Thursday, 5/8/25

 Breakfast was just coffee in the apartment and the lemon poppyseed cake we got as a parting gift at Gramercy. They were lovely so so damn buttery. Maybe even two buttery and I don't say that lightly. We had a 1:45 appointment with an architectural boat tour, so we had an early lunch at a nearby pizza place called Stretch. It's kind of a funny story: we were watching Top Chef and Wylie Dufresne was a guest judge; I got to wondering was he was up to now only to discover that he had a pizza place only about a block from the apartment. We had walked by several times and had no idea. Overall it was really good, but I think we could have made better choices. My mozzarella sticks were nice and crunchy, although the pesto flavor wasn't necessary; Jessica's salad with carrot, sunflower seeds and tomato dressing was sort of dull at best. The pizza was really good, especially the crust, but I didn't love our topping choice (shallots, three way: too sweet). BUT no notes on the maple soft serve with a pretzel dip and salted caramel. Also, Wylie Dufresne was actually there!

Then over to Chelsea Piers for the tour: you completely circumnavigate the island in a reproduction of a 1920's yacht. It was nice because you could sit inside in comfort and still get great views. It was incredibly cool seeing the whole island from that perspective and I would absolutely do it again.  Didn't get any good pictures, of course

For dinner we made a bit of a last minute choice to try Empellon Midtown. We had loved the downtown location both times we tried it (hot dog taco notwithstanding but that's our own fault), and we had been planning to go there years ago on our canceled trip. It got a lot of buzz all those years ago, and we had a couple of good dishes, but overall I didn't love it. The service was only OK, it was crazy loud, and while a couple of dishes wowed us (the cabbage salad with toasted fava bean dressing was impossible to stop eating, the guacamole with  7 salsas is still fun) a couple (Jessica's gloppy overly sweet milk chocolate tres leches cake, hit or miss shishito peppers) were meh. Did try the famous "Avocado, Lime Raspado, Eucalyptus Yogurt" which looks so much like an avocado that it's a bit jarring (it's really a kind of lime  mousse and quite refreshing and delicious). I think I would stick to one of the more casual downtown locations. Or maybe it was just an off night.

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