New York Happenings- Episode 3

Something I’ve been wanting to start on this blog is a weekly post of everything that I’m experiencing in New York. It’s no secret that as a 9-5er I live for the weekend. Two precious days out of the entire week where I can explore to my heart’s content and do whatever it is I want. I never leave my weekend unplanned! I usually always have something set up for me to do or eat and I can’t wait to share that with all my readers. I hope some of this inspires you to either visit New York and see all of its greatness for yourself or to grow a passion to explore your own city.

Union Square Sweat Fest

I randomly came across the Union Square Sweat Fest online (I’m still not sure how it quite happened), but its such an awesome opportunity to take advantage of free or reduced workout classes and check out some Union Square businesses. I love how different neighborhoods support their own local workout studios, restaurants, and stores! I participated in a free HIIT (and nearly died) at the Jack Rabbit Union Square store and then purchased a $25 boxing class at Throwdown Fitness that included a Dig Inn bowl as well as a second complimentary Throwdown class.

CYC

February 11-15 was New York Company Week and my friend send me a plus one class at CYC because her company was participating in the week. However, what we both didn’t realize was that CYC actually gave us each a total of 8 free classes! This translated to a spinning class a day… my butt and legs were never more sore. CYC has studio locations in Chelsea, Astor Place (my preferred location), Hells Kitchen, and Upper East Side. Classes are normally $22 each and include shoe rental.

Chinatown

When I first moved to New York I was obsessed with the cheap dumplings in Chinatown and how affordable and delicious everything was. As I became older I gradually moved on to other areas of New York (aka West Village) and forgot about how great of a gem Manhattan Chinatown is. Recently, I’ve been rediscovering Chinatown by eating at some of the cheap eats and drinking bubble tea at some of the new cafes that have opened up. I loved the peanut butter sauce noodles at Shu Zhao Fu Zhou (it only costed $2.50!) and the delicious roasted oolong milk tea at Macao Imperial Tea.

City Bakery’s Hot Chocolate Festival

Every February City Bakery hosts an entire month of unique and changing flavors of their signature hot chocolate. In the past I’ve tried lemon white hot chocolate and cookie butter hot chocolate- both of which I ordered with the giant homemade marshmallo City Bakery is known for. This year their Babe Ruth hot chocolate with its splash of bourbon and peanut brittle infused in it was delicious. I love how rich their chocolate is and how flavorful it is.

Ole & Steen

Ole & Steen is a Danish bakery arriving in NYC from Copenhagen just earlier this year. It is inside a beautiful space located near Union Square and serves up a huge variety of pastries and sandwiches. I’ve had been seeing pictures of the chocolate swirl bun floating around Instagram and stopped by to try one, but due to some unfortunate miscommunications I left with just a chocolate bun which is apparently not the same thing as the swirl one… Lesson learned- remember to say the word swirl!