Top 5

This week we are profiling our top 5 fave retail experiences in Melbourne and NYC using the following categories - homewares, fashion, shoes, deli and cake shop.

1. Homewares - NYC
Sherman Antiques - NOT ikea, where I spent most of the weekend. Normally I’m quite partial to an Ikea venture but in NY its a ferry ride away in Brooklyn and Henry and I were sucked into the vortex that is Ikea for 5 count em 5 hours. HID-E-OUS.....No my favourite homewares store is definitely Sherman Antiques on Bedford Street Greenwich Village. She always has the most to-die-for vintage furniture pieces and original antiques, many of them from interesting industrial former lives like 1950s bleachers benches from the Yankee Stadium or old iron turnstiles. She currently has a whole bunch of old broadway stage lights on lamp stands. Not cheap but oh so much fun to look.

1. Homewares - Melbourne
Metisse - Shop 8, 540 Mt Dandenong Tourist Road, Olinda
Metisse specialises in vintage and antique French wares and European homewares. The owner has a terrifc eye and expertise in trawling little villages in France sourcing fantastic treasures in unlikely places. One of my favourites and well worth a visit to the hills for this gem.

 
2. Fashion  - NYC 
So Isabel Marant is opening her first NY store on my street so I’m a little bit excited about that and I’m sure come the summer that will be my answer, but in the meantime (and in reality) my favourite shop has to be one that I can afford. So my latest addiction is MADEWELL – a recently revamped brand by JCrew people and its made well ;) Awesome styles, nicely worn in jeans, best t-shirt shapes, good colours, great knits and boots and really well selected vintage pieces. And Alexa Chung has just designed a FW2010 line for them which is pretty hot right now.

 

2. Fashion- Melbourne
This is an interesting one - I could easily rattle off a number of fantastic boutiques in Melbourne and talented designer labels - however the reality is I dont shop at these places regularly. Quite simply because I can not afford to and manage to pay a mortgage and eat every month. Where I with out fail have always been able to juggle my consumer urge with reasonable prices is Kinki Gerlinki. A Melbourne based business with unique, small-run designs in interesting and quality fabrics. I bought the below dress for work and I absolutely love it. The best thing is it translates between Summer/Winter just by a little creative layering.


3. Shoes - NYC
 Best shoes...erm... those on sale? No really. So many but Saks shoe floor is a shoe heaven. Sale time it is BEYOND. An entire floor of amazing shoes, all of in size sections (so helpful!) and most of which are amazing, and some of which are reduced to prices I can actually afford. Its ridiculously exciting. 

 
3. Shoes - Melbourne
It will come as no surprise to those who know that me but I like shoes. I mean Imelda Marcos like shoes. At the top end of the realm I would cite Luisa as my favourite shoe shop (they also have a great warehouse outlet in Murrrumbeena) and at the more realistic end I would honestly have to say that the last 2 pairs of shoes I have bought have been from none other than Nine West. I have the below ankle boots on layby and for price/quality/look (my 3 point shoe check list) they tick all the boxes. 4. Deli - NYC
The most memorable one I have visited so far in NY is Katz Deli on the Lower East Side, made famous by that scene in When Harry Met Sally. They still do the most amazing pastrami on rye. Its massive. People queue for like ever.

4. Deli - Melbourne
Bec is going to blow me out of the water on this one and dazzle us with pictures of amazing pastrami sandwiches and succulent pork products but I would counter how was the service hey!! Minimum wage = minimum service. Worth a try anyway.

The truth is I don't shop at one deli - I shop 3 stalls in a row at Queen Vic Market that meet all my deli needs 1. The French Shop - Shop 1-2 in the Dairy Produce Hall for cheese/stuffed olives/pate 2. The Pasta Shop - Shop 3-4 for fresh pasta of course and 3. The Polish Shop - Shop 5 for delicious double smoked bacon and pastrami.


5. Cake Shop - NYC
Balthazar on Spring Street’s pistacchio donuts are pretty good, as are the pecan tarts at Once Upon A Tart (Leah’s you’d love it and fit right in) I even heard about a ‘custom design your own cheesecake and have it sent to a friend’ website.... but the original in this case really is the best. For cakes, or at least cupcakes in NY you can’t go past Magnolia on Bleecker Street. SJP ate them on SATC, they make the frosting in the window so you can watch and drool, and there is always a queue. Always. So you know they’re good.
 

5. Cake Shop- Melbourne
In my humble opinion the best cake shop in Melbourne is Dolcetti located at 223 Victoria Street, West Melbourne. Equisite handmade Italian cakes and sweets make it difficult to decide on just the one but this week - in the name of research only - and after much oohing and aahing I settled on a butterscotch cheesecake with hard toffee pieces crumbled on top. Smooth, creamy and 10,000 calories delicious - I strongly suggest a detour next time you are going to the Vic Market.

Lazy Sunday

Oh what fun Sunday is in the rain. I can't complain really as we have had such beautiful weather of late here in New York. Anything is an improvement on London.

So what to do when it rains? Staying in with the New York Times, endless coffee and delicious food is always a good option. Even when it doesn't rain.

Henry my 4 year old is a superb sous chef. But only if the recipe involves cracking eggs (his favourite thing right now). Otherwise he's bored in under a minute and wanders off. So my 6 egg frittata's always a good one. Or pavlova, or scrambled eggs. On Sunday morning we decided to have a crack at pumpkin and cinnamon pancakes with peanut butter and maple syrup. Quite honestly the most ridiculously good, calorificly amazing breakfast I have EVER eaten. Am I turning American? Scarily.

Not enough action to report from the rest of Sunday as it literally threw down rain until Monday morning so I'm going to cheat and tell you a few other little bits of fabulousness I stumbled across on the weekend (ok so maybe on Friday but hey).

This guy is simply hilarious. His name is Ji Lee and his company is called pleaseenjoy.com. I love him. He is a designer who makes 'parallel worlds'. Little art pieces that are miniature rooms that he installs on your ceiling. If you fancy.

My favourite - R2D2 meets a Hippo - where? the Google offices in New York. Genius.
Oh and just to get back to food.....The Sweet Life - an old fashioned sweet shop on Ludlow and Hester on the Lower East Side sells everything from sweets (clearly) to Vegemite and TimTams. Helpful to know.

Aaah sweet sunday sleep in and coffee and paper in bed. A relaxing start to the day. Hubby had a man sleepover at his brothers place so the house was mine! Yes you heard right man sleepover - they apparently needed 36-hours to prepare for brothers 'Pork in the Park' birthday celebrations on Sunday afternoon hence the sleepover. I think this is code for drinking beer and organising team line-up on Supercoach.

Drank coffee and a meandered down Gertrude Street, Fitzroy with a girlfriend for a few hours intermittedly returning to Leonard St. Clothing to oogle extremely cute ankle boots. Beautiful soft cream leather with wooden heel and gorgeous stitching detail on front - a steal really at AUD$238. The real question is how many pairs of ankle boots does one girl need? Hmm will sleep on it and if they are there in a week I will just have to accept that purchasing them is fate.

Then the highlight of my Sunday 'Pork in the Park'. Nope that is not code for anything quite literally it is eating pork whilst sitting in a park - Darling Gardens in East Melbourne to be geographically exact. The boys had done a spectaular job with roasting the pork - the crackling peeled off like a turtle shell. Totally appreciate the necessity for man sleepover now. The Roast Pork was complimented by every condiment under the sun, sourdough bread and cabbage salad - a birthday feast fit for a king.

Sunday Again

Ok so last sunday was another Brooklyn adventure. We went to the Brooklyn flea market on a beautiful spring (we pretended) day. Sun shining and first weekend without gloves and a hat for what feels like months. Can I just say that milk truck grilled cheese at the Brooklyn flea is where its at. They are hands down the tastiest toasted cheese sandwiches i have ever tasted. Like ever. Might have something to do with the pound of cultured butter in each one and the and the Vermont cheddar or Wisconsin Gruyère cheese with the Blue Ribbon Bakery white bread. I died and went to toastie heaven. followed by (It'd be rude not to do dessert on a sunday) some fine and raw chocolate - artisanal raw chocolate with seasalt. OMFG.

Then a leisurely stroll around the vintage sellers in a beautiful old bank - see picture below.

Well after the crazy hail storms of Melbourne saturday hubby and I decided a lazy sunday was in order. So we popped to the Cinema Nova in Lygon Street Carlton to catch a glimpse of 'the soon to be oscar winner' Jeff Bridges stumbling all over the screen in Crazy Heart.

Tracking the story of Bad Blake, an ageing alcoholic country singer, Crazy Heart is a touching story of one mans journey to find redemption and reconnect with the world he had so long drowned out with whiskey and self doubt.

With a taste for culture I couldn't say no to a pizza at DOC Pizza + Mozarella in Drummond Street, Carlton (yes the culture call is rubbish I just wanted to eat pizza). However having already consumed approximately 1kg of buttery popcorn we responsibly decided that perhaps one large pizza to share would be enough. Thin pizza base smothered in brocolli puree and scattered with Italian sausage and buffalo mozarella - sure why not!!

And to tie in with my theme of the day - redemption in case you missed it - I happened past a quaint little shop next to DOC on Drummond Street. The sign in the window read ....

A Prisoner Gets A Life: At the age when many young people are beginning a career or university MICHAEL KELLY was doing hard time for armed robbery. Life and death stood before him. He decided to make good use of his time in study, physical training and art. At the end of his sentence he was interviewed in his cell by a lecturer from Sydney College of the Arts and accepted directly into a post-graduate degree (by passing a degree on the quality of his work). In the years since Michael has applied his art in a unique hand made building style.

I have my eye on the beautiful handmade shutters he had on display in the windows - well worth a visit.