So to continue on with our NY trip . . .
Our friends Becky and Chris told us about Doughnut Plant in NYC and I saw a few postings on ChowHound.com about them as well. As many of you know – I (Ingrid) love doughnuts – I belonged to the Doughnut Club when I worked at UNH! So when we heard about this place – crazy doughnut (so much easier to spell it donut but anyways) flavors, really fresh – we knew we had to try it. Knowing that we would fill up once we got there, we walked from our hotel on 54th down to Grand Street (about 7 blocks south of 1st) so we were ready to chow! And oh my goodness – again I find it difficult to describe how good the donuts we had at Doughnut Plant were!
Josh and I got one of each of the following (which are pictured below) – lavender (raised), tres leche (cake), coconut (raised), and a chocolate one (cake). All of them had sticky, flavorful icing (except perhaps the lavender – Josh and I both ranked that as our least favorite of all the ones we tried – only because we didn’t get much of a lavender taste) and some gooey goodness on the inside. Though we had just split four donuts between us, we went back for one more . . .
The creme brulee donut. This donut was one of my top three foods I ate on our whole trip. As you can see below – this donut is more of an oversized Munchkin but the filling was a crazy cream filling and the crackly top of the donut was JUST like a well-made creme brulee. I implore everyone to go to Doughnut Plant the next time you to to NYC and get the creme brulee – it will change your perception of the donut!
After licking our fingers clean from all that wonderful donut goodness, we headed over to Williamsburg in Brooklyn. We originally were going to take the Metro but decided that we would walk – over the Williamsburg Bridge – at noon – when it was over 90 – with no more water. It was so hot but at least when we got to Marlow and Sons in Williamsburg , we didn’t feel bad about having lunch after all those donuts. We had small sandwiches at Marlow and Sons and then went next door to Diner (operated by the same people) to try out the dessert – upside down cherry cake. We loved the atmosphere of both restaurants – but the sandwiches lacked a bit at Marlow and Sons. I ordered the cucumber sandwich and there was brown lettuce on it – not impressed. Josh ordered the Italian and it was ok but just ok. The dessert next door was excellent and the staff there seemed a little more lively and open. I’d possibly go back but there are a lot of other places to try first (and I won’t be walking from 54th Street!).
We did take the Metro back to Manhattan after a short walk up Bedford Street (the trains are air conditioned but the stops themselves are hotter than hell!). We had one more stop before heading back to the hotel and that was The Ginger Man. The artwork below is done by one of the bartenders and she does it in chalk! They have about 60 beers on tap and hundreds more in bottle…Josh had a 13th anniversary beer from Stone Brewing in San Diego and a belgian-style from he forgets where…
For dinner on Tuesday (our actual anniversary), we went to Gramercy Tavern. I loved it from the beginning. We had drinks at the bar (Josh was very impressed with the beer and hard cider choices) and then got seated in the front room (less formal than the back- we would’ve needed reservations). Our waitress was really great – she knew all the dishes, was up on the beers, and treated us well. Josh started with the sweetbreads and I had a pork terrine with their homemade mustard. I then had the homemade sausage over chickpeas and Josh had the duck. For dessert I ordeded the chocolate pudding – chocolate pudding, who gets chocolate pudding when you go out? Usually not me, but it was chocolate pudding with a little caramel and fresh whipped cream with salted brioche croutons. Crazy, Crazy, Crazy! This was my favorite dessert dish of the whole trip. Josh got the German Chocolate Cake – oh so good and then our waitress brought us a chocolate dessert from the dining room section – a dark chocolate mousse – because she could tell we liked chocolate and Josh had ordered a JW Lees 1997 Harvest Ale to drink with dessert and she thought it would pair well. Low and behold, Josh liked the chocolate mousse with the JW Lees the best out of all three desserts.
…Day 3 will be forthcoming…
-Ingrid and Josh
