Meat Ball Shop Location- Brooklyn Style

Double The Meat Balls, Double the Fun

Recently, The Big Adventure posted an entry about the incredibly popular food find of 2010: The New York City Meatball Shop. We wanted to follow up with news this Holiday Weekend is that they are in talks to add to a second location beyond their Lower East Side Stanton Street home. Where would this expanding franchise plant its delicious new roots? On Bedford Avenue  In the Williamsburg section (where else?) of Brooklyn. But the good news is that this iteration appears to much larger with an outdoor section. Read more on this link to the lesser known Meat Ball section of The New York Times

Walk off That Turkey With New York City's Shore Walkers

Walk off That Turkey With New York City's Shore Walkers

Feeling a little rotund around the middle after yesterday's feast of Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Pumpkin Pie, Rolls, etc, etc? The always great non-profit group Shore Walkers hosts its annual "Walk Off The Turkey" Event this weekend on Saturday, November 27th. The WOTT event is special three times over as its a wonderful way to see a new part of the city, get some solid exercise and make some new friends while just enjoying a nice walk.

Shore Walkers has been a part of the NYC walking culture for almost thirty years and the WOTT is one of their signature annual events. We particularly enjoy the group's inspiring Mission Statement which pretty much sums it all up: "To improve your health and stamina, to have fun on your feet while enjoying great walks, to protect our shore areas, to explore and learn about the Hudson estuary and other shore areas, and to meet interesting people along the shore"

The Walk Of The Turkey begins at 10:00 AM at the Staten Island Ferry and continues along the Hudson all the way up Manhattan. Admittedly, the 12 miles trek may be a bit ambitious for some but the journey is almost all on level ground and the reward of stumbling across the Little Red Lighthouse at the foot of the George Washington Bridge (as well as other landmarks along the way) are well worth it. A donation of $10 is requested.

If your feet aren't feeling it tomorrow, Shore Walkers has walks through the city including a half-dozen more over weekends through the end of the year. Most vary between four and nine miles in length as they explore virtually every path in the city.  So, lace up the Adidas, kiss the cranberries bye-bye and enjoy a slow-paced walk!

http://www.shorewalkers.org/ 

The Glory Of Smittens

Well, you just can’t have a Big Adventure on Ice without mentioning Smittens.  Smitten, you may ask? That’s right: Winter gloves for love birds. Adorable? Impractical? Cold Weather Wear? A Nauseatingly Display for Couples? Stop guessing because all of those are correct. Link to the website below where they could not have chosen a worse, non-winter, non-romantic picture….we need people in an outdoor café sharing cocoa!

http://www.smittens.biz/Smittens/What_are_Smittens.html 


Bonus: We also love the Olympic Canadian Mittens from last year’s Winter Games. You can bet you’ll see those in action on 12/11.

All About The Big Adventure

Click here to return to The Big Adventure homepage

A look back at some of our past NYC Big Adventures from 2010. Our Gallery includes:

To round out the list, Big Adventures before 2010:

The International Big Adventure

The Farewell to the W Line Big Adventure

The 24 Hour Big Adventure

The Letter C Big Adventure

The Winter Big Adventure

The Staten Island Yankees Big Adventure

The All-Irish Astoria Pub Crawl Big Adventure 

 

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A Guide to the Holiday Display Windows at shops throughout New York City 
(Nov 21,2010)

Time Out New York is on the ball again - they recently posted this comprehensive list earlier this week. While perhaps not the definitive list, it should give you a solid overview of retail stores throughout Manhattan who are putting their backside into decking the halls to create amazing Holiday themed Display Windows. 

These windows have become as iconic for the NYC Holiday season as the Rockettes and Tree at Rockefeller Center. The Big Adventure's favorite? Without a doubt, Barney's outshines the others year after year. Although, we've already seen Dylan's first hand and the Penguins using Gummy worms to Ice fish for giant Swedish Fish is pretty dang cute.

If planning a visit, choose your route carefully - many are stores are close to one another and you can knock out half a dozen locations in under 45 minutes...

Info provided by Time Out New York's Holiday Guide

Dylan’s Candy Bar - 1011 Third Ave at 60th St (646-735-0078 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              646-735-0078      end_of_the_skype_highlighting, dylanscandybar.com). 

Henri Bendel - 712 Fifth Ave at 56th St (800-423-6335, henribendel.com).

Lord & Taylor - 424 Fifth Ave at 39th St (212-391-3344, lordandtaylor.com).

Barneys - 660 Madison Ave between 60th and 61st Sts (212-826-8900, barneys.com).

Bergdorf Goodman - 754 Fifth Ave at 58th Sts (212-753-7300, bergdorfgoodman.com).

Bloomingdale's - 59th St and Lexington Ave (212-705-2000, bloomingdales.com).

Macy's - 34th St and Sixth Ave (212-695-4400, macys.com). .

Anthropologie - 50 Rockefeller Plaza between 50th and 51st Sts (212-246-0386, anthropologie.com). Monday, November 22.

Tiffany & Co. - 727 Fifth Ave between 56th and 57th Sts (212-755-8000, tiffany.com). November 22 at 5pm.

Saks Fifth Avenue - 611 Fifth Ave between 49th and 50th Sts (212-753-4000, saks.com). November 22 at 6pm.

Steuben Glass - 667 Madison Ave at 61st St (212-752-1441, steuben.com). November 30.

Cartier - 653 Fifth Ave at 52nd St (212-446-3400). Opening TBD.

Fendi - 677 Fifth Ave between 53rd and 54th Sts (212-759-4646, fendi.com). Opening TBD.

Louis Vuitton -1 9 E 57th St at Fifth Ave (212-752-4835, louisvuitton.com). Opening TBD.

Enjoy the NYC Holiday Windows 2010!

Announcing:The Big Adventure on Ice!

Join us on Saturday, December 11th, 2010 for a day of frostbite & freeze as we celebrate the onset of Winter In New York City with The Big Adventure on Ice!  

As the weather starts to turn cold, we're going to mark the start of the season with the return of another Big Adventure...this time On Ice! Starting around 1:00 PM and continuing through the chilly wee hours, we'll be attending events, stopping at bars and visiting venues that all play into our frozen theme.  

Just like all of our Big Adventures, the day will a unique way to explore the city, incredibly social, relatively inexpensive and open to all who wish to join. If all goes according to plan, The Big Adventure on Ice will include some interesting, eyebrow raising and dare we say amazing stops as we raise our mittens to well...Ice. 

The Big Adventures thinks that some of the final stops may surprise you as we're being somewhat... liberal and creative. In short, we've got a few curve snowballs set. We're going to embrace the theme with some unexpected visits as we shy away from the more predictable winter fare. 

 We'll have the full itinerary posted by the week after Thanksgiving, but for now you can visit The Big Adventure Facebook Event Page through the link below for more information (and to let us know if you'll be accompanying us!)  Hope to see you on Saturday, December 11th when the net Big Adventure embarks... just be sure to bring your ear muffs.

The Big Adventure on Facebook

The Bottom of the List: Nastiest Station in the New York Subway System?

What is the most disgusting NYC Subway Station? We vote for 2nd Avenue.

The New York Subway System boasts over 450 individual stations. Many unique, blissfully old and charming, but, well, not all of them can be winners.

An unofficial Big Adventure survey found that the Lower East Side - Second Avenue station (F Line) is by far the nastiest and most disgusting station in the system. 

Without going into overly descriptive details for the benefit of those with tender tummies, we’ll just say that it is a sad, dingy, smelly location with seemingly random, aimless people and assorted homeless lurking about. Since the station no longer stop serving as the terminus to the V Line in June, you would think it might smell less like human excrement....but no. Particularly sad since it is such a busy and often used station. Our fear is that with all the subway cuts and fewer booth attendants system wide, this is going to become more and more of an issue.

A strong vote was also made from those who personally hate the 34th street/Herald square station. and found it "ridiculously hot and extra stinky"

What do YOU think is the worst station in the system?

Because, Well, Nearly Everyone Loves Meatballs

The Meatball Shop is going all big time....

One popular adage about New York City is that when you live in the city you can get anything you want at anytime of day. That's probably a bit of a stretch of a hyperbole. Except when it comes to food. This is the city where we've discovered Burek, Mousaka and the best Empanada this side of Buenos Aires. More importantly, there is a speciality restaurant for every taste you could ever conceive of. There is the Peanut Butter Sandwich and more restaurant,  The Pickle Guys and of course, the Meatball place.

This Lower East Side tiny hole at Stanton and Orchard has been making news since it opened back in February but recently the Daily News wrote a small piece on it and Yahoo! picked it up nationally. Its a quality place so we thought we'd pass along the article. It Although often packed and, yeah, admittedly a little scene-y, the quality and cost of the food along with the general experience makes up for it. 

Expect a crowd because the place is small and the secrete is already out. But on the plus suide, they are open oh-so-late. Its like the new Criff Dog! Worth reading the article (if you ignore the excessive sophomoric genital themed comments from users and definitely worth visiting. Daily News Article on NYC Delicious Meatballs

And here is a link to The Meatball Shop Yelp Page (because people seem to enjoy like Yelp almost as much as they enjoy meatballs)