Snaps this week

This week’s Instagram (http://instagram.com/jennyvintage66)

My only proper Instagrams this week were old pics from my New York trip in September. I really ought to stop talking about it. But in the meantime, here are some delicious ricotta pancakes and dandelion pesto for brunch at Five Leaves, Greenpoint…

And dinner at the Brooklyn Star – southern-fried steak with mashed potato.

New York: food and drink

 I don’t like to wait too long for food, and I like even less to wait too long for a pint of beer. But when you hear from several sources that Shake Shack, seemingly the most hipster gourmet burger chain in New York, has queues half an hour long you suddenly really want some.

I’d heard the burgers were amazing and when I saw beer on the menu it made it a bit easier to stick it out in the queue. The line moves faster than you might think (but if you’re that bothered there’s a web cam to show you how busy it is before you arrive) and once you order you see it’s pretty heavily staffed.

I got a cheese burger and a beer for just under $10. Was it worth the wait? I wouldn’t go again at such a busy time (it does seem to have its quiet moments during the day) but it was very tasty. The flavours reminded me a lot of McDonald’s but the ingredients were clearly much better quality.

 Brunch is apparently a big thing in New York, and a lot of the good restaurants book up for Sunday brunch pretty quickly. For some late breakfast we headed to Five Leaves on Bedford Avenue in Green Point, fairly near where we stayed with our friend Toni. This casual oyster bar, opened with the backing of Heath Ledger’s estate when he died before he saw his cafe plans come to fruition, was packed.

We grabbed a table in the sunshine and shared a huge stack of ricotta pancakes with honeycomb butter, banana, blueberries and strawberries, and some dandelion bruschetta, all for about $20 – pretty decent value considering we had to abandon half the pancakes.

Further down Bedford Avenue is a string of great vintage shops, boutiques and bars and restaurants – I highly recommend a visit if you go to Williamsburg. We had a quick drink on the roof terrace at Juliette but there’s a big restaurant downstairs if you’re hungry.

I didn’t take my DSLR out to dinner with our good friend Ayesha but here’s a little iPhone pic of the great Mexican food at Zona Rosa on Lorimer Street and the corner of Metropolitan Avenue. We were drawn to this place for three main reasons – a roof terrace, cool fairly lights and an old Airstream that made up the side of the kitchen. We didn’t make it to a table on the terrace but the food here is great. We ordered a selection of tacos and our hearts fell a bit when we were presented with a high tea-style get-up. Then we got very full. Eyes, belly…

And here are some pics I nabbed from their website…

And I didn’t get anything from this next place but how cool is this? Draft beer to take away? Why don’t we have this in Britain?

Other people’s houses: Brooklyn

When you’re staying in the coolest flat in Williamsburg and no one is at home, is it okay to take creepy pictures of it and post them on the internet? I thought so.

Auriol and I had an amazing week in New York last month, made even better by our fantastic and incredibly generous host Toni, and her two brilliant flatmates. They just so happen to live in the flat of our dreams so we thought it would be a good idea to document it.

This small three-bedroom apartment makes the best use of limited space and demonstrates that a lack of square footage should never put you off of large furniture and artwork – they really do often make homes look bigger. This shelving unit, handmade by one of Toni’s flatmates, is my favourite piece. It’s built almost to the ceiling and makes a great-looking feature and a huge amount of storage. My favourite thing about it is the little bar he’s created from filling one of the boxes with his favourite drinks and an old sign. I’m definitely doing this.

What’s even cooler is that they don’t have a TV – they have a projector with a projection screen fixed to the top of the shelving unit. Tug on the string and it’s home cinema time. So much cheaper and more exciting than a widescreen television.

 I love the shelves with pieces of art leaning at the back.

The kitchen has one of the best pieces – a high-level breakfast bar and worktop made from an old dining room table. With a bottle opener screwed to one of the legs. Obviously. The simplicity and high-end feel of these cheap materials have dissuaded me from buying furniture from Ikea ever again.

New York: part two

I took lots of spending money to New York but, of course, there is so much to do that’s completely free. The High Line is definitely one of the coolest freebies in Manhattan – this elevated former freight railway line, which runs over the streets of Chelsea, has been turned into a sort of mid-air park, complete with loungers, meadows and lawns. And of course there is more striking street art. Go at sunset for great views of the river.

Art from the High Line

    They say the Staten Island Ferry is probably the only thing in New York that’s cheaper than it was almost 200 years ago – it’s free now, down from a whopping 25 cents. This takes commuters to and from Manhattan but really, it’s full of tourists. It won’t give you a close-up of the Statue of Liberty but it will give you a pretty good view of it, and of downtown. Stand at the bow for the best views on the way back to the city.

Grand Central Station is one of those New York cliches – it’s been done to death in film and television, and in black and white prints from John Lewis (which I’ve been guilty of buying in the past 10 years). But it’s still spectacular and it’s a lovely reminder that there was once a time when train stations were architectural triumphs, not just obnoxious piles of concrete and dark, stuffy platforms.

From completely free to a bit of a rip-off: the Guggenheim. I was really excited about going to the Guggenheim because I am a fan of the building’s architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. But the admission was $22 and we didn’t get to see much for our money because an artist called James Turrell apparently requested that all of the art that usually hangs in the atrium (the gallery that spirals up, giving the building its distinctive shape) be removed for the benefit of his installation in the main entrance. Fair enough – it was a light installation and it did look fantastic. However, the majority of the gallery beyond the atrium was also pretty bare and the queue to get into Turrell’s exhibition on the top floor was too long for us to get in by closing time. What a rip.

Still, I was most excited about seeing the building itself, which was beautiful.

Onto some general bumming around…

New Yorked-up – Auriol in her new Brooklyn sunglasses and vintage t-shirt from the East Village.

New York: part one

 I took more than 800 photos during my one week in New York but I could have taken more – almost everywhere is beautiful architecture, fantastic views and street art. It’s taking a while to whittle down my favourite pics but here’s a handful (more to follow, obviously).

Williamsburg, where we stayed in a gorgeous flat with a very generous friend, was my favourite area – great bars and cafes, fab shops and a much more chilled out atmosphere than the city. I’ll blog some of the best places to eat and shop this week. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the snaps!

Strolling around Williamsburg.

 The Empire State Building doesn’t disappoint – it’s a great piece of art deco architecture and looks fantastic at night. But we didn’t go up it, opting for the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center) instead.

The consensus seems to be that the Top of the Rock is cheaper than the Empire State Building, and has shorter queues and arguably better views – I’d say so, since you can get a great view of the Empire State from  it. The Top of the Rock was a mission enough – between queueing up for tickets, getting to the top and back down again, it probably took us at least three hours. But the view at night was spectacular.

But by the end I was certainly in no mood for a similar experience at the Statue of Liberty.

The view from the Top of the Rock.

 The market at Union Square is full of fresh fruit and veg and other organic produce. It’s also very near the Flatiron Building (overlooking Madison Square Park) so get some honey from upstate and take a look at one of New York’s most iconic buildings.

 The Brooklyn Bridge is one of New York’s best freebies – take a walk along here, even just to the middle, for great views of Manhattan and Brooklyn, and to look at the beautiful structure up close.

  If you go to Central Park (which you must because it’s stunning and there are so many follies and little buildings creeping out of the trees), I recommend arriving at the entrance on West 72nd Street – opposite the Dakota where Yoko Ono still lives on the seventh floor (the balcony level). Strawberry Fields is just a minute’s walk from the road.