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LIZ HEATHER

May 2, 2025

The Best of April 2025

by Liz Heather in Beauty, Best of NYC, Food, Ideas, Links, Movies, Personal, Products, Recipes, Reviews


Upper East Side, April 2025

Upper East Side, April 2025

Spring marches on! Is that good? Bad? I am the wrong person to ask. But May is here so we keep going. Here’s what went down last month!

  • The best tweets of the month can be found over here.

  • I compiled a separate list of my favourite White Lotus tweets since the season ended (includes spoilers), too.

  • I read and reviewed Viola Davis’ new memoir - as well as Ina Garten’s.

  • I did that viral onion ring snack recipe and it was really good. This is definitely an end-of-times recipe, though. Absolutely not fussy in any way.

Viral onion rings snack recipe

  • Nathan and I went to Central Park for the first time without Baby Dog and it was brutal but nice at the same time. Why does it feel like every person on earth right now has at least four dogs? It’s an epidemic.

Central Park, April 2025

  • The gluten-free restaurant Thyme & Tonic remains my favourite place on the Upper West Side. That popcorn chicken is everything.

Gluten-free popcorn chicken at Thyme & Tonic, Upper West Side

  • The mini cubano at Guantanamera reminded me (and fell flat) of how good the best cubano on this planet is at La Cubana in Toronto. So that was sad.

  • The summer felt friends were released and I might have bought them all because their faces bring me joy. (Nope, absolutely nobody’s depressed over here.)

Okay, but I would die for them

  • The happy hour at STK midtown might be one of the most reasonably-priced places still in this city. With a patio, too!

Happy hour at STK midtown

  • I saw a few shows!

    • Death Becomes Her - absolutely wonderful. The costumes were beyond gorgeous and fun. It was really funny and everyone did such a great job. Better than the movie.

    • Wonderful Town - so good! My dear friend Jessie is in it, but I swear I’m not biased at all. I loved the dancing; there isn’t enough modern tap these days.

    • Maybe Happy Ending - a new level of terrible. More thoughts over here.

  • I started using hydrocolloid bandages (that I cut up to smaller sizes) instead of branded pimple patches (that are more expensive) and they’ve been working so well. Such a cheaper option and they are way bigger than the Mighty Patch ones.

  • I made this egg and sweet potato dish that came out great, so I’ve already made it a few more times.

Sweet potato egg boat

  • I gave in and bought a night serum: the Trader Joe’s one. Might return it though because my face has been flakier than normal lately, so maybe that’s why? I don’t know what the hell to do with my face. Can I just let it be a face… can that be a thing?

I refuse to learn what retinol is or why I need it please don’t tell me

  • I did this plant hack (below) and it really helped, new leaves are growing and it’s wild.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jill Dinnan (@curly_plant_mom)

  • I got pistachio milk in a cappuccino the other day and I hope they never stop introducing new nut milks (ick, sorry that’s a terrible phrase). Just when you think they’re done, there’s another one that tastes great.

  • The best frozen yogurt (the really tart kind) is back at Madison Fare. Cannot recommend enough.

Madison Fare frozen yogurt

  • Levain Bakery has limited edition lemon cookies and black and white cookies right now and they’re so good. Such a perfect host/hostess gift.

I don’t usually endorse cookies that are $5+ but these are the exception to the rule

  • Yes the gluten-free pizza at Rubirosa is good, but do not sleep on their caesar salad. Unbelievable.

  • And speaking of caesars, L’Industrie Pizzeria makes a special sandwich each Wednesday so I tried their chicken caesar and it blew my mind right to pieces. I was going to request that they omit the banana peppers on it because I thought that I didn’t like them, but I kept them on anyway because maybe my tastebuds have changed (I accidentally had a black olive a few months ago and it actually tasted good??) so of course it tasted incredible. It was honestly one of the greatest sandwiches I’ve ever had in this whole city. The lesson? Maybe you don’t know everything about yourself.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by L'industrie Pizzeria ™️ (@lindustriebk)

  • Some things I watched:

    • Leaving Las Vegas - I’d never seen it before and never will again. Just awful. Anyone who liked it might be a moron.

    • Black Mirror (newest season) - my favourite episodes were definitely Common People and Eulogy. The Issa Rae one was appallingly bad.

Some things I’m looking forward to this month: there’s a wedding at the end of the month that’ll be a nice weekend getaway so that’ll be fun, I really want to see the new Stranger Things on Broadway, and Marla comes for a visit! All great things.

You can read last month’s roundup over here.

Sunset in Queens

TAGS: Liz Heather, April 2025, monthly, monthly post, monthly roundup, Levain Bakery, lemon cookie NYC, black and white cookie NYC, sunset, sunset Queens, cherry blossoms, Central Park, red tulips, Jon Adams, Viola Davis, Ina Garten, viral onion ring recipe, viral recipe, Thyme & Tonic, best popcorn chicken NYC, Upper West Side, Upper East Side, midtown, midtown happy hour, STK midtown, Guantanamera, mini cubano sandwich NYC, La Cubana, summer felt friends duo, Death Becomes Her, Wonderful Town, Jessie Hooker-Bailey, Maybe Happy Ending, Broadway NYC, Broadway, broadway play NYC, best of Broadway, Mighty Patch, healing pimples, hydrocolloid bandages, egg and sweet potato dish, Trader Joe's night serum, face serum, plant hack, plant growing hack, pistachio milk, Madison Fare, best frozen yogurt, best frozen yogurt NYC, Madison Fare frozen yogurt, Rubirosa, L'Industrie, best sandwich NYC, Leaving Las Vegas, Black Mirror, Issa Rae


September 1, 2024

August Actions 2024

by Liz Heather in Beauty, Best of NYC, Drinks, Food, Ideas, Links, Movies, Personal, Recipes


The sunflowers outside my building

The sunflowers outside my building

SUMMER IS OVER! Extremely pumped to say goodbye to August. So many things are changing right now and I kind of can’t wait for what’s ahead. But before that, here were the highlights of the month.

  • Finished my Summer Saturdays series.

  • The best tweets of the month can be found over here.

  • Why don’t all cheese boards have corresponding cheeses labels?? SOMEBODY PUT ME IN CHARGE OF SOMETHING.

Cheese with labels >>

  • In love with these blue sky bran muffins. Who have I become? I like her?

  • The Freshly Brewed Coffee candle at Bath & Body Works smells like heaven on earth.

Truly their best scent

  • I found Walla Walla onions at my farmer’s market and they remain the greatest onion on the scene today.

  • My friend Richard made the best tomato pie I’ve ever tasted.

Tomato pie for life

  • I got the new Alex Trebek Jeopardy stamps and they’re a bit disappointing. I was hoping for more than just one design.

  • Marla came for a visit and we did so many fun things. We saw Suffs on Broadway, ate at Thyme & Tonic (incredible), tried on a million gorgeous things at both locations of Beacon’s Closet, we rode the Staten Island Ferry, ate at the always-great Rubirosa, went to Little Island for the first time, went to some of the Chelsea Thursday galleries and we perused Chelsea Market so we obviously had to get some Seed + Mill.

Suffs on Broadway

Beacon’s Closet

Gorgeous Marla

Little Island

A rat scared us out of Central Park approx. five seconds after this photo was taken

Manhattan skyline from the (free) Staten Island Ferry

Seed + Mill now has a chocolate drizzle option

  • I read Jennette McCurdy’s book and it was too real and too good.

  • My favourite pesto recipe is the How Sweet Eats one, but with walnuts instead of pine nuts.

  • Summer is the time to make peach daiquiris and this peach rose slushy.

Peach daiquiri

  • Fell in love with the restaurant Hillstone. On a mission now to visit all the locations eventually. The best parts about this place are the chilled salad plates, the chilled martini glasses that are replaced midway through your drink, an insane French dip sandwich (David Chang says that this sandwich “haunts him” and he’s right), a wildly good chicken caesar salad, servers only have three tables at a time so they can really focus on each customer, they don’t have food runners or bussers, the tables are drilled into the ground so there aren’t any wobbly ones, there’s freshly squeezed orange juice AND each table is designed to feel like it’s in its very own little VIP section. So impressed by the level of thoughtfulness at this place, I love it so much.

Caesar salad at Hillstone

Chilled glass at HIllstone

French dip at HIllstone

  • And speaking of hospitality, I read something recently that explains why I think I love restaurants so much. I’m the one who cooks at home (which I enjoy), but it’s nice to escape that sometimes and have someone take care of me in that way. It’s such a simple thought, but it blew my mind for a minute.

  • I finally deep cleaned my beauty blender by putting Dawn in some boiled water and then I let the sponge sit in that mixture for five minutes before rinsing in water. Reddit has all the answers.

  • I found a Sabon body scrub on sale at Marshall’s, which reminded me how much I love any Sabon products.

  • I’ve been living in the Essie colour Seas The Day.

Essie ‘Seas The Day’

  • Annoyance of the day: I absolutely hate that all brow pencils now come in that little mechanical tube (that always breaks). Remember when the Anastasia brow pencil was actually a real pencil that you could sharpen?? We’ve strayed too far from the light of god. It’s impossible to find a real, high quality pencil anymore.

  • Nathan and I spent our anniversary in Cooperstown, New York to go to the incredible Baseball Hall of Fame, so I’ll do a post about that later this week.

  • Denny’s has a Beetlejuice-themed menu right now that is a full party, even if it does sound somewhat gross.

  • Loved reading Pete Wells’ final NY Times piece.

  • Some things I watched:

    • Patriot Games - wow. Love 90s movies like this.

    • Six Days, Seven Nights - even Harrison Ford can’t save this movie.

    • Trap - I liked the first two thirds of it, but everything went downhill as soon as they left the stadium. This review sums up my feelings almost precisely.

    • Falling Down - great movie.

    • Wall Street - weird that I’d never seen it before, Martin Sheen was a smokeshow.

    • Consenting Adults - great idea for a movie.

    • Longlegs - love an original horror script.

I would normally list the things I’m looking forward to this month, but things are changing so fast right now that I have no idea what the end of the month will look like. I’m hopeful and excited, but I’m also terrified and I sort of just want to let this month happen.

She’s done with summer

If you’ve got any interest in reading last month’s roundup, you can see what went down in July over here.

TAGS: Liz Heather, Hillstone, Hillstone NYC, August, August Actions 2024, monthly, monthly post, monthly roundup, Baby Dog, Baby Dog Macintosh, sunflowers, cheese labels, blue sky bran muffins, bran muffins, best bran muffins, freshly brewed coffee candle, walla walla onions, best tomato pie, tomato pie summer, Jeopardy, Jeopardy stamps, Alex Trebek, Suffs, Suffs Broadway, Thyme & Tonic, Beacon's Closet, Staten Island Ferry, Rubirosa, Little Island, Chelsea art galleries Thursdays, Chelsea Market, Seed and Mill, Central Park, NYC skyline, Manhattan skyline, Jennette McCurdy, How Sweet Eats, best pesto recipe, peach daiquiri, frozen peach rose slushy, David Chang, best caesar salad NYC, best French dip NYC, hospitality, clean beauty blender, Dawn, beauty blender cleaning hack, Sabon, Marshalls, Essie, Essie Seas The Day, summer nail polish, brow pencils, Anastasia Perfect Brow Pencil, Cooperstown New York, Cooperstown NY, Baseball Hall of Fame, Denny's, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice Denny's menu, Pete Wells, Patriot Games, Six Days Seven Nights, Harrison Ford, Trap, Falling Down, Wall Street, Martin Sheen, Consenting Adults, Longlegs, Nic Cage, Nicholas Cage


August 31, 2024

Summer Saturdays Vol. 9

by Liz Heather in Summer Saturdays


Welcome to the final Summer Saturdays! Yes, I missed the last two weeks of this series but all we can do is move forward. I know that summer technically ends in a few weeks, but this year it’s over for me as of August 31st (today). Autumn will start as usual on September 22nd, but I would like the first three weeks on the month to remain seasonless. I can decide that, right? I have no desire to prolong summer and I refuse to start buying pumpkins. I intend to use this period of time to focus on myself and myself alone. The most self-involved three weeks I can imagine. But for now, here’s how my final week of summer went.

BAKING

These bran muffins are so incredible with added blueberries.

COOKING

Corn-on-the-cob is perfect right now, so it’s the only reason I turn on my stove these days.

CRAVING

One final lap swim of the season.

DRINKING

Nathan got this peanut butter coffee that’s actually delicious.

EATING

I had this perfect baked haddock when we were upstate that I’m still thinking about.

EXPERIENCING

Jeez, so many things have happened in the past few weeks. My dear friend Marla came to visit me and we had such a great time. Nathan and I also went to Cooperstown, NY this week, which was last minute but so nice. (There are highlights from that trip over here.)

Marla!

LISTENING

Since there was a roadtrip, I made this playlist for the drive.

LOVING

The gluten-free restaurant Thyme & Tonic on the upper west side. The noodles and the popcorn chicken were unholy.

Noodles from Thyme & Tonic

SHOPPING

The autumn candle trio from Bath & Body Works.

They always know how to take my money

WATCHING

Saw Longlegs in theatres and Nic Cage was great (duh). Love an original horror movie. My only notes? Legs could’ve been longer.

WEARING

I will continue to dream about this Dior skirt.

Dior skirt at Beacon's Closet

The previous Summer Saturdays Vol. 8 can be found over here and I have a summer highlights section over here.

Thank you for caring about any of these summer posts! I’ll likely be back for Fall Fridays on September 27th.

TAGS: summer, Summer Saturdays Vol. 9, Liz Heather, The New Yorker, The New Yorker August 31 1957, The New Yorker summer cover, Cooperstown New York, Cooperstown NY, baseball hall of fame, bran muffins, best bran muffins, corn on the cob, lap swim, baked haddock, The Lake House New York, Marla Garvey, roadtrip playlist, Thyme & Tonic, GF restaurant NYC, celiac restaurant NYC, Bath and Body Works, autumn candle trio, Nic Cage, Nicholas Cage, Longlegs, horror movie, Dior, Dior skirt, Beacon's Closet