Zebra bag

Bought my roomy black and white zebra bag at Doone & Bourke flagship store in New York in July.

Noted later that they have had it also with red trimmings, very fierce!

Love my bag , it had cost originally 395$ + tax, mine was 60% off... Quality of bag and hardware is excellent, this bag will take me from here to eternity, especially when I rotate my use between this and my other 15 bags...

Street style; new books

I quite frequently order books on cooking, crafts, interior desing etc. from Amazon.

One of my favourite blogs is The Sartorialist by Scott Schuman. He has captured some great styles and charaters on his street style blog. There are many style blogs out there, but this far The Sartorialist is my favourite, many style blogs have pictures of very artsy young people (probably those blogs are kept by artsy yougsters...), but Sott features people of all ages and styles in his blog.

When I learned that his new book based on these photos was out, I had to order it immdly. I was excited to receive the parcel yesterday. I have gone trough it few times last night, I am sure I will open it hundreds of times and every time find some great details I haven't seen before in the photos.

At the same I ordered New York Look Book, based on street style photos from New York Magazine. It's another good street style book, issued few years ago, but I prefer The Sartorialist. Still, I love NY Magazine, it has been a great source of restaurant, shopping and events for my NYC trips.

New York street art

Lower East Side and East Village

Obama poster on Lower East Side.

Store front in East village.

Wall in East Village

East Village bird

For the memory of a beloved friend, East Village

New York characters

There are so many great looking characters to be seen on streets of New York City; people of all ages, races and income had their unique, individual styles. These were some of my favourites.



Summer hat in Tribeca diner.



In front of a bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn.



Summer style in Meat Packing district.



Neo Punk in Chelsea flea market.



Street vendor in Midtown.

New York cocktails

New York has many excellent cocktail bars, where bartenders or mixologists are specialized in designer cocktails. For example, if you like Gin & Tonic, don't order that, but ask your bartender what gin based cocktail he or she recommends instead. You will be pleasatly surprised!

The most notable cocktail lounges we visited were the following.




Elettaria on 8th street at MacDougal is a dining restaurant, but they also have a bar with a skilled mixologist. He had his own unique signature way to shake the drinks. I had The Simple Life; sparkling wine with fresh fruits, my husband had Martinique Sidecar; rum, Curacao and lemon juice. Very tasty!


Flatiron Lounge is an old cocktail lounge on 19th st, between 5th and 6th Avenues. I had Come Fly With Me, husband had One Inch Punch. It was again a joy to see the bartender to mix the cocktails, he was not just throwing the ingredients together, but making the mixing and his moves a form of art.


The Campbell Apartment on Grand Central Terminal (entrance on Wanderbilt Ave.) is an interesting, "from another era" cocktail bar. It was once the office of American financier and railroad tycoon John W. Campbell.


In Tribeca we had white chocolate martini and champagne cocktail at The Bubble Lounge on corner of N Moore and W Broadway. This was another plush cocktail lounge.

My husband was took interes in mixologism and bought Mr Boston's Official Bartender's Guide in New York. It has recipes for almost 1500 cocktails, so we it will take a while to drink from A to Z.

New York Food

My recent trip to New York was awesome, this was my 9th or 10th vacation there and still I saw new places and did new things constantly.

We had great meals, here are some of the favourites.



Sullivan Diner in Greenwich Village had very juicy burgers, we tried also the famous Shake Shack, but I have to say the whole hamburger meal in Sullivan diner was better (although more expensive also).



Les Halles park Avenue was chosen mainly because Anthony Bourdain was the chef there previosly. We knew the man himself hasn't been sweating and swearing in their kitchen for year, but our waiter Tom was fun and knowable, he had also had his 15 minutes of fame in No Reservations. We were pleasantly surprised about the food. Th classic steak frites dish was juicy and tender, just as it should be.



Service in Nice Green Bo in Chinatown was quite rude, but this is one of the places where one goes for food, not for impeccable service or romantic atmosphere.



Originally went to Elettaria to have cocktails, they had a true "mixologist" working in the bar. Elettaria took part in Restaurant Week and we decided to have also dinner there. Very nice dishes and good value for money.



I have been to Italy many times, but I have to say that the antipasti at Mike's deli in Arthur Avenue retail market in Bronx was the best I have ever had! Mozzarella was made there the same day, salamis and cheeses were tasty, stuffed green shooters absolutely delicious... I still dream about this treat!



Ruby Foo's at Times Square gets lot of bad rap at http://www.menupages.com/ but we had a great, fresh (although not "real Traditionl Chinese") dinner there.



Grand Central terminal is an interesting place for fine dining. It was fun to watch the people hurry to and from trains downstairs and have a great meal at Metrazur at the same time.