I had a New York City work trip on the calendar and decided to invite one of my closest friends. I’ve known her since our first job out of college and we always have a blast together. I ended up putting her to work on the night of my work event and she was so helpful. I love the big city, but doing seemingly easy tasks such as coordinating a food delivery is 10x harder in New York. Regardless, the work event went great and only took up one evening of the trip. We ended up flying to New York a day earlier than I typically would if it was strictly a work trip. We paid for an extra night at the hotel on our dime, worked remotely during the day and explored in the evenings. Below is a recap of our 3 days in New York!
Where we stayed
My work event was in the Murray Hill neighborhood, so I wanted to find a hotel within that vicinity. I chose the Le Meridien Fifth Avenue, which is a fairly new hotel right down the street from the Empire State Building. I had two reservations, one on my personal card and the other prepaid through work. I let them know the situation and it was extremely easy to keep the same room and not have to check out and re-check back in. The rooms are small (typical for NYC), but the service and cleanliness was top notch. The doorman and front desk were very friendly and helpful. They even gave us a $40 voucher to the restaurant next door, which covered two spicy margaritas. Our room turned into a disaster zone pretty quickly each day, but housekeeping came by and saved the day (hence a stock photo from the Marriott website).
Where we ate
There seemed to be a coffee shop on every corner so we tried a few places including Gregorys and Blank Street. Next door to the hotel is Turntable (where we had a voucher). We ended up going there a few times, once for a drink and then my friend grabbed ramen for lunch one afternoon. After my work event, we went back to Turntable and got a chicken sandwich to split and eat in our room.
We made dinner reservations for our free evenings at La Contenta Oeste and Lil’ Frankies. When we landed, we checked into the hotel, made ourselves look a little more presentable, and went to Turntable for a margarita. From there, La Contenta Oeste was a short Lyft ride from our hotel. We split queso, a Caesar salad and chicken enchiladas… everything was delicious. On night two, we had a little more time to explore after working remotely during the day. We attempted to grab a drink at 230 Rooftop Bar, but 20 minutes after opening, there was not a single staff member in sight. We did get some amazing pictures from the rooftop, before taking a Lyft to the East Village neighborhood with plenty of time before our dinner reservation at Lil’ Frankies. With time to kill (and I had to go pee) we stopped in to Hair of the Dog and bought a drink so I could use the bathroom. We ended up loving the bar, but wanted to check out Mr. Purple before it was time for dinner. Apparently Mr. Purple is a little over rated, especially during the summer when there is nice weather. On the chilly Monday night we were there, it was low key and enjoyable. After we wrapped up at Mr. Purple, we made the short walk to Lil’ Frankies where we realized it is cash only. There is an ATM onsite, but luckily I had a crisp $100 bill on hand. We crunched some numbers as we were deciding what to order to stay in budget and the $100 went a lot further than we thought. With the complimentary bread, we each got a glass of wine and then split a salad and the lemon pasta (we even had leftovers and change after tip).
Overall thoughts
I loved where we stayed compared to my last work trip in Time Square. While it can still get pretty touristy with the Empire State Building and other local attractions, I preferred it over the hustle and bustle of Times Square. And because I extended the work trip by a day, it made all the difference and felt like we had much more time to explore rather than turning around and going home after 48 hours.
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xoxo Olivia
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