Defonte’s – The Best Restaurants in NYC
261 3rd Ave, Manhattan, NY Beside its groundbreaking high-end eateries, Asian restaurants, and burgers, New York excels at another type of nosh – artisanal sandwiches. Sure, you can find the foo foo organic, whole-grain variety, and some very good versions of it, but when you’re in the mood for an unapologetic fling with a […]
Minca – The Best Restaurants in NYC
536 E 5th St New York, NY 10009 It’s infrequent that I’ll go so far as to do research in order to write a restaurant review, especially in New York. Tell you the history of the burger? Heck if I know, but I’ve eaten a metric ton of them in my day. Steaks? Brunch […]
Shake Shack – The Best Restaurants in NYC
For my return journey to Shake Shack, I decided to challenge the prevailing assumption that the lines are too long, so I set my stopwatch the moment I stepped into line. It wasn’t until I had successfully navigated the line, ordered, waited for my order, sherpa’d it over to a vacant bench, taken my […]
Metro Cafe – the Best Restaurants in NYC
4924 8th Ave Brooklyn, NY 11220 Cliche-avoidance-be-damned, Sunset Park is a treasure trove. We at Smart Getaways actively encourage readers to get out of Manhattan to experience the best restaurants New York has to offer, and you sure don’t have to go as far as Flushing or Sunset Park to find great eats, but […]
Atlantic City 2 – Weekend Getaways from NYC
In part one of this series, I floated the controversial idea that perhaps Atlantic City warranted inclusion in a list of six smart weekend getaways from New York, both because of its well-earned reputation as well-worn tourist-trap and in spite of it. Come for the amazing Asian food, wineries, beaches, and…dare I say it…shopping, […]
Atlantic City 1 – Weekend Getaways from NYC
Forget everything you think you know about Atlantic City. Don’t get me wrong – it is all that. Playground of broken dreams, Ozymandian vestige of ostentatiousness, neon-stucco-and-chrome found-object monument to a time when Roger Moore was Bond, Trump’s hair was real, and you could still get a hot meal on a transcontinental flight. AC’s […]
Voula’s Offshore Cafe – What to Eat in Seattle
658 NE Northlake Way Seattle, WA 98105 Voula’s is just about as directly opposite The Fat Hen as you can get within the confines of deliciousness. For starters, it was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives. High falutin this is not. (And good damn riddance.) Amid spartan surroundings, Voula’s cuts-to-the-chase, serving up big portions of […]
The Fat Hen – What to Eat in Seattle
1418 NW 70th St Seattle, WA 98117 Believe-it-or-not, not every restaurant we visited made it into the “where to eat” section of this blog. We tried several brunch joints, and in the end are including only two, which offer a good “spread”, one representing excellence in “greasy spoon” diner food (it’s not actually greasy), […]
The Fare for That Itinerary is No longer Available – Travel Hacks
If the above looks familiar, you’ve fallen victim to one of the most annoying little-known idiosyncrasies of online flight booking. After weeks of searching, watching the trend lines, monitoring the fare alerts, and comparing airlines and itineraries, you’re finally ready to buy, so you click “select” on your choice-of-flight, you click through to the […]
Airfare Hacks 2 – The Real Way to Score Cheap Airfare
There’s a lot of so-called science about booking cheap airfares, some of it (like the assertion that airfares are cheapest at the beginning of the week) mostly-true, some of it (that 3-months-in-advance is a “sweet spot”, or that certain weekdays are always cheaper to fly) dubious. Luckily, we don’t need folklore. We have Kayak. […]
