Since this was our first weekend in the city after closing up the Fire Island house, we decided to break out of our routine and venture uptown. It was great.
We had dinner Saturday at Robert, in the Museum of Arts & Design on Columbus Circle. (Warning: the restaurant’s website is really irritating.) Food was great, interior design is terrific, views are amazing, and service was spotty but generally ok. We’ll definitely go back.
Our table at the restaurant. Amazing views of Columbus Circle, the Upper West Side, and Central Park.
The view of Columbus Circle from our table at Robert
After dinner we took a 10 min tour through the Hudson Hotel, which has an amazing outdoor terrace/bar.
Then we walked another 10 minutes or so to the new Ink 48 hotel on 48th & 11th. Views from the 16th floor rooftop bar were absolutely stunning; there are no other tall buildings around, and it provided a rare East-facing view of Times Square and midtown.
Big City Lights
270 degree panorama shot taken with the help of my new Droid X
Nifty water feature has changing light colors
Sunday we headed back to the Upper West Side, starting out with a stroll around the Natural History Museum.
Museum of Natural History
Heed that warning
We passed by several nice-looking brunch places, but most were pretty dog-unfriendly and wouldn’t allow Nanu to sit under the table in their outdoor patios. Finally we found a place with less stringent rules. Our brunch at Al Dente was actually quite good, although the online reviews I read today are pretty bad, so I guess I wouldn’t recommend it in general.
Our meal was good at Al Dente, but online reviews are pretty bad
Next, we checked out an outdoor flea market. It was pretty upscale and they had some interesting stuff.
Old compasses, magnifying glasses, telescopes and sextants
Still, there were no buyers
Finally, someone’s short, little legs were getting tired. (And Nanu seemed to be getting pooped, too.) So we headed back down to Chelsea, with one of us hanging out the taxi window to greet passers-by.
Short legs are getting tired by this point
City girl on her way home
Kelly Ford writes random morsels about online marketing, business, and general life in NYC and Berlin.
Bits of Kelly 
Sound like a fun weekend but when you decide to go “uptown” again, try making it really uptown to Harlem and pay me and Dean a visit. It has been too long and the restaurants in Harlem are dog friendly.
xo
James: you’re right- next time!