I Want To Wake Up In A City That Never Sleeps...

Sunday in NYC, we woke up fairly early after getting a good night's sleep due to pure exhaustion from Saturday's activities. Our hotel was in Chelsea, and I really wanted to make a stop at Chelsea Market to check it out. Not only is the market filled with gourmet stores, but it is also home to Food Network. Be still my beating heart!

Stop #1 in the market: Eleni's Bakery. With displays like this, would you be able to walk by without stopping? Yeah. Didn't think so.


NYC themed cookies. Yummy.


I vant von! I vant von!


We meandered along, and had a fabulous coffee from Ninth Street Espresso. After tasting this coffee, Starbucks can suck it. Walking along a bit farther, we came upon a nice sized Italian market. They had everything from soup to nuts, including such delacacies as lemon olive oil and this ginormous container of Nutella.


Look at all these gorgeous barrels of different pastas, nuts, seeds and dried fruits.


Just around the corner....


Unfortunately for me, the headquarters are actually on the 3rd floor of the building. But I consider it a brush with fame!

A few hours later, we found ourselves in the West Village where we met up with one of my college besties, Erin. She took us to partake in all the glory that is Murray's Cheese Shop. This place was heaven. Thank the Lordy we couldn't take pounds of cheese in our suitcases, because I could have easily dropped a few hundy there.


Then we popped across the street to the warm and cozy Blind Tiger where we enjoyed a few stouts fireside. We had to wait until 4pm for our next destination to open, so we killed time by, um, drinking more. Our 4pm was a date with the Belgian Beer Bar, a little nook that's tucked back off the street and purposely hard to find. They had a great selection of beers and much to my delight... pomme fritte with various dipping sauces. Served in a paper cone. (Say hi to Erin in the background.)


We wrapped up our day with a delicious Shabu-Shabu style meal at LAN in the East Village. Two of our friends from KC, Sarah and Joe graciously showed us around and introduced the joys of Shabu-Shabu to us. Very tasty... if you ever have the opportunity to try it, do it!

How can you not love this city?