A weekend in New York
New York is a town that works hard and plays hard, so make sure you start your weekend by dropping your bags at the hotel, changing into your glad rags and heading out into the town.
This city does bars better than anywhere else in the world and some of the hottest are Rose and Jade bars located in the newly renovated Gramercy Park Hotel at 2 Lexington Avenue. It’s a good idea to think ahead and book a table so you can be guaranteed a space to sip a Gibson martini (pickled onion instead of olive) and admire the beautiful people around you.
After a few cocktails to get a headstart to the evening, ask one of the hotel’s charming doormen – hand-picked for their good looks and manners - to blow their whistle and hail you a yellow cab.
Head further downtown for dinner in the Spice Market, at 403 West 13th Street (001 212 675-2322) in the Meatpacking district. Dedicated to the street food of South-East Asia, the restaurant is the brainchild of one the world’s most exciting chefs, Jean-George Vongerichten.
The restaurant is enormous and has been beautifully designed with fantastic wall carvings, screens and pagodas. Sip on an Eastern-inspired cocktail, like a ginger martini or a kumquat daiquiri, and choose from a menu that includes dishes such as crispy sesame crab and pork vindaloo. Then sit back and admire the saffron-robed waiters swishing around the room like a flock of exotic birds.
New York is the town for brunch, so when you awake with a yelping hangover after an evening of silly cocktails, summon the energy to hail another taxi and head down to the Noho Star on Lafayette Street. You’ll find life much more bearable after spicy huevos rancheros with green chilli salsa and sour cream, fresh orange juice, pints of water and endless coffees.
Manhattan may be a small island but it is one of very different districts. No weekend would be complete without wandering among the skyscrapers of mid-town.
Head first of all to Grand Central Terminal. Loiter in the station’s main concourse for a while, listening to snatches of conversations as New Yorkers beetle past, and gaze at the constellations embedded in the lofty ceiling of the main concourse of this 1913 Beaux Arts building.
Then take one of the exits on the northern side of the city and wander out onto Park Avenue. Stop for a moment and admire the line of skyscrapers marching northwards as the yellow cabs honk their horns and steam rises from the manhole covers in the street. Soak up the New York air and smile.
Head northwards to 375 Park Avenue, where the Seagram Building resides. Built in 1958 by Mies van der Rohe, one the pioneers of modernist architecture, it was the first building to boast floor-to-ceiling windows.
Van der Rohe was prevented from displaying the structural steel frame, but added non-supportive bronze-tinted beams instead that give the building its distinctive warm-brown tone. The style may be austere but his choice of the best materials made this one of the world’s most expensive buildings at the time. Take note: less is always more.
It’s probably now time for a spot of lunch so head to the nearby BLT Steak at 6 East 57th Street (001 212 995 8500;
bltprime.com). The BLT stands for Bistro Laurent Tourondel and this restaurant is this French chef’s re-interpretation of the American steak house. The tuna tartare is to die for, as is the American kobe skirt steak salad – Asian style.
One day in New York
If you are here for only a day on business, you’ll need a good restaurant for lunch. Eleven Madison Park (11 Madison Avenue, New York 10010; 001 212 889 0905;
elevenmadisonpark.com) is the perfect place for fantastic food that will really impress your potential clients.
The restaurant is set in a magnificent Art Deco dining room with huge windows looking onto Madison Square Park. The food is so beautifully presented it seems a shame to eat it, but you’ll be glad you did because it sings on the palate. French-inspired with Asian touches, this is a restaurant that you’ll be thinking about for weeks afterwards.
Either before or after lunch, take the time to cross the square and admire one of New York’s strangest shaped skyscrapers – the Flatiron building. This was the world’s first steel-frame skyscraper and was built by Daniel H Burnham in 1902. Its white terracotta façade was once again revealed by cleaning in the 1990s and its skinny, triangular shape is truly iconic.
If you’ve managed to organise your day so that you are free in the afternoon, you can spend several enjoyable hours exploring the shops of Greenwich and Soho, all of which are within easy walking distance from Madison Square.
Walk down Park Ave South past Gramercy Park, one of the most charming corners of Manhattan. The park is private and only local residents have a key that gives access to its green leafiness.
Union Square lies a few blocks further south. If you hit the square on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Saturday, you can wander round the Greenmarket where regional family farmers come to sell their products.
Cross over to Fifth Avenue and carry on down to Washington Square Park. The arch in the square marks the centre for the city’s bohemians, where beatniks met in the 1950s and where skateboarders hang out today.
Carry on further south through the attractive brownstones of Greenwich until you come to West Broadway. The network of streets between here and Broadway contain a rich vein of boutiques to be tapped until both you and your credit card have melted with exhaustion.
Take refuge in the Thom Bar in the chic hotel known as 60 Thompson (60 Thompson Street, New York 10012; 001 877 431 0400;
60thompson.com). Sink into a leather banquette and sip a perfectly mixed cosmopolitan, and relax.
For dinner, head up to mid-town and dine at Sushi Yasuda at 204 East 43rd Street. The zen-like calm of this all-bamboo space will sooth and renew. The sushi here is fresh, fresh, fresh and it’s easy to eat, eat, eat! Fish is carefully selected from all around the world and its chef, Naomichi Yasuda, takes its preparation extremely seriously.
One hour in New York
If you only have an hour in the Big Apple, head to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, just off W 50th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues (
rockefellercenter.com/home.html). It is the epitome of New York architecture at its best and has fantastic views.
In 1933, John D Rockefeller Jr saw the completion of this building. It was the centrepiece of one the country’s most forward thinking design projects. Much more than just a skyscraper, this complex has a network of offices, shops and restaurants. The sunken plaza is home in the winter to ice rink that you will instantly recognise from many movies.
The centre is home to many murals, sculptures and mosaics. The communist Mexican artist Diego Rivera famously began his ‘Man at Crossroads’ here in 1933, but it was removed after a row broke out of his inclusion of Lenin in the mural.
After you’ve wandered around at ground level, buy a ticket for a trip up to the observatory located on the 67th to 70th floor known as ‘Top of the Rock’. The observatory recently had every inch restored to its original glamour.
The view is simply fantastic. All of Manhattan is laid before you with Central Park, the city’s lungs, laid out in all its green glory to the north. To the west the Hudson River glimmers with a silver sheen. In the south, that other great iconic building, The Empire State, can be seen in its full glory while the towers of Wall Street can be glimpsed in the distance. And in the three-storey atrium there is a modern gallery space that explores the history of the Rockefeller Center.
A final must if you’ve only had an hour here – make sure that when you get back to the office, you have words with your trip organiser so that you’ll get more time in New York next time around.
