And Now...the Details!

Ok, so most of the pics are up but I did save a few for the detail portion of this trip. I got in to New York Saturday (as I think I mentioned on the way) and got to my hotel just before 8:00. Unfortunately, my plans with "Lisa" got cancelled for dinner, but I think it was best with gettin in at night, getting settled, and then remembering daylight savings time! My hotel was great...very classy, old-style with pics of Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Bette Davis all over the walls. And the fitness center was on the Pent House floor so that was cool. I met a guy from England there the first morning and I just loved his accent! He was there on "holiday" but we didn't get to chat for too long because he had to "shoot" after he told me his debaucles trying to drive on the other side of the road...and how our "right on red" law completely messes him up! haha

Ok, so the show. It's absolutely ginormous inside the Jacob Javitz Center. You get there and go down the escalators to just aisles and aisles of food, food equipment, and yes, even a little beer! This is about a third of the place, but I hope it gives you the idea....



And of course...as you come down the escalators the first booth you see is...."Dairyland, The Chefs Warehouse" We don't exactly have a booth...I'd call it more of a little neighborhood. This is it...



And what a beautiful day it was in our neighborhood. I got to hang out with Tim from Connecticut most of the day. He's great, used to be a chef in Boston, and him and I walked the aisles a lot to keep our sanity...and find out where the beer was! Aisle 2000 in case you were wondering! At the end of the day myself, Tim, and another rep headed out for a beer to catch up and kill some time before dinner.

I had dinner that night with "Lisa" and Cat. Cat is our pastry specialist and she works out of our DC warehouse. She's really cool and I chat with her a lot regarding all my pastry questions. And just to clear the air...I finally have a picture of me and "Lisa". I also have a confession...her name is really Lisa, so I don't have to put quotes around her name to protect her identity anymore! This blog is famous, ya know?? :-)


Ok, so the three of us ate at this cool Tapas restaurant in the East Village, I think??? It's called Stanton Social and of course, we started with a bottle of wine. Well, the first two bottles were actually corked, so the third was a charm. We started dinner with a Bistro salad and some duck confit empanadas. These were delicious (it was Lisa's duck) and they were drizzled with a blood orange glaze! After that we had the potato & goat cheese pierogies....YUM-O! They came with carmelized onions on top and a side of truffled creme fraiche. They also brought over the french onion soup dumplings with that. I'm not sure how they made this, but it was seriously soooo good. I know I say that a lot, but how do they get soup inside a dumpling???? Seriously?? After that we got the braised short rib soft tacos, the chicken and waffles (saw it on the menu and I had to try it), and our side of brussels sprouts...we needed some veggies! I thought it was so cool to see chicken and waffles on a tapas menu so it had to be tasted. Waffle, cheese, chicken, corn pudding, and a balsamic spiked maple syrup....you know you want to see what it looked like!


So after dinner, Lisa went home and Cat and I grabbed a drink in Times Square. Kind of awkward, but as we were walking into the hotel the swat team jumped out of a van and loaded their guns. Kind of took us off guard...then the cops standing around were like, "how you doing?" to us. We weren't sure what to make of the situation, but whatever!

Yesterday was my last day at the show...another long one, but good to see some more people I work with. Even saw some chefs I've worked with. I had dinner with Nicola and Saige last night and we ate at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station. Another cool place...we had, guess what...oysters! Then I had the red snapper with salsa verde and beans, Nicola had the striper, and Saige had the Dover Sole. It was a great dinner and great to catch up with them. We had a bottle of wine, toasted to our parent's children, and called it a night!

So that's the trip to New York. It'll be nice to get home and get settled...at least until I pack and head to Denver....next week already!!!!!! Hope everyone's week is off to a good start!

Chow,

KK :-)