Review: The Palm Restaurant

...The one in which I pretty much devour an entire cow. I don’t know how I swallowed that cow…but…I’m getting ahead of myself….let me back up.



We had theater tickets for 8:00 pm this evening, and so, while doing my incessant research, I discovered a steakhouse that was literally right across the street from the theater.

The Palm Restaurant, located at 250 West 50th Street, has been around since 1926…so I figured it must be good. On TripAdvisor, it’s listed at #999 out of 9,299 restaurants in NYC – and has received the 2013 Certificate of Excellence. It also had good reviews on Yelp, so I went ahead and made reservations for 6:00 pm for Friday, June 21st.




We were seated immediately once we arrived – taken back to a table along the far wall, which gave us a good view of the entire restaurant. While waiting for our service, we enjoyed the cartoon caricatures on the walls – there were hundreds of them. The story has it that the original Palm was located next to a newspaper office – and the newspaper cartoonists traded their services for food at the restaurant…and the tradition continues to this day.





I was fortunate to be seated directly across from Hugh Jackman, although you wouldn’t know that from this horrible photo that I took:


Dining with Hugh Jackman...what a treat!


Keep in mind that – as is typical, for some reason, in nicer restaurants – the lighting was VERY dim…so most of our photos were not the best quality.

Our waiter – whose name escapes me, unfortunately, but I believe was Jamie – was extremely attentive. He was very interested in this blog, and wanted me to mention him - and here I can't remember his name! Argh!!! Such are the perils of getting older...I should have been making better notes...but anyway - here's a photo of our wonderful-waiter-whose-name-may-or-may-not-be-Jamie-but-was-still-fabulous:


Call Me Jamie...Maybe...



We started off our meal with some delicious lobster bisque, which was creamy with a hint of sherry, as well as a crisp iceberg lettuce salad, topped with blue cheese, walnuts, bacon, chives and fried onions. I absolutely LOVED the soup – if I could have, I would have licked my bowl. As it was, I was pretty much like a cat – licking my whiskers after a delicious bowl of cream. The salad was a bit of a disappointment, as the blue cheese was too plentiful and too strong. It pretty much overpowered the rest of the toppings on the salad, which is a shame. I love me some blue cheese, but this was too much, even for my standards.

Daughter dined on a 9 oz filet mignon, which she declared perfect. Hubby and I each chose ‘the special’, which was a prime rib. Because it wasn’t printed in the menu, that I could find, anyway, we really had no idea what size to expect. Imagine our shock when an 18-oz piece of meat was put in front of each of us:



This pretty much took up the entire plate…and our reaction was, “Holy Cow!” Literally. Wow. We both bravely dove in, and found the meat to be tender, juicy and flavorful. The only problem – if you can consider this a problem – is that there was just too much of it. We would have been better off if we could have split this, as I barely made a dent in mine and felt so sad that I couldn’t take it with me. (I didn’t think my fellow theater-goers would appreciate me sitting there with a giant hunk of meat in my lap. They’re welcome.)

For dessert, we all shared a delicious crème brulee - which was creamy and tasty…the perfect sweet ending to a very-satisfying meal:



Hubby had ordered a glass of Merlot for his dinner – imagine his surprise when we discovered it was $25.50 for that 9-oz glass…and of course, we didn’t make this discovery until we got the bill.

Our meal ended up costing a staggering $250 for the three of us…gulp. We decided to consider it a celebration dinner of our first night in the Big Apple, and we vowed to starve the rest of the ten days – but we all deemed it worth it.



The service was good…the ambiance was good…and the food was delicious. What made it even better – we literally only had to walk about 200 feet to the theater for our show…and this show was the one that my Daughter had been driving me crazy for MONTHS about...with her incessant SINGING....

That post to come next!

Review: San Carlos Hotel

Let’s talk hotels. In New York City.

Oy vey.

If you’ve been following along on our Big Apple Adventure, you know that we’ve just arrived in Manhattan at our hotel…the San Carlos. Let's talk about our accommodations.

In doing my research before our trip, I probably spent more time in hotel research than anything else. There’s SO many things to consider when choosing a hotel – such as location, price, size, quality, etc – and this is especially true when choosing a hotel in Manhattan.

Take location, for instance…do you want to stay in the heart of Times Square? That’s great if you want to be within walking distance of a lot of the “touristy” stuff – but it could be horrible when it comes to noise…or cost. So – if having a quiet, peaceful night’s sleep is important to you – you may choose to NOT be in the heart of Times Square.

So…I researched. And researched. And researched again. I like my sleep. I like peace and quiet. I also like space – and we had three people to fit into a room. A lot of hotel rooms in Manhattan are about the size of a person’s closet – so this was disconcerting to someone who is a bit claustrophobic.

I finally discovered the San Carlos Hotel – located at 150 East 50th Street…in the Midtown East location in Manhattan. Tripadvisor.com had it ranked #32 out of 435 hotels in New York City – which is pretty darn good.



As far as location, it was excellent…it was one block away from a major subway line, and it was just a few blocks away from Times Square and Broadway. However – it was FAR enough away to afford us a bit of peace and quiet when we retired for the night. During the day, there was some construction going on, both on our hotel and a hotel directly across the street (probably more like some remodeling), but the work would finish at a decent hour each night and didn't bother us.


The view out of one of our windows...we overlooked the front of the hotel, and you can see the construction going on across the street....



However - we did realize we must have been very close to a fire station, as we seemed to have at least one fire truck go by our window just about every day. With their sirens blazing. Eventually, we must have tuned it out - in typical New York fashion. In fact, when Hubby went to take some photos of the exterior of our hotel - he managed to inadvertently get the beginning of a fire truck in his photo:




Immediately next door to our hotel was a very small (think 50 square feet) sliver of a convenience store - which was perfect to pop in and grab a soda, or a snack, or a bottle of water as we headed out for the day.

The price…was adequate. It wasn’t the cheapest – nor the most expensive – but for what we got (a suite), it was reasonable.

Speaking of a suite, we had plenty of space. We had a small kitchen area, a dining table with two chairs, a pull-out sofa bed that Daughter used, and two good-sized closets.


The living room...the sofa would fold out into a bed for daughter every night....



Our room...the queen-sized bed was more than adequate...and it was comfortable. The pillows were even comfortable - yay!



The kitchenette...which came fully stocked with glasses, plates and silverware...which made eating late-night cupcakes a breeze!


And quality? Wow. It was always clean; the concierge and doorman were always attentive; we had turn-down service every night (including chocolates on our pillows); free internet; luxurious robes and bath products; and free continental breakfasts. On rainy days, they provided free umbrellas to the guests to borrow for the entire day...which we handily used and were most appreciative. We were treated like royalty - and we loved it.

We had Room #701 - a corner suite on the 7th floor - RIGHT by the elevators. We loved our corner room - it was extremely quiet from other hotel noise, and we also loved being close to the elevator. This made it handy when we'd get back to our room late at night, laden down with shopping bags....And the elevators? Wow - easily the fastest elevators I've experienced; we NEVER had to wait for a slow elevator.

And bed bugs?

None. None to speak of.

All in all, we loved our hotel. We would most definitely stay there again for future trips - and I would recommend it in a heartbeat to anyone visiting.

We checked in around 4:30 pm...and although check-in was smooth and painless, we barely had time to throw our suitcases in the room before having to head out for our dinner reservations. Luckily, our restaurant was just a few short blocks - so, we freshened up and headed out to dinner...which will be reviewed in the next post.

It will be the one in which I basically eat an entire cow.

Trapped...

Friday, June 21…

Day #1 of our NYC Adventure…we were booked on Delta, and our flight wasn’t until 11:00 am. A non-stop flight to LaGuardia, this would have us arriving in NYC around 3:00 pm – perfect for evening activities.

While waiting at our local airport, we were seated outside of security…because Kansas City, in homgage to our redneck reputation, doesn’t offer any shops, restaurants, or restrooms in the secured area. Yeah – fun times. If you’ve gone through security – and you have to pee – tough. You either hold it – or you go back out, do your business, and then get back in line again for the TSA Patdown. Fun times. Being the Kansas City experts that we are, we know to opt to sit outside of security until the last possible moment...which we did.

Anyway – while we were sitting there, a German family of three walked up to us and offered us their canned sodas. Apparently, they had purchased these without thinking they couldn’t take them past security – and were offering them to us. Hey – they were still sealed, so who were we to turn down some international generosity?! We wouldn’t want to start an international incident, so we graciously accepted, and had a toast to our upcoming adventure:


To the Germans! And to New York!!!



While enjoying our cool, refreshing drinks, Hubby did what he always does:



...which is check the stock market...while Daughter and I messed around with our iPhones and began documenting our adventure:



Eventually, we saw some friends of ours that we knew, Pat and Debbie, who were coincidentally ALSO flying to New York. And on the same flight as we were. We hadn’t seen them in quite a while, so we had a grand old time catching up…while sitting in an airport terminal, of all places.

Our flight was smooth and uneventful – until we landed. Well. Let me rephrase that. The landing was smooth and uneventful – thank goodness – but it was our approach to the gate that somehow got screwed up. As we pulled up to the gate, everyone onboard stood up and began gathering their bags – out of the overhead bins, from under the seats – all that normal chaos that ensues when people who have been trapped for several hours in an aluminum tube sense freedom is close at hand.

However, it became soon evident that no one was moving. No one was disembarking the plane. For whatever reason – it wasn’t clear at this point – the door wasn’t being opened to let the trapped passengers off. We stood…and we stood…and we stood. Hmmmm….

Soon, a flight attendant came on the loud speaker: “Ladies and gentlemen, it appears we are having a bit of trouble with the jet bridge…you might as well have a seat until we can figure out what is going on.”

Oh, lovely. Just what everyone wants to do when landing. Sit back down. But that’s what everyone does…and we wait…and we wait…and we wait. Gah. We’re SO close – within inches of the gate – and yet we can’t disembark. Frustrating.

Eventually, a second announcement comes on: “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to ask you to re-buckle your seatbelts, as we’re going to try to ‘ooch’ the plane forward a bit – to see if this helps.”

“Ooch”???? Now there’s a technical term if we’ve ever heard one. We can only hope that ooching the plane will get us off the plane.

So…we wait…and we wait…and we wait…and if the plane “ooched” – it was so slight, none of us felt it. Perhaps we're not supposed to feel an ooch, but who knows. Perhaps if you feel it, it's gone beyond the ooch phase and has become something else.

I digress. Anywho.

After several, long, agonizing – what seemed like forever – minutes, the third and final announcement: “Uh, ooching didn’t work…so we’re going to bring stairs up to the door, and we’ll have you disembark and load up onto a bus on the tarmac, which will take you to the terminal.”

So, that’s what happened. Of course, me being afraid of what airport security would do if I was seen taking photos of this little adventure – I mean, I assumed they would NOT like people taking photos down on the tarmac, but I could be wrong – but if I WASN’T wrong, I didn’t want to end up in federal prison somewhere, although that would SURELY give me some interesting and adventures to blog about – I kept my camera safely hidden away.

But my 13-year old daughter, having no such fear – or common sense, apparently – snuck some photos of our little adventure:


There's Hubby...making his way down...along with my arm...



One bus wasn't enough for all of us - they eventually had to bring in a second one...



After dropping us off here, we entered the airport - went up a back staircase - and were FINALLY on our way...



After being bussed a short distance to the terminal, we FINALLY were inside and gathering our checked luggage, and making our way to the curb. Here, I had pre-ordered a ride from a company called Dial 7 (their link is HERE)... which provided a luxury sedan, for three people, for a total of $34.00. For a trip from LaGuardia (in Queens, no less) to midtown Manhattan. AWESOME deal.

Our driver was waiting for us, and off we went…well. Let me rephrase that. It’s now about 3:30 pm on a Friday afternoon…which equates – in New York City, anyway – to the biggest traffic jam of all time. For some unknown reason, everyone in New York City is exactly where they DON’T want to be at that time – so millions of people are all trying to MOVE to where they WANT to be at that time. Everyone HERE is trying to get over THERE and everyone THERE is trying to get over HERE. Absolute. Mass. Chaos. Gah.

We crawled…and we inched…and we crawled…and eventually, we were finally going under the Queens Midtown Tunnel. Which, let me interrupt here by saying that I absolutely, unequivocally, HATE the tunnels in NYC. Hate them. They FREAK me out to no end….I guess it’s my small bit of claustrophobia that I have, and feeling that these long, dark tunnels offer NO escape if traffic were to potentially come to a dead stop. We’d be trapped. In a long, dark scary tunnel. ACK! So, as I always do when going through these tunnels, I began hyperventilating a bit – as if breathing really fast would help the traffic move faster – and of course, Hubby and Daughter looked at me like I was crazy. Which I guess I sorta’ am. But really…surely I’m not the only one who HATES, HATES, HATES these tunnels….??? Right???


Just the word "tunnel" can send me into a panic attack...gah.

Soon, we were pulling up to our hotel…the San Carlos Hotel. Here, our driver patiently unloaded us - and our luggage - and we were good to go.




Would we like it? Would it be big enough for three people? Would it be noisy? Would it be infested with the infamous NYC bed bugs?

Well…I’ll answer all that…in the next post…

New York: The Adventure Begins

New York, New York, a helluva town...
The Bronx is up, but the Battery's down.
The people ride in a hole in the ground.
New York, New York, it's a helluva town!!


Boy, is it ever.

I discovered this while volunteering last winter in the NYC area on behalf of the American Red Cross, because of damage from Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy. I guess all of my phone calls and stories to Hubby about what I was seeing, doing and experiencing while in the Big Apple made an impression – because the next thing I know, Hubby and Daughter had nixed our planned summer vacation to Colorado and begged for a vacation to New York City instead.

Hmmm...let's think about this. Sleeping in a tent in the boonies of Colorado....??? Or sleeping in a 5-star hotel with satin sheets and concierge in New York City?

Um, yeah. If you know me, you know it was a no brainer on what I chose.

The New York City area is HUGE – and planning a vacation that would allow us to see it, taste it, hear it, live it, do it – would be a major undertaking. I ended up planning a ten-day, fun-filled, action-packed adventure…with the hopes of exploring numerous neighborhoods, boroughs, museums, attractions, and shows. Not only did I pick various venues to explore, but I also had to do my homework on how we would get ourselves around…our goal was to avoid using a cab at ANY cost. We’d either hoof it – or ride the subway…so, I had to allow time to get to the various venues and reservations on our schedule. I also had to pray that we wouldn’t get lost. Gah.

Would we make it? Would everything go as planned? Would we have the adventure of a lifetime in the Big Apple?

Or would it be another disaster – along the scale of Hurricane Sandy?

Stay tuned for the next several days – heck, weeks – as I recount what we did…where we went…what we saw…what we ate…whom we met…and along the way, I’ll have photos, tips, links, advice, and stories.

I always have stories.

We'll visit dozens of restaurants, including numerous cupcake shops and bakeries; four Broadway shows; famous landmarks; Wall Street; the 9/11 Memorial; the Brooklyn Bridge; famous shops, and famous Yankee Stadium (where we sit in the dugout!!). Along the way, we'll have encounters with such famous New Yorkers as the Naked Cowboy, Donald Trump, and subway rats (it's pure coincidence that I have Trump and 'rats' in the same sentence, by the way!).

Are you ready???

The Middle Aged Drama Queen proudly presents..."Adventures in the Big Apple."

Let the fun begin!!!

Peace.

Zapped!!!!

One thousand six hundred twenty three photos...

That's how many I took on our recent trip to New York City.

That's also how many photos I lost.

Gone. Poof. Zapped.

One thousand six hundred twenty three...

That would also be the new addition to my ever-growing collection of grey hair.

I'm not really sure what happened...I DO know that we (fortunately) had not one, not two, but FIVE cameras snapping away during our 10-day vacation. With three iPhones between us, along with a Nikon Coolpix, as well as the "Big Momma", a Nikon D50, we had a camera in every hand. We didn't use all the cameras at all times, but we always had at least ONE camera capturing the memories at any given time. Upon arriving home, I took the memory cards from the two Nikons and uploaded the photos to my laptop. I've done it a million times. Should be easy peasy, right?

The photos uploaded with no problem into iPhoto, and as I was viewing them, they suddenly - without any warning - disappeared.

Poof. Zapped. El blanko.

No.

NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNOOO!

I blinked - and looked again, hoping against hope that they've just gone temporarily missing.

Nope. They're gone.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!

Pretty much hyperventilating at this point, and on the verge of a heart attack, I'm now desperately trying to retrieve them. I click and click and search and point and click again on my laptop, to no avail. I check my back-up disc - no luck. No photos. I check my hidden files on the laptop - no luck. No photos.

The pictures are GONE!!!!!

At this point, Hubby walks in the door, and asks me how my day has gone. I bravely answer, "Fine," but with my voice shaking, my hands trembling, and being on the verge of tears - Hubby can pretty much tell that I am NOT fine. No, indeed.

"What's wrong?" he asks, suddenly very concerned.

"Nothing," I reply...but then knowing I'm a terrible liar, I add, "Well, something IS wrong, horribly wrong, but I don't want to tell you. Because you'll say, 'I told you so,' and you won't feel a bit sorry for me."

Because this is true. Over the years, Hubby has always told me that I should NEVER, EVER delete photos off the memory cards of the camera after uploading them to my laptop...and over the years, I have NEVER, EVER listened to him. If I'd listened to him in this case, I'd still have my photos.

So, Hubby answers, "Fine. You don't need to tell me," and begins to walk away.

"Fine." I reply..."Since you've forced me, I'll tell you...." and I tell him what happened.

How was I going to write an EPIC review on my blog - without the supporting photos to add to the story??!!

To his credit, he didn't go into all "I told you so" mode. And he DID remind me that we had three iPhones that had photos - so not ALL was lost. He was actually pretty supportive. I guess he had to be - his wife was on the verge of a mental breakdown combined with a heart attack.

Later that night, I went back to my laptop, and began googling "lost photos on iPhoto" - and I found a suggestion on how to possibly restore the photos. Without anything further to lose, I followed the steps, and after running a program for a very long two hours - a miracle happened.

The photos were back.

Yes. All one thousand six hundred and twenty three.

Thank you, Jesus.

Whew.

Lesson learned: Hubby is right. Do NOT delete your memory cards after uploading photos to a computer.

I wish I could say that I zapped the one thousand six hundred and twenty three new grey hairs - but unfortunately, they're still hanging around.

Peace.