A new puppeteer

Mesdames et Monsieurs, the show is about to start! Our puppeteer now is P. 

If you are looking for puppets from classic children stories you may find some kits at Lakeshore. We have the "Three Little Pigs" and "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". It's great for the kids to train on how to tell a story that they already know. Although, they usually end up making one of their own, which is extremely amusing. 

F was really into it last year when he was learning "Nursery Rhymes" at school. And now it seems that P is tired of just being a spectator.

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).

Greenmarket Farmer's markets in New York

Farmer's markets locations in NYC - Click here to get the full map

I've already mentioned this in past posts, but one of the aspects that I really like about New York is the occasional "small town" feeling that we get while living in this big metropolis. I already have my "neighborhood" habits established. I buy cheese at my local cheese store, fish right next to it, flowers at the corner of my street and do my groceries a few blocks from my house. I'm always passing by someone I know (sometimes, just from the neighborhood, we may not have met properly but we always greet each other). Each neighborhood is like a mini town, with its local coffee shops, supermarkets, dry-cleaners, restaurants, shops, and sometimes even a local open air market. 

The most famous one is in Union Square, but there are others all across town on different days of the week. There you will find only local and seasonal produce coming fresh from farms located in the region. The one closest to my house has a very nice European feeling, with its fresh flowers, seasonal fruits and vegetables picked a few hours before, the freshest fish that was just caught during the night, baked good, jams, home-made granola and so on. 

If you are curious to know more about the Greenmarket Farmer's markets in New York, check their website. 

It goes without saying that this is another great activity to do with kids. And since we are on the subject: coming soon, a trip to a local farm!

Cultural day: Nolita + LES

Here's a new tour to add to my great collection of guided tours around NY (the first two were in Chelsea and Williamsburg). Always curated by my super tuned guides Ana Strumpf and Gisela Gueiros. The objective was mainly to stroll around Nolita and the Lower East Side of Manhattan to understand a little bit more of those so cool neighborhoods and discover some of the trendiest and most interesting stores around. 

If you've had the opportunity to walk around the region, you've probably noticed the amount of different stores, restaurants, cafes that are concentrated in just a few blocks. And, at least for me, it is very difficult to know what is worth looking at or not, unless someone points the right places. I found fascinating to see those kind of new lifestyle concept stores where they sell a little bit of everything (from shoes, to soaps and what not). Since I know that I don't have the right "eye" for that, I need a little help on that matter and it was great.

So our tour today started in Nolita with a nice brunch at one of the local cafe/restaurant called Bread, and then we headed to all sort of cool stores:

• Creatures of Comfort

Picture below: panel made by Confetti System

• Le Labo - a fragrance store in which you can find the "Gramercy Hotel" perfume for instance

• Aesop - skin/hair products from Australia, using only natural components. I bought a little set to test their products, but the coolest thing in the store is the design. The walls are all made of thousands of newspapers piled up. 

• Love, Adorned - lifestyle concept store
• John Derian - very charming home-accessories store 

• Doyle & Doyle - vintage jewelry 
• Tommy Guns - we passed in front of this really cool hairdresser of the Lower East Side.
• Moscot - a New York institution. It's one of the oldest optical shops in Manhattan. It's been managed by the same family for four generations now and they sell all kind of vintage frames. The store looks like a museum. 

• Tenement Museum store - the museum tells the story of immigrants and how they lived when they arrived in Manhattan. Most of them first settled in the Lower East Side of the island. We didn't have time to take a tour, but it's definitely in my priority list of things to visit in the city. The shop is a great place to find nice souvenirs of New York (not as cheesy as the ones sold in Times Square).
• Earnest Sewn - trendy clothing store, specialized in high-end jeans.

We also entered the Sperone Westwater Gallery, mainly to see the design of the building. The gallery was projected by the English architect Norman Foster and is worth the visit. 

We finished the tour in the middle of the Lower East Side, with a nice cup of coffee, surrounded by amazing pictures from Michael Halsband, at Lost Weekend - a new concept of coffee shop that is also an art gallery (hence the exhibition) and sells lifestyle accessories (like hair products, books and bags).

Cultural Thursdays: Grand Central Station and the Bermuda dancers

Panoramic view of the ceiling in the main concourse of Grand Central Station, by Brent Townshend

This morning I took P to the Grand Central Station. He loves trains and I needed to do some grocery shopping. Since there is this wonderful market in the station, I decided to make our "supermarket" experience funnier than usual. So after buying our fresh fish, vegetables and cheeses (Murray's cheese shop is a must), we went for a stroll in the station. 

First of all, we went, of course, to see some trains. Although P was very disappointed when I told him we weren't going to ride on one. Then we discovered this fantastic toy store called "Kidding around". They opened in Grand Central Station last October, but they've been in the West Village for 17 years. They carry a lot of European brands, wood toys, puppets, educational toys, board games. Very different from what we usually see around here. 

The reason I had actually thought about going to the Station with P, aside from his love for trains, was because there is an Annex Gallery of the MTA-Transit Museum, inside the Station. And the last time I had been there (unfortunately without the kids), they had a beautiful miniature train circuit there. I thought it was something permanent, but apparently it was just a temporary exhibit because it wasn't there anymore. Instead, they are now showing an exhibition of The Art of Posters. They were commissioned by the London Transport at the beginning of the 20th century and they were made by the best English artists and designers to promote the use of public transportation. If you are around, it's fun to check-them out.

When we were on our way out, admiring the sky painting on the ceiling of the main concourse (P is always mesmerized by that painting), we heard some music. So we followed the sound of the drums and there we were in the middle of a party promoting tourism in Bermuda. P loved it. This is New York, everyday is a new day, full of surprises waiting around the corner. 

Bermuda Gombey dancers (sorry for the bad quality, I only had my phone with me)

 

Book of the week and a nice bookstore

Our latest purchase was The High Street, written and illustrated by Alice Melvin. The story is about a little girl, Sally, who has a big list of things to buy. Each page is a different store and when you open the flaps, you are actually entering the stores. The illustrations are beautiful and full of details. A fun book to read, but also just to look at the pictures.

***

Photos by Yvonne Brooks from McNally Jackson Boostore website

On another note, last Friday afternoon as we were waiting to pick-up F from a play date, P and I went to a bookstore in Soho that I had never been before - McNally Jackson Bookstore. It's the typical neighborhood kind of bookstores that I like. Not big, so you don't get lost in the aisle looking for a book, but not too small either. It's well organized and very complete. The children section is also very good and cozy. The bookstore organizes quite a number of events every week that include book clubs, author signing, talks, workshops, story time for babies and kids and a new puppet show. You can even self-publish your book there!

I'm very happy to have a Barnes & Noble at the corner of my street and I go often with the kids, but I wish I had a more personalized and charming bookstore like NcNally Jackson Bookstore instead. I guess I might just need to commute from time to time.

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