Five Surefire-Win Things to Do With Parents in Town
When you become a legal inhabitant of New York, you automatically assume the role of impromptu tour guide for any loved ones who pay this this glorious place a visit. Typically your guests dictate the experience they want – from 4am nights doing karaoke in Koreatown or more academically cultural afternoons spent at the MET – and it is your job to deliver a highly curated itinerary for their personal pleasure.
However, all basic logic goes out the window when parents visit. You can count on human beings who are up, alive and ready to do meaningful activities at 9am.
The big three to remember:
1. Parents do not like to wait for food or understand why at 8pm you would stand-by for 2 hours to finally eat dinner – reservations will be needed
2. Parents do like to do cultural, potentially touristy activities – half-valid; if I didn’t live here, I would probably be scaling the State of Liberty when I visited
3. Parents probably don’t have the same culinarily adventurous palettes as we do, seeing we were essentially breast feed truffle oil as fledgling twenty somethings
Michelle and Rick kindly paid me a visit recently and here are six of our stops that are parent friendly and won’t land you at a Stomp show followed by Red Lobster.
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Monroe has it all – extremely reasonable prices, excellent drinks, generous portions, outstanding food, an ambiance that makes you feel like you’re losing a game of Jumanji. If you want to slowly lower your parents into the harsh pricing of dining in this fair city, Monroe is fair starting point with high quality Southern European/Mediterranean dishes.
Highlights: Warm goat cheese salad, garlic shrimp, classic Italian meatballs, seafood paella, and, of course, their Manhattan.
After dinner: you can go to Mr. Fong’s, Clandestino, Forgtmenot, catch a movie at the Metrograph, get ice cream at Ice and Vice
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Coco and cru is your quintessential Australian cafe doing the sort-of-healthy brunch thing all day along; the menu features your industry standard +$10 avocado toast, killer breakfast, and salad/sandwich options. Note: they have a range of cold pressed juices you can spike with the spirit of your choice.
And praise! You can make reservations here and save you and your loved ones from the most literal real life hunger games scenario, that being trying to sit at a reasonable hour for brunch in NYC
After breakfast: stroll down Broadway into Soho to shop with the masses or west to the West Village to show your parents a clean neighborhood and give them faith in the city/your future
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^It was humbling to see a 300 square foot studio and imagine my (very hypothetical) husband and (even more hypothetical) four kids inhabiting the space, with shared outhouses for the entire building in the back yard…it makes complaining about my cracked iPhone screen seem pretty deplorable.
Looking for a museum that isn’t a full day commitment? The Tenement Museum is a tenement apartment building that was built in 1863 and served as a home to 7,000 working class immigrants. It was condemned in the early 1930’s, following which it’s doors were closed and the entire building was left untouched until the 1980’s when a couple looking to open a museum honoring our immigrants stumbled on this time capsule. The building was reenforced ensuring its floors could again be occupied, allowing for an amazing step back in time to how our ancestors lived (with the LES being a huge gateway to America).
After: go candy crazy at Economy Candy, go cocktail crazy at Mother’s Ruin, go crawfish crazy at theBoil
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Dinner option two: you want somewhere trendy, reasonably priced, with easy choices but top quality eats – and *primarily* not in Times Square/Midtown. Simple – Seamore’s in Nolita. From killer fish tacos, to their famous poke appetizer, to the no brainer real deal, quality and flavor are clearly the priority here and the ambiance is to boot. You can also make reservations – victory.
After: hit the roof of the Mulberry Project, head over to the Randolph or throw them into the fire at Spring Lounge
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Since you can’t solely eat and drink all day because apparently that’s gluttonous, for parents who want to soak in the entire city in a two day visit, One World Trade Observatory marries a slightly touristy experience with a killer 360 view where you can catch literally every landmark in every borough. While the tickets are pricey, for both an outsider to New York and a local, it’s a breathtaking vantage point that is worth the experience.
After: visit the 9/11 memorial, get snacks and shop in Brookfield Place, and explore the Battery
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^OG G.Dubs embracing Henry Knox in approx. the same spot where I recently ate a poached egg with smoked salmon over a potato pancake.
So now we’ve gone here for two consecutive Easter brunches: Fraunces Tavern in FiDi has been operating since 1762 and is rich in American Revolution history. Aside from serving as a meeting place for both Loyalists and the Sons of Liberty, it was in this restaurant that George Washington gave his tearful farewell to his officers in December of 1783. In addition to the spell binding Americana, the food is pretty fabulous. Part of the restaurant houses a bar, which has live traditional Irish music on Sundays. And glory, they also take reservations.
Due to the fact that George Washington and many founding fathers have graced this establishment, this restaurant has become the only option I have for my (again, hypothetical) wedding venue.