Photo blog of our adventures eating our way through the Big apple … 🍎

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As a perfect example of why we call her The Marvelous Mama Milligan, she took us to NYC for a vacation!!! Non-working vacations are very rare for us. I'm not complaining I created my life to be a working vacation.

I told Pascal "non-working", but you all know, ... the guitar came too. Now what you might not know, is flying domestic with a guitar is a terrifying experience. He never knows if there will be room or if they'll insist on putting the guitar with the baggage. Well, you might as well be telling Pascal they're going to put his baby under the plane!!! So he devised a plan. He took the neck off with each string in its own little baggie taped to the body and put it in his carry-on bag inside its soft case. Then he bubble wrapped his neck and put it in a long cardboard box to carry on as his personal item. For you guitar geeks wanting all the deets ... he has a key ring screw driver head set that passes through security. Ok, enough guitar geeking on to NYC!!!

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Riverside Tower

Since, I believe, the 90's my Mom and I have been staying at her -4 star hotel called the Riverside Tower on 80th & Riverside on the Upper Westside. Why -4 star? Well it looked like a city dorm room or slightly upscale prison, but it was everything we needed in a great location. Since the pandemic, they remodeled and it's moved on up the scale to cozy, clean and practical. Same super cool ladies working the front desk. For us, it's our NYC home.

Sunday Day 1

A little back story for ya. I lived in NYC for a total of 10yrs plus yearly visits from the age of 14 until I met Pascal and all my family moved out of the city. No it had nothing to do with the Frenchie! 😜 So, I love New York, it always felt like home. Some of the subways have changed and capitalism has made an ugly mark, but the people and the vibe never change.

Before we left I did a scroll dive into donuts, cinnamon rolls and regular food, too on Instagram for the latest "eats & sees". I made a ruff sketch of an agenda with some new finds. Sunday's new find ... 6BC Botanical Garden in the East Village. BUT First we walked down to 72nd St for ...

DOUGH DONUTS

NEXT ... we hopped the 1 to Times Square and found this delightful performance ... we agree with his philosophy!

After shaking our booties we hopped on the R down to 8th St at NYU and over to St. Marks Place. Wow, it's changed. As we passed Astor Place I pointed out the building where I auditioned for the National Tour of Hair. I got the show and toured the country for 9 months as Sheila in the early 90's.

Mom needed a sit moment and fabulously posed in front of this icon sculpture ...

Wondering through the VERY changed East Village was nostalgic. No more Trash & Vaudeville, Religious Sex, DoJo's, The Continental but ... this guy warmed my heart ...

We walked through Tompkins Square Park, which I'd never been to because you just didn't go there unless you were searching a fix. Now, there were two bands playing at each other on opposite sides of a fenced grassy park full of women sunning in bikinis. Finally got down to 6th St between B & C and found the sweet little gem of a garden between two apartment buildings ...

6BC Botanical Gardens ...

Hopped a cab to Nolita and stumbled into a petite cafe in Little Italy for the BEST espresso I've had in the US. Not too acidic or bitter, the kind you can sip black and enjoy slowly. I also had a cannoli ... yummy.

Little Italy ...

Mott St was lined with Italian restaurants with charm oozing from smiles begging us to come eat. It was a beautiful evening and The Marvelous Mama Milligan got hooked and we're grateful she did!

Surprisingly not too full we walked to the subway to head back up town. It was still light out, so too early to crash. I'd seen this insane 24 layer chocolate cake on Insta and drug Mama and Pascal to the bar at Maison Pickle. Mama settled into her bar stool this became our Vacay HQ (headquarters). I passed on the cake ... for now.

Day 2 - Monday

Mama gets up every morning for a walk to Zabar's for tea and bagel with a schmear. Pascal & I explored the area for the best breakfast spot. We found BAGELS!!!

Agenda for the day - Dance class at Luigi's, Voice lesson with Cari Cole and Back Room Speakeasy. It was a lot of sitting and waiting for Mama and Pascal, but they didn't seem to mind. I was so busy I completely forgot to take photos.

After Luigi's we hopped the 1 down to Times Square and caught another fab performer. Wow, this woman can sing!!!

After, again, shaking our booties, we caught the 7 to Grand Central for a quick fix ...

Donut Plant

Pascal & Mama ate theirs before I could snap a pic, but here's mine ... delicious almost too rich. This is chocolate strawberry with cream cheese icing.

I had an amazing voice lesson with Cari Cole. I was just certified to teach The Cole Vocal Method!!! Woo-Hoo! She lives as far east as you can get, so instead of hoofing it all the way back to the subway we hopped on the 2nd Ave bus back down to the East Village to Lil' Frankie's for pizza!

Lil' Frankie's was delicious, fresh, simple and quality food. We sat outside in the hut on the street. Our server had to dodge speeding bikes to get to us ... nope, no hazard pay!

A quick walk across Houston lead us to the Back Room Speakeasy that has a live swing band on Monday nights. We got there early and snagged the only unreserved seats and waited for the magic to begin. It was like NYC version of Le Caveau de la Houchette in Paris. All drinks are served in tea cups. I had a Penicillin cocktail and Mama discovered Blanton's Bourbon!!!

Back up on the subway we called it a great day and curled up in our little squirrel's nest over looking Riverside Park.

Day 3 - Mama's Favorites

On our second breakfast day we found Orwashers ... Oh yummy.

HOT HOT HOT 94 degrees in NYC, but it didn't stop us, or me from wearing my new snazzy donut shirt! We caught the cross town bus to the Aquavilla Gallery on E. 79th St for a free Matisse exhibit. Crazy line out front. Luckily the Gallery handed out umbrellas to protect us from the glaring sun.

We took a stroll down Madison Ave window shopping ...

Until we reached Mama's favorite spot Tiffany's cafe. We started with something to sip on and then explored every floor. I was most impressed by the heated toilet seat!! Yep ... if ya wanna warm tushy be sure to visit Tiffany's.

I did mention it was HOT ... right? So we headed down to SOHO for some window shopping before dinner at an Italian restaurant Mama had found on her trip to Rome. She wanted to compare the NYC version with the Italian one. To cool off we found Laduree, a Parisian cafe famous for macaroons. We'd had enough cafe, so got pain aux chocolate and Mama got a ham and cheese croissant. Before leaving we encouraged Mom to try a macaroon ... still not her favorite.

Finally ... the anticipated dinner event 👇🏻

Roscioli

24 layer cake ...

The food was amazing and surprisingly not too filling, so we headed uptown back to Maison Pickle! Yep I ordered the chocolate cake. I was skeptical because a lot of times deserts look a lot better than they taste, but no, this was good and not too heavy. We divided it in three and Pascal ate most of it. Mom & I washed it down with Blanton's ...

My high school friend Daria joined us! Yeah. After, great conversation and full bellies we snuggled into our squirrel's nest.

Day 4 - Wednesday

Pascal & I met up with our publicist & PR Guru Ariel Hyatt (Cyber PR) at Maman for a first time face to face dive into NYC stories of the neighborhood. I started with greens and then a pistachio chocolate croissant and a pistachio milk cortado. Sidenote, pistachio milk is amazing!!! Come on Ohio catch up! Pascal had a pain au chocolate and latte and Ariel had the quiche.

The Marvelous Mama Milligan joined us and we said bye bye to Ariel and headed down to Sunday Morning for the "Best Cinnamon Rolls in NYC" according to many influencers. They were very good and served warm with interesting flavors. BUT ... Kitties Cakes is still my favorite. Eating our way through NYC!

We stopped by Oscar Wilde's all decked out like Alice in Wonderland.

Hopped a bus to the MOMA ... oops no photos, guess we were too drawn into the Marcel Duchamp exhibit. It is mind altering. Ariel had recommended the Baccarat Bar across the street ...

It is on another level. Gorgeous. The woman next to us had an Old Fashioned sweetened with a ball of cotton candy!

Last dinner ... guess where?

We'd planned to get to Maison Pickle for Happy Hour and it definitely made us happy ...

The rain came in and cooled everything down for our walk back to the squirrel's nest and a good nights sleep.

Day 5 - Last Chance

Pascal and I headed out for our last NY breakfast. Orwashers called us back.

I craved that pistachio milk so we headed back to Maman for a pistachio milk cappuccino and we found a Kouign-Amann! Rainy Day = New Plans We had planned to spend the day in Central Park, but decided to go to Grand Central Station. We wondered around the market until Mama's legs gave out and since strangely there's literally NOWHERE to sit we got back on the subway for a final donut fix before heading back to the airport.

NYC is a magical city. I hope you enjoyed taking this journey with us.