last hitch. The cab let us off one block away to avoid traffic. No problem...except we walked in the wrong direction and ended up getting almost lost. Thank god for the navigation of Ryan's droid (btw, that phone paid for itself this trip!). Well we finally got turned in the right direction and made it to Le Bernardin, only 2 minutes late. We checked our coats and were seated at a beautiful romantic table.

I could go on and on at how beautiful the restaurant was and how great the service was, but let's get to the important stuff: the food! We ordered a bottle of Iron Horse champagne and were brought a smoked salmon dip as an appetizer (I'm sure it had a much fancier word than dip...but hey, I'm a southern girl at heart!). Madeline's dining- appetizer: tuna tartar on a foie gras baguette garnished with extra virgin olive oil and chives; entree: crispy seared black bass with mini pork buns; dessert: vanilla yogurt with basil ice cream and blueberries. Ryan's dining- appetizer: tuna pancetta with pickled vegetables; entree: baked lobster with truffles; dessert: chocolate and peanut butter. We were also brought a complimentary passion fruit dessert because for my belated birthday and little almond and pistachio cookies (which normally I hate nuts in cookies, but these were so good we asked for seconds!). Everything was so good. I think my favorite part was my appetizer.

Pictures: Ryan's entree, Madeline enjoying Iron Horse, Ryan in his new suit in the cab, Ryan's appetizer, Madeline's appetizer.

More pictures coming up!

March 28th Dinner at Odeon

The Odeon quickly became our favorite place in nyc. The food is simple but deliciously prepared and the staff is really friendly (side note: every waiter and bartender we had while in nyc was so friendly and a great resource for fun stuff to do!). Even weeks later, we still get cravings for our meal there. On the 28th we dined with Don, Kathy, Willa, & Kate...and it was so delicious, we returned for our last night too! We had the same meal. I had the hangar steak that was served with potatoes and asparagus. Ryan had short rib ragu rigatoni. Everything was so good! Mmm....how much is it for a flight back??

http://www.theodeonrestaurant.com/

Pictures- short rib ragu, hangar steak, us, and the outside of Odeon

March 28th Pre-Dinner drinks at Cercle Rougehttp://www.cerclerougeresto.com/

Great little neighborhood bistro. Reminds me of being in Paris! We just have a glass of wine and a beer, but we were intrigued by the menu and would return later...

NYC Update

So we've been back from vacation for a few weeks...and I've been so busy I haven't had a chance to write about all the delicious food and drinks we had while in the Big Apple! Ryan and I had such a wonderful time. We are so thankful to Don & Kathy for letting us stay with them in their awesome Tribeca apt! We are already planning our next trip :)

For the foodie updates from our trip, I'm going to post by day, meal, and restaurant (there's a lot...)

Picture; Ryan with Bob Harper from the Biggest Loser.