New York, New York

I was surprised to find that it took me a few hours to warm to New York City. I wasn’t expecting it to look so ordinary, so mundane. Maybe I was comparing it to postcard-perfect European cities and their splendour, but first impressions of NYC were of bland brick buildings, cracked concrete footpaths, unappetising food outlets, poorly-dressed people and traffic. By the end of the five days I was crazy about the place and didn’t want to leave.

It started well on Friday morning with brunch – we dumped our bags at our Midtown hotel (the top floors of a UN building) and hopped the subway with a vague idea of seeing some “Village” streetlife and getting fueled up for our day. Luckily Graham phoned at the precise moment we entered Grand Central Station as we were clueless of where to go; he pointed us towards the Noho Star on Lafayette and Bleecker, and told us which stop we needed. It’s a great light-filled space with high pressed metal ceilings and columns, and an easiness that lets the bohemian crowd linger over their newspapers. Gerard covered all bases with the California Sunrise Breakfast of fresh OJ, poached eggs, bacon, fingers of french toast, chunky fries and coffee. I swooned over a bowl of thick Greek yogurt (impossible to find in the midwest) with honey and toasted almonds. Beside me on the banquette seat was Lauren Hutton – treating the place like home and almost dishevelled, but still gorgeous. The gal makes as little effort before she leaves the house as I do, but she can get away with it.

Afterwards we set off to see the before-mentioned cool streetlife but we were woefully unresearched (and our guidebook was a dud) – every turn we made took us to seedier streets. We weren’t quite sure what we were looking for, but we knew we hadn’t found it. Feeling like country hicks, we started walking north on a slow trip towards the hotel, saw a lot of NYU and Union Square, and eyed off Once Upon A Tart patisserie with little chairs and tables out front with a possible idea to return (and did the next day with Lisa and Fara).

We were lucky that the nearest fast-food outlet to our hotel was Zagat-approved burger joint Goodburger. We enjoyed their cheeseburgers, which continued the trend of never encountering food less than delicious all through the visit - including the street meat from the hotdog cart outside the Daily Show studio). The buns are softer than I usually like, but the flame-grilled burgers are all cooked to order and came with pickles, onion, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, mayo and mustard. Not bad for $5.25.

So, we were set up nicely with full tummies for drinks (peach martini) and light plates (crab cakes, cheese selection) under rosy lighting at Birdland that evening, where sax virtuoso Igor Butman played some sublime improvisations with piano, double bass and drums. I’ve never seen Gerard moved by music until that night. He seemed to take as much pleasure in the sounds as the musicians. Afterwards, Lisa lead us past the swollen theatre crowds and the mad neon lights of Times Square on the way to a cab rank. By the end of our first day in New York City I was in awe.