Christmas in New York City

Recently, I was given a project by my friend on the other side of the world, none other than Miss Katie Quinn Davies, to find and capture places in this fair city that I cherish and want to share with the world, for a mega, magazine-style post coming out any day now.

Of course various places rushed to mind, and then came the work of trying to establish the right timing to stop in and make the pictures happen. Along the way I was met with some surprises and some unexpected complications - hello amazing food venues, exhausted from Thanksgiving business and trying to get your Christmas act together, all by the first week of December! It makes me tired even thinking of it. All in all, I felt like fortune graced me and I made deeper relationships with these wonderful businesses, and I was able to showcase their many special attributes in a way that we all can feel good about. Here are some of my favorites (in no particular order)...

Cafe Grumpy - my coffee shop of choice, and rightly so with a knowledgeable and dynamic staff. Oh, and they have amazing coffee! It's my indulgence in the afternoons on days when I have time to meander (and sometimes other times too).

My steady, the clover machine brew

Making latte art look effortless

Next, there is The Castello Plan. In Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, they are a gem in a neighborhood of beautiful homes and people (they have porches and gardens there, need I say anything else??). My sweetheart took me there first on my birthday, and it's been a love affair for all of us ever since!

This gorgeous platter, available at brunch

Chef Natasha putting the finishing touches to one of her amazing creations

Gramercy Flowers in Chelsea Market is an enchanted little boite. You cannot help yourself but be lured inside to see what sexy, lush incarnations in plants and blooms await. J. brings me home a bouquet from them now and again, and I always feel like a lucky girl when that happens.

 

In the West Village, there is Chocolate Bar. For years I have been going there for rarefied treats - mostly to give as gifts - as I usually feel spending money on myself in that way to be a bit much. I do feel great about it however, when I consider how happy someone else is going to be as they receive a special box of truffles, all custom-wrapped and beautiful.

Their holiday chocolate bark bar - yep, as satisfying as it sounds.

Gorgeous, chocolate-gobbling children - good customers :)

Left Bank Books is another amazing find, just a couple doors down from Chocolate Bar. In my adventures around the city, I realized I could make a story about the magic of food and, only here, they would be in the form of lush words crafted to tempt. This could make for a whole new satisfaction - never mind their rare and beautiful editions - see for yourself.

Owner, Kim Herzinger

And last but not least, Lucy's Whey, back in the Chelsea Market. These people are serious about cheese. Really good cheese. You can try any of the artisanal selection, and it's all pretty fabulous. Make sure you get some of their beer & pretzel caramels at the very least!

All this and more in the great Christmas Story! Check it out and be prepared for your salivary glands to start working in overdrive....

May you all have a memorable, loving, and restful holiday this year.

The Holidays Are Soon Upon Us

I am in the process of organizing some last-minute things. On the list is making some edible gifts for friends and family - with corresponding photographic documentation, of course; making my home ship-shape to have a small gathering; packing & shipping the last 60 gift boxes off (more on that later); arranging meetings to share new work before vacations into the New Year.... all to happen this week?? Um, yeah, if possible.

And yet at this moment I find myself searching fun and interesting things online, circumferentially involved in "getting things done". (the hubby can appreciate this :) I found some diaphanous table ideas for the holidays - thank you, Martha Stewart - here, and a sensuous, delicious gift idea from the west coast, here.

Keep posted in the coming days, there is going to be an amazing blog story from my friend, Katie, on all things wondrous and Christmas. She's doing a magazine-style mega post, and it will include holiday-themed photo stories from contributors around the world. J. and I are in it, and it's sure to be hands-down terrific.
Here's a sneak peek....

 

Look for the whole story soon, and wish me luck on my laundry list in the meantime. :)

Setting the Table

I am so excited about this. As soon as I started to put the word out that I began the blog, the realness of it began to take shape and thoughts of different kinds of posts started to fly in the film reel of my mind... The possibilities of what this might become made me want to jump around like a little kid!!! While I'm wide eyed and grinning, let's figure out which direction to go next: I have some things up my sleeve (I think I'll surprise you), but I also want to welcome your suggestions. Let's have at it!

Design and the Modern Kitchen

It's nice to extricate yourself from the routines of the day and actually dip into the awesomeness of what New York City has to offer. I was lucky enough to do so a couple weeks ago, when the hubby and I took on a late-day adventure to MOMA. Design and the Modern Kitchen is why we went, and it lived up to be a pretty great experience. (all photos shot with my iphone)

Irving Penn, David Shrigley

Based on the information I'd gathered from skimming MOMA's website, I thought I'd see more physical kitchen layouts and less art which made reference to the domestic bastion. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to encounter a range of products, politics, and even old film footage. Included were various examples of the earliest days of marketing, interesting (and graphically beautiful) propaganda pieces, and quirky and famous design objects, spanning 9 decades!

The exhibit explores the kitchen as it enters the glorious industrialized era. This, in the worldwide realm, as much as from the American point-of-view.  I found it semi-ironic (because I love being in my own kitchen cooking up all kinds of crazy & fun things, while also considering myself pretty liberated and cosmopolitan, like most contemporary women) to see the prevalence of women in THEIR element. In many instances, alien or cumbersome contraptions seemed effortlessly - or so the picture stills would have you believe - handled by thin, prim, blond young ladies..... a bit surreal. Anyone in a kitchen ad has always served as the archtype to aspire to, but seeing these photos of past gadget/design promotions, all too consumeristic and a bit too perfect, made me a little prickly inside.

Joe Steinmetz

 
I found the propaganda pieces particularly interesting. The U.S. did at one point widely promote certain virtues (during times of war) like raising your own food, being thrift-minded, and having a vegetable-rich diet.

Jan Lewitt

George Him

L.N. Britton

There was a sense of consciousness in this portion of the exhibit that appealed to me, albeit for different reasons than was urged then. I find that these values speak to a worldwide community, which is increasingly important if we're all to survive on this precious and delicate planet (yes, I'm wrapped up in food politics, but how can you not be in this time of being alive?) These propaganda pieces also threaded into them the contemporary foodie communities cropping up everywhere: that someone who loves truly good food is intrinsically tied to eating local, whole food diets, and embodies an overall principle of frugality and resourcefulness (nose-to-tail eating, anyone?) Never mind that it just tastes better...

Abram Games

There were implements on display from various points in history, whether appropriate to industrial or home kitchens. I had to laugh at seeing my own pots and pans in a glass vitrine - remarkable and humerous....

Funny also to see the first incarnations of tupperware - those clouded and weathered, round plastic shapes, lit by important spotlights. Seeing these juxtaposed with more overtly "beautiful" objects was an indication of where we have been, a testament certainly to design, as well as the utility of *stuff* in the kitchen realm.

I would highly recommend this show to anyone. It is viewable until March 14, 2011.

Everyone Has a Blog

Well, it's true. Which is why I resisted for as long as I could, thinking that because everyone else had one, it didn't serve me to hop on board into the vast and dark (scary?) space that is the blogosphere.... And then I realized I was wrong. The impact that sharing my own voice can have - that my personal sense within the world can be something fantastic to recount - is immense. It bowls me over, actually. I have witnessed this time and time again, and I hope to create enough worthy content that you all will become eager readers and a happy lifetime audience. Small aspirations I have.....

So after toiling away on some major projects of late, creating my very own blog was of course next on the list. :)

Thank you for reading, and for sharing in my experience!