I’m feeling so settled in New York City at the moment. I’m in a routine with work & making the most of my weekends, have a great group of friends and have lots to look forward to this year. I can’t believe we’re coming up to our one year anniversary in New York in April! I’m really looking forward to spring and having a bit more flexibility in my wardrobe, and spending lots of time outside.

My blogging took a backseat in February, as the combination of hours spent in front of a screen at work and a strong desire to live a less digital life (or less screen-bound life) has had me avoiding my laptop during my downtime.

As I finish writing this post, on a self-imposed quarantine in the beginnings of the coronavirus outbreak in New York City, I’m struck by how much life has changed in such a short period of time. Dinner with a group of people at a friend’s apartment, taking the train upstate, visiting Central Park, going to the gym, visiting museums and spending an evening crowded in a tiny basement full of strangers listening to stand up comedy seem like luxuries now. Something that I didn’t even think to really appreciate before.

Since I moved from Melbourne to New York in April 2019, I’ve started writing a series of monthly blog posts, NYC Life, to capture the the big and little moments that have shaped this move. It’s easy in hindsight to forgot the everyday joys, struggles and frustrations of life in a new city, so I wanted a place to for it all to live on the blog. I round up the most fun things I did, saw and ate near the end. For more specific New York City tips, check out my New York City Travel Guide.

Highlights

• Dinner at Bridget’s – before my friend Bridget moved to London, she hosted a group of friends for dinner at her lovely apartment in Flatiron.
• Finding some peace & quiet in Tarrytown, NY – I love getting out of New York nearly as much as I love living here, and spending a day just outside the city was a literal and figurative breath of fresh air.
• A winter walk in Central Park – I haven’t spent nearly enough time in Central Park this winter, mostly because I’ve been waiting for enough snow to transform it into a winter wonderland, which sadly hasn’t happened. David and I took a walk around the Resevoir the other day, and it was so lovely.
• Gym & Brunch – I tried a new gym, an Equinox on the Upper East Side, and resolved to join (once this pandemic is over). Afterwards, my friend & I had brunch at one of her favourite cafe/bars, The Penrose, which was really cute. It’s from the same owners as some of my favourite downtown spots, like The Wren & Wilfie & Nell. They excel at cosy pubs.

Day trip to Tarrytown

Tarrytown is a small town on the Hudson River, just forty minutes’ north of Manhattan. We took the Hudson River train line from Grand Central, for a brief respite from the city in the middle of the month.

Tarrytown & neighbouring Sleepy Hollow have a number of historic sites, including a Rockefeller Mansion, Kykuit, and Lyndhurst Mansion. Both were closed for winter, so we’ll return in May or June to visit. Instead, we walked around the lake, had lunch in town before walking from Tarrytown to Sleepy Hollow.

In Sleepy Hollow, we visited a historic church and cemetery, which has the graves of many famous Americans, including Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller. I’m not usually one for cemetery touring – despite spending many weeks in Paris, I never got around to visiting Pere Lachaise, and likewise skipped the cemeteries in New Orleans which are considered top tourist attractions. The Old Dutch Burial Ground has graves that are hundreds of years old, and rather than feeling morbid, it was quite peaceful. It was also a bit surreal to read about the lives of people who lived so long ago, ironically, it brought these people to life in a way that reading about them in a book cannot.

Morgan Museum

The former home, library & office of JP Morgan has preserved as a small but charming museum in an otherwise unremarkable part of Manhattan, in the 30’s. The museum has a small dining room and few small exhibits, but the main draw is the banking tycoon’s unbelievably beautiful library. It’s like something out of a Disney cartoon, filled with floor-to-ceiling bookcases, hidden doors and hundreds of rare and ancient books. The ostentatious display of wealth and excess is a little nauseating sometimes, but the library is one of my favourite relics of old New York.

Gertie’s & Milk & Cookies Stand Up Comedy

I want to dine in Brooklyn more regularly, and when I made plans with three other friends for a Friday night dinner date, I had a long list of ideas. Unfortunately, getting a Friday night dinner reservation in New York City requires about three weeks of planning, so our first few options were out. However, it worked out perfectly because we ended up at Gertie’s, after finding out that one of my friend’s friends was running a stand up comedy show in the restaurant’s basement that night. We had dinner at Gertie’s, followed by the show downstairs. It was a small & intimate set, inspired by trauma as the tie that binds all of the sets together. There was lots of very clever black comedy, but also some really beautiful and very sweet moments as well. The comedians were mostly in their twenties, tickets were $10. While one or two fell a little flat, there were three who were such masterful storytellers, with such uncanny comedic timing and razor sharp wit, that I hung off every word. It was such a fun way to spend an evening, and reminded me of the power of live, communal entertainment.

Restaurants & Bars

• Roey’s in West Village – A very popular cafe, and an offshoot of the nearby Rosemary’s, Roey’s serves decent Italian-inspired cafe food. The real draw is the unbelievably pretty and Pinterest-y interior. I think both Roey’s & Rosemary’s are a little touristy, not in the traditional sense, but in that it Instagrams incredibly well, the interiors make it very popular with Instagrammers, and therefore millennials who plan their holidays on Instagram usually end up here. I’m keen to try Rosemary’s for dinner, anyway.
• The Terrace & Outdoor Gardens – The beautiful, verdant garden-like restaurant and bar on the 9th floor of the Times Square EDITION (hotel) is one of the loveliest places for brunch, lunch or dinner in Midtown. I am a huge fan of the deep dish focaccia (to share) and the broccoli cacio e pepe.
• Gertie’s – In an odd part of Williamsburg, Gertie is an all-day cafe & restaurant with relaxed, friendly service and lots of interesting programming that draws the community together.
• Golden Diner – A modern diner with high quality food but classic, affordable diner prices, Golden Diner opened in Two Bridges, one of the least trendy parts of downtown Manhattan, in 2019. It was recently nominated for a James Beard award, and we waited 1 hr 45 minutes for a table. It was cheap & delicious, and if you find yourself in the same boat, your best bet is to walk to the Lower East Side while you wait – Two Bridges is a ghost town.

Read

• 10 Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now – Jaron Lanier
• Conversations with Friends – Sally Rooney
• The Pursuit of Love – Nancy Mitford
• 10% Happier – Dan Harris
• Digital Minimalism – Cal Newport
• The Parisian – Isabelle Hammad
• The Gambler – Fyodor Dostoevsky