Rye in Williamsburg

On Saturday eve, we slipped and slid our way through the snowy streets of Williamsburg to dine at the nifty neighborhood restaurant Rye.

This pre Prohibition styled establishment is well imagined and styled almost scarcely with a beautiful antique oak bar, vintage mirrors, tiny tiled floors, etc. The building also features gorgeous tin ceilings and old fashioned light fixtures.

The purveyors opted for restoring the space (which was once an old factory) as opposed to constructing something new.


The crowd is young and lively in the restaurant's dark, candlelit rooms making Rye the perfect escape from the wicked winter weather. Also perfect for this time of year? The restaurant's serious cocktail menu

(image courtesy ny times mag)

and their hearty fare.


Meal highlights included this Scotch Egg





an out-of-this-world meatloaf sandwich





mac and cheese with bacon


pork belly and more.

(images courtesy rye)

The restaurant features no blazing signage so the building's simple facade might go unnoticed if you aren't looking for it. My advice? Seek it out. What's inside is certainly worth discovering.

(image courtesy brownstoner)

funny money

(image courtesy how to talk to girls at parties)

Stop it!

These silly money clips by Jack Spade reenvision the classic monogrammed initial style of this men's classic.

Any boy who carries one of these is bound to have a pretty wonderful sense of humor.

My favorite one reads: "clams."

snow overload

(image courtesy garance dore)

NYC got 19 MORE inches of snow dumped on its head again last night. As inconvenient and messy as the snow can be, I usually secretly enjoy it. It's terribly easy to romanticize drifting white flakes when you grew up without seeing them.

Today? Not so much. New York City schools got a snow day, my hubby's office is closed...and where am I you may wonder?

Insanely grumpy at work. Without even a hot toddy to see me through.

(image courtesy tassimo)

For those of you lucky enough to have a real snow day, here's a recipe sure to help you warm up and relax.

Hot Toddy (recipe via epicurious)

Ingredients

1 oz (2 tablespoons) bourbon
1 tablespoon mild honey
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup boiling-hot water

Preparation

Put bourbon, honey, and lemon juice in a 6-ounce mug. Top off with hot water and stir until honey is dissolved.

it's snowing again...

and all I can think about is escaping to somewhere warm enough to wear this all pink get up.

Aren't those sandals the bee's knees?

(image courtesy j.crew)

Pop on your shades

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and tease (yes, with hairspray) your hair into a rocking retro ponytail.

(image courtesy examiner)

Very Zooey Deschanel.

(image courtesy karen in color)

Warm weather fantasy complete.

white stripes rewind

Happily listening to The White Stripes Elephant for the first time in a looong time.

(image courtesy the funk farm)

Currently readdicted to the song "Ball and Biscuit."

Rock it (in black, white or red only, please).

Grazie, Eataly!

(images courtesy la gazzetta italiana and inspired goodness)

Assuming you are a fellow member of the "Italian Food is Awesome" Club, run, don't walk to Eataly, in Flatiron.

Available within the walls of this upscale Italian market (Mario Batali is one of the owners) are SEVEN restaurants and an insane collection meats, cheeses, oils, pastas, veggies, coffee, gelato, wine...you get the idea.

(images courtesy ken carbone @ fast code design)

Because we are brave and almost always hungry, we ventured into this seriously crowded, highly publicized space on a recent Saturday afternoon to pick up ingredients for a dinner party that evening.

At the end of our trip, we came away with delicious marinated olives, 2 types of wonderful cheese, crusty bread, pancetta, fresh pasta and a bit of proscuitto so good that it might melt your brain (thanks again to the kind butcher who let us taste before we bought and also saved us from foolishly picking up the $65 a pound variety).

Check out our delicious antipasto platter below (notice the toes of the hubby's shoes on the left waiting anxiously for this photo to be snapped).

Next, along with our guests, we whipped this delicious pasta carbonara recipe, downed a few bottles of red wine and played board games. Let's just say it was certainly a creative game of Scattegories.

Grazie, Eataly. For serious.

festive florals

During this time of year, when the sky and the buildings that stretch up under it are the same unfortunate shade of dirty gray as the endless drifts of snow that refuse to leave our New York streets, the thought of sunlight, warm breezes and blooming flowers can seem like a distant dream.

To combat the lack of color outside, I've spent the last week avoiding my favorite all black ensembles in favor of bright, mood lifting colors and floral patterns.

Anthropologie came to my rescue with this playful knit dress


and this flowing top.

(image courtesy anthropologie)

Cuddling up under a blanket with this awesome book of hilarious essays

(image courtesy booksuniverseeverything)

next to this delicious rose scented candle.

(image courtesy monster)

So long, winter blues!

silver foxes

(image courtesy zoe writes)

My girlfriend and I love playing a game called "Who's Your Silver Fox?"

This game is wonderfully fun. It also can give you grade school sleepover flashbacks during your mid-week coffee break.

Example dialogue (***please note some names have been thinly veiled to falsely protect privacy***):

Friend 1: What's a silver fox?

Me: Um...well, I think... it means... a hot old dude.

Friend 1: Like Ted Danson?

Me: TED DANSON?!?!?

(image courtesy gq)

See how how that works, friends? Much can be discovered about your nearest and dearest cohorts with this one simple question.

Lucky for me, my silver fox is featured in this month's Garden & Gun (wow, this magazine is made for city dwelling Southerners) in an article entitled "The Unlikely Ambassador of Bluegrass."

(image courtesy wicked little)

Tipsy Parson

This weekend we hit up the adorable Tipsy Parson restaurant in Chelsea with a great group of friends.

This restaurant comes courtesy of the duo behind the Lower East Side's delicious Little Giant and features a fantastic menu of southern-themed comfort food.

We started things off right with a delicious frozen toddy in the restaurant's cozy bar.

Served in a mint julep glass, this slushy-like concoction stands in for the restaurant's well known mint julep slushes only served during the warmer months.

Next, we headed into the adorable dining room (complete with John Derian plates) to chow down.

Our table feasted on deviled eggs, fried pickles, pulled pork, killer catfish, bottles of wine and last, but certainly not least a seriously rocking apple cobbler for two that we had to commit to at the beginning of the meal (shockingly, we took the bait).

The food, decor and company were all divine. We can not wait to go back. So much food... so little time.

(all images courtesy tipsy parson)

blushing beauties

Recovering from a wonderfully packed weekend by watching last night's recorded Golden Globes broadcast from the sofa (really pumped to see The Social Network take so many awards, by the by).

Am now even more desperate to see The King's Speech and... to pick up a cool pink frock!

Really loving the blush-colored styles that dominated last night's red carpet.

(image courtesy fabsugar)

My favorite look was worn by Claire Danes. Emma Stone's peach dress came in a close second.

(image courtesy just jared jr)

Both dresses were sleek, modern and...backless. How chic!

celebration weekend!

(image courtesy flickr)

In the middle of wonderful four day celebration weekend.

Our dear friend K flew up from Houston to be with us (which is reason enough to celebrate), but pretty K also just got engaged to a strapping young gentleman. Congrats, dear friends!

Between K's good news and birthday party plans, here's to a weekend full of happy times and fun adventures.

Follow up: Thanks again to my dear pals for such a wonderful birthday evening at Brooklyn Bowl!

(image courtesy nycl blog)

Two strikes, fried chicken and an adorably decorated cupcake? Best birthday ever!

rap dreams

I've always felt that I should be a rapper. Thanks to New York Mag's AWESOME photo collection of the Best Rapper Face Tattoos, at last, I know what I need to up my street cred.

I mean, it's not like a face tat is permanent or anything.

Enjoy the face tat gallery here.

lovely ladies

(images courtesy lobster and swan)

I'm mad about Tel Aviv-born artist Tali's lovely lady creations spotted this weekend on Lobster and Swan.

From the artist's Etsy shop you can score originals, prints and adorable mini canvases.

I think the four images above would make a great wall grouping. They would look most graceful framed in one of the gold options below.

(image courtesy pottery barn)