New York Day 3: Museums & Eataly

If Tuesday was all about holiday markets, then Wednesday was all about museums. We started off our morning by heading to the Whitney Museum of American Art where we ate breakfast at the museum's cafe, Untitled. Frank had an omelette and I had lox and egg salad on an everything bagel. Everything was delicious and with our appetites sated we headed upstairs to see the Whitney's exhibits.

As a big fan of Edward Hopper (I have a print of New York Movie in my house) I was excited to see two of his works, Early Sunday Morning and Seven A.M., as part of the Real/Surreal exhibit. His paintings have such a lonely, haunting quality that always moves me. One of the most interesting things about our visit was the connection of seeing Man Ray's La Fortune as part of the Real/Surreal exhibit and then seeing Sherrie Levine's derivative work, "La Fortune" (After Man Ray:1-4), as part of the exhibit on her work on the floor above. Unfortunately, pictures aren't allowed at the Whitney, but I linked photos of the works from the Whitney website for anyone who is curious about them.

After leaving the Whitney, Frank and I walked through Central Park, stopping at Belvedere Castle. Built on Vista Rock in 1869, the National Weather Service has used measurements from atop the tower to report the weather in Central Park. Belvedere Castle has an interesting history but my favorite tidbit is that it has been used on Sesame Street for exterior shots of Count von Count's castle. 

After leaving Central Park we headed to the American Museum of Natural History for the rest of the afternoon. Neither Frank nor I had ever been there before and we were really impressed with the extensive collections in the museum. A person could spend a week or two if they went through and looked at and read everything the museum has on display. Among the many interesting things I learned was that the Native Americans in the plains area developped a system of sign language to communicate between tribes which spoke different languages. My favorite exhibit (being the engineering nerd that I am) was The Scales of the Universe which illustrates the relative scale of everything from sub-atomic particles to galaxies. A close second was Picturing Science: Museum Scientists and Imaging Technologies which showcased the ways that different optical techniques are used by scientists in their research. Very cool! 

By the time we left the American Museum of Natural History, Frank and I were starving and headed to Birreria, Eataly's rooftop beer garden. Being a beer garden they were brewing cask ales on the rooftop and so I tried the Ruby which I really enjoyed. We started with a cheese plate (asiago fresco, robiola bosini, provolone madrone, taleggio, gorgonzola dolce) and meat plate (speck, sopressata, mortadella, cacciatorini, coppa) which was delicious. For dinner I had a chopped mixed kale salad topped with grapefruit, poppy seed frico and anchovy vinaigrette while Frank ate the beer braised pork shoulder with apricot. The food was great and the atmosphere on top of the roof was really laid back and cool.   

After finishing dinner we headed back downstairs to the Eataly Market. The market sells everything you can imagine to make an Italian feast with amazing varieties of cheese, meats, pastas, vegetables, and more. Although we didn't buy anything it was fun to wander around and look.

After leaving Eataly we spotted the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park and even though we were still stuffed from Birreria we just had to stop for a shake. Frank's chocolate malted shake and my Arabica coffee shake were both awesome and a great cap on the night.

As we were heading to grab the subway back to our hotel we had an amazing view of the Empire State Building. It was festively lit up and the foggy evening made it seem like it was vanishing into thin air. It was a beautiful way to end an awesome day.

If you are interested, check out the rest of our New York trip here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 4.