Quick NYC Fall Weekend

Doing it all in under 48 hours! Had the best little trip after midterms and before heading home for Thanksgiving.

Central Park strolls with an iced matcha latte from Ralph’s, so happy to be back here!

I spent last weekend in New York City with my friend and we had the best time, squeezing as many activities as possible into the 48 hours we had! I love NYC so much and am so happy to be taking advantage of my close proximity from Boston! We stayed in Williamsburg Brooklyn, which is an area I have yet to explore very much so I loved settling in, and luckily Williamsburg was only a short subway ride from our favorite areas in Manhattan. Without further ado, I present my weekend recap:

Saturday: Central Park strolls, walking the High Line, hailstorm in SoHo, and delicious food all day

On Saturday morning, we woke up early and headed out for the day to Central Park! On our way to the Bedford subway stop, we grabbed bagels at Bagelsmith, a shop recommended by my friend’s cousin, and the bagels were delicious, fluffy, and the shop offered many variations of cream cheese which I appreciate v much. We ate our bagels in Central Park and watched the morning dog walkers while admiring the surrounding fall foliage. Luckily, while this morning was crisp and cool, the sun was still out. I have also always wanted to go to Ralph’s Coffee, so we grabbed drinks along with a cute baseball hat and tote bag, and continued walking around the Upper East Side. Ralph’s Coffee is a coffee shop within the Ralph Lauren store on Madison Ave, and great for people watching, good coffee, and a lovely green and white aesthetic. The decorated Christmas windows made me so happy!

After our Upper East Side morning, it was time to walk the High Line and pass through Chelsea Market. 

Escaping the hailstorm at Maman Bakery and Cafe, to try Oprah’s favorite nutty chocolate chip cookie. The cookie was yummy, but our favorite items were the pain au chocolat and carrot loaf. Also pictured: the obligatory stop at Cha Cha Matcha (Am I even in NYC if I don’t go here? My fav!)

We spent the afternoon shopping around in the SoHo and NoLita areas, favorite stores including: & Other Stories, Palace, Reformation, Madhappy pop up, New Top Jewelry, Kith, Aime Leon Dore, and the ginormous Levi’s store. 

The High Line

Later that night, I had planned to try and get a table for Lil Frankie’s in the East Village, as they don’t take advanced reservations for parties of two. Unfortunately, the wait was 1.5 hours so we roamed around the surrounding blocks and randomly stumbled upon Frank Restaurant, which is Lil Frankie’s sister restaurant with the same menu! They were able to seat us and we had the most delicious meal in the cozy, dimly lit restaurant. The bread came with a delicious orange zest infused olive oil dip. We also ordered the shaved fennel salad with parmesan, which was divine. And finally, the spaghetti limone and penne pomodoro were both simple and comforting to end off an extremely long day of walking around the city. Everything hit the spot and I definitely want to come back here. I would highly recommend coming to either Frank or Lil Frankie’s, just remember to book a reservation and bring cash because both are cash only! 

Sunday: Williamsburg, NoLita, a TikTok star sighting, and allllll the obligatory NYC holiday decorated sights

After walking over 15 miles on Saturday, we had a more leisurely Sunday starting with a slow morning in Williamsburg, where we stopped at Buddies coffee shop and walked around Domino Park to see a view of the skyline across the East River. 

Then, we took the subway back to NoLita where we met one of my friends from high school. We put our name in at Ruby’s Cafe for lunch (beware of long wait times over the weekend) and waited at Matchaful nextdoor. Matchaful had absolutely delicious matchas- I ordered the Matcha au Lait- and I can’t believe I’m saying this but Matchaful might be a new matcha spot in my top favorites, and very close competition with my go-to Cha Cha Matcha! Ahh! Also not mad at all about the amount of matcha consumed over this weekend. NYC just has so many options <3 While waiting for our table at Ruby’s, we watched the never-ending line for Aime Leon Dore and even spotted a semi-famous TikTok creator. When we finally sat down, everything at Ruby’s tasted amazing, including the crispy grain bowl, sweet potato fries, and ricotta pancakes. Love the vibes there and the fun throwback playlist (I asked the waiter and he said they use “Throwback Jams” by Spotify- which is now part of my repertoire).

NoLita has become my favorite little neighborhood of NYC!

To end off the day before heading back to Boston, we visited Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station, and Bryant Park. Bryant Park had many Christmas markets surrounding the ice skating rinks, with decorations and people all around getting into the Christmas spirit. Definitely an exciting area around the holiday season!

I had a wonderful time and it felt so good to be back in NYC. A short but sweet trip, and I’ll be back soon! Hope you enjoyed this post :) 

xoxo,

Josie