Cool idea that I heard about on NPR’s “The Splendid Table” – MAPPETITE, which offers maps of – to date, London, NYC and San Francisco – that highlight good restaurants in various neighborhoods. My brother could easily do the NYC map – I have long depended on him to find me a restaurant at a minute’s notice and he’s never failed (Case in point: Last Thanksgiving, when I texted him from MOMA saying “need cheap, good, place to eat near Moma” and he found us “La Bonne Soupe” around the block!) Anyway, check out MAPPETITE’s website for more details.
Category Archives: 2) Frequent Destinations
New Central Iowa bike route…spring can’t come soon enough
The DM Register suggests this “new route” which isn’t completely new – and that we’ve tried portions of:
Start in Collins on the Heart of Iowa trail and ride east to Maxwell and then Slater – that’s 20.5 miles (and at least the part by Slater that we rode on is gravel and out in open farmland so windy). Then pick up the recently-opened High Trestle Trail for 12 miles to Woodward going over the incredibly cool new pedestrian bridge high above the Des Moines River (hence the name of the trail….we did this last summer when the pedestrian bridge was almost completed. It officially opens in April). From Woodward, ride a few miles on County Rd. R3/aka 130th street through Bouton to Perry, home of the famous Hotel Pattee. Worth a try. Not sure of the total mileage of that.
In Slater, the Take Down Bar & Grill on Main Street is popular with cyclists and has an outdoor patio, sometimes with live music.
Filed under bike trails, Iowa
Romantic getaways in Iowa-area
The DMRegister today has some ideas for romantic get-aways in Iowa and beyond. Some I know about (Honey Creek Resort in Moravia, Ia. and Suites of 800 Locust in DM). Here are some I didn’t know much about for future reference.
Greenfield, Ia: The Brass lantern at Windcrest Farm. //mysite.verizon.net/res18ndl/ which has the added bonus of a heated indoor poor. (Things to do nearby: Henry A. Wallace Country LIfe Center and Prairie Preserve in Orient; ken Sidey nature area, south of Greenfield; John Wayne Museum in Winterset – and the Bridges (of Madison County) of course.
Red Wing, Minn: The Golden Lantern Inn (things to do: get your fill of famous Red Wing Pottery at the museum and mall of th same name.
Kansas City, Mo.: Hotel Phillips
Galena, Ill: The Inn at Irish Hollow
Filed under Illinois, Iowa, Kansas City, LODGING, Minnesota
When next in southern Iowa…
The DM Register has a few suggestions for anyone wanting to explore southern Iowa. They include:
— Tassel Ridge Winery in Leighton, Ia. http://www.tasselridge.com
–McNeill Stone Mansion, a b&b in a 1909 limestone-faced home. http://www.thestonemansion.com in Oskaloosa. Looks very grand but reasonably priced.
—-Book Vault – and independent bookstore on the town square in Oskaloosa, inside a renovated bank building (books are displayed inside the bank’s ancient valuts. cool idea). Smokey Row, a coffee shop, is next door. There are several Smokey Rows now in Iowa, including a neat one in Des Moines’ Sherman Hill neighborhood.
Dog Collar Museum – in Kent, England
An old friend from London emailed me last week, after we fell out of touch for um, 16 years or so, and it has me thinking about all the adventures we had during the early 1980s when I lived in London. Mima (my friend) comes from a family that has lived for generations in Herefordshire and had an crumbling ancestral home there, as well as another smaller country house we used to visit a lot. It was beautiful.
She had a car – which was a big treat for me (a welcome break from hitchhiking) and we used to go exploring near London too. One place we visited was the Dog Collar Museum at Leeds Castle in Kent. I kid you not. I still have a photo of us with her sister Tilly standing in front of it. Now that I have a dog, I think I’d be even more interested/amused by the place and I’m glad to see that it’s still up and running. It has over 100 collars spanning five decades – many of them ornate metal affairs that puts my dog Ernie’s humble mass-produced cloth collar (it is embroidered with power flowers) to shame. I’ll be some of the hounds I watched during the latest episode of the superb PBS Masterpiece Classics series “Downton Abbey” wore these fancy smancy collars.
for more info see:
See: http://www.leeds-castle.com/goto.php?sess=u4120738|p136|n152|c2466436|s0|g1|d0&pg=Dog_Collar_Museum
Filed under England and U.K.
The Kate and William Walk – in London
First there was the Lady Diana walking tour of London. Now, just in time for the next royal wedding on April 29, comes the Kate and William walking tour offered by Celebrity Planet, a travel company in London. The tour is part Diana-and-Charles, with a stop outside the posh jewelry shop where Charles bought the diamond-and-sapphire ring for Diana that Kate is now wearing (one might consider this bad karma.)
The walk lasts 2.5 hours and costs $24 (15 pounds). There’s also a chauffeur-driven version for $120. As if.
for more info see: http://www.thecelebrityplanet.com/london/celebrity-tours/prince-william-kate-royal-wedding-walking-tour.html
Filed under London
NYC recommendations from a friend
A friend just returned from a trip to NYC and reports enjoying: “Bloody, Bloody, Andrew Jackson”, the Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand exhibit at the Met and Upright Citizen’s Brigade.
Filed under New York City
New big-budget bohemain spots in Paris
The new bohemian spots in Paris (p0ssibly not for long since they’ve just been outed by the NYTimes) include two neighborhoods – Belleville and Pigalle (a former red-light district.
Along Belleville’s “steep hilltop streets” are galleries and fashion designers and upscale winebars and restaurants.
In Pigalle, are artsy hotels (the Hotel Amour) , designer boutiques popular with the likes of Lady Gaga (jean-charles de castelbajac) ns of course more great restaurants (Nomiya). The gentrified Canal St. -Martin sounds like a charming place to wander. Also the Du Pain et Des Idees boulangerie.
These must be Bohemians with a big budget. for more see: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/travel/19hours-paris.html
Inexpensive restaurants in NYC
The NYTimes ran a list of the best new inexpensive restaurants in NYC this week so here are a few for future reference. (A list of non-inexpensive restaurants also ran but I’m assuming they’re not in my budget.) I skipped most of the ones beyond Manhattan:
BAOHAUS … bun (the bao) brimming with Niman Ranch pork belly, glossy with fat and topped with the classic Taiwanese condiments: sweet pulverized peanuts, pickled mustard greens and cilantro. 137 Rivington Street (Norfolk Street), Lower East Side; (646) 684-3835, baohausnyc.com.
CAFE ‘AT YOUR MOTHER-IN-LAW’ two blocks from the boardwalk; Eastern European, Korean and Uzbek dishes from Russian-speaking ethnic Koreans hailing from Tashkent. 3071 Brighton Fourth Street (Brighton Beach Avenue), Brighton Beach, Brooklyn; (718) 942-4088. (HAS to be better than the awful place we went to in Brighton Beach in 2009.
CAMPO DE’ FIORI pizza and more in my brother’s neighborhood…. 187 Fifth Avenue (Berkeley Place), Park Slope, Brooklyn; (347) 763-0933, pizzacampodefiori.com.
DOS TOROS ….fresh, quick and cheap eating akin to that found at Mexican joints in the San Francisco Bay Area. (Oliver Strand) 137 Fourth Avenue (13th Street); (212) 677-7300, dostorosnyc.com.
HECHO EN DUMBO big flavors of Mexico City stripped down…short-rib tacos 354 Bowery (East Fourth Street), East Village; (212) 937-4245, hechoendumbo.com.
HILL COUNTRY CHICKEN fried chicken and other Southern dishes. 1123 Broadway (25th Street); (212) 257-6446, hillcountrychicken.com.
KUTI’S Tmarries West African and Middle Eastern flavors from Ivory Coast, and insinuates a few French techniques in dishes like shrimp piri-piri, 355 West 116th Street (between Manhattan and Morningside Avenues); (212) 222-1127.
THE NORTHERN SPY FOOD COMPAN Greenmarket-driven restaurant 511 East 12th Street (Avenue A), East Village; (212) 228-5100, northernspyfoodco.com.
Filed under DINING, New York City, Uncategorized
