I had an opportunity to head to New York City this week to attend a couple work meetings.
I’ve really taken to flying Alaska Airlines now pretty much wherever I go. For many years living in South Korea I always flew United and was a 1K with them. I especially would enjoy the Seoul to Washington DC flights where I could sit in the upper deck of a 747-400 halfway around the world. Those were the days.
Once I moved back to America in 2008, I somehow became a Delta loyalist and was Diamond with them for many years, then Platinum. However, I found that when flying Delta you had to go somewhere to get somewhere else. Unless you wanted to go to Atlanta, Minneapolis, Utah or Los Angeles you were stuck going there then somewhere else with multi-segment trips. Upon moving to Portland, OR I discovered Alaska Airlines and found out that they either have direct flights to most of the places I need to go, or they at least have the best routes, times, prices and in-flight service. So now I fly Alaska everywhere.
As a frequent flyer here’s a pro tip I learned years ago that I’m very surprised I’ve never seen anyone else do. Because you reserved it ahead of time, when you are getting ready to eat that scrumptious Marionberry tart that Alaska serves for breakfast with some smokey bacon and eggs, find the corner of your cloth napkin that has the little buttonhole in it. Attach that to your top shirt button and you are protected from crumbs and dropped food and you don’t have to hold the napkin or tuck it into your shirt like some country bumpkin.
The flight out was completely drama free (a good thing) and after the hour-long ride from Newark to the hotel I dropped off my bags and headed out for dinner. Even though Portland is a pizza-lover’s haven I still had to get some New York pizza from a classic NYC joint. A block over from the hotel was Angelo’s Coal Fired Pizza. I stopped in and ordered their meatballs which were soft (made from beef, pork and veal), savory and covered in delicious tomato sauce. For the pizza I went simple with their White Pie (Ricotta, Mozzarella, Basil and I added some crushed red pepper flakes). Accompanied by a Brooklyn Lager, I was feeling pretty happy. This is a place I would eat at again.
After putting away the meatballs and half the pie (saving the other half for breakfast the next morning) I headed over to Central Park for a nice walk, then back to the hotel, ending my first day in NYC (I put some miles on my shoes this trip, probably close to 10 miles total over the 3 days).
On Monday the only formal meeting I needed to be at was dinner that evening. I still had my various phone calls and emails to attend to throughout the day as well. With all of that in mind I scheduled my day and headed out. My first stop was a couple blocks over at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).
Having taken art history class, oh so many years ago, it was cool to see some artwork that I had studied in the past. This place has everything. I mean it has Kelly, Rothko, Pollock, Bontecou, Warhol, and Vostell.
And the higher you went up into the building the better things got:
It was amazing seeing whole rooms of Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Mondrian, and Seurat.
Until, that is, you get to the sixth floor. It’s at this point you run smack into Joan Jonas who takes up the entire top floor. I’m going to say that she is the epitome of the saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. This display was one of her tamer pieces. She’s just out there and I did not find her work appealing.
I finished up at MOMA right on schedule and headed down 5th Ave past Rockefeller Plaza, bound for SUMMIT One Vanderbilt, an observation deck slash art installation.
It took about 30 minutes to get checked in, take the obligatory pictures they want to sell you later and get fitted for booties so your shoes don’t scratch the glass floors up at height. Heading up in the elevator to the 92nd floor only takes seconds, and you don’t feel the car moving at all.
I didn’t take any pictures of the artsy side of things because frankly I thought it was all highly gimmicky. If you are going here, tell yourself it’s for the incredible views and if you enjoy the rest of the experience, then bonus.
By the time I got back to ground level it was lunchtime, and my first meeting of the day was coming up (Most of my team still being back on Pacific time) so I needed to get settled in for some calls. I had a reservation for Cipriani Dolci inside Grand Central Terminal and headed over (By the way, a lot of people call it Grand Central Station, but this is incorrect as a station is a stop along a route and a terminal is a destination. All tracks lead to or from this terminal).
This beautiful little Italian restaurant offered the absolute perfect spot to people watch and take my calls (Inside the terminal is whisper quiet even with hundreds of people milling about) while ordering up a spinach and goat cheese salad, along with slow roasted rabbit “alla Cacciatora” (translated as “in the way of the hunter”) with mashed potatoes. This was some good eating. The rabbit was fall-off-the-bone tender.
Wrapping up lunch and my calls with an espresso to keep me going through the afternoon, and taking two more calls as I walked, I headed down 42nd St. for the United Nations Headquarters.
Check-in at the Visitor’s Center to get my badge was quick and painless and once through security I wandered around a little bit waiting for my tour time. The black object in the pyramid is a piece of moon rock.
Once we met up with our guide about 10 of us toured the entire compound, stopping to see various artwork and other displays donated over the years by various nations. We entered three of the four major chambers, but the Security Council was in session, so we didn’t see that chamber. The General Assembly was empty at the time and being down near the floor of that very serious room was the highlight of the tour.
After the tour, my first official meeting in town was for dinner at Smith & Wollensky. Again, didn’t take any pictures because I was extremely unimpressed with their presentation. This is supposed to be the quintessential old school NYC steakhouse, but it fell way short. It was a company function with 25+ people in a back room so there is always the likelihood that your mileage may vary. The conversations were great though, and we all had a fun time otherwise, but I still don’t see myself going back ever.
On the walk back to the hotel I kept seeing these signs and decided that, hey I can be a rebel, so I stopped to take a picture.
Tuesday included onsite work meetings all morning. On the way to the venue where the meetings would occur I ran into the circus around Trump Tower where they had portions of the street cordoned off for tv cameras and police as he came and went for his current trial.
After wrapping up our meetings I headed back to the hotel to get caught up on emails. For the evening I had reservations for dinner at Sicily Osteria a quaint rustic Italian restaurant a couple blocks off Times Square.
I started with an appetizer of Carciofi (Grilled artichoke, Burrata and kalamata olives), moved on to a Bucatini with Bomba Calabrese sauce, Pecorino crema, Nduja and hazelnut. The sauce and the Nduja added just the right amount of heat to the dish. Needing to get my veggies in there was also a side of Roasted Brussels Sprouts coated in a light maple syrup and red wine vinegar to give it just the perfect amount of sweet and tangy. Finally, I wrapped up with an espresso and the Pistachio lava cake with fig gelato. I was expecting a bit more “lava” as it was only barely warmer than room temp, but the flavor was there and it wasn’t too sweet.
Off to the main (non-work) event of the day, an evening at Richard Rodgers theater checking off a bucket list item, watching the Broadway show Hamilton. I had a seat in Row C of the Orcestra section and was only about 10 feet from the stage. We were prohibited from taking pictures during the show, but I did quickly snap this shot after the finale during the standing ovation at the end of the nearly 3-hour performance. It was really quite moving, and I had a thoroughly enjoyable time.
Making my way back on foot the 10 blocks or so to the hotel, I routed through Times Square. While not a rocking New Year’s Eve, it was a pretty lively midweek evening, and the area was filled with people from all over the world. As soon as I pulled out my phone to take a picture I was mobbed by Elmo, Spiderman and Mickey Mouse and had to push past them.
The city that never sleeps was a great time, but I’m looking forward to getting back to the Northwest and home when I head out tomorrow morning.