Laura Hansen & Scott McCaughey

Our New York

If you’re looking for some fun things to do while you’re in the New York area, we’ve got some suggestions. There are plenty of great websites with ideas for things to do, but we thought we’d share some of our favorites.

Restaurants

Needless to say, we love great food and when you’re in New York great food is everywhere. A few of our picks:

Ben's Deli
Ben’s Deli was a favorite of Laura’s growing up, and Scott’s certainly a fan as well. This is a typical New York Jewish deli, and they’ve got several locations including one in Manhattan. Your sandwich will be piled high with whatever you choose, and you’ll be hard-pressed to finish it. Give the matzo ball soup a shot…you won’t regret it!
If you’re looking for a deli, you can’t go wrong at Carnegie or Katz’s either.
Bar Stuzzichini
Bar Stuzzichini is a great Italian restaurant that features both full entrées and small plates perfect for sharing with a group. We had a great meal here with our friends Will and Sara last summer, and had a lot of fun trying different plates. Try the Polpettine and the Involtini.
If Stuzzichini isn’t what you’re looking for, you’ll also find great Italian at Del Posto or Babbo.
Craftsteak
Craftsteak is owned by award-winning chef Tom Colicchio. Scott’s had a few steaks in his day, but the best he ever had was at Craftsteak. They also have some of the best service we’ve ever encountered (our waitress was a culinary school graduate). Have a steak, of course.
It’s easy to find a great steakhouse in NYC, but Peter Luger and Strip House stand out.
Papaya King
Papaya King is a New York staple, and has some of the best hot dogs around. It was made famous in an episode of Seinfeld when Kramer leaves his place in line for the movies to get one of their hot dogs. There are a few Papaya King locations around the city. Get a hot dog and a Papaya drink!
For another great hot dog, you’re not far from the original Coney Island location of Nathan’s Famous, and you can check out Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridien for a fantastic burger.

Things To Do

You’ll never be bored in NYC, but we’ve got some favorite things to do:

Whitney Biennial
The Whitney is one of Laura’s favorite places in the world. She (and now she and Scott) makes a trip every other year for the Whitney Biennial, which is a survey of what’s going on right now in the art world. It always features interesting (and inevitably some of it really crazy) stuff, such as Scott’s all-time favorite piece, entitled Super Mario Clouds.
New York has a huge number of museums, and we also love The Met, The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and The Museum of Modern Art.
The Apple Store
The Apple Store on Fifth Avenue is a pilgrimage you have to make if you’re a geek like Scott. Sure, you’re not going to find much different than at a typical Apple Store in your local mall, but you have to check out the store just to see it. You know you’ve been eyeing up that shiny new iPhone 3GS…don’t deny it.
If you’re looking for shopping, you’ll find it. Some of our favorite places to shop in NYC are Takashimaya, Century 21 and B&H Photo.
Citi Field
Citi Field is the new home of the Mets, and Scott had a chance to visit the new ballpark earlier this season. He was very impressed…it’s a really nice park for a really terrible team. The Mets are in town the weekend of our wedding, and should even have a chance to get a win or two since they’re playing the lowly Nationals. If you go, be sure to have a burger and a black-and-white milkshake from Shake Shack and some Box Frites.
There’s also a new Yankee Stadium this year, and while the Yankees are out of town the weekend of the wedding, they do run tours of the park on off-days.
Chinatown
Chinatown is another of our favorite places to explore while we’re visiting New York. It’s precisely the opposite of shopping at some upscale midtown department store, and far more fun. You’ll find counterfeit goods of every color (ask Scott about his Tag Heuer collection) and flavor (ask Laura to explain the term Tiff-phony and show you hers)! If you don’t like crowds, this isn’t your kind of place, as it’s wall-to-wall people on a weekend morning, which is when you’ll want to be there to find the highest concentration of, ahem, replica goods.
Some other fun areas to explore include the Lower East Side and SoHo.
Rainbow Conversation
Rainbow Conversation is a public art project by our friend Kim McEachen’s best friend Rachel Hayes. The installation is at the Louise Nevelson Plaza construction site, part the of New York City Department of Design and Construction’s Liberty Street reconstruction project, located at the corner of William Street and Maiden Lane. Rachel is a sculptor who “creates spectacular experiences of color and motion in an area that might otherwise be overlooked or avoided. Strips of opaque and sheer fabrics and vinyl have been sewed into striped panels.” It looks like something really neat to check out, and it’ll be up and running the weekend of our wedding.
The New York Times recently did a question-and-answer session with Jean Parker Phifer, who wrote a book called Public Art New York.