hi! in case you missed it, i spent basically the entire month of june in NEW YORK CITY. i was there for work so i was super busy most days, but still managed to pack a lot in (as you will see below!). i wish i could share every single detail of what i was doing there for work, but sadly can’t quite yet. but soon!!! a couple more months then i will be spilling every detail possible. i promise!!!

connor and emi came out for the last 5 days of the trip, but before that it was just me! that’s the first time i’ve ever solo traveled and i loved it. granted, i saw lots of friends and people i knew, but still spent a lot of time by myself — exploring lots of shops, eating in restaurants, etc. and i enjoyed every minute! i missed connor and em tons, but it was so healing to have so much solo time. i did lots of reading and reflecting and thinking and who knew those things are so good for the soul?? so here to highly recommend solo travel every once and a while.

now for my nyc travel guide! i ate lots of good food and found lots of great stores / vintage shops and got lots of requests to share with the class. so here we are. a collection of all the places i ate, where i shopped, and the things i did.

FOOD

restaurants / dessert:

• 7th street burger: delicious, cheap smash burgers. lots of locations.

• cafe mogador: mediterranean food! the hummus platter was amazing, and the lamb shank

• court street grocer: perfect lunch spot for a great sammie.

• DIG: one of my fav fast casual spots! this was my go-to when we lived in boston and they have locations all over nyc.

• joe’s pizza: a great, cheap, classic nyc slice.

• katz delicatessen: you’ve got to get the reuben.

• k’far: i stayed in the hotel attached to this restaurant so i went here a couple times. the brick chicken was my fav!!

• l’industrie pizzeria: the burrata slice and the fig & bacon slice were my favs! 

• la mercerie: when i did my choc chip cookie crawl (a previous trip) they won for the best ccc. also a stunning / fabulous restaurant!

• prince street pizza: can’t go wrong with the classic pepperoni

bakeries / coffee / dessert:

• apollo bagels: best bagel i had in nyc! i’ll say it! i got a sesame bagel with scallion cream cheese and tomatoes and it was 10/10

• caffe panna: best ice cream ever omg. they change their flavors all the time and you can’t go wrong

• hanis: must get the cinnamon roll with malted frosting! and the carrot cake!

• heytea: the mango coconut boom was so so good. perfect for a hot day.

• i’m donut: any of the cream filled donuts! the raspberry and pistachio are my favs.

• maman: cute cafe with locations all over! love anything tahini they do.

• peter pan donuts: was featured in spider man! a great classic donut shop with a million donut options

• radio bakery: they are known for their focaccia so anything focaccia is a good bet! also loved the scallion sesame swirl and the brown butter corn cake.

• rhythm zero: they’ve gone viral recently for a coconut americana (w/ coconut water)! also just the most stunning coffee shop ever.

• seven grams caffe: in my ccc hunt this was another winner!

• van leeuwen ice cream: i love their pistachio flavor so muchhh

• win son bakery: any of the scallion pancakes!

SHOPPING

williamsburg/greenpoint:

• aland: a korean clothing store and i think this is the only US location?

• awoke vintage: fun vintage shop with a few locations!

• baggu: i ❤️ baggu and it’s fun to shop in store

• beacon’s closet: a hugeee thrift store with lots of good finds! and has a few locations.

• big night: a kitchen shop with so many fun products

• brooklyn flea market: there’s lots of fun flea markets in nyc so find one near you! this one is great though (not technically in williamsburg/greenpoint)

• close friends: another great vintage shop!

• dashi okume: you can build a custom bag of dashi here to take home.

• dobbin st vintage: has furniture, home decore, clothes, bags, etc. so many fun items!

• leif: a gorgeous home goods store. i think has a couple locations.

• vintage clothing near me: a great classic thrift shop! found my new fav graphic tee here.

SOHO SHOPPING: one weekend afternoon i just bopped around shops in soho, and here was the list of all of them i wanted to hit!

WHAT TO DO

• broadway shows! this time i saw “maybe happy ending” and “john proctor is the villain” and both were so good. the latter was my favorite of the two and left me unwell for 30 minutes after and i’ve thought about it so many times since.

  • other shows i’ve seen previously that are currently on broadway: wicked, MJ, the lion king, hadestown, hamilton, & juliet.

• if you have little kiddos, here were emi’s favorite stores: fao schwarz, disney store, miniso, american girl doll store, nintendo store. she also loved every park with a playground lol. we also wanted to go to space club in brooklyn but ran out of time.

• any museums! the MOMA, museum of moving image, museum of natural history (new butterfly exhibit!), etc.

• roosevelt island tramway, a great way to get good views of the city!

• go on an inciardi art machine crawl: brooklyn brewery, haricot vert, only ny, warby parker, rosemary’s, whitney museum of art, artists and flea market at chelsea market.

ALSO, if you are a visual person and like to see everything on a map, i’ve put all these spots into a google maps guide! (i’m usually an apple maps girl but want to be more accessible)

GOOGLE MAPS LINKED HERE

i’ve color coordinated them by food, shopping, etc. sometimes its nice to just pull up a map and see what area you’ll be in, then plan your stops accordingly. for places that have multiple locations, i put in one or two, didn’t want to add every location and spam the map. so look for other locations if those areas don’t work for you!

that’s all! if you go to nyc and try any of these places, let me know! i had such a great time there and can’t wait until i’m next to add even more to this list!

xoxo, mal