We woke up early on our third day in New York, fueled by an an intent to see Rockefeller Plaza for ourselves without the big crowds we had to fight through the day before. An early start, we thought, would give us a chance. We were ready and out the door, heading to Rockefeller Center before 8am. It’s a good thing we were!
A vertical view of Rockefeller Plaza
The plaza easily had a few hundred people milling around, many in line for the “perfect shot” of the plaza where you can see the angel statues lining the shot all the way down to the plaza (you can Google this shot if you want… I wasn’t willing to spend the time or money to capture it myself). We took in the plaza, and the feelings of Christmas. Behind us, up on 5th, Saks 5th Avenue had a Christmas display up that looked like a castle when lit. We saw the skating rink below the tree, took pictures of the massive Christmas tree itself, and then having decided we’d seen enough… we headed towards our next destination near the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met).
The skating rink and tree at Rockefeller Plaza
I wasn’t quite in “blogger” mode at this point, so unfortunately I don’t have any pictures at this point to share with you… but in the spirit of giving everyone something to look at I’ll share some pictures from a trip over a decade ago… but after we visited Rockefeller Plaza, Abby and I headed to meet with our friends Rachel and Sara. Rachel used to live in Colorado, she and I shared an apartment in Denver and we’ve been friends ever since (she’s the best roommate I’ve ever had!). Now, she and Sara live in New York and today they had agreed to meet us at one of the “hidden gem” locations that I know in New York that I was introduced to a long time ago: Café Sabarsky.
For some reason I never take pictures of Cafe Sabarsky, but here’s a dessert we had in 2008.
Sometimes, the problem with New York is that the best places, the most popular places, are too busy, crowded, or expensive to get into. Café Sabarsky is something you’d easily miss even if you knew it was there. I’ve talked about it on this site before, and took Jen there the last time we went to New York as well. It’s a spot where I always stop, and this time the four of us had a full breakfast there (Jen and I filled up on bagels ahead of time last trip…), with me insisting also on a Klimt Torte which is a hazelnut and chocolate layered cake that is so thick you’d almost consider it a piece of fudge. It is a small slice of heaven, and after eggs with bacon and potato it was the perfect thing to round out my morning.
I was originally introduced to the cafe by my ex-wife’s grandmother, and fell in love with it instantly. Her grandmother was the head concierge at the Javits Center (New York’s biggest convention center) and seemed to know all the best places, including this one. Over the years it has been a staple that embodies the small, art gallery café that I try to find in every city. If you didn’t know it was located inside the Nueue Gallery, you might walk right past the building. When Abby and I got to the gallery, I made to open the door and the doorman stopped me short by doing it himself.
“Here for the café?” he asked, and I nodded my head as he ushered us inside. The building had looked closed! Cafe Sabarsky is that kind of secret, truly, and it’s as hard to find as it is a wonderful gem. Don’t tell others, I’d like to keep it that way for a while at least.
We enjoyed a meal, Rachel and Sara coming up from Brooklyn to meet with us, and talked and caught up about life and living in Brooklyn, as well as their thoughts on where we should visit while in town. When we’d finished eating and I’d forced everyone to try my dessert, we walked together to the entrance of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (which is about two blocks away) before parting ways. We’d see Rachel and Sara again on Monday in Brooklyn to enjoy some local haunts. Full from breakfast, we headed into the museum and began looking around.
I’ve been to The Met countless times, and so far it is the best museum I have ever stepped foot in. Now, that isn’t to say it’s the best in the world… I have a lot more museums to visit… but it’s one of my favorites. Areas of the museum are themed to match the art they contain, and more than that the size and scale of the collection can be staggering. An example is the large, marble table known as the Farnese Table. This was the original piece of art that made me fall in love with the museum, and it’s still on display today. While the total weight isn’t known, it’s confirmed that each of the three legs supports over 1,200 pounds of marble. It’s one hell of a table!
My favorite room in The Met
We walked through most of the first floor of the museum, including Greek and Roman art as well as various other collections, and after seeing what I’d say is my “normal” few hours worth of exhibits at the museum, I turned to Abby and gave her the “out” of offering to leave if she wanted to. I hadn’t yet found the Farnese Table (hey, I don’t remember every single room of the place [yet]!), but with her encouragement that she wasn’t tired yet we headed back to find the table (found it!), as well as climbed to the second floor and toured an exhibit of Impressionist art (including a lot of Monet… we’d recently visited an exhibit in Denver by the same) before entering into an exhibit regarding how art had inspired scientific discovery in Europe. Officially the “Making Marvels” exhibition, it is absolutely worth a look. The exhibit focuses on automatons (some of the original ones and even one that inspired the book “The Invention of Hugo Cabret”. It also included a lot of art at the time that enabled science like paintings with scenes that rotated on gears, one of the first calculators, and many other installations worth seeing. I’m really glad we went upstairs this trip!
Looking down from the second story on some of the Met’s collection of Greek and Roman art
We walked from The Met a few blocks back toward the hotel, and stopped at a bookstore called Albertine. I’d found it online and the store specializes in French literature and sells both French version and English versions! Abby spent a year in France in high school, and had returned many times. She speaks French fluently, and also loves literature, it was a great stop! We walked around a bit, though most of the books by authors Abby knew she had already read, but we looked at the various sections, and headed upstairs to the second floor to see the “rare” section and children’s books, before heading back down the street toward the hotel.
A French version of “The Little Prince”. This was a limited-edition print and one of the pricier books in the store.
That night, we planned on going to a dive-bar that was suggested by one of Abby’s friends called the “Ear Inn”… so after a busy morning we took a quick nap, refreshed ourselves at the hotel, and headed down to a destination that was recommended by a long-time local.
Ear Inn is one of the longest operating bars in New York. You can read all about their history on the website, but today it serves a lot of locals and has some very entertaining bartenders! One had a Kiwi accent, I thought, while the other originated from somewhere in the UK. We made friends as best we could between them and some of the locals, and had mussels and mac-and-cheese to round out our drinking. I think it’s important that I also note here that heading down to Ear Inn was the first time I have ever taken the subway in the US. Crazy, right? It’s just never come up or there have always been cabs! Abby and I got our metro cards (though of course Abby has ridden the subway both here, and abroad, before), loaded them for a round-trip, and took the train from 51st street down. We also took the train back, and both were easy and uneventful. This was also the first time I’ve ever arrived at Union Station by train, though of course I’ve been there before, I’d just never ridden the subway into the station. I’m glad to have had a few new “firsts” this trip!
We walked back to the hotel, and got ready for bed. Tomorrow was another big day, we were headed back to Kettle of Fish to watch the Packers game and would have to get there early and planned to walk the whole way.
