Friday, November 24, 2017

NYC Trip- Food and Wine Festival

To read about our first day of our trip, click here.  I'd be remiss if I didn't share the pictures of our oysters from lunch that previous day, too. Oysters became somewhat of a theme for the weekend...



On Saturday, John and I headed into Manhattan to start our adult weekend. Papa and Will galavanted around town in Connecticut while we met up with Ms. Laura and he hubby John. Laura and I taught together in Connecticut years ago, but she'll always be 'Ms. Laura' to me. We all convened in the lobby of The Michelangelo hotel. We had been gifted the room and found out we had been upgraded to a corner room. It was sweet. From there it was off to our first event, the Grand Tasting at Pier 94.





This event is always fun, but in years' past has really gone the way of a booze fest. When I first went, ten years ago, the culinary demonstrations and tastings were top notch. Not to say we didn't enjoy ourselves, because we did. It's just not a NYCWFF event I feel the need to do each year.









Let's see, after that we parted ways with Ms. Laura and her John, recouped in the hotel room, and headed downtown to a UF Gator bar to watch the rest of the football game. It was a fun place with porch swings inside.

We started our walk to the restaurant and passed by quite a few people relaxing on their stoop, a few of which we chatted with. Our dinner was at Old Homestead Steakhouse, where we had a house account to use. We indulged in steaks and a nice bottle of wine, even dessert, AND took a burger back to some of our stoop friends. It was a memorable night in NYC for sure.







Sunday we were up and out of the hotel, and headed downtown for our FAVORITE event of the weekend, the Oyster Bash. Situated underneath the High Line at the base of the Standard Hotel is a Biergarten. Dozens of oyster farmers bring their wares and shuck them right there, paired with all-you-can-enjoy cocktails including bloody mary's, champagne splits, beer, some vodka drink, and more.

We shucked oysters and chatted up the farmers. I braided one guy's beard, and we all met Adam Richman and took a blurry picture with him. By the end of the event, everyone was feeling very hospitable. My friend Brian from the RetroWDW podcast had joined us earlier, along with his friend Alex. Brian was told he looked just like Matt Damon.
The event ended and people slowly began to dwindle away. Brian and Alex jumped in a cab while John and I popped into the Tory Burch that was across the street. We spotted a leopard print pair of the Miller sandal, tried it on, and wore it out the door. It was the quickest shopping trip in history!







From there we cabbed uptown to Grand Central Station to continue our oyster gluttony at the Oyster Bar, but alas, did you know they aren't open on Sundays?! We do now! Brian made the executive decision to head to Wolfgangs steakhouse, where we had another lavish meal. First the guys had to get their shoes shined. Gentlemen, I tells ya.  We lived like kings for the weekend.






Meanwhile, my dad and Will were bounding around Central Park. Oh, and John was lugging our suitcase all around, so that had me laughing.

We all met back home that evening, after what felt like a loooong train ride home.

John felt pretty ripe as we went to the pumpkin patch the next day. It was windy and COLD! But fun. That evening we picked up pizza from Post Road Pizza (the best greek salad/feta cheese!) and packed for our return trip.







It was a memorable family vacation, and one that I'm so grateful we get to do annually.

Thanks for reading! XO, Ashley




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5 comments:

  1. Looks like a lot of fun, although I'm not an oyster fan, have to thumbs down that for me. Oh, Brian Retro! He is pretty cool. LOVE those sandals, cuuuuuute! Omg, the pumpkin patch Will picture is adorable! Kari *o*

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