One Nine 3 BBQ: If You Can Make It Here, You Can Make It Anywhere

Tuesday was spent in the Upper West Side and started with breakfast at Sarabeth's.

I'm not a huge French Toast fan. Actually, I could count on 1 hand how many times I've purposely ordered French Toast to eat. When I spotted "Fat & Fluffy French Toast" my taste buds said, YES PLEASE! I'm glad I listened, because it was so good.

This is what a $19 French Toast looks like. Yes, $19.

Next in line for the day was the American Museum of Natural History.

ROAR!

The museum is so big, we had to cut it short for lunch. For that we walked the 20 minutes over to Big Daddy's for some burgers and tots. Worth every second of the walk.

She got the turkey burger.

I was immediately hooked to the Bacon Mac And Cheese Burger as soon as I saw it.

Between Big Daddy's and our way back to the museum, we stopped into Milk Bar for some truffles.

Back at the Museum and we saw the Titanosaur. He's a little bitty guy. So cute.

Afterwards we went down to the Columbus Circle Holiday Market.

Trump International Hotel and Tower

Christopher Columbus statue

This was the night that I was most looking forward to. Dinner reservations were made at Keen's Steakhouse that's been open since 1885, and then we'd be going to Radio City Music Hall to be on the front row for the Christmas Spectacular Starring The Rockettes.

Keen's is known for their Prime Rib, and that's Dawn's favorite cut of steak. I tried and tried to talk her into getting it, since that was the main reason we went there, but she refused to get a $60 steak knowing she wouldn't eat it all. We finally agreed to go with the Porterhouse for 2.

You'll have to work with me on these pictures. The lighting is very low and elegant, and I refused to turn the flash on in there. This is the best I could do.

A simple finishing salt added on top was all this amazing peace of meat needed. Perfectly cooked to medium rare, and it just melted in your mouth.

We had the baby potatoes and steamed asparagus with it, and all you need to know about the asparagus is, it's not pictured (I can only do grilled asparagus, but I had to give it a try. Wife actually liked them). The baby potatoes were delicious. This is the exact reason steak and potatoes are paired together.

I did leave what was left on the bone. It wasn't by design, but I was too stuffed to pick up the bone and start gnawing on it.

We made our way over to Radio City Music Hall, and this is what it looks like from the front row.

Just look over the ledge and you can see the orchestra.

Ok, now the orchestra wanted to pop up and say hello.

The Rockette's Christmas stockings.

At the end of the soldier routine, a man came out with a cannon and BANG!

Then this happened ...

Look whose back.

Oooh, here's the kicks, let me get a picture of it.

Nope ...

... close ...

... ooooooh almost ...

... ah crap ...

... now I'm getting worse ...

... son of a ...

... whatever, I give up ...

NEVER MIND, I GOT IT!!!!!

What better way to end the show, than the reason for the season.

Officially on the back stretch of the trip, and we start the day at The City Bakery. I had the chocolate croissant with a nice glass of milk, and she had the "Baker's Muffin".

I don't go to the one we have, but when in New York at Christmas, you have to go to Macy's, right?

I love magic, and trying to figure out how I'm so dumb that I missed the trick. Since I was a kid, if there was a magic shop someone, I was stopping. Well, during my search I came across Tannen's Magic Store the oldest magic shop in NYC. This is a shop for the higher level magician. Not so much on the fake cigarettes kind of prank magic.

I took a picture of the inside of the shop, but it disappeared (get it?)

Empire State Building

Since we were lucky enough to get tickets to the Federal Gold Vault, I thought it'd be neat to have lunch at Trinity Place Bank Vault. We walk in and was asked what name reservations were under. I didn't make reservations because it's lunch, and who does reservations?

Needless to say, we didn't eat there, and found a little place to pick up chicken philly's before our tour. They were ok for a quick bite, but nothing worth discussing.

I don't have any pictures from the Federal Reserve. They immediately took us in once we approached, then I had the whole pocket knife incident, and once it was over we exited the back. The tour is super cool if you're ever lucky enough to find tickets. They're first come first served and limited to 30 per tour (although we only had 10 actually show up for ours).

From there we went over to the Financial District.

We braved the knife cutting wind to go to Fraunces Tavern. A Colonial American Tavern that's been operating since 1762. It's part restaurant/bar, part museum. The world on the street is that one George Washington visited for a few drinks in his day.

It's Always Christmas in New York in Little Italy is one of the better shops that we made it to. They have a lot of the same things everyone else has, but they have more different items as well.

After a few days off thanks to the trains messing things up, I'm back on my Best of NY Hot Chocolate tour. Next up, Max Brenner.

Their hot chocolate comes in the "hug mug."

We agreed to split The S'more Concoction.

We didn't have as long for dinner as we did the rest of the trip, but thankfully we had a great waiter at Bowery Meat Company and he helped get us in, get us great food and drinks, and get us on our way.

We were brought out complimentary cheese balls, and focaccia bread with salami, and they were amazing. Dawn actually commented if she could just have the cheese balls for dinner.

Although it doesn't really look like it, I couldn't go to NY without having at least one New York Strip. Completely different than Keen's, Bowery Meat Company adds more seasoning to the steak which gives it an amazing crust. I'm one that can equally enjoy either. I can celebrate the meat itself, or I can do more seasoning too. Both were phenomenal steaks.