NYC Ladies’ Night: Blossom on Carmine & The Butcher’s Daughter Vegan Dining

Hello, and Happy Friday!

Growing up in New Jersey, I lived an hour from the wonder that it New York City. The ladies in my family love(d) heading into the city for Broadway shows (Les Miserables is my all-time favorite!) and dinner together. In my early college years, I would take public transportation into NYC with friends to do some underage drinking at bars we knew would take our fake ID’s.

NYC holds a special place in my heart for the memories I’ve made there throughout my life and simply because it is such a cool city, and on this trip to the east coast, my friend Danielle and I spent time there doing a few of the things we do best: eating and exploring.

We stayed overnight at the Hilton Fashion District. We had stayed there once before together a few years ago, and we chose it again because it has an awesome rooftop bar at its RARE NYC Rooftop Bar & Grill. The views are gorgeous from up there!

We had a drink at the bar before heading out to dinner at Blossom on Carmine. Danielle is a foodie too, and when she mentioned this place and I checked out the menu, I was all for it. Serving organic vegan cuisine and noting that they “bring animal-caring, health conscious cuisine to food lovers everywhere” on their website, I was sold on having dinner there.

We met up with 2 of Danielle’s girlfriends from work, all of which are food lovers as well. When food would arrive, every one of us would take out our phones and start staging for a pretty photo. I’m used to usually being the only one that constantly snaps food pics, so I found it to be hilarious.

Everything sounded awesome and we wound up ordering a ton of food to share. To start off, we ate adobo-spiced mushroom tacos, which had a lot of great flavor…

…as well as some plant-based sushi (including seaweed covered sushi that I wasn’t a fan of since I recently established that I don’t like fishy seaweed) and sweet potato rolls with avocado, carrot and jicama. 

For our main course, I chose lasagna with broccoli rabe. I was sort of distracted while ordering because all of us ladies were chatting, and for some reason I thought the lasagna would be some sort of veggie base and not actual pasta. It also had fake cheese, which I’m not the biggest fan of. I think I was expecting a creative vegan cheese, like a cashew cheese or something, and the fake cheese made the lasagna kind of sweet. I would say overall I didn’t love it but didn’t hate it either. 

Danielle ordered black bean enchiladas, which were also kind of sweet from the vegan cheese they included, but I thought hers was pretty good.  

We also ordered sweet potato fries, truffle mashed potatoes (YUM), asparagus, brussel sprouts, and a quinoa salad that had guacamole, sunflower seeds, black bean, corn and some more goodness. It was a lot of food, and we all enjoyed it.  

We also couldn’t resist ordering a dessert to try called “brownie all the way.” It was a fabulous pick! I’m not sure what kind of vegan ice cream they used, but it was really good, and the brownie was nice and chocolatey with a bit of mint.   

After dinner, we rolled our full bellies out of the restaurant, and Danielle and I headed off to a bar for some drinks. She wanted to take me to Employees Only, which is internationally recognized for its mixology. CNN named it one of the world’s 50 best bars last year… so, I had high expectations.

(source)

Not surprisingly, the bar was pretty packed. We found a cozy corner at the bar and ordered our first round. I got their Ginger Smash cocktail, which included rum, maraschino liqueur, lime juice and muddled ginger root.

Whew, the ginger was serious in this drink! A bunch of times I would take a sip through the straw, only to suck in a big chunk of ginger that burned my throat. I like ginger, but it was a bit much to have so much of an overpowering flavor like ginger in the cocktail.

I ordered a few more drinks, and honestly, wasn’t overly impressed with any of them. I also wasn’t impressed with the bartenders, who weren’t very personable and seemed kind of full of themselves. I often feel that eateries/bars that get so much recognition kind of let it get to their heads. Not sure if that’s the case with Employees Only, but I sort of got that first impression.

We stayed there for a few hours just catching up and people watching. NYC always has an interesting crowd, no matter where you go! The bar definitely has a cool, trendy vibe to it. A tarot card reader sat at the front of the bar trying to drum up business, and Danielle and I wound up getting our cards read just for kicks on our way out. It was an interesting experience, and now I can check that off my list of things to try!

We wound up staying up really late (my first 4 AM bedtime in quite awhile!), so the next morning we were feeling sluggish and needed a solid breakfast. D had mentioned this cafe called The Butcher’s Daughter. It was pretty far from our hotel, but after I checked out their website, I decided we should just go for it… and I’m glad we did!

The Butcher’s Daughter is an adorable eatery and juice bar that offers a delicious sounding, mostly healthy vegetarian menu. I ordered a slice of their avocado toast, piled high with avo and served on hearty grain bread. It definitely hit the spot! I also ordered a banana peanut butter smoothie that was just what I needed to pep me up. 

D and I also tried their adzuki bean bacon just for kicks…which was interesting. It definitely wasn’t crispy, but the flavor wasn’t bad, and a few strips made a nice addition to my toast. D ordered an egg, avocado, and vegan cheese sandwich that she loved. I would definitely like to get back to The Butcher’s Daughter for lunch or dinner sometime. It was my kind of place! Afterwards, we walked around and explored the pretty streets on NYC.

I loved all of the street art that we kept coming across! 

All in all, I had a fabulous time hanging out in NYC! I love having a fun ladies’ night, and am always up for trying out vegan eateries and fancy cocktails. 🙂

Tell me… Ladies, when was the last time you had a blast with your friends? Have you ever dined vegan in NYC?