Eating, sleeping, sunset-watching, shopping, + eating some more on the Lower East Side

Total rookie move: making morning plans at Gotham West Market with friends/family after a night of drinking so that meeting at 10:30 actually meant our friends met at 10:30 am while we frantically rushed around only to arrive 30 minutes or more later. We were totally those people. To be fair (but not less douchey) we didn’t *plan* on staying out so late, but that’s no excuse.

Luckily our friends waited for us and luckily there was blue bottle coffee which is now all the rage on this coast. We heard blue bottle coffee mentioned no fewer than 5 times while in NYC (and even more since then) and I wanted to say “we’ve been drinking that since forever out in SF.” But then I had already fulfilled my dbag quotient for the day so I kept my mouth shut.

We ate ramen at Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop and hogged the tables for hours catching up and talking about general Life stuff — dreams, travels, the immediate future. All good things to contemplate while hunched over a hot bowl of ramen.

After saying goodbyes we hurried back to our hotel and took a long nap waking up just in time to catch the sun setting behind the skyline from the rooftop deck. Then we walked to Doughnut Plant and gorged on donuts and pistachio milk before heading over to Uniqlo to shop off all the sugar we consumed.

By 10pm we were starting to get a bit hungry again so after more lounging at our hotel, we decided to walk to one of our favorite places to eat and eat even more. It just wouldn’t be a trip to NYC without a meal at Oh! Taisho.

Details

EAT//
Gotham West Market / $-$$ / Love the idea of this place — lots of open space, seating, and plenty of casual gourmet selections. They also have blue bottle coffee! It totally reminded me of going to the Ferry building back *home.* We all had ramen from the slurp shop, and it was good even if I still don’t quite understand what ‘mazeman’ is. (We googled it, but what came out was not what google said it would be. Still, tasty.)
Doughnut Plant / $ / In all our trips to NYC, how have we never been here before? We started with just two doughnuts but after eating those in like 5 seconds we went back for two more. I could have eaten an entire dozen all by myself, and that is not an exaggeration. Yum x 100.
Oh! Taisho / $ / Japanese izakaya food. We cannot leave NYC without eating here at some point during our trip, partly because we have had a ton of good times here. I also cannot leave without ordering/eating the shishito, fries with roe mayo, and chicken skin yakitori. The best part is that it’s open late, although post-drinking it can get really crowded.

SHOP//
Uniqlo – Another place we always seem to visit while in NYC. I know they have online ordering, but when are they going to open a store in DC?

MORE NYC//
Previously documented trips to NYC can be found here.