The Standard

The cheque: we paid $60 per head including cocktails

Service: Perfect

Food: Good

Decor & Feel: Heavenly

Given the amazing number of places to brunch in New York City it is very difficult to justify returning to a place more than once. But I make an exception for the Standard!

On New Year’s Day, having only got to bad at 6am, I dragged my 6 visitors from the UK to the heaven that is The Standard. I honestly think that if Holly Golightly had had the Standard Bar & Grill, she wouldn’t have needed Tiffany’s. It is a place that is both buzzing yet so calm and beautiful that nothing bad could ever happen to you there.

We were late for our reservation (despite it being for 2:15pm) but they sat us with very little fuss in a gorgeous alcove table in the main room. This room is dark with red leather booths and penny coins set in the floor. On a day when you’re feeling fragile it is the perfect place to have life wrap its arms around you and give you some love...and that it did.

Having had a busy and drunken night on New Year there was plenty to talk about and the conversation was following over our first round of drinks. This may have helped my love of the place but my guests were also suitably impressed with their surroundings. The staff were incredibly helpful and couldn’t do more for us.

We started with a round of cocktails. 3 of us opted for the Bloody Mary’s (the perfect brunch drink) and the other 5 went for  the Standard 69. This mixture of gin, lemon, raspberry puree and champagne is divine! If I wasn’t so wedded to my Bloody Mary I would have snatched it in a instant.

My order was the two poached eggs, sourdough & home-fries (I know it’s a repeat order but it’s so good) and the rest of the table mixed it up with an omelette, eggs benedict and a burger for the only man of the group (huge and served with a whole gherkin).

 

This place is all about the feel, it is an ideal location to then explore the highline and it is perfect to show visitors ‘a taste of New York’ and who wouldn’t want to brunch with models and rich folk occasionally!

The Statue of Liberty

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door"

These words are lifted from one of my favourite poems (The New Colossus), written by Emma Lazarus way back in 1883. Some things might have changed since then (it's now much harder to move to the US than simply jumping on a boat) but in many ways these words have never been more true. 

The statue of Liberty is still one of the first things you will be able to depict when flying in to New York and it is still a symbol of the promise of a new life, it made it back then to immigrants and it continues to make it now. 

With this in mind I made my first pilgrimage to Liberty Island back in October. The boat is only $13 which is surprising considering the tourist trap it must be in summer, but I wasn't complaining. I took my mother and off we went. 

The first thing that struck me was that it is, when all is said and done, still just a statue. It is big and it is emotive but after spending 15 minutes taking all varieties of photos it is still just a statue. 

My advice on the statue, go & enjoy...but there is no need to go more that once. 

THE FULL LIST

Sights

• Empire State Building
• Statue of Liberty
• Ellis Island
• Grand Central Terminal
• Rockefeller Center
• Staten Island Ferry
• American Museum of Natural History
• Central Park
• Botanical Gardens
• Bronx Zoo
• Brooklyn Bridge Park
• Hudson River Park
• Top of the Rock
• 911 Memorial
• Wall Street
• Columbia University
• The High Line
• The Met Opera House
• Carnagie Hall
• Governors’ Island
• Brooklyn Bridge
• Boat tour
• St Patrick’s Cathedral
• NYC Ballet
• Lincoln Centre
• Times Square
• Flushing Meadows–Corona Park
• Park Slope
• Coney Island
• Long Beach – Long Island
• Rockaway Beach
• Brighton Beach (Coney Island)
• Coopers Beach – Long Island
• Brooklyn Brewery
• New York Library
• Chelsea Market

Museums

• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• MoMA
• Frick Collection
• The Whitney
• Guggenheim
• The New Museum
• Ground Zero museum
• The Cloisters
• The New Museum
• Museum of the City of New York
• Brooklyn Museum
• Queens Museum of Art
• The Skyscraper Museum
• International Centre of Photography

Sports

Basketball

American Football

Ice Hockey

Baseball (NY Yankees)

Bars

Hotel Bars

• The Kimberly Rooftop
• 18^th Floor The Standard
• Le Bain Rooftop bar, The Standard
• Café Carlyle
• Thom Bar, Thompson Hotel
• Hiro, Maritime Bar
• Cellar Bar, Bryant Park Hotel
• Gilt, Place Hotel
• Hudson Bar, Husdon Hotel
• Sky Terrace, Hudson Hotel
• King Cole Bar, St Regis
• Gramercy Terrace, Gramercy Park Hotel
• Lobby Bar, Bowery Hotel
• Lobby, Ace Hotel
• Gotham City Lounge

LES

GalleryBar

The Eldridge

Libation

Fat Baby

Delancey Lounge

·         Chloe 81

·         Pianos

·         Cake Shop

·         Bowery Ballroom

·         Mercury Lounge

·         Arlene's Grocery

·         White Star

·         Back Room

·         Kush

·         Painkiller

·         Whiskey Ward

·         Mason Dixon

·         Max Fish

·         Verlaine

·         Spitzer's Corner

·         THE SKINnY

·         Clandestino

·         Happy Endings

·         Hotel Charlotte

·         Freemans

·         Death & Co

·         Pulqueria

·         Barramundi

·         2nd Floor on the Clinton

East Village

·         Death & Co.

·         Apotheke

·         The Summit

·         PDT

·         Mayahuel

·         Prima

Downtown West

·         Otto

·         The Frying Pan

·         White Horse Tavern

·         Employees Only

·         Cafe Noir

·         Le Possion Rouge

·         Janis

·         Brandy Library

·         Ditch Plains

·         1534

·         Riff Raffs

·         Anchor Bar

·         Butter

·         The Vault at Pfaff’s

·         Bunker

·         Little Branch

·         Rusty Knot

·         The Tippler

·         The Pegu Club

·         Ellabess

·         Bleecker Heights Tavern

Mid / Upper

·         Auction House

·         The Campbell Apartment

·         Monkey Bar

·         The Bar Room at the Modern (MoMA)

·         The Strand rooftop

·         JBird

Brooklyn

·         Freddy’s Bar

·         Union Hall

·         Weather Up

·         Nighthawk Cinema

·         Dutch Kills (Queens)

·         Bourgeois Pig Brooklyn

·         Brooklyn Social

·         Clover Club

·         Post Office

·         The Castello Plan

Jazz

·         Smalls

·         Jazz Standard

·         Village Vanguard

·         Fat Cat

·         Blue Note

·         Birdland

·         Cleopatra's Needle

·         Joe's Pub

·         B.B. King Blues Club & Grill

Restaurants

Breakfast/Coffee/ Brunch

·         City Bakery

·         Balthazar

·         Pastis

·         The Sanderson Grill

·         Clinton St Bakery

·         Tartine

·         Caffe Reggio

·         Viand

·         Sarabeths

·         Bistro Bagatelle

·         Felix

·         Essex

·         Cookshop

·         Via dei Mille

·         Double Crown

·         Mercadito

·         The Mulberry Project

·         Beaumarchais

·         Think Coffee

·         ‘Snice

Unlimited booze brunch

·         The Sunburnt Cow

·         Bondi Road

·         Yotel

·         Paradou

·         Il Bastardo

·         Crooked Knife

·         Agave

·         Hudson Diner

·         PS450

·         Manolito

·         Scottadito

·         Calle Ocho

·         Kittichai

·         Vamos

·         Waterstone Grill

·         Sotto Voce

·         Bone Lick Park

·         Yerba Buena

·         Patois

·         Braai

·         Rosa Mexicano

·         Macondo

·         Poco

·         3rd Street Common

·         The Half Pint

Dinner

·         Minetta Tavern

·         Babbo

·         Grand Central Oyster Bar

·         Arturo's

·         The Breslin

·         The Spotted Pig

·         Public

·         Fatty Crab

·         Schillers

·         Beauty & Essex

·         Scarpetta

·         La Esquina

·         Russian Tea Rooms

·         The Hurricane Club

·         Craft

·         Gotham Bar and Grill

·         Gramercy Tavern

·         River Cafe

·         Momofuku

·         Buddakan

·         The Dutch

·         Red Rooster

·         Empellón

·         Bar Breton

·         Casa Adela

·         Dumpling House

·         Locanda Verde

·         JoJo

·         The Odeon

·         Abe & Arthur’s

·         BONDST

·         Il Bagatto

·         Lair

·         The Park

·         Kabab Café

·         Beast

·         Bobo

·         Blue Smoke

·         Southern Hospitality

·         Keens Steakhouse

·         Lodge

·         Manducatis

·         Wilfie & Nell

·         Miss Lilys

·         Pampano

·         Saxon & Parole

·         Toloache

·         Barbarini

·         Vinegar Hill House

·         Peels

·         Franny’s

·         Frankie’s 457

·         Roberta’s

·         Bamonte

·         Sushi of Gari

·         Donguri

·         Boulud Sud

·         Salumeria Rosi

·         Manrea

·         Danji

·         Esca

·         Benoit

·         Hill Country BBQ Market

·         ABC Kitchen

·         Casa Mono

·         Ippudo

·         Kin Shop

·         Takashi

·         I Sodi

·         Lure Fish Bar

·         Rubirosa

·         Bell, Book, and Candle

·         Hudson Clearwater

·         Acme

·         The Bowery Diner

Other

·         Grimaldi’s

·         Lombardi’s

·         Shake Shack

·         5 Guys

·         Tick Tock Diner

·         Highline Diner (formally Empire)

·         Puddin’

·         Serendipity

·         Katz Deli

·         Sweet Revenge

Trips

·         Miami

·         Las Vegas

·         Niagra Falls

·         Vermont - skiing

·         New Orleans

·         Boston

·         Washington DC

·         LA

·         San Francisco

·         The Hamptons

Activities

·         Helicopter Ride

·         Cycle Central Park

·         Row - Central Park Lake