oh so video

There you have it...he has a video and is in NYC about to play his first show on a month-long tour of America. I'm starry-eyed for Kane, as always.

xx

Lou

all good things start at blue bottle coffee

Almost every morning in New York City Zane and I went to Blue Bottle Coffee. Zane read about Blue Bottle Coffee in Todd Selby's new book 'Edible Selby' and just like Selby understands good aesthetics he understands good food and coffee. Blue Bottle Coffee began in San Fran but it is now sprinkled throughout the U.S. with several coffee bars in NYC. Zane and I secretly hope that this craft coffee culture will eventually overturn Starbucks, making for a Quality victory in America (luckily for us New Zealand is already a world leader in coffee).

Zane and I jumped all over the coffee menu with our orders - from filter/drip to espresso to a delectable 70% cocoa coffee (a mocha may not be a real coffee but even my espresso shot drinking BF said it was incredible). Blue Bottle also sells the best homemade granola (which comes in keepable glass jars) and a whole array of coffee related merchandise.

Also, If you love coffee and hate mass exploiters of everything a.k.a. Nespresso (why George Clooney, WHY), I would thoroughly recommend purchasing the coffee book 'The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee Growing, Roasting, and Drinking, with Recipes' by James Freeman, Caitlin Freeman and Tara Duggan. Click for Blue Bottle Coffee's website.

 
 
On our Chelsea day Zane and I ended up returning to Blue Bottle Coffee to check out their very special siphon coffee bar. Their siphon bar is the first in New York City and involves a Japanese method of coffee making which uses heat, pressure and temperature gauges. It's expensive but totally worth the experience. Well...actually Zane and I didn't ended up paying for our coffee because the barista, Mac, shouted us as a welcome to NYC present. We actually spent over an hour at the siphon bar chatting to Mac who's from the West Coast. I told the lovely Rockefeller Blue Bottle Coffee staff about Mac and we all agreed that people like him make travelling brilliant. Wherever you are in the world thanks man!

All Good Things is in TriBeCa and its name sums it up completely. All I'll say is that at this place you can get craft beer, meat, cheese, chocolate (including Mast Brothers), Blue Bottle Coffee and plants. I was sad when they didn't let me set up my house underneath one of the stalls. Why leave a place where everyThing inside is All Good?

 

P.S. Check out my first feature for Critic Magazine here

 

xx

Lou

i never knew a girl called chelsea

Everyone in NYC has theories on which suburbs are up and coming however these days few would still claim SOHO is the hippest place to be. Now Things Are Happening in places like Chelsea, TriBeCa and Brooklyn (but Brooklyn is practically as big as Manhattan so that's kind of indefinite). Each day, or for countless days, you could spend exploring one of these suburbs - there's just so much going on. On one of our days Zane and I took the subway to Chelsea for a bit of fun in the wintry sun.

We started the day, where we started our day everyday, at Blue Bottle Coffee. After, we walked across the road to the Chelsea market which is filled with craft produce and miscellaneous stores, but many New Yorkers would tell you the place is a bit overdone and not exactly a market market.

Everyone goes to Chelsea to do the Chelsea art crawl. This crawl involves weaving between avenues and streets and visiting art galleries of all sorts of calibre. I loved following a list of recommendations given to me by art gallery director Sarah Hopkinson. I particularly loved visitng Greene Naftali which was in a building with a man operated elevator and had an unbelievably engaging prison art piece by Tony Conrad. What was most interesting for me, however, was the realisation that New Zealand's best art and art galleries are easily competitors or even victors to what we saw in Chelsea.

I don't care what some NYers say - the Highline was one of my trip highlights. The Highline is an elevated walkway which goes between buildings and has different access points throughout Chelsea. When we visited, the walkway was dusted with snow and being extended at one end. Walking the Highline is a free experience and it is one of the best ways to admire an eclectic range of architecture and art in Chelsea.

 I made a mistake with my East and West directions and where I thought was a bakery was a rather locked gate in front of a rather residential town house. However, I luckily had a list of backups and it turned out that we were very close to The Meatball Company on Greenwich Ave. The Meatball Company was a recommendation from the Issac Likes blog and I'd totally certify it. Our meatball meals were super cheap, super fast and super fantastic - oh and we got to draw on our menus too! Now that would be a good stop after a few drinks.

xx
Lou

brooklyn diaries

It was a rainy day when Zane and I caught the subway out to Brooklyn. When we got off we had to walk under the track where several hobos were having a ferocious laugh about something. Zane and I walked through the suburbs in search of our Brooklyn Blue Bottle - quickly we realised how huge Brooklyn is and its lack of obvious transport. At the Blue Bottle we ran into one of Zane's old co-workers which made for a happy and bizarre experience. Above are photos of the Willamsburg bridge in one of the Brooklyn hot spots, Willamsburg.

Near the Blue Bottle coffee shop is the famous Mast Brothers chocolate factory. Before it opened for the day the two brothers themselves were out the front making a short promotional film (we guessed). We were delighted to see that they still had their huge beards. However, when we returned the brothers had gone to the back, leaving behind the indie, and beanie clad version of Oompa Loompas who were all huddled around wrapping and checking the chocolate. Around the store were plates of broken chocolate to test and all sorts of merchandise. It was a delicious place to be. Perhaps the only downside was the lack of engagement - no one wanted to talk to us even when we purchased half a tonne of chocolate!

This chocolate had no chance at a long and prosperous life.

Major disaster struck when the place we planned for lunch only did brunch and dinner. We assumed it would be a short walk in the drizzling rain to another part of Brooklyn where our back up option was located. Oh how wrong we were. Zane and I walked for over 2 and a 1/2 hours past factories and highways and even several blocks of a strict Jewish neighbourhood which had school buses and shops adorned with Hebrew and countless men with greased ringlets and plastic bags over their round hats. After slipping in the endless dog poo that litters the streets of Brooklyn and even some miscellaneous horse poo, we made it to 4 and 20 Blackbirds. Absolutely soaking, Zane and I devoured some of the best slices of pie we have ever had. After, in a state of slight despair and derange, we caught a bus to the Slate Company...only to find it was closed. I trudged up to a NYPD man to ask for directions but he scowled at me and told me he wasn't from around here. Busting to pee and stuck in Brooklyn we caught a bus and prayed for the best (later we realised our Metro cards didn't work for the bus but the drivers were too kind to say anything)...Writing this post suggests that we made it back but you never know...

xx
Lou

dia: beacon

The Dia Art Foundation is a nonprofit institution founded by Heiner Friedrich and Philippa de Menil with the ultimate goal to support visionary art projects. One of the Foundation's galleries is located in the New York state town, Beacon. It occupies a former Nabisco box-printing factory with a new interior designed by the artist Robert Irwin which beautifully captures natural light and creates an almost organic pathway around the huge spaces.

To get to Beacon, Zane and I caught a Metro North train from Grand Central, which follows the Hudson river for over an hour until you reach the small town. From the station, we followed the road up to the right and  in under 10 minutes we reached the entrance to gallery. A huge collection is on display which includes (but is not limited to) artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Robert Irwin, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Gerhard Richter, Richard Serra and Andy Warhol. The displayed art and curation within series and between spaces creates simply the best modern art experience I have ever had. I am still working on the right words to describe the marvel of it all.

The day cost Zane and I about $30 (US) with the biggest expense being the return train trip. With the Hudson River being frozen over in places, snow on the small surrounding hills and not to mention the best art gallery experience an enthusiast could have - the trip was utterly worth it.

xx
Lou

stores in nyc with things from places

The staircase to the Kiosk store.

Clothing store Opening Ceremony

Independent photography bookstore Dashwood Books.

Although New York is a place for everything, it is a particularly good place for looking. There are a lot of places in New York where you can pay (a lot) to look at things while standing on things such as the Empire State building or the top of the Rockefeller Center...but perhaps the best places for looking are the ones that don't require an entry fee (or tricky heights) - I'm talking about the stores of NYC. It was to these stores which Zane and I dedicated numerous days to window shopping (and the occasional purchase) and I can assure you that it was time well spent. 

First, the huge clothing stores along Broadway will blow your mind. If you're keen for a particularly fluoro mindfuck I would recommend Uniqlo which has about three clothing styles (puffer jacket, puffer vest and jumper) all arranged in building blocks of tan inducing colour and yet, the brightness makes for a strangely cheerful experience. Along the street you will also find the stationery/lifestyle store, Muji, which is one of the best examples I've seen of a store making monotony and practicality seem like the coolest paring on the planet (akin to President Obama's brewery in the White House's basement). The rest of Broadway consists of every chain store I know pumped up on under the counter steroids - all with the aim to win over and over again the Tour de France of shopping. However, the best place for your mainstream needs is by far the huge discount designer store, Century 21. It was there where I brought designer bras for $6 each and a Calvin Klein wallet for $13. I could have stayed there forever but I had to runaway before the fervent shoppers fed on me to sustain their own ferocity levels. 

Mass produced fashion stores can only maintain my interest for so long and very soon I deviated from the mainstream in search for the outliers. Bond St is an old cobblestone street off Broadway where we found a neat men's store called C'H'C'M. A bit further along (on the other side of the road) is Dashwood books. The owner had to buzz us in then for half an hour we walked through the small space browsing its countless photography books. I danced a little when I found Terry Richardson's autograph in his Rio de Janeiro book. Further down Broadway is the incredibly famous Strand bookstore which boasts 18 miles of new, second hand and rare books. 

If you love clothing (and by love I mean seriously appreciate style even when you can't afford it) you simply must check out Opening Ceremony (off Broadway at 35 Howard St). Perhaps the closest example of Opening Ceremony in Wellington is Good As Gold but in reality, New Zealand has nothing like it. The main store is four stories of clothes (including labels such as Alexander Wang, Proenza Schouler and Rodarte), accessories, magazines and art installations. Then next door is a two stories Opening Ceremony menswear store with brands like Acne, Band of Outsiders, Kenzo, Jeremy Scott and Opening Ceremony. Despite featuring many established designers, Opening Ceremony also chooses a 'visiting country' each year and showcases the selected country's most creative designers. 2012's chosen country was Korea but when we visited the shop the items I spied (which included Yoko Ono kimonos and a range of Comme des Garcons wallets) were all Japanese. 

What I simultaneously loved and hated about Opening Ceremony was its staff. The beautiful, young and extraordinarily well dress shop assistants were everywhere, lounging delicately on the sofas, texting in the corners and giving the store's visitors a very cold up and down. Although the judgment makes sense (it's their job to be cool and it was obvious we weren't buying anything), it did create a slightly bizarre experience of constantly avoiding eye contact. 

Even though I could write on and on about stores we went to, I want to avoid rambling too much more.. BUT I do have one last must visit and that's Kiosk (on the 2nd floor at 95 Spring St). Kiosk is a magic store where the objects it sells take on an art object role. The owners of Kiosk travel the world and the displayed objects are all found during these travels. In the store, each product is carefully arranged in a specifically chosen place on a shelf or wall and alongside it is a fun, well written description of the object's background. It is like walking through a 3D version of your favourite, slightly alternative, craft object magazine. When Zane and I visited we saw a mixture of objects from India and some from their previous collections. 

Kiosk likes to describe its products as the result of "local aesthetics and needs" which generally go unnoticed with an overall aim of giving substance and background to the anonymous. Kiosk was one of my favourite experiences if simply because each object did  have a written story which meant you could literally be an adventurer, travelling around the previously unexplored.

xx

Lou

where to have the best lunch in nyc

Despite Tracy and Phil's extensive list of NYC food places, they had one favourite among the favourites and that was Freemans. Freemans was brought to life by its two founders, Taavo Somer and William Tigertt, when they stumbled into love with a space at the end of an empty alleyway off the famously cool street called The Bowery. The restaurant's food aims to be simple, old America and the interior design is done to match the taste with its exposed wooden furniture and walls lined with deer heads and old photos.

Finding Freemans (on Rivington in between The Bowery and Chrysties) was ridiculously simple despite us almost ending up in one of the coolest looking barbers (which marks the beginning of the alleyway). On reaching the restaurant we were quickly seated by our enthusiastic waiter - before I could blink an excellent starter of Devils on Horseback (bacon wrapped prunes stuffed with blue cheese for $7) had found its way onto our table. Just smelling the dish meant I had to fetch a napkin to wipe the drool from the edges of my mouth - Freemans' food does that to you. Our mains arrived soon after finishing our starter. Zane had ordered the best smoked trout (alongside hard boiled eggs, horseradish cream, toast for $12) I'd ever tasted - the fish was cold, perfectly smoked and seasoned. I'd also recommend my $9 turkey sandwich which had arugula, avocado, spicy mayonnaise with a fun side of huge beer battered onion rings for $5.

As we ate, a cool breeze passed through the dark, rustic restaurant and for a brief moment I imagined I was transported back in time to a restaurant in old American - but then a thought struck me - why day dream when the reality of eating at Freemans was so much better?!

xx
Lou

getting baked in nyc

A banana cupcake next to a chocolate cupcake at Buttercup Bake

A red velvet cupcake next to a carrot cupcake at Buttercup Bake

The window display at Buttercup Bake

The chocolate peanut butter cookie at Levain Bakery

Behind the window front at the tiny Levain Bakery 

The window front of Levain Bakery

A carrot cupcake next to a red velvet cupcake at Billy's Bakery

Billy's Bakery's cute interior (plus a cute boy who is about to sit next to me with a pecan pie which, he'll soon tell me, is the best he's ever had).

My first diary of my New York City adventures is deceptively cute..I say 'deceptive' because the bakeries we went to were cute BUT New York City would not be happy if you described it as a cute place...or for that matter attempted to tie it up with any one-word generalisations. Anyway, for our NYC travels I had compiled a list of recommendations from the Issac Likes blog and Todd Selby's Edible Selby. I was also emailed the most extensive personal guide of what to do, eat, see, smell and feel in NYC composed by my epitome-of-cool family friends, Tracy and Phil (their recommendations saved us at every turn and led us directly into the depths of some of my favourite experiences of the city). The list of bakeries I had scrawled down in my New York notebook was a last minute addition which I had thought we wouldn't end up needing, however when you're walking the streets attempting to maintain awe-struck vibes while being frozen because of the terrifying -10 degrees temperatures (+ wind), a bakery is a welcomed stop off. Furthermore, walking huge distances as a traveler is pretty much the only time you feel excused for pigging out on a cupcake which has icing as tall as an elf on stilts standing on a hill.

I had discovered the list of bakeries from a book I had read only a few days before we left. The book is written by Amy Thomas and titled Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate). Despite the torturous experience of reading a book about food you can't have, it proved itself as incredibly useful. Through first hand trial and error, Amy Thomas has constructed a careful guide to both Paris and New York bakeries. Each recommendation has suggestions of what to eat and commentaries of the two cities' baking obsessions, including New York's baking crazes which bounce between cupcakes, macaroons and cookies. Although we only made it to three of the bakeries on Amy Thomas' list, the three we did go to were super fun.

On our second day, we stumbled across Buttercup Bake (E 51st, 2nd Ave) which is a low key bakery with huge glass cabinets filled with rows upon rows of colourful cupcakes - a tantalizing image as delicious as the cupcakes themselves.

The next day, after a trip up to Columbia University campus we caught the subway then walked a few blocks to find the tiny Levain Bakery (167 W 74th St & Amsterdam Ave). The bakery is practically underground and surrounded by charming town houses. I was skeptical about paying $4 for a cookie but a particularly extroverted woman beside me in the queue promised me I wouldn't regret it - and I didn't. The paper bag, which the peanut butter chocolate cookie came in, weighed a tonne and I kid you not - that one delicious, chunky chocolate cookie alone kept me going until dinner (this time frame included a lengthy visit to the Natural History Museum).

A few days later, we had been walking around the World Trade Center Memorials then up Broadway but completely forgot to plan for lunch. I read through my bakery list and we ended up fast-walking to Billy's Bakery (9th Ave, 21st W) in Tribeca. Billy's Bakery had excellent cupcakes and pecan pie and I enjoyed watching the melange of customers passing through, from the deranged to the lonely and glamorous.

Despite our successful bakery visits, I remain desperate to taste Momofuku's crack pie & other such creme de la cremes of baked goods (breathy laughter). But for now I will reminisce of my not-so-long-ago visit to NYC and as for you...well you can live vicariously through my adventures by reading all the updates on this blog.

P.S. Wasn't my post title hilarious?

xx
Lou