Out of the box Archives

Our lockdown silver linings

Left: The Cindies (photo credit: Isabella Boylston); upper right: Half Baked Harvest Instagram account (photo credit: Tieghan Gerard); lower right: Family Way The past months have been disruptive to say the least, but we’ve learned that good things can come from lockdown. While New York is slowly starting to reopen, we wanted to share some nice discoveries that we have made during this peculiar stay-at-home period. Here are some of our favorite silver linings (that you will still be able to enjoy after quarantine…

Up in the air

What’s the craziest thing you can do in New York? Think outside of the box. Maybe a little adventurous. An activity that involves perching upon New York’s skyline. But not on a rooftop sipping a cocktail! This time literally hanging by a harness to the urban jungle. Get ready for your first trapeze class! Along the Hudson River, on the rooftop of the Pier 40 sports facility, you’ll find NYC Trapeze School. Your teachers are funambulist apprentices, often studying at the circus school and always…

Tasting New York

New York is a city you experience through food! It’s the smell of roasted peanuts on Manhattan’s streets, a happy hour at a West Village oyster bar, the line in front of Chinatown’s best dim sums, the iconic $1 pizza slice, the latest refined creation of a Michelin star chef or the crackling of a grilled hot dog at a Central Park food truck. New York is a culinary melting pot delight. No surprise then that the city got itself a museum of food and…

A reverse speakeasy

Speakeasies have no more secrets for you. A bar hidden in the back of a Japanese restaurant, stashed in the fridge of an Indian grocery store or concealed behind a phone booth. But how many speakeasy restaurants do you know? We discovered a secret gem just for you. A reverse speakeasy. A restaurant hidden behind a bar and not the other way around. It is a confidential spot no bigger than a handkerchief that opened a few months ago in the East Village. And the…

Yurt alert

Brrr. It’s cold outside. You have entered hibernation mode and the only thing that could drag you out of your winter torpor (and your quilt) is an exceptional venue. What about an end-of-the-world experience? This winter the terrace of the Standard Hotel East Village transforms into a Siberian forest. Five yurts are hidden in an enchanting setting, in the middle of the fir trees and between the garlands of light. Come inside to warm up! Inside the tents, the muted atmosphere is closer to the…

Beyond magic

It’s a new show – but we can’t tell you about it. It is an original and surprising experience – but we can’t reveal anything. Anyone who saw it will urge you to go, but no one will give you any details. So how do you talk about a show when you can’t disclose anything? It is a performance at the crossroads of a haunting one-man play, a bewildering magic show and an immersive theater experience. A one-of-a-kind hybrid concept. When you enter the small…

Ephemeral & enchanting

What would you say of a gastronomic menu in the intimacy of a small local bakery? It sounds very much like a Christmas tale. At nightfall, the kitchen of a Brooklyn bakery transforms into a fancy grand restaurant. Chef Mads Refslund has temporarily settled in Claus Meyer’s bakery. These two met while working at Noma, the Danish darling restaurant of all globetrotters, which won the title of world’s best restaurant for several years. This Christmas season Meyers Bageri metamorphoses into Knightshift where a culinary high…

3 winter pleasures

Left picture: cheese fondue at Diviera Drive (photo credit to Jeanne Chiaravalli); Top right picture: hot chocolate at Cacao Market; bottom right picture: knitting with Sophie. We have some good and some bad news. The bad news is that it’s going to get colder and colder. The good news is that we have 3 discoveries to share that will soften the blow of winter’s arrival. 3 guilty pleasures to warm you up and help you to have some patience while waiting for Christmas to get here….

Get ready to be surprised

What we love in New York is discovering hidden gems, finding oneself in exceptional places and being surprised. Recently we had the chance to attend a cello concert in a chocolate factory lost in the far shore of Brooklyn with a beer and chocolate tasting. Magical moment! Or listening to a string quartet in a remote artists’ studio on the beach 50 minutes from Manhattan. Total change of scene! How? By way of Groupmuse. Groupmuse is a classical music collective which invites itself in exceptional…

Into the wild

Left picture: Minnewaska State Park; Top right picture: beach at Sebago Cabin Camp; bottom right picture: Sebago Lake. Still no plans for Labor Day? Let’s face it: D-1 before America’s most anticipated long weekend, it’s probably too late! You won’t find the beach house of your dreams in the Hamptons or the charming lakefront cottage in the Catskills. But don’t worry, we’re not going to leave you stranded in NYC. We’re launching a special weekend rescue operation! Did you know that within two hours of Manhattan…