Dear Irene,

Thanks for trying to ruin my plans, but you’ve failed.

Thank you to everyone who has messaged, emailed, tweeted or facebooked me. Yes, I was here throughout the storm, but I’m a-ok. Irene definitely put a bit of a change in my plans, but I’m having a ball. I’m writing this blog post as I sit in the garden at Pure and couldn’t be happier.There will be many posts about my NYC experience, and I’ll be updating my NYC restaurant spreadsheet when I’m back, but for now let’s start on Thursday with my arrival, before Irene showed up.

Thursday was my first ever experience with Porter, and I have to say that it was brilliant from the start. I loved the fact that I didn’t have to travel up to Pearson, and that I had a beautiful view of the water and the city skyline. The complimentary snacks and wifi were pretty sweet too. My roommates had recommended the Carlton Arms hotel to me and upon arrival it absolutely felt like home. I will post more pictures of all the common areas, but for anyone who has ever visited my apartment, you’ll understand why this felt like home. I chose a room on the 4th floor and loved how feminine and pretty it felt and thought the extra flights of stairs would be a good idea… 

I immediately headed over to One Lucky Duck for lunchy I opted for the taco salad. There were no seats when I arrived, but managed to grab one just before my food was ready. The salad was delish with the guac and sour cream being my favourite parts.

My afternoon happened on a whim and I was delighted by everything that I discovered. I HAD to go to babycakes and was not disappointed. That, my friends, is a gluten free vegan samoa donut. Caramel, coconut, and chocolate. Apparently it’s a Girl Scout cookie flavour? I’ll call it heaven. There’s been a lot of vegan donuts floating around in Toronto,but not many gluten free ones. I was never a huge donut eater, but this was like a party in my mouth that I never wanted to end. I also grabbed a vanilla cupcake to go. Holy amaze-balls.

I stopped at Moo Shoes, which is an awesome vegan shoe store and picked up some fab brown boots for $30. Perfect for fall and I can’t wait to wear them.

Next stop was Harney & Sons for some tea goodness! I had promised my tea club gals some of the amazing cinnamon “sparkle” tea and wanted something delicious and new to try as well. Emeric (Harney) was so helpful once again and I can’t wait to share details of the amazing teas I purchased.After shopping and wandering I tried my luck at the Mormon lottery again and failed. I then tried to win the RENT lottery and failed at that too. Luckily they had “lottery loser” tickets and got to see the new Off-Broadway production.

I was sandwiched between two other people who were singing all the words so I felt right at home. I also cried. A lot. I’ve come to really enjoy RENT and the exploration of the relationships within it. The new production has some stellar performances, amazing set/lighting and the music sounded awesome. Was really excited to see Will Van Dyke leading the band, as I was recently listening to his tunes as potential choices for the next Ashleyx2 cabaret (in the fall!)

I took a cab home, smiling all the way, excited for the days ahead! I can’t wait to continue sharing my NYC adventures with all of you…