New York City: Eat, drink and stay warm

This is the delayed update of the second-half of my trip to New York:

In a lot of ways my time in New York City was two separate trips: New York Fashion Week and a sister (plus brother-in-law) weekend. Luckily I'd already been to NYC before as a tourist, so I didn't feel any pressure to spend my time doing anything other than being a New Yorker.

 
Thanks to my extreme luck with trips and weather, McKenzie and I spent Thursday prepping for storm Nemo by making a huge pot of soup and french bread, working and watching Parks and Recreation. I looked into switching my plane flight but the prediction was snow for Friday only which would, and did, allow me to fly out Sunday morning without any problems. The only damper Nemo put on our plans is it prevented Philip and Elizabeth from driving up from DC to hang out. Booooo.

New York was so cold, but it was beautiful. The snow added a unique dimension to tromping around and I was so glad McKenzie had two pairs of rain boots. They saved my feet as we sloshed through  gutter-puddles.

As typical New Yorkers we spent the entire weekend eating and walking, thrifting, walking and eating. McKenzie and I both found some awesome thrift finds, but my favorite one I couldn't buy: a full-length black, fur coat. It was perfect. I love fur coats and they are all over New York right now! It still surprises me because I grew up near San Francisco where fur is a no-go. Sadly, I couldn't convince McKenzie to buy it.

 

We ate at Murray's Bagels twice. I had the bagel with all the grains and nuts on top with cream cheese. Delish.

I also ate 2Bros pizza twice, as requested by Taylor. It's still my favorite by-the-slice pizza place because it's so tasty and it only costs a dollar.

We met the dear Jessica McCord for dinner at Bare Burger, which is fun because everything is natural, including the chocolate peanut butter shake. It was totally different than what I expected, but the natural-peanuty flavor was fitting and delicious. McKenzie and I also hit up Shake Shack for late-night cheese fries and shakes, which is something that fits my personality perfectly: late-night food runs out in the city. One of our late-night dinners was at The Meatball Shop in Williamsburg.

 
First of all, I love Williamsburg. I am the stylistic and demographic equivalent to Williamsburg and I felt right at home in the little streets. Second, the restaurant felt like a German wursthaus except they were bumping 90s rap/hip hop. I think the music was because it was late on a Saturday night, but still, I found the whole thing comforting.

Donuts. Doughnut Plant was epic and I want to go back all the time. We ate a crème brûlée, a tres leches, a pistachio and a coconut cream donut. All of them were incredible and it's probably a good thing I don't live in New York because I'd eat there at least three times a week. And I'm not exaggerating.

I've already found an awesome eatery I need to try on my next trip to New York. Anyone have any other suggestions of their favorite places to eat?

The Heart Truth: NYFW Red Dress Show

My New York Fashion Week adventure turned into a Week in New York adventure, so I’ll have to break it down into a couple posts. First, I’ll break down my direct experiences with the Diet Coke Red Dress fashion show and later this week I’ll show what I did with the other half of my time.

I finally got into my hotel on Tuesday evening after my shuttle driver forgot to drop me off near Times Square; I ended up at 188th street before he realized his mistake. I stayed in the Westin New York at Times Square and it was perfect. McKenzie and Austin came and stayed with me so we made a party of it, even filling the bathroom sink with ice to make a place for our Diet Coke.

After getting all fancied up (I nailed my sock bun, by the way) McKenzie and I met up with the other four winners and their +1’s, our Diet Coke contact and the winner of the Diet Coke and Target t-shirt design contest and his +1. We piled into an SUV limo and drove over to the Hammerstein Ballroom to attend the pre-show event.

The backstage was set up so the party was in the balcony while the models get their hair and makeup done on the floor below us. Right about the time our initial star-struck-ness wore off (McKenzie helped me identify any Kardashian-related people) we met Minka Kelly, the celebrity face of the Diet Coke campaign. I’ll admit, I didn’t know who she was before I won because I had never really seen any of the shows she acted in. She was really genuine and sweet.

As we took one-on-one pictures I realized that the way I had my arm around her felt a little like I was her boyfriend so I said, “I hope this isn’t awkward,” to which her response was to grab me in a big bear hug. “Is it awkward now?” We just laughed; no, it wasn’t awkward.

McKenzie and I spent the next couple hours spotting out celebrities, enjoying drinks from heart-print paper straws, chatting with different women and getting heart-themes painted on our fingernails. My favorite part of the evening was interacting with different women. While waiting to get our nails painted by the artist we chatted with a woman and her mother, who was a federal employee, and with two women from the James Beard Foundation.

As I was walking out of the show at the end of the night, I spotted two women: one tall, thin black woman standing 6’4” and an older woman with beautiful white hair and a black, fur coat. I doubled-back and went up to tell them how impressed I was by the first woman’s height, admitting it was my first fashion show and I’d been nervous to wear heels. They both seemed surprised/disappointed to hear that:

“At these things, you just do you!”
“Yes! I wore four-inch heels on the plane yesterday!”

Can you see why I loved it?

The show itself was very fun feeling and actually quite short. It started with a video about the Heart Truth then each model’s reason for supporting the Heart Truth campaign was projected onto the screen as they walked the runway. Each models let their personality shine from Kelly Osborn’s “Rock On” to Wendy Williams, “How you doing?” The dresses were gorgeous, Minka Kelly’s Oscar de la Renta design was my favorite. My favorite moment was watching a non-celebrity walk the runway. She was selected to be a part of this because she applied the Heart Truth changed her life. I wrote a little more about her for the Coca Cola blog*.

The entire event motivated me to be the type of influential and intelligent woman who is invited to these types of events. One step at a time, right?

*Actually, I was involved in two different Diet Coke articles. I wrote the blog article and I was quoted in this story.