A beautiful afternoon trip to Governor’s Island to check out the Fete Paradiso and their vintage 1930s carnival rides. The rides were mostly for older kids or adults – the only ones toddlers fit on were not exactly the safest. The rides were beautifully restored, and a real treat to see and experience.
I typically avoid photographing anything touristy, but we walked home over the Brooklyn Bridge and I couldn’t resist this shot.
On a stupidly hot day, we were dying for an indoor space with super strong air-conditioning, where Cheese could also run around. We caught the A/C train straight up to 81st street to check out the Children’s Museum of Manhattan (CMOM).
The CMOM is a five-story paradise for kids. Each floor contains either permanent or special exhibits, which are highly interactive, and suitable for children of all ages— from birth on up. Cheese, at 22 months, particularly loved the “PlayWorks” exhibit, featuring a fire truck, MTA bus and a giant talking dragon who “eats” letters.
Other exhibits of note included an outdoor water play area in summer, a mural wall for kids to play on, a sand pit, a soft play area for babies and a Dora The Explorer rainforest world (with a jungle canopy and play exotic animal exhibits for kids to discover).
We went on the 4th of July holiday and it was not overly busy, which you’d expect on a public holiday (maybe everyone was out barbecuing?). You’ll need to check your stroller at the entrance, so bring a carrier for kids who aren’t strong walkers. Also, there are easy-to-access bathrooms with change tables available.
After working up an appetite we ducked into Cafe Lalo across the street (which is worth a visit on its own any day!) for a snack.
Since it was so hot, we each ordered the “Lalo’s Special” ($11.50). It’s a bowl of frozen yogurt with your choice of berries, fruit or nuts, and a fresh-baked breakfast pastry of your choice. We both ordered ours with the berries and went with an apple danish and cranberry scone since they were only two remaining pastries. As always, the yogurt was perfect, with the fresh mixed berries giving sweet zings of flavour to the tart yogurt. While the pastries weren’t our first choices (I’d usually go for a pain au chocolat, and Alec a plain crossant), they were delicious. The apple danish was flaky with big chunks of apple, and the cranberry scone was densely packed with sweet bursts of cranberry.
We let Cheese share our dishes—she loved the yogurt and berries most of all.
Cafe Lalo is actually known for two things—desserts (they have over 100 whole cakes, pies and tarts available), and for a famous scene in the movie “You’ve Got Mail“, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. As such, it’s always packed, either with lovers of sweets like myself, or busloads of tourists—who showed up at just the same time we did that day. The tourists mostly stayed in the front of the cafe to order a dessert to go, so it wasn’t as obtrusive as you’d expect.
The interior—with its walls covered in Toulouse Lautrec-esque prints—is charmingly Parisian. If you block out the decidedly non-European voices around you, it’s easy to imagine you’re in a cafe in Paris.
Taking children to Cafe Lalo is a mixed bag. They’re not especially set up for kids, so come prepared for your visit —you’ll need to leave the stroller outside, and be sure to speak up and ask for anything you need for your child.
Last bite: Drop by for a snack or dessert for a touch of Paris on the UWS. Kids are welcome—order them a pastry or share a “Lalo’s Special” for a fun afternoon (or morning) treat.
Stroller storage: You can’t bring your stroller inside, but they’ll store it for you somewhere mysterious under the restaurant.
Easy access: No. Quite a few steps.
Change tables: No. The bathrooms are pretty small.
Kids’ menu: No, but there’s so much to choose from, from bagels and muffins to steamed eggs or homemade waffles.
Cafe Lalo
201 West 83rd St. (between Amsterdam Ave. & Broadway)
New York, NY 10024
Phone: (212) 496-6031
Prices: $$
Hours: Mon-Thur 8am-2am; Fri 8am-4am; Sat 9am-4am Sun 9am-2am. Holidays until 4am.
Children’s Museum of Manhattan
212 W. 83rd St (between Amsterdam Ave. & Broadway)
New York, NY 10024
Phone: (212) 721-1234
Hours: Sun-Fri 10am-5pm; Sat 10am-7pm. Closed Mondays.
Now that Cheese is always on the go and eating out is getting harder, we love to stop by Vive la Crêpe whenever we pass through SoHo. Sometimes we grab a crêpe to go, and sometimes we sit and eat if it’s not busy. Vive la Crepe satisfies all of our needs during this period of our toddler’s life—quick service and tasty food we can easily eat while chasing a dizzyingly fast kid.
I always order the same savoury crêpe—the Number 3 (Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil, $9). It’s huge, but not massively filling—the perfect meal for when you’re kinda hungry, but not in the mood to eat a heavy meal. The mozzarella is fresh and the batter is just sweet enough without being overly sweet and taking over the other flavours.
What’s great about a crêpe is that you can eat it with just one hand—either while seated (the luxury!) or while chasing a toddler who looks similar to the disheveled monkey below.
On this most recent visit we asked if they could make something for our toddler that was small enough for her to hold and eat by herself (since toddlers are all about being independent). They obliged by making Cheese her own complimentary plain pancake out of the crepe batter.
Cheese loved having her own crepe/pancake to hold and to chew on.
Last bite: As always, Vive la Crêpe is a fantastic place to grab quality food if you’re in a hurry and want to eat one-handed, or if you’re in need of a casual, light lunch while out with your kids.
Highchairs: No.
Stroller storage: No. There is a small space next to the counter where you can fold a stroller, or if it’s pretty empty inside you can park the stroller next to your table.
Easy access: Yes. One step to get in.
Change tables: No.
Kids’ menu: No. But they do take special requests.
Vive La Crepe
51 Spring St. (between Mulberry St. & Lafayette St.)
New York, NY 10012
Price: $
Phone: (646) 484 6897
Hours: Mon-Sat 8am-12am, Sun 9am-12am
For this year’s birthday, Alec planned an extravaganza of events, spanning three days. Good call, as Eloise had the worst night sleep the night before my actual birthday, leaving Alec a zombie and Eloise cranky all day.
On my actual birthday all we could handle was a casual lunch at Keste Pizza in the West Village, followed by gelato at PopBar.
Outside PopBar, Eloise was desperate to eat my gelato. See my beautiful Tiffany blue bracelet from Alec?
We love books in our house. Both my husband and I have enjoyed reading since we were super small, so we read with Eloise as much as we can.
One of her current favourite books is Who Are We?: An Animal Guessing Game?, written by Alexis Barad-Cutler, a local Brooklyn mum to a toddler almost the same age as missy Eloise – so she really knows her market well.
Who Are We?: An Animal Guessing Game is a board book with flaps that lift to reveal the animals that have been mentioned in rhyme on the previous page. The animals featured in the book range from cute penguins to snakes and the arctic wolf. Each spread features a riddle to help guess the animal, and then a detail about them under the flap that you might not know. (Leopards take their prey into trees to eat. Who knew?)
Eloise’s favourite animal in the book is the snake (Ssssssssss!). She loves lifting the flaps and revealing the animals underneath. At almost two, she’s too young to understand the riddle and answer concept, so it’s a great book for her to grow into and find something to enjoy at different stages of her development.
Who Are We?: An Animal Guessing Game is available from Amazon.
Summer to me means one thing—the unrelenting search for the city’s best ice cream. My current fave is Ample Hills, which I discovered when they opened up a concession stand at Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park.
The concession stand in the park usually has about eight flavors, but I was curious as to what frozen delights I would find at the actual Ample Hills Creamery cafe in Prospect Heights. We made the pilgrimage to Ample Hills Creamery one hot summer’s day to check out the full shebang. The name for the creamery came from a Walt Whitman poem, who liked to wax lyrical about what an awesome place Brooklyn was back in the 1800s (he was an early adopter). The poem goes: “I too lived. Brooklyn of ample hills was mine…” And thus, Ample Hills Creamery was born, using only the freshest local and hormone-free ingredients. The dairy and eggs come from farms in upstate New York.
The first Ample Hills ice cream was sold out of a cart to concert-goers in Prospect Park. It didn’t take long for an ice cream cult to form and grow to the point where a shop was needed to keep up with the demand.
The creamery itself has a lot of space inside—tables, chairs and a little play area for kids in the rear. It’s geared towards people buying a sundae and sitting down to chat, rather than ordering a cone and taking it to go (although you can do both, I’d recommend enjoying your ice cream while taking in the quirky ambiance inside).
The Ample Hills flavours border on the wacky and wild sides, such as their Cotton Candy (which is slate blue), Salted Crack Caramel and Ooey Gooey Butter Cake, which has giant chunks of butter cake mixed into the ice cream.
Their speciality is the “Build a Sundae” ($7.60) — a warm, homemade brownie, topped with your choice of 24 kinds of ice cream, whipped cream, and sprinkles. Buy it to share between at least two people, it’s pretty big.
My Ample Hills staples are Sweet Cookies ‘n Cream, Sweet as Honey and Ooey Gooey Butter Cake. A single serve is $2.75, a double $4.35. I usually get one cone to share with Cheese but lately she’s been eating the lion’s share so pretty soon she will likely need her own.
After eating our ice cream, we take Cheese to the back section of the creamery, to play in the kids area. It’s thoughtfully planned out with a play kitchen and shop front — selling ice cream, of course — and a bookshelf filled with kids books on ice cream. Cheese is in heaven. We’re stuffed with ice cream. Mission accomplished.
Last bite: This ice cream shop serves seriously delicious, naturally and locally-made frozen treats. It’s the perfect respite from a steamy summer’s day — plan to sit in for a while, eat up, and let the kids play.
Highchairs: Yes.
Stroller storage: Yes.
Easy access: Yes.
Change tables: Yes.
Kids’ menu: Yes. Kid-sized scoops of ice cream.
Ample Hills Creamery
623 Vanderbilt Ave,
Brooklyn, NY
Phone: (347) 240 3926
Prices: $
Hours: Sun-Thurs 12pm-11pm, Fri-Sat 12pm-12am
A day trip to Coney Island for most people is about sun, fun and hotdogs. For us however, it is all about pizza at Totonno’s, which is quite possibly the best pizza in New York. Big call, I know. But Totonno’s has plenty of press to back them up over the nine decades they’ve been open, as one of the best pies you’ll get in NYC.
Let’s back up a bit: After hearing about the Totonno’s reputation soon after we moved here from Sydney, we were determined to put their pizza to the test. So we decided to make a day trip of it, beginning with pizza and ending with a visit to the nearby NY Aquarium.
We were a bit wary after walking through a few Coney Island back streets, past auto-mechanics, to a nondescript storefront that opened to an old-school diner. Was this really home to one of New York’s best pizzas? We were dubious, but decided to stay and try it out anyway. Note to readers — our visit and these pics were taken before the hurricane, and before Totonno’s remodeling following the disaster. The pizza however, is exactly the same.
Totonno’s is not a fancy place. It’s more like your grandma’s 1970’s-style kitchen—no frills tables and chairs, old pictures on the walls, and the menu spelled out in tiles above the ordering window. The service was also similar to what you’d get at your grandparents’ house — friendly and casual, with a strong likelihood that one of the owners themselves would be serving you. (Totonno’s is owned by three siblings; Antoinette Balzano, Frank Balzano and Louise Ciminieri; whose grandparents opened the restaurant.) Totonno’s was closed for five months after Hurricane Sandy ripped through Coney Island, opening again on March 24 to the rapture of locals and tourists alike.
The pizza itself is MASSIVE. Absolutely huge. We ordered a large, plain cheese pizza ($19.50). Of course we ate every single last bite. With a pizza that good, it’s a crime to leave a sad little crust behind. And yes, it is as good as it’s reputed to be. The crispy dough, the perfect layering of delicious tomato sauce, and the dollops of fresh mozzarella cheese: Heaven. Go to Coney Island, just for this pizza. If you want something not-pizza, go somewhere else, as this is the only thing they serve on the menu. Add extra toppings for $2.50 each.
When we visited, Cheese was too young to do anything except gnaw on a pizza crust, which she highly enjoyed anyway. They did have a highchair, but we opted to hold her in our laps.
After stuffing yourself with amazing pizza, walk on down to the Coney Island boardwalk to check out the beach and do some people watching.
Then wander on down like we did, to the also recently re-opened NY Aquarium (at Surf Avenue & West 8th Street) and get up close and personal with some seriously cute sea life. The aquarium also suffered a beating during the hurricane and is still being rebuilt. Several of the animal exhibits have reopened, like the penguins, sea lions, otters and walruses.
Last bite: A family-owned pizzeria that loves families. Scarf down some of the best pizza in NYC, then check out the also recently re-opened New York Aquarium for the perfect day trip.
Highchairs: Yes.
Stroller storage: Yes.
Easy access: Yes.
Change tables: No.
Kids’ menu: No.
Totonno’s
1524 Neptune Ave
(between 15th St & 16th St)
Brooklyn, NY 11224
Phone: (718) 372 8606
Price: $$
Hours: Wed-Sun 12pm-8pm
As a vegetarian, a good (non-meat) meatball is hard to find. Obviously. When I read that The Meatball Shop served vege meatballs as well as a wide range of vegetarian sides and options, I was there the next day. Or a few weeks later, when I got the chance – doesn’t sound as good though, does it?
The Lower East Side Meatball Shop is right near Alec’s office, so Cheese and I dropped by one Friday to take him to lunch. I walked right past it twice before realising it had no signage at ground level. Look up people, so you don’t look like the fool I did.
I adore any menu where I can pick and choose exactly what I want. I especially love when I can tick boxes so the server doesn’t get confused by my accent.
We chose the naked balls (snigger) and two sides – mashed potato and steamed spinach.
It’s worth noting here that we had an outdoor table as it was the best option with Cheese. The interior looked a bit small to squish in with a toddler and all of her gear. The helpful staff did store our stroller somewhere though – perhaps through some door that opened up into a magical portal of extra storage space.
The food arrived really quickly . It didn’t look like a huge amount, but afterwards I was so full I thought my stomach would explode.
We gave Cheese some of the vegetarian meatballs and spinach, but all she was interested in was the mashed potato. What can I say, the girl loves carbs.
Last bite: The Meatball Shop is for carnivores and herbivores alike. Come hungry, pack light and be prepared to squeeze in and eat big.
Highchairs: Yes.
Stroller storage: Minimal.
Easy access: It’s a bit tight, but no stairs.
Change tables: No.
Kids’ menu: No.
The Meatball Shop, 84 Stanton
84 Stanton St
New York, NY
Phone: {212} 982 8895
Prices: $$
Hours: Sun-Thur 12pm-2am, Fri-Sat 12pm-4am