WIAW in NYC (to celebrate my anniversary)

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I mentioned last week that my husband and I were heading to NYC for an overnight trip to celebrate our second anniversary. Being huge foodies the purpose of this trip was primarily to visit some of our favorite chef’s restaurants.  We’ve both been to NYC multiple times so we skipped out on any touristy stuff- plus 35-40 degree temps with rain are very encouraging to stay indoors!

Pat and I took the short drive from Philly to NYC and arrived in time for a late lunch Saturday afternoon. The first stop was Eataly– a Mario Batalli establishment. This place was so cool and is the largest artisanal Italian food and wine marketplace in the world. There were several restaurants inside and tons of Italian products.  We headed to the rooftop beer garden that was enclosed by glass for some small places and beers. We each had a beer-mine was brewed with thyme, yum- and shared a few small places including mushroom dish and roasted sunchokes. We successfully got some veggies in to start off 24 of less than healthy eats, ha.

After eating we walked around the store and bought a few specialty items including black pepper and garlic pasta and some of Mario Batali’s signature sauce. Since it was raining and cold we opted to go check into the hotel and relax a bit.

Pat and I wanted to drink some of the local brews (#craftbeersnobs) so we found this bar near our dinner location to try a local of flights. Pat opted to try some coffee flavored beers and I fell in love with a hazelnut porter. We opted to head to dinner early since we were already in that area and they sat us right away.

After much debate about which Tom Colicchio restaurant we should eat at (and consulting Open Table for available times) we settled on Craftbar. Tom is by far my favorite chef and if you’ve never seen an episode of Top Chef you must go watch NOW. Our last trip to New York we went to Colicchio and Son’s and while Craftbar was good it didn’t quite match up. We did eat well though- Pat started with White Anchovy and Soft Egg toast and I tried the Pecorino Fonduta.

Next we shared the Salmon Belly Tartare. Then I had the real star of the night- the best piece of fish I may have ever had- Rhode Island Seabream with homemade gnocchi and morel mushrooms. AMAZING. I loved the broth and crispy skin. Pat had Cacciatore which he enjoyed but it was nothing super special.

Last they brought us dessert with 2 candles for our anniversary celebration. Also they had special menus printed just for us with Happy Anniversary Pat and Jess on the top- so cool #itsthelittlethings  Overall enjoyed an amazing dinner and was absolutely stuffed.

We headed back to the hotel for a movie and some down time- and proceeded to go to bed early- foodcoma for sure. We slept in til 9 and then grabbed an acai bowl to share since we had lunch reservations at noon. BTW we stayed at the DoubleTree in Midtown in case you were wondering so we did some walking and some ubering.

Our last stop on the tour was supposed to be Butter by Alex Guarnaschelli but they were only serving brunch and we wanted something more special so we made last minute reservations at Scott Conant’s new restaurant Impero Caffé. And by new I mean it opened at the end of March. I had the signature Pasta al Pomodoro and Pat got the Gemelli. There’s nothing quite like homemade pasta- by far one of my favs. It reminds me that I need to try to make pasta at home, pretty sure that’s on my 30 by 30 bucket list.

After lunch we walked around a bit since it was actually sunny and then headed back to Philly late afternoon. Another great trip to New York is in the books and it was a wonderful way to celebrate our second year of marriage. If it looks like all we did on this trip was relax and eat- you’re right and it was perfect! A lot of our trip are go go go so it was nice to visit somewhere familiar where there was no rush to see or do certain things.

For a weekend getaway do you prefer lots of running around or more relaxing? How high on your priority list is dining? Ours it’s probably a 9 out of 10.