3 on Thursday

Who's ready for the weekend?  ME.  It took far too long, but Spring has finally sprung and I can't wait to enjoy it.

I'm all about using social media appropriately.  Cole Haan has developed a great tumblr tracking Subway Style.  This links to their current branding with their logo in MTA-style lettering and their recent campaign around the NYC subway system.  Instead of just showing pictures of their own products, they focus on general NYC fashion, which is an entity unto itself, and encourage engagement with a "This or That" voting series.  They show that they "get" New York fashionistas - and that does way more for brand loyalty than any product shot.

I recently took a cooking class with co-workers in an amazing loft space.  At Miette Culinary Studio, Chef Paul Vandewoude assesses your skill level and tailors how much you do accordingly.  He was great about explaining why he took certain approaches and I walked away having learned a lot - but I would expect nothing less from a man who was the head chef at someplace like Tartine.  I also walked away full.  We started with a salad topped with wine poached pears and blue cheese, then moved on to perfectly cooked chicken with fresh tomato sauce over cauliflower almond puree, and finished off the meal with molten financiers and fresh vanilla ice cream.  There was a sommelier on site to pair everything with wine, but we also drank the whole time we cooked (which always makes the kitchen more of a playground).  The prices are actually quite reasonable so this is not a bad idea for an excursion with friends or a cute anniversary gift.

I'm not sure why, but today I just really felt like a New Yorker.  I was hyper aware of the fact that I was doing a NYC-style commute - much different from the car-bound commutes of other cities.  Maybe it's the change of the seasons (finally!) that makes everything more vivid and alive - every breeze that passes through my hair tingles.  Whatever it is, I feel like a city gal today and there are few things more quintessentially New York than the "we are here to serve you" coffee cup.