Souvenirs from a Week in New York

What I bought, what I ate, and what I’ve been thinking about since

Back in April, during a period of time when I was just not feeling 100% myself, I booked a flight to New York to visit my best friend Kate. Sometimes I get into these weird little funks where I retreat into myself (and my home) for a few weeks at a time—not in a scary way, but in an “I’ve got 16 seasons of Real Housewives of Atlanta to watch, so why would I leave my house” way. (Although, I’m sure some of you find that scary regardless.)

Anyway, spending dedicated time with Kate usually does the trick in dragging me out of those glued-to-the-sofa times, so I picked a week in July where I could take some time off to reset. And by reset, I mean spend several days in a row shopping, braking only for strawberry matcha and french fries. Last week was that week, and it was just what I needed.

I’m not qualified enough to make any sort of New York guide, but I thought now that I’m back, I’d share a few highlights: things I saw, things I ate, things I bought, and things I am definitely saving to my Google Map for next time.

FOX OBJECT

35 ½ Allen Street, NYC

My first day in town was spent doing exactly what I came there to do—buying stuff with my best friend. One of the first stops we made was at Fox Object, a vintage home goods shop in Chinatown that opened last summer. Fox Object has a tiny storefront—you’ll miss it if you aren’t looking for it—but is filled with tons of reasonably priced treasures. I immediately fell in love with a piece of art hanging on the wall: a line drawing of a figure smoking in striped pants bordered by this incredible studded wood frame. Honestly, I was annoyed I found something I wanted so early in the day, so I left it behind in hopes I’d move on and forget about it, but who was I kidding? I came back for it three hours later.

GEM HOME

181 Mott Street, NYC

No one will be surprised to hear that I went to Gem Home twice this week—a rustic baked good hates to see me coming. My first visit’s order was a sandwich of butter and Alpine cheese on a seedy bun, but I returned for the full breakfast plate before I caught my flight home on Thursday. I regret not grabbing a piece of focaccia for later.

I’ve written about the design aesthetic of Gem’s previous iteration, Gem Wine, and I’m relieved to report that the food lived up to the design hype. I’ll be back for that focaccia.

THE FRICK COLLECTION

1 E 70th Street, NYC

Somewhere on the list of the top five reasons I needed to make it out to the city this summer was the reopening of The Frick, which until recently had been closed for renovations for what felt like forever. I hadn’t been to the Gilded Age museum-in-a-mansion before, so I opted for the full experience: lunch in the new restaurant, a slow wander through the galleries (Vermeer! Boucher! Fragonard!), and a long sit in the Garden Court. Porcelain plants and flower arrangements by sculptor Vladimir Kanevsky sat in almost every room, each so realistic that I had to double-back to catch what I missed the first time. You’re not allowed to take photos (which is kind of annoying, because everyone’s reading the digital guide to the works on their phones anyway,) so I’ll just have to go back to remind myself of all the details.

FREAKS’

339 Warren Street, Hudson

On Sunday we took the train up to Hudson to visit Kate’s mom and sister for the day. I had never been upstate, but it welcomed us with a Walton Goggins sighting within 10 minutes of our arrival and a free cookie from the bakery, so I was sold on its charm pretty quickly. We spent the afternoon making our way down Warren Street, and while it had some tough competition, my favorite of our stops was Freaks’, a moody, excellently-curated antique shop. I left with a perfectly patinaed, footed silver bowl, and for the rest of the trip Kate and I joked that I’d have to fill it with the contents of my purse and use it as my carry-on if it didn’t fit into my suitcase. (It did.)

We ended the day at Via Cassia, a sweet Italian restaurant where Kate’s sister Emerson is the pastry chef, and left Hudson full of pasta and tiramisu.

MERCHANT’S HOUSE MUSEUM

29 E 4th Street, NYC

I had some time to kill before my flight home, so with my last hour in the city I popped over to the Merchant’s House Museum for a self-guided tour. I wobbled back and forth on whether or not I should skip it for a visit to Printemps, but ultimately I decided I could not risk spending any more money and made the responsible, educational decision.

The Merchant’s House Museum is a four-story, human-sized dollhouse, really. Built in 1831, the building was home to a well-off businessman and his family for almost 100 years, and since it’s evolution into museum in 1936, the house has been a sort of time capsule of family life in the 1800s. Parts of it look like you’re in Nickey Kehoe, especially the kitchen and maids’ quarters, so while everyone else on the tour dutifully leafed through the hefty binder of historical facts we were each handed, I spent an hour taking photos of crown molding and ruffled bedskirts.

Hot tip: on Thursdays in the summertime, they play live jazz in the garden!

THE COMMERCE INN

50 Commerce Street, NYC

Off a tip from my pal Kiana, I grabbed dinner with a few friends at The Commerce Inn in the West Village one night. Give me creamed spinach and french fries and I’m happy as can be, but add in a Shaker-inspired space with baskets hanging from the walls and I’m putty in your hands. I ran into

Jessie Randall

there just hours after we met at her office, so it all really felt like a bona fide New York moment.

A regret: not getting the deviled eggs. Or the strawberry shortcake. Or a martini. I’ll be back.

MISCELLANEOUS THINGS OF NOTE

This trim painted around the windows at a restaurant in Williamsburg that I already forgot the name of:

This book, which I did not buy but will be attempting to hunt down on Ebay:

Lobel’s Butcher Shop, which I did not go into but I’m convinced is owned by a distant family member of mine. LaBelle family lore has it that our last name was originally Lobel and it got changed somewhere along the way, so I may be the (vegetarian) heiress to a meat empire and had no idea.

This lace trim on a dress at The Row:

Superfine at The Met, which was exactly as cool as I thought it would be. (Very.)

Also at The Met, I loved Casa Susanna, an exhibit of “photographs and publications created by and for a community of cross-dressers who met regularly in New York City and the Catskill Mountains throughout the 1960s. Two modest resorts run by Susanna Valenti and her wife, Marie Tornell, provided safe spaces for guests to freely cross-dress en femme during an era of strictly defined gender roles. They used the camera to create and affirm their femme identities, exchanging photographs at gatherings or sharing them by mail. These snapshots—some candid, others playfully performative—were rediscovered at a Manhattan flea market in 2004 and have come to be known as the Casa Susanna photographs.” (Via The Met)

This tile pattern at the Maker Hotel in Hudson:

Lunches, cocktails, and coffees galore with brand new friends, very old friends, and in-the-middle friends. Thanks for hanging out with me, you all!

There’s so much I didn’t get to: Porta, I Cavallini (I reeeeally wanted the opening of this to coincide with my trip, but alas,) Lei Wine, Front General Store, the newly remodeled Big Night, Swan Room, Borgo… I’ll just have to come back soon!

x

Ali

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