Cheese factory in Manhattan

How cool is that? While you're choosing your cheeses, you can take a look at how some of them were just made at this new branch of the Seattle based cheese store Beecher's in the Flatiron district. 

The shop offers a wide variety of American artisan cheeses and charcuterie. There's also a cafe where you can buy freshly made sandwiches or just have a cup of coffee. And a restaurant downstairs called "The Cellar" (haven't tried it, so can't tell you wether is good or not, but it seems nice).

Cultural day - Williamsburg

After visiting New York innumerous times and living here for almost 5 years I'm still not very familiar with Brooklyn. I know, shame on me! However, this is about to change. Actually, it has changed already because today I went on a fantastic tour organized by the same girls (Gisela Gueiros and Ana Strumpf) who took me to visit art galleries in Chelsea. And there will certainly be more opportunities to explore other parts of the borough.

 

 

Williamsburg has a small town feeling, with the advantage of being one subway station away from Manhattan. It's not particularly pretty but it certainly has its charm on its own. The buildings are usually three or four stories high, nothing out of the ordinary and the streets are practically empty. In fact, if you are not really familiar with the neighborhood it can be quite scary to wander around. But, since we were with our two fantastic guides, we got to visit and discover the hidden pearls of the place.

 

 

We all met for a nice brunch at Marlow and Sons (voted one of the best restaurants in Brooklyn by many food critics). And then we started our tour which consisted on visiting famous shops of Williamsburg (see the list below) and, of course, just walking around and trying to grab the feeling of the environment. The places we visited are very neighborhood stores, they are all low profile and they look like what probably used to be the traditional American general stores a few decades ago. It was like being in one of those Norman Rockwell cover magazines (especially the coffeshop Bakeri). What they all had in common is a kind of back-in-the-days feeling with a modern touch. The products and brands they offer seem to be all hand-picked by the owners. They usually have nice designs, they are charming, different, mostly hand-made and look vintage. They are those nice little objects that can give a special touch to a room or that could be a great gift to give to someone special. 

We also visited the Mast Brothers chocolate factory. All hand-made and organic. When we got there the staff was busy wrapping up the chocolate bars with their famous designed papers. I've included some pictures of the factory tour below.

Here's the list of the places we visited and they are all worth going:

• Marlow and Sons - restaurant
• Brook Farm General Store - general store, home accessories
• Mast Brothers - chocolate factory
• Moon River Chattel - antiquary, general store, home accessories)
• Sprout Home - florist
• Bedford Cheese Shop - cheese shop
• Future Perfect - design, home accessories
• Bakeri - bakery

Would you guess that this is a chocolate factory?

Chocolate beans

Staff wrapping up the chocolate bars

Tasting table with the chocolate bars beautifully wrapped

The group at Bakeri

The weekender and the bubble wrap idea



Need to stress out? Click on the image

My impressions from the weekend.

The egg at WD-50. Even the egg shell was edible

WD-50 - interesting, creative but not fulfilling;
All good things - creepy, especially after googling the guy and finding out that he's back in New York;
Peking Duck House - great peking duck
La Promenade des anglais - so refreshing! French restaurant flavored with herbs from Provence in every dish. Simple and tasty.

And here's a great tip to entertain your kids when they are running around the apartment, not knowing what to do with their extra energy. Don't through away that bubble wrap you've just received with your last delivery. Ask your kids to close their eyes and count to ten or sing their favorite song. In the meantime, lay down the bubble paper on the floor. Ask them to open their eyes, put some very energetic music and tell them to jump on the bubbles as crazy as they can. You can also play the freeze dance while they are jumping. So when you turn off the music, they have to jump out of the bubble warp. Anyway, this was one of the activities at the birthday party we went on Saturday. And when all the parents saw that we all agreed it was one of those silly yet so genius idea.

Have a great great week!

The Circus, the movies and the not so memorable restaurant experience

This was an intense weekend.

We started on Friday night with Hugo. This is a movie for cinema lovers. The story is magical, the images and the music are beautiful and the 3D effects are so well done that you can't imagine seeing the movie in another way. What I thought was fantastic about the movie is that is about the story of the cinema, the really first movies that were made, but seen in 3D with the latest technology. It's just beautifully well done and told.

Saturday was non stop. In the afternoon we went to the Big Apple Circus. It was a fun experience, mainly because of the kids. For their young eyes everything was new and astonishing. For our older and much more blasés eyes nothing was new or impressive. F is absolutely convinced that a doll became a human being in front of his eyes. P, who is only 2, remained concentrated, with his mouth wide opened, for two hours (I couldn't believe it). Seeing their reaction, their enthusiasm and their amazement was priceless.

After the kids were tuckled in bed, we ran to the movies again. This time to see A Dangerous Method. But I didn't like it. I thought it was boring and not a very good description of the characters. I have recently seen a play about Freud, that I found much more interesting (Freud's Last Session). After that disappointing film we went to the recently opened Boulud Sud and that was another disappointment.

We were six at the table, so as appetizers we shared some "small plates" that were good, but not great. Then as a main course I had the Daurade, which was extremely dry (it was suppose to have a "Romesco sauce", but I couldn't find any trace of it). My husband shared with someone else the "Rib Eye" and that was delicious. It says in the menu that is for 2 people but is actually for 4, so at least, I could leave my fish and have some of the meat. Desserts were good. Overall, in my opinion, the restaurant was nothing to write home about (I have however just dedicated a full paragraph to it).

We ended the weekend with a very lazy but fun Sunday, hiding in the most unexpected spots.

P.S: When I wrote the title of this post it made me think of the film The Trip, that I watched a few months ago. Have you seen it? I think it might be the best movie I saw this year. I'm pretty sure is the most hilarious I saw this year. I laughed in the theatre like I hadn't in years.