We'll Have What She's Having

Catering Sign, New York City, New York, USA

This is the catering and party sign in the famous Katz's Delicatessen.  Open since 1888, Katz's has served generations.  Marc's family has been eating there for decades.  His parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and perhaps even his great-great grandparents ate there.  Katz's is also the site of the famous scene in When Harry Met Sally where Estelle Reiner says "I'll have what she's having".  Meg Ryan's order was too complicated for us, so we stuck to hot pastrami on rye.

Living Outside the Box

One Jackson Square, New York, New York, USA

The facade of One Jackson Square is amazing.  Not only we were surprised by the design of this cool building, but also that it is a residential complex.  We thought for sure it was an office building.
 
We took this picture in a hurry with our phone from a car, hence the black corner.  While we could have cropped this out, we decided to leave it in as it somehow made sense given the shape of the building.

Cooking Up The Hits

Silvercup Studios, Long Island City, New York, USA

Sex and the City, The Sopranos, and many other successful TV shows and movies were filmed in the former Silvercup Bakery building.  When we took this picture, we had no idea of the importance of Silvercup Studios to entertainment and NYC.  We just liked the sign!

A Newsworthy Edifice

Hearst Tower, Manhattan, New York, USA

This modern skyscraper actually took nearly 80 years to be built!  The Hearst Tower was originally commissioned in the 1920's, but construction was halted during the Great Depression and only six stories were completed.  Almost 80 years later, construction resumed and a modern tower was built atop the original foundation.

Like Jimmy Olsen of the Daily Planet, we had to be quick.  We took this photo from a car using an Apple iPhone 4.

In a Pretzel

Pretzel Stand, New York, New York, USA

The city of New York has had a hard time of it this week from Hurricane Sandy.  Here's to better days with dry streets lined with pretzels, pizza, shwarma, hot dogs, etc.

Times Have Changed

Pickled Cucumbers and Tomatoes, New York, New York, USA

We used to go to Wolfie's and the Rascal House on Miami Beach and always find their famous cucumber pickles and pickled tomatoes (as well as sweet cole slaw) in big metal bowls on our tables.  We simply grabbed what we wanted with fingers, forks, or tongs.  The picture above was from a recent trip to Katz's in New York City.

This shows how different things are now versus even 25 years ago.  We're not complaining about the portions above, as we think our plate was refilled.  What we do realize now is that bringing out troughs of food to a table was both wasteful and definitely not hygienic.

A Talented Mirror Ball

Mirror Ball, New York City, New York, USA
Not all artists are human. This mirror ball cast off beautiful specks of light, set the mood for dancing, and gave us a pixelated portrait of ourselves.

Luck of the Dice

A Room in Chelsea, New York City, New York, USA
Before we found TripAdvisor (and sometimes even after), the quality of our lodging accommodations would be a great mystery to us until we arrived. Most of the time, we would get something close to what we expected; sometimes not. Even with TripAdvisor we sometimes receive the unexpected (good and bad), but generally their are few surprises.

This tiny room at an inn in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood was tolerable, but hardly as described. The room was so small that either of us could touch two walls while sitting on the bed. This might have been okay if the bed did not have the head on one wall and the foot on the other! This room was smaller than any room we've had in Europe. In fact, to this day, this inn describes their rooms as "generously large". We didn't mind the room size as much as the misrepresented amenities and condition of the inn. Luckily, it was not the worst place we've ever stayed and it was in a reasonably convenient location.