I had the perfect NYC weekend and it was completely spontaneous

Proof that no plans can get you far!!!

This past weekend, I pulled off the near impossible: the perfect NYC weekend. One of my best friends was supposed to visit, but a last-minute family emergency meant she had to cancel the day before. I was disappointed, of course, but suddenly I had a completely free weekend in the city. That never happens. No reservations! No real plans! Just an open horizon stretching with endless possibility. And I’m thrilled to report that I rose to the occasion.

Each day brought at least one unforgettable meal, dancing, and 10+ miles of wandering the city on foot—basically, my personal trifecta of joy. It turned out to be one of the best weekends of my life.

Here’s what I did, what I ate, and where I danced. I hope it’s proof that you don’t need an impossible-to-score reservation or elusive tickets bought months in advance to have a good ass time in the city.

Thursday

The weekend started on Thursday morning because this is when my friend was supposed to come into town, and therefore I had a (mostly) cleared calendar.

It started with an overcast walk to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden—Mark and I go every Thursday morning; it’s a new spring tradition of ours. On the way, we stopped and picked up a croissant from Cafe Mado (our fave) to split. We spent about an hour in BBG looking at the irises covered in rain, and after the garden, we strolled through Prospect Park and then took bikes home. I was having an amazing hair day, despite the humidity and the bike ride.

We went home and cranked out a few hours of work so we’d head into the actual weekend feeling caught up and ready to go.

Due to an email reminder and a text from my sister in law, we realized we had tickets to see a Roosevelt DJ set at the Elsewhere rooftop—we must’ve bought them months ago and promptly forgotten.

So we decided to roll with this plan, heading to Sunsets at La Cantine in Bushwick for dinner. Dinner here was stellar per usual, and we got the best table right on the sidewalk. Spring al fresco dining, how I missed you! The ramp and cheddar cake with pickled ramp butter was astounding. The thousand layer potato was the perfect mixture of hot, crispy potato and cold asparagus salad and red pesto. The pork chop Caesar was good, but it was a lot. We were so so brave and skipped dessert.

And then we waltzed over to Maria Hernandez Park for a joint and people watching session pre-dancing. I’ve decided that it’s the Parque Mexico of Brooklyn… there’s truly always something entertaining going on here. It’s very vibrant and lively, and it’s nice to see so many different communities come together to just hang out. We witnessed a man training his dog to do flips, some seriously intense volleyball games, and a woman professionally flying a remote control airplane (think: crazy loops)!

Then, Roosevelt! We caught the sunset from the Elsewhere roof, and his set was very vibey. We stayed for probably an hour and a half before heading home… We knew we wanted to pace ourselves for the rest of the weekend, and my ears were starting to ring from everyone scream talking on the dance floor. I went home and immediately ordered myself a custom baseball hat off of Etsy that says “less talking, more dancing.” I’m really excited to debut it; I fucking hate dance floor talkers.

Friday

I had a few appointments and we worked until around 4pm, and then at around 5, we headed to Bernie’s for dinner, which had been on my list to try for what seemed like forever. They don’t take reservations, it’s walk-ins only, and we aren’t usually free when it opens at 4pm on Friday. I was told by Substack friends to be there 30 minutes before opening, but we put our name on the list at 5:15, and we were seated at a prime corner outdoor table by 6pm. While waiting for our table, we people watched and took a walk to get matcha.

Bernie’s absolutely blew me away. With all of the hype surrounding it, I was expecting to be gently let down, but everything was so unbelievably good and the service was fantastic. My favorite thing we ordered was their buffalo chicken wings, which is saying a lot, because it was a rogue order on our part and something I wouldn’t normally get… but best wings of my 30 years of life. The burger was excellent too… tasted like I’ve always wanted a Big Mac to taste. The brownie sundae was solid, but I wouldn’t order it again unless I had several defensive lineman in tow. It’s fucking huge, and I have no self control, so I had a stomachache for the rest of the night. I’m already planning my return because I need to try their baby back ribs. I’m currently on a ribs crusade.

After Bernie’s, we headed to LIC for a Klangkarussell DJ set at the most random venue I’ve ever been to—think a tacky ass banquet hall with gaudy crystal chandeliers but also a roof with a great view?

We stayed for approximately 30 minutes because the opening act was so horrid and the music was so spooky and dark that it was really killing our vibe. A friend lasted until Klangkarussell went on and said he delivered, but at that point, we had already moved on to Ciao Ciao Disco back in Williamsburg. I had been wanting to check out their light up dance floor for months. We got there early—at 10—and were the only ones on the dance floor, but it was a vibe?? The DJ was on point and I had plenty of room to break out my BIG dance moves. I’m never embarrassed to be the first in, first out at a club.

We ended the night with a walk through Domino Park, and for the second night in a row, we were home and asleep by 11:30pm… A win in my book!

Saturday

I woke up and went on a 4 mile run to Herbert Von King Park… Something I never do (my knees hate running and so do I), but it was just so nice out that I couldn’t fathom an indoor workout. We grabbed teriyaki chicken salad bowls for lunch from Chef Katsu. After devouring these on a park bench, we then made the pilgrimage to explore Green-Wood Cemetery, one of my favorite green spaces in all of New York.

It might’ve been the small square of mushroom chocolate that I took, but this was one of the prettiest spring days I’ve ever witnessed in New York. Green-Wood is so expansive, and you can go there multiple times and see completely different things. There were massive rhododendron bushes in boom, irises everywhere, and such a diverse collection of trees! Unless you’re on one of the hills and have a view of the Manhattan skyline, you feel like you’ve been transported far, far away from civilization. We only saw ten other people over the course of two hours.

From here, we stumbled over to Industry City to check out the Soul Summit block party… I don’t recommend going to Industry City on shrooms—we happened to walk through an adult sumo wrestling competition which would have been freaky sober so imagine me grazing one of the men on accident while still high… but we rallied and bought a bunch of fruit and ate it outside, and then danced for a good hour or so before heading to our impromptu dinner plan…

Café Mars! Another place I had been wanting to check out for a long time, but I’m never in Gowanus and wouldn’t go out of the way normally to try a gimmicky, somewhat themed restaurant. I will say it was less gimmicky than I thought it would be, and the monkey garlic bread and their gemelli pasta was actually incredible. The worst dish of the entire weekend was their fried asparagus. Skip! I also loved that you get to choose your drinking glass, and at the end of the meal, the check comes out in a 3D card with a bowl of nostalgic candy. Will I be back soon? Probably not, but if I happened to be nearby and in need of good pasta, I could see myself coming back. Would be great for an older kid’s birthday—maybe we will bring Quinn here.

We then took an Uber to Pier 6 at Brooklyn Bridge Park, and then walked to the ferry to catch it to Wall Street, because surprise, we were going dancing again… This time, to The Rooftop at Pier 17 to see the Ajunadeep takeover.

We caught the ferry exactly at sunset which was glorious, and then ended up seeing the Mexican Navy boat that crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge. Thankfully, we didn’t see the crash itself, but we saw the sailors performing on the masts, and we watched the boat sail away… but we were on the rooftop by the time it crashed. Really eerie, and obviously very sad.

Tinlicker performed an amazing set, but I will say Pier 17 has the worst sound system I’ve ever encountered, and by 8pm, the crowd was so far gone that I’ve never seen so many zombies at a show before. It was the drunk and high walking dead, but maybe I felt out of place because I was a bit jealous that I wasn’t rolling along with anyone else. The chaos made leaving quite a scene… since there were over 100 ambulances and police cars outside, expertly handling the boat crash situation.

We capped off the night with soft serve from Mr. Dips and a subway ride home. In bed by 11:30!!

Sunday

After walking 16 miles on Saturday, Sunday was much more chill. I slept in until 9:30am (first time in years) and then we headed to Greenpoint for za’atar croissants at Nick + Sons and secondhand shopping at Beacon’s Closet… where I actually scored and found things for once, namely a men’s Etro striped oversized button down and a Ralph Lauren rugby shirt.

We stumbled upon Teak, a Scandi home goods store, and were thrilled to find out they had an outstanding cardamom bun… perhaps my new favorite in Brooklyn? Devoured that too.

We headed home to regroup and eat Bjorn Qorn with fresh parm grated on top in our backyard (you have free will and should eat your popcorn this way too), and then I changed into my new purchase for drinks at Rhodora. Of course I also had to wear my new vintage snail brooch that I scored on eBay.

Then it was back to Bushwick for dinner. This time, to Bunna Cafe, an Ethiopian restaurant I had been wanting to try for a very long time, but another place that doesn’t take reservations. We waltzed in at 6pm and were escorted to the best table in the entire restaurant. Our luck this weekend was simply unmatched!!

After stuffing our faces with the platter for two, we popped into Yough and Foster Sundry for some fun bevs and dessert snacks to take to Maria Hernandez Park. After eating our peanut butter cups and smoking a quick joint, we went to Signal (a new club in Bushwick) for another Soul Summit dance party… let me say, best club in Brooklyn. No phones on the dance floor, talking discouraged, people are actually respectful, and the sound system is perfectly calibrated so you can hear the music without going deaf. I wanted to stay here until the party ended (1:00am) but obviously we were in bed by 11pm again, because it was fucking Sunday and we aren’t animals.

Shazams from this weekend:

I’m very tired today (as you can imagine) but feeling very fulfilled and very grateful to live in this city! And very thankful that I only drank a half a glass of wine, because I can’t imagine what today would feel like with a real hangover.