A secret little spot in Tribeca.

Yesterday, my good friend Laurel came downtown to meet me for lunch. I just started working in the Tribeca-ish area - to be honest, I'm not quite sure what neighborhood my new office is in, but it's by City Hall but sort of over to the west a little. I'll stop there as people who don't live in New York are probably bored reading about my inability to navigate a city I've lived in for close to five years...

Laurel and I both commented how we NEVER find ourselves in that particular neighborhood. We had no clue about restaurants and lunch options, but we decided to be adventurous and do a little exploring instead of opting to just walk uptown to find more familiar surroundings.

We found one place that looked promising, but we both agreed that we would walk one extra lap around the block just to make sure we didn't find anything better. I mistakenly thought I saw a cute sign (I actually said,"Hey, that sign looks cute. Let's check it out."). This is a time that demonstrated that I should wear my glasses more often as the cute sign in question was actually a Capital One Bank sign (I'm telling ya - that awning made the place look like an adorable Parisian cafe).

Well, I'm glad we decided to keep looking because we were fortunate to stumble upon a little restaurant called Kitchenette. This place was ripe with everything one would be looking for on a cold New York City afternoon masquerading as a Spring day due to the incredible amount of sunshine - regardless, it was freezing out. We were welcomed into Kitchenette by a lovely staff who were more than happy to serve us a delicious lunch of hamburgers and mac'n'cheese, but of course, Laurel and I saved room for dessert.



You can't walk into Kitchenette without walking past the dessert cases, which are filled with various cookies, cakes, mini pies and other sweets. I opted for the Strawberry Shortcake and Laurel chose the Boston Cream Pie Cupcake. I had my shortcake packaged up so I could enjoy when I got home from shopping (plus, I was about five pounds heavier from the garlic fries and hamburger I had just consumed).

Here is a photo of Laurel indulging in her cupcake...


About an hour later, after I returned to my apartment, I devoured that strawberry shortcake like it was nobody's business. I can't say one negative thing about that dessert. It even held up after I lugged it around SoHo for over an hour while I shopped, so it's pretty impressive that the thing didn't topple over or just generally lose it's appetizing appeal. So kudos to that shortcake's ability to hold up under the elements!



Be sure to visit Kitchenette at either one of their locations:
Kitchenette Downtown
156 Chambers Street
New York, NY
P: (212) 267-6740
W: www.kitchenetterestaurant.com

OR

Kitchenette Uptown
1272 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY
P: (212) 531-7600
W: www.kitchenetterestaurant.com