snow in soho

By the start of day 4, we were being bombarded by emails and texts from back home about how we were missing the snow. Not to our surprise, we wouldn’t be missing it for long.

We slept in Saturday morning, and headed to Soho for some shopping. Of course, hit up BOTH H&M’s, BOTH on Broadway, and other boutiques along Lafayette, Wooster and Broome: Amarcord {252 Lafayette Street}, Betsey Johnson SoHo {138 Wooster}, and of course did my best Anthony Marentino “Chanello!” into Chanel {130 Spring}. Poor Maggie, had to endure all of my Sex and the City reenactments all week.

After shopping in Soho took our bank accounts hostage, we headed to the New Museum {235 Bowery}, one of my favorite museums in all of Manhattan. On display was Urs Fischer’s Marguerite de Pony, a fascinating 3 floor exhibition that creates a series of immersive installations and hallucinatory environments.

urs fischer's margurite de pony, the new museum

We visited the 7th floor skyroom, only open on the weekends, that presents panoramic views of lower Manhattan. By this time the snow was really coming down and we got to see the snow-covered rooftops of Soho, Nolita, and the East Village. It was quite a sight!

We had grand plans of visiting the Who Shot Rock and Roll exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, but it was getting late and we had a show in Hoboken to get to! So we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

Stef recommended a few sushi restaurants to us in Hoboken, so we hopped on the path and were bound for the ‘boken! The first restaurant we tried was BYOB, since we weren’t packing our own B, we headed to Sushi Lounge {200 Hudson}. It was fantastic! Great sushi, great sake, and a great atmosphere. We stuff our faces then headed down Washington St. to Maxwell’s for the show.

It was a late show at Maxwell’s {1039 Washington St.}, Cory Chisel didn’t start ’til 10pm. We squeezed to the front of the stage, the venue was tiny. Maybe 200 people in there. Maybe. We made friends with a few Jersey guys who were big Jack White fans (Brendan Benson plays in The Racontuers with Jack).

As they began the set, Cory announced that their bass player wasn’t going to make it to the show, so they announced that they’d be borrowing Brendan’s bass player for the night. After a few songs, Brendan himself came onto the stage and played bass for 2 songs. It was a pretty awesome experience. We were standing right in front of Brendan while he was playing bass. Got a few rad pics, too.

cory chisel and the wandering sons

Cory and Adriel sounded amazing. I am a Brendan Benson fan, but I had truly come to the show for Cory. My friend Melissa Ecker had turned me on to him a few months ago, and was so stoked to find out he’d be opening for Brendan while I was in NYC. Before beginning Tennessee, Cory asked if there was anyone from the South in the crowd. Of course we roared, one of the few. Then asked if anyone was from Texas, Maggie and I, jumping up and down in the front row, he remarks, “I figured” with a smile.

After Cory’s set, Maggie headed to the bar to get us drinks. About 45 minutes later, she shows back up. “Um, where the hell have you been?” “Oh, you know, just at the bar, hanging out with Cory. He wants to hang out after the show. I told him we were the Texas girls.” Of course, cuz that’s what she does. We watched Brendan’s set, had a few drinks with Cory and some bandmates, and then headed back into the city for drinks.

We ended our last night in NYC the way we began it, Puck Fair, with our favorite bartender John Francis O’Brien.

Coming up: more?! Yes, there’s more! Pastis and Chelsea Market!