Susan's Blog - New York City Thanksgiving 2015 (Day 1)

First stop was for lunch, and we took this opportunity to have our "once a year pizza". We picked a place near the hotel called Don Antonio on West 50th Street. It was packed! We got seated at the last open table, at the very back of the restaurant next to the open kitchen, stuck in the middle. It was a little busy with the servers going around us all of the time. We each ordered a pizza although once they came, we could have probably made due with just one.

From there, we walked to Washington Square Park. There are tables on the southwest corner that are setup specifically for chess.

The park is almost entirely surrounded with buildings that are part of NYU, and some of them really have some nice detail, like this one with mosaics around the windows.

The park is well-known as being a place for street performers, and there were plenty in the park. The first one that we came across was a gentleman with a piano, playing classical music ... we lingered a few minutes listening to him, wondering how the heck he gets the piano in and out!

The streets surrounding the square became one of the city's most desirable residential areas in the 1830s. There is a protected row of Greek Revival style houses on the north side of the park remain from that time.

In 1889, to celebrate the centennial of George Washington's inauguration as president of the United States, a large plaster and wood Memorial Arch was erected over Fifth Avenue just north of the park. This was so popular that a marble arch was put in it's place in 1892. It was modeled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and is 77 feet tall. In 1918, two statues of George Washington were added to the north side.

There was a makeshift memorial to the victims of the Paris attacks directly under the arch.

Another street performer ... this one I just had to take a few pictures of. Some guy with way too much hair (in my opinion) and tiger-spotted speedo-underwear with a sign that hopefully was misspelled to say "fart" instead of "heart".

A few pictures of architecture ... cuz you'all know how much I admire great architecture. Sometimes I'm amazed at how they put up these really thin buildings. We walked around for a bit and I took pictures of quite a few really nice buildings with some very unique detailing.

Then we headed to dinner. We had invited 2 couples that we were good friends with in Shanghai to join us, as they both now have relocated back into the general area (one in New Jersey and one in New York north of the city). Tom and I are in the middle, and then Gary and JoAnn are on Susan's side, and Carrie and Jason are on Tom's side.

We went to Gato, which is a Bobby Flay restaurant which features Mediterranean cuisine. The decor is quite interesting, with vaulted brick ceilings and unique industrial lights.

I started with the Gorgonzola Fonduta (melted gorgonzola cheese), served with toast covered with a Fig chutney. Tom went with the Roasted Octopus with sour orange, bacon, oregano. There was also the Handcut Pappardelle with cremini mushrooms, rioja, black garlic, parmigiano, and creme fraiche.

For the main course Tom had the Kale and Wild Mushroom Paella with crispy artichokes and egg while I tried the Steamed Halibut with Sicilian olives, mint and anchovy in a saffron-tomato broth over couscous.

And as with most vacations, we ordered dessert as well! I went with the dark chocolate polenta cake sitting on top of a burnt orange caramel, topped with a toasted almond gelato. Tom had the espresso-soaked break pudding on a bed of marscarpone crema, sprinkled with bittersweet cocoa.

We thought the food was really good, although the service left a bit to be desired. It took quite awhile to be seated even though we had reservations (they kept telling us the people before us had finished but were lingering). It took us quite awhile, once seated, for them to take our order also ... they just weren't as attentive as you would expect at a restaurant of this caliber.

Proceed to NYC Day 2