New York, New York

Saturday, March 12, 2011 - Sunday, March 13, 2011

A trip to the city for a couple of new restaurants and a hockey game was on tap for this weekend, a birthday present to me from Jill. We left on Saturday morning, driving to Harrison to drop the car off. From there we took the PATH to the New York City Subway, taking the A train to the 50th Street station (the A train was running the local because of the weekend - usually doesn't stop there), where we found our first destination of the weekend right across the street!

Toloache, a Mexican restaurant, was one we searched out because their chef was on an episode of Iron Chef America that Jill and I watched. His food looked great on that show, and we were hoping that would translate into a good dining experience in one of his restaurants - and it did! For starters, we shared the 'frutas guacamole' - yes, Jill tried the guac, and yes she liked it! :-) It was avocado, pomegranate, vidalia onion, mango, apple, peach, habanero, and Thai basil served with fresh tortilla's. For the main course, Jill had the 'Enchiladas de Pollo' - chicken enchiladas, dried fig–mancha manteles salsa, apple salad, and Mexican cheeses; and I had the 'Suadero Tacos' - Negra Modelo–braised brisket, tomatillo salsa, and horseradish crema. Both entrees were very good! Jill had a couple of white sangria's and I had a couple of Dos Equis Amber's to go along with lunch. For dessert, we shared a 'Pastel de Ellote', which was a roasted corn cake with poblano pepper-blueberry salsa and fig compote. Very good meal from start to finish - and this place is a keeper!

After lunch, we hopped the trains back to Harrison, and then headed over to the Hilton Newark Penn Station where we would be spending the night. This is one of our other 'regular' hotels in Newark, and considering the issues we had at the Robert Treat the last time we stayed there, this will probably now be our only hotel in Newark. We settled into the room, and Jill completed some work (giving me the opportunity to put my feet up for a bit :-) ).

Next stop - 'THE ROCK'! Jill finished up her work, we threw on our Devils gear (gotta support the team!!), and walked over to the rink. One of the best parts about staying at the Hilton is that there is a walkway from there almost all the way to the Prudential Center, with only a block or so outside. Jill did an AWESOME job in getting us seats for this game! By far the best seats we've ever had for an NHL game. Four rows up, dead center behind the goal, on the aisle! Perfect seats. The Devils made the game interesting, taking it all the way to overtime before finally winning! Great game all around. Back to the hotel after the game, where we called it a night.

Sunday morning brought a rarity for us - breakfast in bed! Room service style! Was nice to just hang out, watch some SportsCenter, and not have to worry about checking out of the hotel and scrounging for somewhere to eat. Got ready and headed out of the hotel after the nice breakfast, parking the car back in Harrison and hopping back on the PATH.

We took the subway to Grand Central Terminal, and from there walked up 42nd Street to the Mets Clubhouse Store across from the library, and then from there to the NHL store on 6th Ave. We were wasting time waiting for 2:00, when our next new New York City eatery was to open. On 3rd Ave, near 45th, was the Hofbrau Bierhaus, a German style beer house that had just opened the previous Thursday. The theming was similar to the other ones we had been to, but it was probably the smallest one we had seen, and it was obvious they were still in the 'grand opening' stages. We each had a litre of beer - Jill the Hefe Weizen, and I the Original Hofbrau - shared the pretzels and bier cheese, and then Jill had a grilled chicken sandwich and I had the pork schnitzel. The food was good, but as far as overall experience this would probably be our only trip here. It just wasn't impressive enough to us to warrant a return trip.

Trains back to Harrison, and we headed back towards home. Along the way, we stopped at the Mount Airy Casino to lose some money before completing our trip back to Binghamton, arriving home around 8:00.

Total Mileage: 331 Miles

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Page Last Updated: March 14, 2011