Fervent Foodie is a contributing writer for the official Urbanspoon blog. 

The thought of partaking in a lengthy conversation is enough to make most dads grimace. It doesn’t mean dads don’t care; talking just doesn’t come as naturally to them as, say, changing your car’s oil or scaring the crap out of your new boyfriend. Deep down, dads are softies when it comes to their kids, despite the stone faces and frequent radio silence.

This Father’s Day, find your dad’s inner Chatty Charles with one of these one-size-fits-most conversation topics.

Continue reading on the Urbanspoon blog!

Speaking of dads, if you’re looking for a sweet treat for Father’s Day I have the perfect gift idea. I recently sampled a box of sweets from Heidi’s Heavenly Cookies. These are hands-down the best cookies I’ve ever received in the mail, and honestly better than most I’ve had fresh from bakeries. Don’t get me wrong–I’m an avid cookie consumer, but few get an audible “WOW” on the first bite like Heidi’s do. The cookies are preservative-free, and you can store them in the freezer and enjoy them cookie-by-cookie for weeks to come. My two favorites had similar flavor profiles: the toffee chocolate chip (chocolate chip cookies topped with a layer of crunchy gourmet English toffee candy) and sea salt caramel bars (luscious caramel and Mediterranean Sea salt). As an added bonus, the cookies come in adorable little gift boxes. So, order some for your dad and for yourself (and for a certain blogger whose birthday is in July ).

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From the luminescent silk screen Barbies on the walls, to the linen towels in the bathroom, to the liquid nitrogen cloud lingering over your cocktail, at Bubble Charlotte no details are spared.  Bubble, which officially opened May 17, 2013 (after years of anticipation), is Charlotte’s first champagne bar and oh so much more.  There’s a full-service kitchen, patio area with bar service overlooking the intersection of College and Trade, and not one but FOUR different beverage menus.

Bubble’s main entrance is on the Epicentre’s ground level.  Once inside, guests ascend a dramatic staircase to the second floor.  The decor strikes a playful balance between sophisticated and fashionable, and the dining area is anything but standard with large round communal-style tables.  The aim is a premium (but not pretentious) experience.

   

So let’s talk booze.  Bubble has over 30 champagnes in house, and their Perlage preservation system enables high end champagnes to be sold by the glass, while still maintaining the flavor and integrity of the beverage.  Patrons can score a solitary glass of Dom Pérignon for $45, while a bottle can cost upwards of $200.

Bubble’s beverage repertoire spans much further than champagne though, and all of the bartenders are Bar Smarts certified.  They offer a “slim list” of sub-120 calorie cocktails, and their much-buzzed-about N’tini cocktail is topped with liquid nitrogen steam, which quickly chills the cocktail and produces a “seductive cloud.”  Ingesting liquid nitrogen is hazardous, in fact, a British teen had part of her stomach removed last year after ingesting the chemical.  To avoid potential harm, Bubble’s N’tinis should not be consumed until the liquid nitrogen cloud has dissipated.  At the press event I attended, Bubble’s operating partner, Bourke Floyd (fka Brady on Dawson’s Creek), was adamant about the safety precautions the bar will take to ensure no one is given an N’tini until it’s safe to drink.

   

The petite chef-driven menu at Bubble features a handful of small plates:  prosciutto wrapped melon, pomme gaufrettes (waffle fries), chef-chosen cheese plates, and fresh, never frozen, calamari served with wasabi cream and Sriracha.  As for salads, I enjoyed both the fresh strawberry chevre salad (with goat cheese and Spanish candied walnuts) and the Caprese Napoleon, which is topped with a fig balsamic reduction and a light drizzle of olive oil.

The entrees include champagne poached shrimp, Thai-chili ribs, steak frites, and Mediterranean chicken skewers.  There are also four flatbreads, the toppings of which were promising, but the bread itself was horrendous–flavorless with the texture of a hardened shortbread cookie.  Dear Chef:  please fix this flatbread faux pas ASAP.

One of the most interesting dishes on the menu is the foie gras PB&J with muscat grape jelly, almond butter, and seared foie gras.  (What’s foie gras?  It’s liver.  Extremely fatty and buttery, usually of the duck or goose variety.)  The combination of muscat jelly, almond butter, and warm brioche was delicious, but I can’t honestly say I’d order it again.

Without a doubt, Bubble will become a prime place for date nights and celebrations.  As such, I found the limited dessert menu surprising.  There are only two options:  Crème brûlée and a molten chocolate cake.

   

Overall, Bubble is an exiting addition to uptown, and a fantastic stop for an upscale night on the town.  The beverages are inventive and the venue is sophisticated.  The food I sampled was consistently bright and light, even the fried calamari and fried asparagus were somehow light as, well, bubbles.  Though Bubble claims to support the farm-to-fork and grain-to-glass movements, the “farm-fresh” deliveries they get six times a week aren’t currently being sourced from local farms.  Hopefully this will change as they get settled in.

Bubble Charlotte provided all media event attendees with gratis  food and drink.  Other than the delicious meal, I was not paid for this review.  This blog post and comments within are based on my own honest opinions.

The post Bubble–Charlotte, NC {restaurant review} appeared first on Fervent Foodie.

Tropical Foods is a Charlotte-based food manufacturer and importer and distributor of bulk and packaged snacks and specialty foods.  Phew, that’s a lot of hats!  What this translates to is snack mixes, dried fruits, nuts and seeds, dipping chocolates, salad bar mix-ins, and garden chips, just to name a few of Tropical’s thousands of products.  The Charlotte production plant roasts nuts and seeds daily (in trans-fat-free oil), and goods are shipped from one of their six locations:  Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas, Memphis, Orlando, and Washington DC.

Back in the Fall, Tropical Foods sponsored a recipe contest at Johnson & Wales University here in Charlotte, and I recently partnered with Tropical on a super fun project to create recipe videos for the top three recipes from the contest (plus, one video for a recipe that I specially developed for Tropical).  The whole video shooting process was new to me, and it was both fun and challenging!  I’ll post more about the videos in the coming weeks including a HUGE TROPICAL FOODS GIVEAWAY, but in the mean time here’s the first of four videos, my official YouTube debut.  Enjoy!

Buffalo Bleu Tailgate Bars

Looking for Tropical Foods products?  You can buy nuts and snacks direct from their new retail site:  www.tropicalsnuthouse.com.  Tropical Foods products are also available in many grocery stores, including Harris Teeter and Healthy Home Market.

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Life is unpredictable.  You get stuck at the office, spend rainy days surfing Pinterest instead of grocery shopping, and sometimes feel just too darn tired to even lift a spatula.  We’ve all had these nights–ones when we secretly wish we still lived at home where mom would sense our hunger and home cooked meals would emerge from the kitchen faster than you could microwave some easy mac.  Sometimes, all we want is a hot meal ASAP without having to worry about who’s doing the dishes.  In the old days, when people wanted takeout, they’d hunt down a menu, scribble down orders, then call it in and pray that the person on the other end could understand over the loud bar noise (is that a screaming goat I hear?!) that  you wanted your dressing on the side, and light sauce on the pizza, and ABSOLUTELY NO OLIVES whatsoever.

While this dial-in method works, few can argue it’d be easier and more convenient to browse menus and place orders online in real-time.  That’s where BringMeThat.com comes into play. Users log into the BringMeThat.com website to browse menus and place food delivery orders, including special requests (extra cheese, please!).  Once submitted, the BringMeThat request is sent to the restaurant, and shortly after the patron receives an email letting them know how long it’ll be til the food arrives.

My first BringMeThat order was placed on a Saturday night at peak dinner time.  Within minutes of submitting my order for Libretto’s, a local pizza joint, I received a call from BringMeThat letting me know Libretto’s kitchen was backed up and it would be 90 minutes til the food arrived.  I was given the option of canceling the ordering or waiting it out.  I was STARVING, and very appreciative of this courtesy call, which is a standard BringMeThat procedure as the company strives for customer satisfaction and overall positive user experiences.

During the quick phone call, I was able to verbally cancel my order.  I then quickly submitted an online order for Intermezzo, one of my favorite restaurants in town.  Within minutes, I received an email letting me know the food would arrive in approximately 30 minutes.  To my delight, the grub arrived in 25 minutes, and I had a steaming plate of Intermezzo’s house-made ravioli in front of me just in the nick of time.

Later in the week, I gave Libretto’s a second shot, and my salad and sausage with broccoli rabe sandwich arrived in twenty minutes (10 minutes sooner than my email notification estimated)!

Though BringMeThat is new to Charlotte, the service, which started in my home state of Ohio, provides online ordering for nearly 3,000 restaurants in North Carolina and Ohio.

As with any new service, there are a few bugs to work out in the system.  Some of the Charlotte restaurant cuisines listed on the site are just plain inaccurate.  For example, my beloved Intermezzo, is listed as Brazilian and Irish when it’s actually Serbian and Italian.  Also, some of the menus don’t have the same level of detail included on the restaurant’s own website, and restaurant hours are not consistently listed.  The BringMeThat team is aware of these user pain points and will be working on adding additional data to restaurant descriptions and menu items in the coming weeks.  In Charlotte, many of the restaurants available on BringMeThat are for catering orders only, and the BringMeThat teams plans to add filtering options in the near future to improve ease of ordering.

Overall, I think this is a great service, and one that has potential to do well both in Charlotte and in other cities.  If you head on over to the BringMeThat Facebook page you can get $5 off your first order!

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Whether it’s a hot date, a night out with friends, or a family outing, few will object to dinner and a movie.  It’s a combination that appeals to all the senses—the sights and sounds of the film, the smells and taste of the food.  And touch?  Well, I’ll leave that one up to you.

Studio Movie Grill (SMG), which recently opened in Charlotte’s Epicentre (in the spot formerly occupied by Mez), takes all that we love about this classic combo and mashes them into one in-theater dining concept.  The idea is not new to Charlotte, but SMG’s approach is more casual and family-friendly than its predecessor.

SMG movie tickets can be purchased online or at the front desk, and seating is selected at the time of purchase (so there’s no need to rush to the theater to score a good spot).  Speaking of the theater seats, these ones are plush and recline slightly, and each seat has a personal-sized swiveling table top, complete with a cup holder and a red “power button” that signals the SMG team you’re ready for service.

While you can still order a giant tub of popcorn, the food at SMG is several steps above your typical movie theater grub.  There are pizzas, burgers, salads, and tacos, plus several desserts and cocktails.  Though the food is not gourmet, there’s something luxurious about having waiters at your beck and call at the simple press of a button.

Waiters dress in head-to-toe black and simultaneously crouch and walk so as not to obstruct the view of the screen.  (The word is out on whether this “technique” is part of their employee training.)  Unlike traditional theaters with long continuous rows of seating, seats at SMG are sectioned off into two, three, or four chair groups, so the servers can easily take orders (which they punch into smart phones) and deliver food throughout the movie without bothering other patrons.

Much of the food at SMG is finger food, which I appreciated given patrons eat in the dark.  If you’re in the mood to share, the Feature Four sampler platter is the way to go–you get two chicken quesadilla wedges, four hunks of Tuscan bread, a few buffalo wings, and chips and salsa.  The Spicy Buffalo Drummettes were surprisingly good, with crisp skin, juicy meat, and medium heat.  It was nice eating the wings in the dark–for once, I didn’t have to worry about having sauce all over my face.  The Tuscan Bread was my personal favorite—the garlic butter made the hand-pulled bread a bit greasy, but the gooey cheese and marinara dipping sauce made it impossible to resist.   The chicken quesadillas were standard fare, and I loved the fire-roasted flavor of the homemade salsa.  The sausage pizza was not impressive.  It had a peculiar sweet sauce that conflicted with the flavor of the sausage, and the whole pie was dripping with grease.  Next time I’ll opt for the BBQ chicken pizza or the thin crust Sun Dried Tomato & Arugula Pizza, both of which I’ve heard positive things about.  I tried the Megaplex Burger, and while the meat itself had a nice chargrilled taste, the overall flavor of the burger was boring.  I’d recommend the Steak Sandwich instead – it has shaved beef, mozzarella, sautéed onions, peppers, and mushrooms on top of sourdough bread.  The sandwiches come with fries (very good!), sweet potato fries, or tortilla chips, or you can sub in salad or fruit for an additional charge.

Of all the food I’ve tried at SMG, my favorites are the desserts.  The Rocky Road Cookies and Ice Cream is a show stopper (no pun intended).  It comes with three warm cookies and a dollop of Ben & Jerry’s Nougat ice cream.  In a close second are the Macadamia Cookies and Ice Cream, served warm with a scoop of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia.  Warm cookies topped with cold ice cream is a hard combination to beat!

SMG has a good-sized drink menu, with many specialty cocktails, margaritas, beer, and wine.  The Studio Grande Blue Margarita with Patron Citronge, Margaritaville Tequila, and Blue Curacao is enormous AND delicious, with a great balance between sweet and sour.  There are five after-dinner dessert cocktails, including a Guinness Float, Mocha Latte, and Nutter Butter Frozen Cocktail, none of which I’ve tried, though all sound quite appealing.  The wine list leaves much to be desired in terms of variety; there are ten white wines, six of which are Chardonnays, and eleven reds, eight of which are Cabernets.  A nice option:  patrons can drink at their seats or grab something at the lobby bar before or after the flick.

SMG primarily shows first-run movies, but they also have some alternative programming, what they call SMG with a Twist.  This will vary from week to week, and includes documentaries, one-night only concert films, film series, sports, comedies, charitable events, and $1 movie classics.

Standard adult tickets are $10 (or $13 for 3D films) plus a $1.50 per ticket booking fee, or $7.50 ($10.50 for 3D) plus the booking fee for matinee showings.

Looking for a less expensive night out?  There are several opportunities to save some cash:

MARGARITA MONDAYS

Half price house margaritas, frozen or on the rocks.

LADIES DAY TUESDAYS

$5 movie tickets all day

ENDLESS PIZZA WEDNESDAYS

All-you-can-eat pizza for $9.95 per person.

DRAFT BEER THURSDAYS

Half price domestic draft beers.

BREWS N VIEWS

Hand-picked movies for dudes – $1 tickets first Thursday of the month

GIRLS NIGHT OUT

$1 chick flicks, the second Wednesday of each month

CHILDREN’S SUMMER SERIES

Mon-Fri at 11am, $1 child and $2 adult tickets (check dates)

The post Studio Movie Grill–Charlotte, NC {restaurant review} appeared first on Fervent Foodie.

Fervent Foodie is a contributing writer for the official Urbanspoon blog.

With spring in the air and bathing suits on the brain, healthy eating is getting lots of attention these days.  It seems each year more and more diet fads appear, and while many people find these fads a bit extreme (Cabbage Soup Diet, really?), few can argue the benefits of swapping a day or two of healthier eating into their weekly eating regimen.

Feeling a little confused on the different healthy eating trends?  Get the skinny on raw eating, juicing, the macrobiotic diet, and Paleo over on the Urbanspoon blog.

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Shortly after moving to Charlotte, I fell in love with Mama Ricotta’s.  I blame it on the goat cheese and mascarpone dip, which was my first bite of food on my very first visit to Mama’s.

Mama’s is the type of place where families feel equally comfortable as couples on hot dates.  The dining room is cozy with large family-sized booths plus intimate tables for two, vintage family photos, and a large wood-fired pizza oven.

If you have any Italian friends or family, you know the importance of sharing food in the Italian culture.  Food is love.  This holds true at Mama’s, where most of the pasta dishes are available family-style and are served in deep dishes that are passed around the table, just like at home.

It didn’t take long for me to realize Mama Ricotta’s had common ownership with Bad Daddy’s (one of my favorite burger spots in town) and Midwood Smokehouse (my favorite barbecue joint).  I’ve eaten at these restaurants dozen of times, and many of those meals have ended with toasts to Frank Scibelli, the owner and man behind the amazing food.

I’m a big fan of bread, and Mama Ricotta’s bread basket alone is worth a visit.  The housemade rolls are served with olive oil sprinkled with crushed red pepper flakes for dipping.  As for appetizers, there’s that amazing dip I mentioned–it’s a warm goat cheese and mascarpone dip served with grilled crostini and a warm tomato basil sauce, a steal at $8.50.  I also highly recommend the new house made burrata ($12).  Burrata is fresh Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream, and Mama’s burrata is soft and supple and accompanied by olive oil poached tomatoes, basil, roasted garlic, and grilled ciabatta.

The menu features several salads, my favorites being Mama’s Salad (romaine, marinated artichokes, roasted red peppers, and vine-ripened tomatoes with a light, sweet Italian) and the Chopped Salad (romaine, gorgonzola, walnuts, Roma tomatoes, Gaeta olives, red onion, pepperoncini, garbanzo beans, and carrots tossed in a light Balsamic vinaigrette dressing).

Mama’s specializes in “New Haven style” pizza.  The pizza is cooked in a wood-burning oven, which results in a crust that’s thin with a crispy shell and chewy interior.  The Joe’s Favorite Pizza with pepperoni and house made pork sausage is a popular choice, and  I found it deliciously salty.  Medium 9″ specialty pizzas are $11.50, and Large 14″ specialty pizzas are $17.75.

Some of my favorite pasta dishes are the penne alla vodka, standard angel hair with tomato basil,  and the penne, broccoli, and chicken.  There’s also southern-Italian-style lasagna and a new spaghetti dish with turkey prosciutto meatballs, both which I’ve yet to try (but plan on eating SOON).  You can add chicken, shrimp, or salmon to any pasta dish, and these options are available in individual or family-sized portions, which means the whole gang doesn’t have to agree!

In addition to the pastas, there are nearly a dozen entrees on the menu, including veal, salmon roasted in the wood-fire oven, and several chicken dishes.  Of those I’ve tried, one of my favorites is the pollo bianco, an Italian spin on chicken cordon bleu, with thinly sliced chicken layered with prosciutto and mozzarella.  I’ve also heard good things about the new Shrimp & Crab Risotto.  My to-try list sure is getting long here…

Entrees are served a la carte, and sides are available in individual or family-sized portions.  Favorites include the garlic mashed potatoes and the broccolini with chopped tomato and garlic.

The lunch menu features many of the same items as the dinner menu, with the addition of several sandwiches.  I recently met owner Frank Scibelli(!) for lunch at Mama’s, and we both had the new Italian pork and broccolini sandwich ($9).  The sandwich consists of overnight roasted pork with sharp provolone and delicious, slightly bitter, sautéed broccolini on crusty Italian bread.  Also on the sandwich menu are the chicken parmesan sub, four-meat Italian grinder, and a Venetian chicken salad with grapes and walnuts.  Sandwiches are $7-$9 and come with a side—another great deal.

No matter how tight your pants feel after your meal, you must have dessert!  Mama’s Nutella Pie is notorious (and very rich).  One of my favorites is the apple crisp.  Served in a white ramekin, just like mom would use, the crisp is topped with a small dollop of house spun cinnamon gelato, caramel sauce, and a few ginger snap cookies that dissolve into a decadent porridge in the hot apple juices.  Another of my favorites is the ciabatta bread pudding.  It’s made using Frank’s own recipe and is served with housemade vanilla gelato and dulce de leche.

It’s not often you can visit a restaurant dozens of times and still have a dozen menu items on your want-to-try list.  That’s what makes Mama’s one of my favorite restaurants:  the food is consistently good, and there’s always something new to try.

Mama Ricotta’s is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner.

The post Mama Ricotta’s—Charlotte, NC {restaurant review} appeared first on Fervent Foodie.

When I think of The Palm, I envision a fancy New Yorker carrying shopping bags in one hand as she hails a cab with the other on her way to (insert pretentious voice here) “lunch at the Palm.”

So, when I first got the invitation to come in and try out the Palm, I ignored it.  I’m in Charlotte, the Palm is in New York City.  A couple of weeks later, I received a second invitation right when I was coincidentally preparing for a weekend trip to NYC.  After mapping out the location of the Palm in Manhattan in relation to where I was staying, I began drafting a response email.  But just before I hit send, something caught my eye.  The invite was for the Palm in Charlotte.  What the what?  There’s a Palm in Charlotte??

Lesson #1:  read emails thoroughly before archiving, deleting, and/or replying.

When people ask me for restaurant recommendations  I often joke about avoiding four-dollar-sign restaurants.  In my book, $$$$ means special occasions only.  Luckily, I had a reason celebrate!  My mom was in town for the weekend, and it was the perfect opportunity to get fancied up for a girls’ night at The Palm.

As we walked into the restaurant, I felt a little apprehensive.  I still had the glamorous New Yorker image in my head, and I was wearing Gap flats after all, not Jimmy Choos.  All these anxious feelings melted away as soon as I approached the hostess.  From her smiling face, to the jolly restaurant managers, to the walls covered with caricatures of famous North Carolinians, it felt warm and welcoming, not the slightest bit hoity toity.

Lesson #2:  never judge a restaurant by what you’ve seen in the movies

Once seated, we were promptly served one of the best bread baskets I’ve ever laid my paws on:  a trio of breads locally sourced from Great Harvest Bread Company.  There was raisin bread, whole white bread, and my personal favorite:  the Dakota Bread with sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and millet.

Mom and I were in the mood for some seafood, so we started with the Colossal Lump Crabmeat Cocktail ($24).  After we both verbally affirmed our passion for horseradish, mom dropped a heaping spoonful into the cocktail sauce.  I waited as she took her first bite.  She was speechless, her eyes closed, her face quickly turning red.  I waited for some sort of sign…  Was it good?   Was it bad?  Was she choking???  When a smile stretched across her face, I took a piece of crab, dunked it in the doctored cocktail sauce, and popped it into my mouth.  And that’s when I realized it wasn’t just any old horseradish.  It was atomic.  Breathtaking, nose-hair-burning, atomic horseradish.  It was fantastic.

Along with the crab, we enjoyed the bacon wrapped scallops ($16).  Though the bacon wasn’t especially flavorful, the balsamic and basil reduction served for dipping was the perfect tangy pairing for the scallops.

As we pondered the menu, I saw several salads that looked appetizing, including the Louis “Gigi” Delmaestro Salad with shrimp, green beans, tomato, onion, bacon, roasted red pepper, egg, and avocado over iceberg lettuce with a garlic vinaigrette ($16).  (This is at the top of my to-try list for my next visit!)

The Palm is well known for their steak, and my Filet Mignon held up to the hype:  tender, juicy, and cooked to my requested temperature.  A 9 ounce filet is $45, while the 14 ounce filet is $49 and big enough to share.  Steaks are served with your choice of sauce:  brandy peppercorn, hollandaise, béarnaise, or chimichurri at an extra $1.50 each.  I didn’t love my brandy peppercorn selection (it reminded me of gravy, and I was hoping for something spicy with a vinegar kick), but the steak was flavorful enough to enjoy sauceless.

Mom ordered the broiled Chilean Sea Bass served with lime-infused corn relish with red peppers and shallots ($38).  I loved how light and bright this combination was, and it was my favorite dish of the night, which says quite a bit given I’m not usually a fan of fish!

And since we were at the Palm, we splurged on the Broiled Jumbo Nova Scotia Lobster Tail, which is served with lemon and melted butter (market price).

In addition to these plentiful protein options, there are some Italian entrée offerings on the menu, including chicken Parmesan and veal four ways (Marsala, martini, parmigana, and Milanese).

Entrées are served a-la-carte and there are several side dish options, which come in individual portions ($8 — big enough for two) or family style ($12).  Two that caught my eye were the goat cheese whipped potatoes and asparagus with garlic lemon butter.  This evening, however, we skipped the sides to save room for the delectable dessert menu.

There wasn’t much of a dessert debate–we were both set on the bag of warm made-to-order cinnamon sugar doughnuts served with chocolate and raspberry dipping sauces.  As the manager put it, these doughnuts were “stupid good.”  I concur–these doughnuts alone are worth a trip to the Palm!

The Palm recently began offering a weekday “power lunch” menu.  It’s a three-course meal for $26 with lots to choose from, including salads, Filet Mignon Medallions, Salmon, and desserts.

Other than the delicious meal provided by the Palm, I was not paid for this review.  This blog post and comments within are based on my own, honest opinions.

The post The Palm–Charlotte, NC {restaurant review} appeared first on Fervent Foodie.

Fervent Foodie is a contributing writer for the official Urbanspoon blog.

I have eaten both macaroons and macarons in my day, and though I’ve ordered both as maca-two-o’s-oons (despite their obvious disparities) not once has a server indicated that I was pronouncing the dainty dessert incorrectly. In fact, I believe they too pronounced the name wrong.  Both of these similarly named confections start with meringue:  egg whites and sugar whipped to glossy stiffness.  That’s where the cookies reach the fork in the road, or the spatula in the peaks, if you will:  the difference lies in the execution.

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***Plus, you can find links to all of my articles on Urbanspoon here***

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My ideal vacation day would consist of breakfast at a quaint café, aimless meandering around the city (on foot, preferably), lunch someplace with a view (or prime vantage for people watching), a relaxing cup of coffee, sightseeing and/or napping, followed by a fantastic dinner.

Last weekend, a trip to visit friends in Brooklyn unexpectedly turned into an unplanned weekend in Manhattan, and though I consider myself a fairly flexible traveler, I found myself quickly feeling overwhelmed.  Where to stay?  What to do?  Where to eat?  What to see?

I put the power into Priceline’s hands, and quickly scored a 3.5 star hotel in midtown for only $150 a night!  The Club Quarters was cramped, but safe and clean, and the staff was very friendly.  Before crossing the bridge (literally) to Manhattan,  I had the saltiest, most delicious egg and everything bagel sandwich at Bergen Bagel’s in Brooklyn.  I loved a lot of things at Bergen:  the delicious chewy bagels, the endless assortment of cream cheese (easily mistaken for a case full of gelato), and that every patron is asked if they want ketchup, salt, and pepper on their egg sandwich.  Why, yes I do, fine sir.  Yes, I do.

After breakfast, I took a stroll near the Brooklyn Bridge where I spotted the Statue of Liberty.

Before stepping foot in Manhattan, I accumulated a large list of restaurants to try  through Facebook, Twitter, and SOS emails.  Despite this, our first meal in the Big Apple was picked based on hotel proximity and Urbanspoon reviews, and that dinner at Bistro Milano ended up being the best meal of the weekend.  The cavatelli with sausage was fantastic, and I loved the contrast of the bitter broccoli rabe, sweet sundried tomatoes, and garlicky tomato sauce.

The paccheri (jumbo rigatoni) with a thick, meaty bolognese was hearty and satisfying.

The next morning, we walked to Ess-a Bagel, where I had my first ever whole grain everything bagel.  All I can say about the whole grain everything bagel is never, ever again.  If I’m having a bagel, I’d rather have the tastier, albeit it non-whole, version.

For lunch, we walked a few miles to Eataly.  I was expecting an Italian restaurant, but Eataly is more like the Mecca of extravagant Italian food markets.  You can buy everything you need to make an Italian feast, drink wine while you shop, pop into a sit down restaurant, or hit up one of the food boutiques for a quick meal.  I headed straight for the “Paninos” booth, where I had the best sandwich of the trip:  the panuozzo al prosciutto cotto.  It’s a Neapolitan pizza dough sandwich with prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, and arugula, plus pesto (at my request).

Last time I visited NYC for work, I had a mind blowing meal at Pampano:  chicharron de camaron (spicy/crispy “rock” shrimp tossed in a avocado vinaigrette) and callos de hacha (pan seared scallops with crispy salty serrano ham).  This visit, we attempted to squelch our Mexican cravings with dinner at Rosa Mexicano.  It was an unsatisfying meal, which was followed by an underwhelming and overpriced breakfast at Sarabeth’s.  My vegetable frittata was rubbery and bland, and the waiter’s upper lip practically curled when I asked for ketchup.  Later, I ventured down to the Village for lunch at Bread, and though I didn’t love the fishy-tasting shrimp sandwich, the bread itself (both on the sandwich and in the bread basket) was fantastic.

Before heading home, I grabbed some “Italian” cookies from Ferrara’s in Little Italy.  I say “Italian” in quotes because the cookies were so bad, I’m embarrassed to call them Italian without them.

In between all the eating, I squeezed in a Banana Republic shopping extravaganza (hello, 50% off!) a run in central park, and logged about 25 miles of walking (mostly in Midtown — stats per my Fitbit).  That’s what happens when one traveler refuses to waste money on cabs and one refuses to ride the subway.

So what is the lesson learned from this impromptu trip?  I think it’s that New York (and other cities, for that matter) are best explored through the senses:  walking along, stopping in restaurants whose amazing aromas catch your attention from the sidewalk, and agenda-less meandering.  So note to self:  on my next trip, focus on just being rather than spending countless hours researching what it is I should be doing.

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