Schmackarys is Lip Schmackin Good

Schmackarys

I was walking home through Hell's Kitchen this evening and wanted a snack when I spotted Schackarys which I've always walked by when it was either already closed for the evening or I was too full to even think about dessert.  It's a cute little shop and the smell of the coffee and the fact that they called it "Broadway Blend" prompted me to buy a bag alongside with my treats.

No Defects at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

Today is The Mr's Birthday so I took him out to dinner at one of our favorite spots The Boil. And by "I took him out to dinner" I mean, we went there and I forgot it was Cash Only so The Mr wound up paying for his own Birthday dinner. Major Wife Fail.Afterwards we walked down to Chinatown because he knew of a great place to stop for dessert: The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.

Channeling Gay Paris at Creperie

House Special Crepe 

After walking off some of our amazing dinner at The Boil, we found ourselves in Greenwich Village ready for a bite of something sweet. The Mr. knew just the spot to go. We quickly found ourselves at The Creperie ordering the House Special Crepe with Tiramisu, Nutella, Strawberries and Whipped Cream. It was like a little taste of heaven and was the perfect end to a wonderful evening.

Picture of The Creperie after the jump so you know what to look for...

Tasting the Rainbow at Big Gay Ice Cream

{ Big Gay Ice Cream Shop }

After an incredible dinner at Flex Mussels, I wanted to continue a perfect evening, so I dragged The Mr. over to Big Gay Ice Cream Shop. I've been hearing about how amazeballs it is for years, and tonight was my night.

She's a Cool...haus

Coolhaus has built a reputation for having some of the most amazing ice cream sandwiches that money can buy. I've been craving one ALL summer, but they just never seem to be near me when the longing hits. Finally, tonight, I found myself in Union Square and knew my time had come.

Want Wine & Chocolate? Try AYZA

Angry Chicken Lollipops

I was meeting a friend for girls' night and knew exactly which restaurant we should try. AYZA is always near the top of Urbanspoon's NYC restaurant list and I've had a hard time drumming up enthusiasm from The Mr to try it out. But as soon as I said the words "wine and chocolate" my girlfriend was totally in. It also worked well that they had a Midtown location since we work on opposite ends of the isle of Manhattan.

We started with a glass of free wine (you can 'Like' them on Facebook to get a coupon) and then ordered a few appetizers to split: the Angry Chicken Lollipops, White Truffle Pizza, and Grilled Baby Shrimp...

A New Go To: Kyotofu

Kyotofu Goodies

I was wandering around Hell's Kitchen with some friends, when one of them suggested getting some desserts from Kyotofu. I was intrigued by this tiny Japanese restaurant/bakery packed with people. I hadn't heard of it before, but I seemed to be in the minority. We fought our way in the door to get our little snacks and ate them out on the sidewalk. I was extremely full from dinner, so just got the cute little Matcha Green Tea Mini Cupcake, but everything looked AMAZING. I have mentally bookmarked this place for a romantic date night with The Mr. sometime in the (hopefully) near future!

Dessert Club, ChikaLicious

Banana Dessert

We were having a date night when we got an urge for dessert. Immediately, Chikalicious popped into my head, because I've been hearing great things about it for so long. We arrived on E 10th in the East Village and were immediately confused by the TWO Chikalicious locations across the street from one another. We quickly assessed that the Dessert Bar is a bit more upscale, an intimate bar seating environment perfect for a romantic date. However, we really just wanted to grab a quick sweet snack, so the Dessert Club was more up our alley for this evening.

Waffles & Stuff at Wafels & Dinges

The Mr and I were meandering around the city on a Date Night gone wrong, when what to our wondering eyes should appear but the mythical Wafels & Dinges Food Truck! Finally, things started going our way. We've actually seen them parked on the corner of Christopher & 7th Ave before, but in the past we've been way too full to even consider it. It had been a while since dinner, so the timing was perfect.

de throwdown wafel & de bacon syrup wafel

Center Stage: Shake Shack (Theatre District)

We here at Newbie Foodies are huge fans of Shake Shack and go to the original location at Madison Square Park on a fairly regular basis (especially The Mr). We have now visited the relatively newer Theatre District location several times now and feel like we can definitely weigh in. Every time we've come it has been later in the evening after a show and there has never been much of a line. We've also only had to wait a minute or two for a table, so not too shabby on those fronts.

What've we eaten? Well of course we've had the burgers and cheese fries and found them to absolutely measure. In fact, since all of our visits have been this winter, the food has been better considering we didn't have to eat them in the freezing cold or wait until we got home until stuffing them in our mouths.

Dolce Vizio: Our new Sweet Vice

As soon as I read about Dolce Vizio, a build-your-own tiramisu joint opening in the West Village this summer, I knew that I had to take The Mr on a pilgrimage there since Tiramisu is his all time favorite dessert.

Tiramisu as far as the eye can see...

Getting our fix at Momofuku Milk Bar

Crack Pie & Candy Bar Pie
Pistachio Truffles & Birthday Cake Truffles

Momofuku Milk Bar is one of those places that we love so much that it was a complete shock to me  that we don't have a post for them. Now I will officially right this wrong. In a nutshell, everything is fantastic here and yes, it is worth going out of your way for. Any time we find ourselves in the East Village we swing by and load up on their goodies, such as the stash shown above. Not pictured though is the cereal milk soft serve, because duh, we had to eat that as we walked home or it would melt.

Bonus Tip: Did you know that you can have Momofuku baked goods shipped across the country?!?

Bonus Video: Chef Christina Tosi's appearance on Conan.

Little Cupcake Bakeshop of Delights

If you find yourself in Nolita, be sure to stop in to Little Cupcake Bakeshop to grab yourself a sweet treat. We picked up a Coconut Cloud cupcake and found it to be just as delightful as Billy's or Magnolia's offerings, but without a line!

No Skinny B!*&s at Rice to Riches

Finding ourselves in the Nolita area, I was excited to finally bring The Mr to Rice to Riches.  Considering rice pudding is one of his favorite desserts, this trip was long past due. 

I just love everything about this place. The flavors! The toppings! The funky, reusable containers! The snarky signs everywhere you look! Or as The Mr put it "Who knew you could have so much fun with rice pudding??" Even if you don't think you like rice pudding, I'd encourage you to try it out (unless you don't like the pudding consistency of course, that will still be a problem). This is a great place to bring an out-of-town visitor too. And if they really enjoy it, there is a kiosk built in to the wall where you can send rice pudding anywhere in the USA!

Bread & Gelato at Chelsea Market

The Mr and I decided to have a lazy Sunday and grab a late lunch at Chelsea Market. We go here several times a week for lunch, but are usually rushed and just go for one of our 'usual' spots. Today we decided to stroll through and enjoy a couple of places that we don't usually frequent.

First, we stopped in at Amy's Bread and picked up a mini baguette with fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil. Such a perfect, light summer lunch. Would be perfect for a picnic, but we chose to eat it right there on the spot while we people watched the other Chelsea Market visitors.

Amy's Bread

New England Edition: Lobster Hut

Lobster Hut Feast

After The Mr finished a triathlon in Massachusetts, we were ready for another fried seafood feast. The girls in our hotel lobby didn't hesitate when we asked for a recommendation: if we were willing to drive over to Plymouth, then Lobster Hut was the place to go. Off we went, just in time to order a jumbo lobster roll, crab cakes, clam chowder and fries from the counter and scarf it all down on the deck down by the water. Fantastic!

After dinner, we took a stroll by the Mayflower reproduction and then, of course, to Plymouth Rock. On our way back, we stopped by Ziggy's for some soft serve. They had a few soft serve options which I've never seen before. They had these 'flavor bursts' which you could add to your soft serve to launch you way above and beyond your basic chocolate, vanilla, and swirl options. The Mr. got a vanilla with pistachio flavor burst. I was a little worried that maybe the flavoring would be too artificial or just on the surface, but the flavor blended well throughout the cone. The second cool option was pretzel cones! If you're a sucker for salty & sweet combos like me this is totally the way to go.

City Bakery Melts My Heart

Two dark and one milk hot chocolates

We were traipsing around the city with our good friends and found ourselves cold and with a little time to kill. I knew exactly where we needed to go. I've come to love City Bakery for their pastries, especially their Pretzel Croissant, but I had yet to try their famous Hot Chocolate. Boy were we not disappointed. Instead of drinking, we savored them slowly with spoons since they are too rich to just gulp down. The homemade marshmallows are soft and sweet, a perfect pillowy topper to the melted chocolate bars underneath. I would definitely recommend splitting since they are so rich (trust us, The Mr chugged his before we left and regretted it).

Darling Dumplings & Chewy Cookies

We went to a dinner party last night for an early Chinese New Year celebration. Most of the food was prepared by our friend's Mom and was absolutely delicious. Sadly, it is unlikely that I can convince her to come to your place and cook for you. So here are some honorable mentions brought by other guests that you can enjoy here in NYC:

Vanessa's Dumplings

This name always comes up whenever the subject of dumplings is being discussed and for good reason. Tasty, tasty dumplings at a great price. We will be swinging by to pick up a batch of our own soon!



Levain Bakery

HUGE cookies. Not only are we talking diameter, but height too! The result is a lot of crisp cookie outside balanced with gooey, melty, chocolately goodness on the inside. These redefined cookies for me (not exaggerating).

August gets saved by an Angel(ique)

Charming

Adorable

Bread

How sweet is the garden room of August in the West Village? We decided to split a bunch of small plates instead of having a big meal.

Fava Bean and Pecorino Bruschetta

The Fava Bean & Pecorino Bruschetta was a bit lackluster. The bread was kind of chewy and the toppings didn't have a lot of flavor.

Grilled Baby Octopus

This octopus didn't really do it for us either. It was also on the chewy side and again, not a whole lot of flavors happening here. 

Ok, and then this showed up. If it looks like a corn dog served over some shrimp salad and cucumbers, well, that's because it was. Now we're no snobs, we have no problem with a fancy restaurant deconstructing junk food, but this wasn't even a good corn dog.

Aaaaand then this happened. It tasted even grosser than it looks. Oh August, where did you go so horribly, horribly wrong? Here's our tip, if you want to go to experience the charming ambience of the garden room, just order some beers & the pizza. That looked decent.

We quickly paid the bill and went off in search for something to fill our tummies and get rid of the weird taste in our mouths. That's when we found Cafe Angelique. It embodies everything that comes to mind when you hear the word 'cafe': wire backed chairs, small tables, and delicious pastries galore.

A couple of coffees, some tiramisu, and a stuffed cupcake later and our evening was salvaged. 

Max Brenner: Real Life Willy Wonka

Stopped into Max Brenner in Union Square for dessert. This place is a must for any chocoholic in NYC. Some people turn up their noses at this place for being 'touristy'- you know what, fine. While you are over there being snobby, I'm going to be in chocolate heaven having a blissful chocolate-filled experience. Pictured here is their version of Tiramisu which comes in an adorable little jar with fresh fruit and a beaker of rich, velvety chocolate. All served on a plate that resembles loose leaf paper. As if the chocolate wasn't enough by itself, they have to go and make it all cute too. Ach, you've got me Max Brenner, and I will come back to you again and again.