The post about eating and sleeping in Manhattan

Hot guy in Chelsea Savoy Hotel room.

When IT HAD TO BE YOU came out in 2001, Jim, Tom, and I rented a NYC apartment for the few days we were there. It was off Sutton Place, and I’ll confess that it was the best place I’ve ever stayed in NYC. It was perfect for having friends with us (James! Kenneth! Steve!), meant we had an actual kitchen at our disposal, and our writing partners Tim and Timmy got to hang out with us there as if we were real residents of Manhattan. It also had antiques, thick white towels in the bathroom, family portraits and art set off by good lighting, and a grand piano.

Mostly, I’m accustomed to Manhattan hotels with cramped rooms, miniature elevators (if available), and tiny bathrooms.

Though some reviewers have said the Chelsea Savoy is a no-frills hotel, I wonder if they’re people who’ve either had someone else (like an employer) pay for more upscale Manhattan hotels for them in the past, or else they haven’t been in many affordable hotel rooms in the city. Because I was dumbfounded, first by the size of the elevator–it was NORMAL!–then by the size of the room (not huge, but by no means cramped), and a real bathroom that could actually be moved around in! I have no complaints with the hotel at all. It was clean and new and quiet, and I’m not a high-maintenance guest in any case, either with housekeeping or the desk staff. So I was satisfied. And according to Tim, I didn’t snore, so I guess he was satisfied, too.

A couple of doors down from the hotel was a deli that I loved because the guys working there were nice and made me smile every time I went in. They also doctored my really hot coffee just the way I like it. Yay, deli men. (Until I started visiting NYC, I didn’t know that there, a “deli” isn’t a restaurant, but what we in the South call a “convenience store,” albeit on a much smaller scale.)

The thing is… as endearing as Chelsea can be, I have to confess that my heart lies north of there, and by that, I mean Hell’s Kitchen. I’ve spent more time there. There are always people on the sidewalks, so I never feel unsafe walking alone, even at midnight. I like everything it’s close to. I like the restaurants and the little bars. Maybe it’s familiarity, maybe it’s that Tim’s love for his old neighborhood influenced me, but Midtown is more comfortable to me.

Still, I took a little morning walk around Chelsea because I knew its quieter residential streets would offer up some prettiness.

One of my favorite things about NYC: restaurants with sidewalk bistro seating.

I also appreciate that there are flower shops everywhere, including places like this that issue a gentle invitation to come inside.

Even though we stayed at A Chelsea hotel and not THE Chelsea Hotel (or more properly, Hotel Chelsea), we were only steps away from it, so I shot these photos and will leave them LARGE for your reading pleasure. Because if you didn’t know, Reading is HOT!

And I shot this partially obstructed sign for redleatherbound, he’ll probably guess why.

One thing that surprised me was how many things CLOSE in Chelsea, because I always think of the entire city as being open all night. The night we got in (much later than we were supposed to because of my screw-up with our departure time), Tim and I decided to walk around until we found a McDonald’s. DON’T JUDGE US. We just wanted something simple, fast, and salty. No matter how much we walked and sniffed the air, however, we simply couldn’t find an open McDonald’s in Chelsea. Timmy got a big laugh out of what we did next: Tim, knowing Hell’s Kitchen best, hailed a cab and yes… it’s true… we took a cab to eat at a McDONALD’s in a city with some of best and most diverse restaurants in the world.

In our defense, however? What other city would offer a McDonald’s with this tucked away in a side room:

Yeah. That’s a baby grand piano. Take that, Sutton Place apartment.

Next up: Central