The one with Eataly

This past week, I met up with one of my girlfriends for dinner in Manhattan, a favorite tradition of ours! This time, we went to this little jewel of a place called Eataly on 5th Avenue & 25th. It is the vision come to realization of Chef Mario Batali. This is an Italian marketplace, with all the little stands/areas you would expect...with a twist! Each section of the market has it's own speciality restaurant which you can sit down & enjoy a gourmet meal within the market! We ate at Le Verdure (the restaurant specializing in vegetables): the food was humbly spectacular! Very simple but very good....just as authentic Italian should be!

The Best part of the meal, although the meal was fabulous (see below for description), was that: when we were done with our meal & only 1/2 done with our wine, our waiter poured the rest for us & we were able to walk around with our wine while we shopped!!! Anywhere where I can shop & enjoy wine at the same time is a a success for me! We even had a little elderly lady let us know how fantastic she thought the combination of wine & shopping was!

The concept & values which Eataly represents are brilliantly displayed in Il Manifesto: it's difficult to read here, but it's truly fabulous. Click here to read it in full.

This is a spot which everyone should check out for an almost-Italian experiance. They have products which you would find in stores in Italy, fantastic food, & a gaurenteed fun-night out!

The one for Japan

Words cannot begin to describe the shock, horror, & sorrow which have passed through my mind over the last week since the Earthquake & successive Tsunami in Japan. This is devastation to a magnitude which is entirely incomprehensible for anyone outside of the affected area. I get goosebumps every time I think of the immense loss of life; it's terrible.

What does give me hope, is the human spirit to help one another. Below is a picture of a LivingSocial deal which was today. You could donate $5 to the Red Cross relief effort in Japan, & LivingSocial would match your donation. Before 9AM the total was already above $1,360,000!!! If that isn't inspiration, I don't know what is.

I found this page on MSN, & it helps to bring to light the complete devastation the Japanese are facing now. I hope you'll gain something from this, my sincerest thoughts & prayers go to the victims & family of those affected, as well as all of Japan.

Japan: Before & After the Disaster

The one with Starbucks 40th!

Today marks 40 years of development, integrity, & complete fabulocity for the Starbucks brand.

I was ecstatic to find today that the store as I had known it up until yesterday, was changed entirely to a modified brand & color scheme which was green & alive with celebration! I was impressed simply with the time efficiency of it all! Usually during the Christmas season, you see the holiday cups slowly melt away back to the traditional cups. Today, on the contrary, all sign of the old brand had vanished to be replaced with the iconicly simplistic new brand design. This brand resonates with me, as if to say "Carpe Diem" in a matter-of-fact type way. Below is the line-up of Starbucks cups since 1971.

My Love for Starbucks grows with each waft of espresso, each sip of perfect foam. Since my last blog on the subject, when I simply had the Starbucks gold card, I now have the mobile app up & running! With this I can not only monitor my spending & points earned, I can also re-load my account & even pay using my BlackBerry! It's brilliantly convenient!!!

They've also launched a new line of "Starbucks Petites" which are the cute little snacks you see above. They are adorable, bite size snacks which are all under 200-calories, though which still pack a terrifyingly high concentration of saturated fat. With a new food line, you knew they'd have a special blend, this one is called Starbucks Tribute Blend. Although I'm a espresso girl, I realy appreciate the concept of this product. The music & script are reminancent of Tuscan Italy, & deeply resonantes with me a phrase I heard often in Italy. If you had just purchased something from a vendor, the polite thing to do was say "grazie" to thank them for their help. What was intriguing though, was most vendors would respond to you "grazie a te" as if to say, "No, Thank you, because if it weren't for customers like you, I wouldn't be here". It's an appreciate from the vendor that you allow them to do what they love, promote products which they have passion for, & that is exactly what Starbucks is doing with this new campaign.

A few weeks ago, as I walked into my local spot, one of the cashiers asked me "tall skim latte?" I nodded & passed him my phone to pay. He turned to tell the barista; however, before he could speak, the Barista came around the corner to place my latte on the counter. All he has to respond was "Show-off", it made me laugh quite a bit, & has been one of my favorite Starbucks experiances thus far.