Orchid Scripture: This stuff's made in New York City

With two new rear wheel bearings replaced with complements of the local (45 mins away) Subaru dealership (turns out those parts had been recalled a year ago and were the explanation for the low, loud rumbling that had been competing with the radio for the past few weeks), we packed up the car and the dog and did the 5.5 hr drive southeast to NYC for some good food and family time.

5 floors up was probably higher than Gretch had ever been in her life...she enjoyed checking out the view and probably amused herself this way while we were out enjoying some of our old dining favorites.

One great thing about NYC is that it is not only possible but totally acceptable to sit down for a very late dinner. We got into the city around 10pm on Friday night and with unloading the car and some initial catching up (and getting over Auggie's surprise presence in NYC), we showed up at Tiramisu, a stalwart neighborhood Italian place, just before 11pm and the place was still relatively busy.

The namesake dish (and my favorite version of the once-hip dessert) on the house, complements of the longtime, friendly Ecuadorian manager.

We basically ate on Saturday (though we luckily did make it to Central Park for a reservior run before lunch).

Vietnamese Bo Luc Luc and Pho. Unfortunately, our favorite Vietnamese place Miss Saigon closed its doors after many years (though for a couple of months they mysteriously were still able to do delivery) so we had to try out another establishment. It's not Miss Saigon but it still beats the Vietnamese food we could probably find in Rochester.

Post-lunch Pinkberry. Lines have died down a bit and menu has slightly expanded. Still pricey but my year-old $10 gift card (thanks Lakshmi!) came in very handy.

Dinner was at Artisanal. We went from pulling the late night NYC dinner to the early NYC dinner...sitting down to eat at 6:30pm. The reason was because two of our friends had to catch a train that evening and it was definitely worth the early dinner to be able to catch up with our NYC dinner cohort

I usually get the steak frites but given that we'd only eaten lunch around 2pm, I opted for the moules frites...and it was not a bad choice. (Artisanal's fries are one of my favorites so as long as I got those, it was okay to forgo a steak)