Do you remember this Staples commercial? It just popped into my head. The favorite time of the year they are referring to is of course the fall and going back to school. But my favorite time of year is fastly approaching and passing us by. I am doing all of my planning now. It gets me excited just thinking about it. I am always the busiest in the spring and early summer because that is when the new shows are opening on Broadway and when all of the tickets to the hot summer concerts go on sale. It is also the best time to take road trips and plan adventures for spending the day in the city going on tours and exploring. Not only are the flowers starting to bloom but so is my schedule! This type of weather before it is too hot or too cold is too rare to waste without properly planning ahead. I have no intention of that ever happening. Patti Lupone on the soundtrack to Gypsy says it best: ...

One picture started it all. Sadly it is not a picture I can show you here, but I still see it in my mind’s eye. It is of a lone standing house (the oldest in Brooklyn), on a vacant lot, from the 1800s, it is two stories, and has held up pretty good for its age. The neighborhood is becoming pretty trendy around it (Caroll Gardens) but there it sits as a reminder of what was. I hear they are trying to tear it down and build a Whole Foods but that hasn’t worked out so far thankfully. When I laid my eyes this photo in Time Out magazine advertising the exhibit at the New York Historical Society Museum and Library, it was so familiar yet something I could not place. I had to look it up to realize that it was a location I had passed hundreds of times and has looked the same for many, many years. The power of that simple picture sent me onto explore a new location that I was always destined to visit. It was amazing I had not been the...

What do you give someone that has everything? When you want to celebrate a special birthday and create a remarkable memory? When you are me you rack your brain to think of the perfect outing and the perfect place that will show the person just how much you care and also just how wonderful an experience “a simple dinner” out can be. Then finally an idea pops into your head and it is a stroke of genius. How you present it is even more creative. When you finally get to see the reaction of your loved one you think you have hit the ceiling. But the fun had only just begun. Especially since me and my brother we were going out to celebrate his twenty-fifth birthday. Let me preface the rest of the blog by saying this: The Darby in New York City is the kind of restaurant you need to go to at least once when you visit or at least five times over the course of your life if you are a ...