Summer 2016 in Pictures

After two difficult years, this summer has made up for time I thought I already lost. 

It was the first summer that I wasn't either living or spending an extended period of time in Rhode Island—I thought I was going to be stuck in suburbia, perhaps make the occasional trip to New York City. I was concerned that it was going to be a bore. 

I was wrong.

Caught up with friends who I haven't seen in a while. Finally went to the Westport Duck Race. Found a speakeasy in New York City while celebrating Cara's birthday. Flew to the West Coast for the first time to visit Steph in California. Read a few books. Tried new restaurants. Spent a few weekends in Rhode Island—not just in Newport and Narragansett, but also Watch Hill with my family. Went sailing. And probably tried every Pimm's Cup and prosecco cocktail between New York City, Westport and Newport.

Effy's Kitchen | Spanish Harlem, NYC (blog post)

Fashionista Hosts Garance Dore (blog post)

Bottomless Brunch in the West Village (brunch)

The Ocean House & Watch Hill Inn

California Central Coast | Big Sur

How to Spend 72 Hours in California | Part 2 (blog post)

How to Spend 72 Hours in California | Part 3

How to Spend 72 Hours in California | Part 4

Fishers Island Lemonade, the Next-Level Hard Lemonade (blog post)

Tusk and Cup Opens New Location (blog post)

Find of the Week | 40 (blog post)

Rothbard Ale + Larder (blog post)

The Starboard Sea (blog post)

BXL Zoute | Flatiron District (blog post)

Looking through these photos, I am grateful for having amazing friends and family that have made this summer—and the rest of seasons—an absolute dream. There are a lot of moments that are not captured in pictures, but I try to take snapshots of the best of them.

Time to switch from Pimm's Cups to spiked hot ciders...

Effy's Kitchen | Spanish Harlem, NYC

My friend Cara took me to a hidden gem for bottomless brunch in her neighborhood.

We ventured a few short blocks from Upper East Side to check out Effy's Kitchen towards the outer edge of Spanish Harlem. The restaurant's bottomless brunch special--one main dish with endless mimosas--costs only $20.

If you're trying to find a brunch spot to catch up with your friends, take your sweet time at Effy's and enjoy the fresh omelettes with your orange bubbly.

Meanwhile, if you're looking for brunch in the West Village by Washington Square Park, check out this popular pub. 

How to Spend 72 Hours in California | Part 4

Once Steph and I left the foggy San Francisco Bay area, the California sunshine followed us to Napa, the final leg of our weekend trip.

We took a few back roads away from the bumper-to-bumper traffic to enjoy the scenery, since everyone else in the state of California decided to head to Napa...

I chose to go to Domaine Chandon in Yountsville—Moet & Chandon's California sister—for our only wine tasting. As much as I wanted to check out other vineyards, we had to spend our time (and money) wisely. Walking into Domaine Chandon's Tasting Room perfectly fit our schedule.

Enjoying our Prestige Wine Tasting while leisurely strolling around the beautiful terrace couldn't have been further from a hardship...

We grabbed lunch at R+D Kitchen down the road. Steph and I didn't order a glass of bubbly at Domaine Chandon, but we made up for it by ordering the brut at the outdoor bar. I loved my spinach and goat cheese omelette. 

It also happened that it was National Iced Cream Day, so I asked the bartender where I could fulfill my craving. She told me that the restaurant owned Kelly's Filling Station and Wine Shop next door and they served a good vanilla iced cream.

What the bartender refrained from sharing was that this vanilla soft-serve was also organic and locally made...

California has shown me that it really is possible to get everything you want.

It's not all about the destination—the journey is just as important.

As hokey and cliche as it sounds, every drive Steph and I took on this trip was equally as exciting as the places we visited.

Whether it was pulling off to the side of Highway 1to decide if a wave was a whale or a rock, or talking about our true life goals, we made every moment worthy of memory.

One of the things I will always remember about Steph are the random, short weekend trips we took in college—I'm happy to add this 72-hour-MontereyBigSurSanFranciscoNapaValley extravaganza to the list of memories post-undergrad.

Bottomless Brunch in the West Village

I went to NYU last Sunday to see one of my best friends from college present a policy framework proposal for the 2016 Policy Case Competition.

Before Steph and her teammates arrived, I walked around NYU, Washington Square Park and found a place to grab Sunday brunch at a great bar called The Half Pint. I was happily enjoying my delicious farmer's market omelet and mimosa when one of the bartenders told me that bottomless brunch was only $18—if a mimosa was $9 each, it only makes sense to do it up.

I thought I was done after two, but then Steph and her teammates met me at the bar. So I had another while I waited for them. Then another when they got there...

Several things happen when you find the bottom of bottomless brunch.

First, the denial that you found the bottom—isn't it supposed to be bottomless?

You look up from your #? mimosa and notice the bartenders kind of judge you.

And then you wonder if you're being irresponsible.

But then you realize that it's Sunday. And it's your day off.

And then you don't really care that the bartenders are kind of judging you.

Actually, you feel great.

You dispel any thought that you're being irresponsible—it's not like you're driving or you're at a networking event—so you tell yourself that you're simply trying to live and make your white everygirl dreams come true.

#noregrets

The Widow Clicquot by Tilar J. Mazzeo

The story of the name behind one of the most famous bottles of bubbly, Veuve Clicquot.

Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot, whose curved signature graces the brand's yellow labels, is responsible for the champagne's legacy today. After the death of her husband Francois Clicquot, Barbe-Nicole managed to overcome the endless obstacles posed by droughts, family misfortune and, of course, the Napoleonic wars responsible for disrupting overseas trade. 

Barbe-Nicole truly serves as an example for the modern woman today—strong, independent and progressive. 

Her unique financial and social position as an entrepreneurial woman in the 17th century is a captivating storyline, but since there aren't many written records of her, it's hard to draw concrete conclusions about her history. As a result, Mazzeo is forced to infer Barbe-Nicole's thought process.

Mazzeo does add depth to the book by interjecting facts about champagne's origins and production, as well as placing Veuve Clicquot in context to the Champagne region's business climate with competitors such as Moet.

For a short novel, it took way too long to finish this book—an abundance of filler sentences and repetitive redundancies made it clumsy to read—but The Widow Clicquot fulfills its need to serve as an account of a powerful female narrative.

A Brief Education on Champagne

As we all know, the region of Champagne, France is home to its eponymous beverage. 

Reims, the capital of Champagne, played a central role in French history as the city for the country's coronation ceremonies since the 11th century.

There's a reason why Italian sparkling white wine is called "Prosecco" and Spanish sparking white wine goes by "Cava"—although there are other sparkling white wines made elsewhere, they only qualify as champagne if they are made within a certain distance of the proper French province, as well as meet all of the standards set by the AOC.

Here are some quick facts about the popular, most frequently name-dropped champagne houses:

Bollinger

The relationship between the French champagne house and Britain goes back to 1858 when Joseph Bollinger met Ludwig Mentzendorff, a wine shipper based in London. Their friendship left a strong legacy for Brits to keep loving "Bollie" over time—it's even favorited by James Bond.

Veuve Clicquot

In 1798, Founder Philippe Clicquot chose the anchor—a symbol of hope rigour—to brand his corks and to distinguish his champagne from the rest. Other symbols used to distinguish Veuve Clicquot include the comet and its ubiquitous yellow label.

Moët & Chandon

Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of "The Sun King," Louis XIV, did her part for Moët & Chandon by drinking the champagne in royal court. One of her more famous quotes, inspired by her favorite drink:

"Champagne is the only wine in the world that makes every woman beautiful.” 

Taittinger

The House of Taittinger didn't exist until 1932—Officer Pierre Taittinger came upon a chateau in the Champagne region when he was injured during World War I and vowed to return and buy the property if it ever became available for sale. Before Taittinger's takeover, it was known as Forest-Fourneaux and run by a wealthy textile merchant and Benedictine monks.

There's plenty more trivia about champagne—everything from the fun facts about the sparkling wine like Honest Cooking's 10 Things You Didn't Know About Champagne or how to properly drink champagne, as explained in HuffPost Taste by Moët & Chandon.

... Even Chief Executive's list of 10 Best Champagnes if you feel like pretending to be extra pretentious.

New York City | The Met, the Neue Galerie, Cafe Sabarsky, Bryant Park

Last Saturday was certainly one of my favorite days spent in the New York City.

As part of the course I'm taking, Vienna and the Modern World, we went to see exhibits at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Neue Galerie. 

Before leaving Newport, I snapped a quick picture of Queen Anne Square when I was getting my Starbucks coffee at 5:45 am--the light was quite beautiful, I almost pulled over several times on Bellevue to take pictures, but I know I would have missed the bus. 

I definitely would have missed the bus.

We started at The Met to view Regimagining Modernism: Expanding the Modern Dialogue. My favorite piece Joan Miro's This Is the Color of My Dreams--it should be noted that the original text in the painting was in French, so that may or may not have influenced my high opinion of it. Since one part of the course focuses on psychology and dreams, Miro's painting captures the inner workings of the subconscious. It goes without saying that the online photo doesn't do it justice.

Of course I waltzed through the European paintings to find the French Impressionists...

"Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lillies," Claude Monet

Photo Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

I took several pictures of artwork--including pieces by Pollock, Monet, Rodin, Degas and others--but I would like to avoid any possibility of being sued by The Met. Their photography policy is pretty strict...

After grabbing lunch at the cafeteria, we walked down the street to the Neue Galerie to see the exhibit on Gustav Klimt and Adele Bloch-Bauer: The Lady in Gold.  Gustav Klimt's "Adele Bloch-Bauer I" was the center of the exhibit, curated alongside it were sketches, jewelry, accessories and bits of history about Klimt and Bloch-Bauer.

The Neue Galerie was also really strict about photos, so here are some photos of "Adele Block-Bauer I" on the Neue Galerie's website.

It turns out Bloch-Bauer embodied Josef Hoffman's concept of das individuelle kleid, individual dress, the idea of nonconforming to the current styles of dress in favor of expressing the self freely and showcasing a more personalized style.

There are two cafes in the Neue Galerie--my friends, our professor and I went to Cafe Sabarsky on the ground floor. The concept of both cafes is to recreate the experience of a Viennese coffee house with contemporary flair.

In the spirit of Klimt, the dessert would have a small fleck of edible gold on it.

After Cafe Sabarsky, Lauren, Courtney and I walked down Fifth Avenue towards Bryant Park. It couldn't have been a more beautiful Saturday to walk over two miles in the city.

Japanese Cherry Blossoms at The Fricke Collection

The French Consulate

To top off a perfect day, we ended it the only way we could think of--enjoying a few sips of prosecco at the Bryant Park Cafe.

Shoutout to Lauren for the photo credit because my phone died at the Neue Galerie!

I'm already planning my next trip to New York City to see The Museum at FIT's exhibit on Global Fashion Capitals and the Fabergé exhibit at The Met I had completely overlooked...