West Village & Meat Packing District Delights, BOLT

CITYPEEK spent a day perusing the boutiques, small restaurants and enjoying a fabulous October day of 80 degree weather in NYC.I repeat, 80 degrees at the end of October and sunny!

Now a special thank you to AMY O'CONNELL of the DOUBLETREE INN at the COLONNADE in BALTIMORE http://www.citypeek.com/baltimore/hotels who hooked me up with a great junior suite @ DOUBLETREE JERSEY CITY--just a short PATH Commuter Train away to the Big Apple City. Thanks to Dani Weinstein at UJC NWP for turning us on the HopSTOP to navigate the train system while in the city. Cool site:HopStop.com - Subway Directions and Bus Directions for New York HopStop provides subway and bus directions for New York City (NYC) As well as Subway and Bus maps for Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx and Staten Island. www.hopstop.com/

We visited the MAGNOLIA BAKERY with Manager Felipe. MAGNOLIA BAKERY is famous (made world-known by the Sarah Jessica Parker clan of SEX IN THE CITY. Did you guess that their most popular cake flavor is red velvet? There isn't an ounce of chocolate in it, but there is apple cider vinegar! When I asked a chef how many cupcakes they sell a day, she stated simply, 'thousands!' A most popular delight I sampled a spoonful of was their heavenly banana pudding. 'You haven't lived,' Felipe said, until you have some of Magnolia's banana pudding' OMG-yum! http://www.citypeek.com/new-york/restaurant/magnolia-bakery-new-york-city

We shopped @ VERVE buying boots and a watch on BLEEKER St-Manager/Owner Wendy was terrific as was her staff who helped me. The shoes arrived next day via mail! Wow!We were referred to by the manager of the Irish Pub, on HUDSON Street, DUBLIN, to go to Madame Matovu's vintage clothing and jewelry we met Rosemary Wettenhall, owner and and lovely staffer. Rosemary gave me a personal tour a few blocks introducing me to friends at THE NEW FRENCH and pointing me in the direction of a good lunch--THE SPOTTED PIG. This town in the West Village is a REAL NEIGHBORHOOD where everyone knows everyone and the people are friendly! Hello, are we really in New York?

We then walked easily to the MEAT PACKING DISTRICT where you know, meat is packed....also made famous by SEX IN THE CITY. We went into the famous PASTIS as you 'never know what celebrities are having a meal or cocktail at NYC's PASTIS!

The next day after a meeting way down on WALL STREET we shopped ever-so-briefly in NYC's famous CENTURY 21 after paying tribute by GROUND ZERO.

We dined at THE SPOTTED PIG--see our facebook post where we garnered spots to go from friends and where we discussed our meal. No deviled eggs--they are quite famous for or their nudies pasta (like gnocchi) but we devoured the hamburger smothered with blue cheese and served with the thinnest pommes frittes--and a healthy portion-fried with fresh rosemary and garlic butter.

http://www.facebook.com/CITYPEEKpatti and we twittered quite a bit too! Just search for CITYPEEK. Actually, our twitter feeds are live on the CITYPEEK site--cool, huh?

I took AMTRAK up to NYC from BALTIMORE-DC area but we are gonna try the BOLT BUS sometime. Did you know BOLT BUS  are owned by Greyhound. Another morsel to savor. www.greyhound.com

CHEERS