We head downtown today to the fashion district. It’s sunny and calm, but -2 again. As we walk the sun shines on our faces, it’s nice, but not a lot of warmth. We walk from 44th to 37th along the busy 7th Avenue. We reach the fashion district and Mardi locates Mood, a fabric store she’s keen to visit.
We need to first work out how to get in. In Canberra and most Australian cities, shop entrances are there on the street or in a shopping centre. In a city built in three dimensions you need to think a little differently. We find an office building lobby and jump into a lift. Three floors up we exit the lift and laid out before us is aisle upon aisle of fabrics as far as you can see. There are three floors like this. Thousands upon thousands of fabric choices all presented in what seems like no orderly fashion.
Denims, linens, water resistant material, satins, wools, polyester, suiting fabrics, even a red wooded section labelled fine suiting fabrics. The list goes on. Zippers, buttons, cottons, tools. You name it, they have it.
Mardi wanders and selects some fabrics and other bits and pieces. I leave her for a while and wander 37th street. All the shops offer a fashion related selection. Manhattan does this, fashion, jewellery, electronics, high street, food. Generally parts of the city specialise.
After shopping we wander along 8th Avenue. It’s still icy cold, we pop into Shake Shack for a quick burger. It’s warm, the burgers are nice and we sit for a little while.
We head home and drop off the fabric Mardi bought.
We then head out to Hudson Yards. Essentially a holding spot for subway trains, the area has been redeveloped with a number of high rise blue glass buildings with upscale shopping, and restaurants.
There is also a large artwork called the Vessel. It looks like a woven basket you might hang a pot plant. But it’s also six stories high. It was open to the public when we were last here. The design allowed you to traverse the entire structure and ascend to the top using a series of criss-crossing walkways and stair cases.
It’s been closed for a while though. Sadly some saw this as a place to jump from to commit suicide.
We walk through the area and onto the High Line. The High Line is a 20 block long elevated scenic walk, park, art exhibit space. We walk from 34th Street down to Chelsea markets on 16th Street. Along the way we see a collection of public art, graffiti and other interesting sights.
It’s cold, icy cold, but we are mostly protected as the walk winds its way between skyscrapers. We stop from time to time to look at the art and the changing skyline.
At around 4pm, we leave the High Line and enter Chelsea Markets. We wander the shops, it’s nice and warm inside. The market is normally a hectic space, busy with a mix of locals and tourists. Today it’s pretty quiet. We enjoy a hot chocolate and snack in between wandering the eclectic mix of food, gifts, clothes, book and produce shops.
We emerge after dark and catch the subway back up town. We rest for a couple of hours before heading out for a delicious Japanese Omakase style dinner.
We head downtown at 8.30 to Sushi by Bou. It’s on 20th Street and Broadway, we get off at 23rd Street walk the three blocks. Standing on the corner, exactly where Google Maps sent us we can’t see a restaurant. We wander up down and across. Nothing. The time goes past our booking time. What are we going to do.
We start pulling and pushing random doors, maybe it’s one of those hidden place. No luck.
Then Mardi spies a tiny sign and a steep staircase going under ground. We find it!
We enter a tiny warm space. A lounge area with capacity for about six people and a counter/bar area for six as well. We are greeted at the door by name and shown to a corner spot for a cocktail. Shortly thereafter we are invited to take our seat at the counter. We are facing a chef, donned in black. He greets us and almost instantly presents our first dish. It’s a delicious piece of yellow tail. So fresh, so yummy.
We then proceed through a series of delicious sashimi dishes.
MACHI YELLOWTAIL
AKAM LEAN TUNA
SOTAN EBI SPOTTED PRAM KURA SALMON ROE
BINCHO ALBACORE
MAGURO CHOPPED TUNA
HOTATE SCALLOP
GINDARA MISO COD
TORO FATTY TINA
SAKE SALMON
AGNINI SURF AND TURF
Each dish comes with self contained dressings, such as soy or wasabi.
It’s all delicious and fresh.
We finish with some matcha mochi ice cream. Refreshing and just as nice.
We chat to the maître de for a while. She’s a budding actress, very engaging and loves her current job. We are also the last to leave as the chefs clean up. It’s been an awesome night. We will certainly be back next time we are in New York.
We catch the subway home. It’s freezing outside, the subway is a warm interlude between our walks at each end.
Another full, fascinating and fantastic day.
