Visit The Seinfeld Apartment in NYC

In preparation for Seinfeld's arrival to Hulu at the end of the month, the streaming network has unveiled a pop-up recreation of Jerry Seinfeld's Upper West Side apartment from Seinfeld in Manhattan.

“Seinfeld: The Apartment” will be a full replica of the iconic apartment set up at 451 West 14th Street, near the Chelsea Market and the High Line and it'll be open to the public between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. until June 28th.

God, this is a cool idea. If I manage to make it over here, I'll update this with some more photos.

Off The Hook in Astoria

This place has the absolute best grilled oysters I've had in years. Have you had grilled (or baked) oysters before? I usually will recommend them to someone who's never had raw oysters, since it's kind of like the gateway oyster. I know they look gross, but c'mon... grow up. They're fun as hell to eat.

Anyway, this is the place to get them in Astoria. I wish I could tell you how great their other menu items were - but to be honest, nothing quite stood out like these did. 

And as a small sidenote, anytime I hear the word oyster I immediately think of the first square below of Joey and how much I laughed at that line. I was young.

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Mets Free Giveaway Days

As you may recall, I love the Mets. And one of the best things about going to a game at Citi Field? They have killer giveaways.

 Here's a list of what's being offered this season. (Bobbleheads are on the list! Do you know how good of a free gift that is?!)  

I went with Nathan recently and we got some Mets beach towels, as seen below. 

Mets vs. Marlins & Nathan vs. The Sun #citivision #mets #citifield

A photo posted by Liz Heather (@lizheather) on May 30, 2015 at 12:24pm PDT

Not only was it great to get that towel (we were really worried we wouldn't be one of the first 15,000 fans to get one), but I took that photo of him and hashtagged it on Instagram with #citivision - AND IT GOT FEATURED ON THE JUMBOTRON! My face nearly exploded when I saw that.

If you aren't impressed by Jumbotron action, get off my property. 

Z Hotel Rooftop in Long Island City

So far, this is the best rooftop view I've encountered in Queens. Look at the view!

I would assume that it's only more gorgeous at night - the main reason I didn't favour going at night was because I've heard it gets really clubby at night and no thank you. Also, I don't really see the point in coming here too late since it's the perfect happy hour spot to have a drink before you go to dinner. Definitely check it out the next time you're in the area.

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The Carnegie Club in NYC

The Carnegie Club is an upscale cigar and cocktail bar in NYC that I recently visited since they were gracious enough to air the Mad Men series finale. 

And honestly, this was absolutely the most fitting place in New York City to watch that show end. I had to dry clean the dress I wore that night due to the cigar stink that I brought home with me, but it was totally worth it. 

#madmen #thecarnegieclub #nyc

A photo posted by Liz Heather (@lizheather) on May 17, 2015 at 7:23pm PDT

They have their own cigar menu (which doesn't really affect me) and they allow you to smoke these cigars indoors. I may be wrong, but this has to be one of the last few places in this city where that's allowed. 

If you know anyone who's into cigars, this is definitely the main place to take him/her to in Manhattan. 

Marta in NYC

This restaurant opened last fall inside the Martha Washington hotel and it's basically an upper-scale pizza place. The sole reason I wanted to eat here? Mainly because anything that Danny Meyer touches turns to gold  - and this place was no exception.

Marta is now officially in my top five pizza places existing in this fine town. (If you're wondering what the others are I would say they're Patsy's/Angelo's, Milkflower, Prince Street Pizza and Juliana's.) I beg you to go and see for yourself. The pizza was thin and the toppings were thick - is there really anything else you need in a slice? No. I'm telling you, no.

Cheapskate Tip: If there's a wait for your table, you should go to the bar next door (instead of the Marta bar) if you want to save some money.

Strapless Bra Difficulties

If you're a man, there's really nothing here for you in this post. Maybe you could go on over here or here.

If you've ever had an issue with finding (and maintaining) a strapless bra that felt comfortable, I have found the answer of all answers to this problem. BUY A STRAPLESS CORSET!

This isn't mine, but it's similar to the one I own.

The boning in a corset gives you more than enough structure to hold those babies up long into the night and there's virtually no need to re-adjust them at any point when wearing one. I've gone through dozens of strapless bras in my many years and I've had the same problem with all of them. And that kind of makes sense since larger breasts + strapless bras = hell. With a regular strapless bra, there's nothing to hold them up to the glorious stature of which they deserve! 

But with the boning and restrictiveness of a corset? Everything makes sense and is held in place perfectly.

I'm sure you can find a relatively inexpensive one if you search online, but if you find yourself in New York City - I insist that you stop by the Orchard Corset Center on the Lower East Side. You can literally walk in the store and the woman (or man) working there will take a look at you and give you the perfect fitting corset. It's incredible.

Pearl River Mart in NYC

I've been going to this store since I first came to New York in 2005 and it's insane that it's closing. If I had to summarize what kind of store it is, I'd say it's basically a slightly-more-expensive dollar store with a heavy Asian flare and gorgeous dishware.

Pearl River's rent, currently hovering at just over $100,000 per month, will leap an astounding amount next year, to more than $500,000 per month. How is that possible? I don't know, New York is terrible sometimes? 

Their lease expires later this year in December, so if you find yourself in Soho - you should definitely drop in here and take a look around. I've been getting greeting cards here for ten years, so I'm not really sure where my next go-to card spot will be now. 

Apparently they have a pretty decent online store as well, so if you've never seen the store you can check out the kinds of things they have over here. 

Such a damn shame that it's closing.

Barbetta in NYC

Barbetta, having celebrated its 100th Anniversary in 2006, is the oldest restaurant in New York that is still owned by the family that founded it. I went here recently with Harmeet mainly because of the fact that they list their menu items with the year that they were first introduced at the restaurant. Is it just me or is that neat as hell?

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I mean... that's fucking cool.

Not only was the food fantastic, but our waiter was the best. We couldn't decide on what to get for dessert, so he literally brought us two different desserts each (the panna cotta was the very best, in my opinion). 

Also? There's no music in the restaurant. I looked into why this is and it's because they didn't have a sound system when they first opened (obviously) and they decided they didn't need one as the years went on. There's something so strange and nice about only hearing people speak inside a restaurant, it was definitely foreign - but a welcome kind of foreign.

Go!

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Harmeet & I outside the coat check

Le Train Bleu

There's a restaurant hidden in Bloomingdale's (on the sixth floor, to be exact) and it RESEMBLES AN OLD-FASHIONED TRAIN CAR! 

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There's even an overhead compartment for your purse! Is it just me or is this place adorable? I'm a little shocked that I've lived in New York for as long as I have without knowing about it. 

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Harmeet & the menu

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Outside the washroom

To be quite honest, the food was just okay. But honestly, the fact that it wasn't terrible is the reason that I'd want to come back here. Does that make sense? The really great part about the whole place is, obviously, the surroundings. I was also struck by how quiet it was - in a good way. It's kind of nice to know that this little tucked away spot is still a bit of a secret in this city. Definitely the kind of restaurant I'd want to take my parents to if they came to visit me. The next time you're near Bloomingdale's, you should definitely check it out. 

*UPDATE: it closed in 2018! Noooooo!