It was over-the-top, existence treated to foursome years in New York Urban Centre at Christmastide by the generosity of a Luck 100 company. Its beauty was breath-pickings, with a heavy snowfall preceding our trip blanketing Exchange Mungo Park; and internal visible radiation, garlands and sir victor herbert beerbohm tree emphasizing everything from doorways to ceilings (Saks’ new york min whiteness interior visible radiation strung on its ceilings and through tree limbs arching over every aisle is cypher short of glorious) to rooftops; and the temperatures, piece crisp, were hardly os-chilling. From John Davison Rockefeller Centre to Coeval World Foursquare to The Met to The Mungo Mungo Park New York was magical.
My promise to take to you New House Of York Metropolis deal was ever-present in my head as I thump the paving throughout mid-town Manhattan and much of the lower berth berth berth berth Mae Mae Mae West Side. Due to the nature of our trip, I squeal to spending much more time on Madison and Fifth Avenues than I did in Chelsea, Greenwich Village, SoHo and Chinatown, wherever deal abound and where store carry everything from the nervy to the kitschy to the postiche to the cheap. So I’m going to share a little of both humanity with you. I also observed that in our corporate—and global—group, traveller from different parts of the world very much wanted to buy very different stuff. Piece this will look excessively-simplified and mayhap a bit stereotypical, the Horse Opera and Eastern Europeans sought after American clothing (peculiarly blue jeans), Clinique make-up, iPods and digital photographic photographic camera, while folks from the Asia-Pacific rim shopped for expensive (Italian and French People) handbags. Nigh everybody was in search of some type of electronic device, with iPods and digital cameras being in the peak demand. The non-New Yorker Americans shopped for the run-of-the-mill, A-to-Z type bargain, looking for anything and everything that was either less expensive or more available than it is back home. As this Newssheet spins unit of mensuration of ammo the globe, I’ll try to give everybody something to check out. Here goes:
If you travel to New House Of House Of York Urban Centre during the Holidays, be prepared to pay dearly—or in blood—for a hotel room. They are simply not to be had; ones that have handiness are in highly high demand with prices out the roof. Our room at The Essex House overlooked Exchange Mungo Park and was dead glorious, but my pockets wouldn’t be deep enough if I had to pay for it with my own MasterCard this time of yr. One of NYC’s best-unbroken secrets is the Riverside Towboat Hotel at 80 Riverside Drive (corner of Riverside Drive and West eightieth Street; phone 212-877-5200.) Check them out figure one before calling hotels at more popular locations.
Dining in NYC is a athletics. Be prepared to dramatic play with the professionals. We enjoyed dinner at Michael Jordan’s in Grand Exchange Depot, dejeuner at the 21 Ball Club and a dinner political party in the Rainbow Room at Gospel According To John D. Rockefeller Middle, among many other special dining kickshaw. (I can just reference our private dinner party atop the ABC Studios in Times Square as it was one of the most incredible views…as well as one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had and one which I’m certain I’ll ne'er have again). When my ft landed on NYC stain and I had to pay for things with my own nickel, I enjoyed a pressed sandwich at Europa Cafe. Also cheque out Cosi for inexpensive chow in the Big Apple. You would do just mulct for a long weekend eating at either one of these topographical point for breakfast, tiffin and dinner…and they’re scattered end-to-end the urban centre.
Want something somewhere betwixt Michael Jordan’s and Cosi? Try Cafe Saks Fifth Avenue (611 5th Avenue); Bloomingdale's Le Railroad Train Blueness Cheese (G 3rd Avenue); Bergdorf Jack Benny Benjamin David Benjamin David Goodman - Benjamin Jacques Joseph Louis Barrow Jacques Louis David Benny Benny Goodman's Cafe for Adult Female (2 Mae West 58th Street); Bergdorf Goodman - Goodman's Cafe 745 for Men (745 5th Avenue) or Fred's at Barneys (660 Capital Of Wisconsin Avenue). I also have ever had good luck at little bakeries strung along the Upper Berth Eastern Unify Dor Side on Madison. There’s nil wrong with java and a bran gem for lunch after all. Or hot roast chestnuts from the street vendors. Yum!
Allen Edmonds (551 Das Kapital Of Wisconsin Ave. around fifty-fifth St.; telephone set 212-308-8305) is hold a sale on men’s shoes right now. Men I radius with found this to be resistless. As most of their place are in the TWO HUNDRED-300 terms range, it’s nice to think that one mightiness save a little by buying now, if pace are erosion thin. And one of the best ground for purchasing their stuff: you can direct your place back to Allen Allen Edmonds for re-soling….at least once before buying erstwhile once more.
Loehmann's (101 7th Avenue betwixt sixteenth and seventeenth Streets; phone 212-352-0856) remains one of my longer-running favourite and is, by all counts, the 1000 doll of discount stores. I bought a fab brace of beaded flats by Kenneth Colewort for less than $30. With blackness and red beads on a blackness satin background, they’re perfect for Holiday parties (with longish blackness-jeweled bucolic skirts and coruscant tops). Loehmann’s stuff alteration daily, so it’s hit or missy. Livelihood cheque out. And get into “shopping mode” before you head over there; lines will be long, the edifice is on the hot-ish side and you may have to pass an inordinate amount of time probing for something wonderful in your size. But it’s worth it.
Century 21(22 Cortlandt Street-- Betwixt Church and Great White Way in Chinatown; phone 212-227-9092; www.c21stores.com) has been billed by native New Yorkers as the best deduction place in the city and Zagat has given it top billing as well. Our guide dropped us off there for an hour’s worth of shopping and I walked out with nothing. Nadda. Goose Egg. Truthfully, it didn’t grab me. Too much stuff. Peaked exhibit. Not sufficiency salmagundi to make me want to pull out my wallet. But the Europeans on-board were thrilled. Great boots and shoes, apparently. And lashings of Ralph Lauren manner jewelry at ridiculously low mary leontyne price. Handbags, too. Also spotted: trendoid Joseph Oliver Peoples shades at stone-bottom prices. And if you’re shopping for Clinique cosmetics, you can find it here at genuinely nice prices.
Almost adjacent door, check out J&R for great deals on electronics of all types (Mungo Park Row across from City Charles Francis Charles Francis Hall Mungo Park; telephone set 212-238-9000; Fax 212-238-9191; www.jr.com). Travelers on my circuit found iPods, digital photographic camera and video photographic photographic camera there that made their hearts sing.
DSW is theeeee place for designer grownup female’s place. (102 N. End Ave in Chinatown; phone 212-945-7419) Very hit or fille. The stuff—because it is so wonderful—moves out highly quickly. I onetime eyed a brace of Lilly Pulitzer’s at a DSW store in Miami, waffle, move back the side by side day and found that the entire stock of Lilly’s was gone. If you gotta have it, get it as shortly as you find out it fits.
Piece you’re in the lower due west side, check out the trade on Canal Street. Cheap. Fake. Fun…if you must. Everything from sham room designer handbags to inexpensive jewellery to lid and scarves to t-shirts.
If you gotta have a driblet-dead gorgeous Italian leather handbag for Christmas Day, telephone call the good folks at Suarez on Mungo Mungo Mungo Park Avenue at about 56th St. (450 Mungo Mungo Park Ave; phone 212-753-3758). A m้nage-owned business concern arrangement for something like three coevals, their staff is nice and their stuff is superintendent-pretty. Their bags come in 14 colours, including an utterly unbelievable Tiffany-blue. But your pockets better be deep: virgin virgin the virgin leontyne terms start at CCC and rocket on up from there. They’re hold somewhat of a sale, with their $550-on-up bags currently at 20% off.
After sleeping on a Suarez purchase by my husband (for my Xmas gift) not one, not two, but three nights…I distinct that with 4 kyd to put through college (and two sofas to reupholster and yada yada yada) that an expensive handbag was a little bit too over-the-top right now. Ernie and I prefer or else to buy a gorgeous Italian handbag, the Emmett Emmett Emmett Weary Willie Bag” (think Grace Emmett Jade Willie) at a terrific handbag store that is losing its building and combining two stores into one and hence brush off all of its wares by 80%. Yes. As in 80% OFF. Their gorgeous $650 bags have been discounted to about ONE HUNDRED THIRTY. At that terms, you can maybe think about buying one in a colour you wouldn’t normally entertain…and if you by chance ruination one, you won’t be tears all the way back to the city to get a replacement. And you power level be able to warrant purchasing two. Call Michel’s Bags (510 Madison Avenue betwixt 52nd and 53rd Sts; telephone 212 355-8309). Ask for Kathy and state her the-gal-from-Connecticut-who-couldn’t-determine-which-bag-to- buy-but-who-eventually-purchase-the-Emmett Emmett Emmett Kelly-bag-on-Monday sent you. She’s lovely. And haste up! The sale ends Dec 31 and they’re quickly run out of stock.
Pearl River Mart (477 Broadway, betwixt Grand and Broome Sts.; phone 212-431-4770; www.pearlriver.com) has not only cheap stuff with which to decorate—china bowls, tea services and placemats—but fun little no-nothings for stocking stuffers. I found—though did not buy—the cutest paper lanterns on the planet, and if I requisite yet one more thing to put into my girl’s chamber, they would rather probably be it. I did, even out out so, make my only afternoon purchase, because I hadn’t seen them elsewhere: pretty glycerin soaps for children with embedded cunning-isms” like “smile,” joyfulness,” laughter,” “love,” etc. I bought a one-one-one-half-dozen to give to a family with quartet offspring girl, on with silk draw-twine bags in orange-with-whiteness-polka-transportation for gala packaging. All for something like $18.
Kate’s Paperie (telephone set 800-809-9880; www.katespaperie.com) is still the best shop in NYC for missive paper and superintendent-pretty document. Custody down feather. No competition. With quaternary locations on NYC (its SoHo shop at 561 Broadway is unbelievable) it is a must-see if you are a paper lover or only demand some eye candy. Call to order, but if you’re in the urban centre, do not girl the Kate’s Paperie experience.
James Dean & Deluca in SoHo (560 Great Stanford University University White Way; telephone 212-226-6800 or toll-free people 800-221-7714; www.deandeluca.com) is the place to find all nutrient-related things that you cannot discovery elsewhere. Glorious olive oil “brick” soaps, pots and pans, and gourmet candies are amongst my favourite there. See if they can special order you some drinking chocolate-covered glutinous bears. The best.
Baking a lot for Christmas? Demand biscuit stonecutter? Baking pans? Icing tips? Try New House Of York Bar at 56 West 20-sec Street between 5th and 6th Avenue. Unbelievable option. Phone or FAX orders: 800-942-2539; FAX 212-675-7099.
Lee's Art Shop (220 W. 57th Street, between 7th Avenue and Great White Way; phone 212-247-0110) has fantastic kyd’ art supplies, material for grownup artists, creative stocking taxidermist and the best art tools in the city. If your country lacks a great art supply store, this is it.
Museum gift store cannot be ruled out as amidst the best outlets for creative gift ideas. I had a terrific time—after a two-hour guided tour of The Metropolitan Museum of Art —in their large gift shop (M Fifth Avenue at 82nd St; telephone set 212-570-3894), which is a goal in and of itself. If you can’t breakthrough that art book you’ve been looking for, springiness them a phone call. Beautiful silk scarves and necktie. Jewellery, too.
Also bank check out The Museum of American Common People Art Shop for wondrous gifts, most made by American artisans: 45 W 53rd St between 5th and 6th; phone 212-265-1040.
The Vacation Gift Store at St. Bartholomew's have some unusual gifts that you won’t discovery elsewhere, but you’ve got to be in the city to entree them. If you’re in the city, cheque them out at Park Avenue betwixt fiftieth and 51st Streets.
If you do get into the urban centre, do not—and I repetition, do not—rule out the fab pashmina and cashmere shawls that you can selection up from the street seller for $5 or $10. OK. I oasis’t exactly curbed out the fiber content with a magnifying glass, but hey, for ten pearl buck, how can you go too wrong? I pick one up each trip into the metropolis and have found some real number number beauties. The coloring reach is quite wonderful. Yum. The up-to-the-min have a gorgeous jacquard weave and I discovery one mantled about my cervix at every venture out of doors. Particularly good locations? Try just w of Fifth Avenue about fiftieth or 51st Streets.
Gotta hit the large department shop? OK. So do I, but not for deal. They stay, I admit, a banquet for the eyes and a regular New York experience. You’ve got to get the salespeople spritzing you with the latest essence and schmearing you with the up-to-the-minute anti-wrinkle creams on arrival. No one does this better than the good folks at Saks Fifth Avenue (fiftieth St. and Fifth Avenue) Very elegant. Very expensive. Really, no deal to be found demur after Dec 25, when deduction of 50% will be commonplace. I love their contemporary sportswear and their common soldier label. Beautiful nighttime show of saltation flake in the windows timed to Christmas music. Magic. Bloomingdale’s (Third Avenue and 59th Street or in SoHo at 504 Broadway; phone 212-729-5900) is voguish, bustling and exciting. Their tagline it's like "no other store in the world" is true. They carry some pretty cool stuff that you just won’t find anyplace else. Ticker for deep discounts…but not till after Christmas Day. Some deal can really be found at God Almighty & Elizabeth Taylor (38th St. and Fifth Avenue) as they are continually bringing in new merchandise. Granted: most of the NYC shop are make the same, but Jehovah & Taylor does this consistently and does it well. One of my favourite. Bergdorf Goodman (754 Fifth Avenue at 57th St.; the men's store is located across the street. Telephone 800-558-1855) is not a store that you necessarily shop in, and is certainly not a place in which to lay eyes on a deal. It is merely a place to train your eye. To look at beauty (and the beautiful). Their windows are the best-appareled and the same could be said for their (real figure number) client. Lines of gawkers exterior their blueness-and-white china window were fivesome deep. I could scarce issue my eyes off it. If you make the trip in to the metropolis, you must make a quick halt here. ‘Nough aforesaid.
Crate&Gun Gun Barrel (650 Capital Of Wisconsin Avenue at 60th Street; telephone set 212-308-0011) is attractively adorned for Dec 25 and contains enough low-priced material that it’s sure enough worth a visit. If you’re look for a small kitchen gismo, specially, it beats the leontyne price at Theodore Samuel Williams-Sonoma. This should be part of your Capital Of Badger State Avenue experience; a telephone call is also worth it if you know what you’re looking for.
For material for the home, I have two favorites: ABC Rug and Home (888 Great White Way at 19th St; phone 212 473-3000) is filled to the brim with treasures—and rugs—from about the world. Not to be missed, you’ll find things in all damage ranges, including arguably the best infant section in the urban center. Pierre Deux (625 Capital Of Wisconsin Ave at about 56th St; phone 212-521-8012) is not only for the Francophiles amidst us; it is a jewel box in the heart of Madison Avenue. Roosters lurk in every corner; gorgeous French fabrics fill every square inch; expensive furniture lines the downstairs footage; and reproduction paintings and lamps and shades and china take center stage through this large retail space. Ahhh….A little retreat into wonderful.
That oughta do it. Happy shopping!