Brunch & Bike - Date with Katie

Meet Katie!

Since I've got two bikes in my possession right now, I was really happy to make the most of it and invite my friend Katie on a bike & brunch date. Katie is an awesome friend who is also from Arkansas who is also here in NYC trying to live the dream. We both went to the same tiny college and we met through a sorority connection. Katie is younger than me and were not at college at the same time at all, but we always have a lot to talk about.

I had to put the Linus's seat almost all the way down. She's 5'1" I think. The first time I took off on it after this low-seat placement, I had a panic moment thinking my seat was stolen. It was there. Just low-low.



This date was partly a lesson in biking. We took it easy and went up the East Side path to Harlem. Red Rooster was our destination. It's probably my favorite brunch spot. Marcus Samuelson was there. He had on so much cool gear and is a tiny little dude. He is fancy and special. He was the chef of the Obama's first State Dinner and Obama had a fundraiser at Red Rooster. I totally care.

We had drinks, brunch + truffle oil fries + dessert. That is apple cinnamon sorbet.


Then I was like "Can we go to Target?!" And Katie went along with that and kept me straight. I only bought one item astray from my list. We're a good team.



We talked about shoes & outfits that are good for biking, safety concerns, bike accessories, helmets, sunglasses, baskets, carabiners, locks, etc.    
We rode in the street a little bit. We mostly used the river side path.

I recommend people looking to start biking start with small little errands or small, local trips like this, until they're more familiar and comfortable and have their accessory game down pat.

I'm so glad we did this and I'm so glad she agreed to being posted-up on this ol' blog :)



Katie went with around with me on Fashion's Night Out two years ago and we saw Christina H. and we got snapped by a Patrick McMullan photographer. Good night! 

Beef with the one I love

Excuse me, Target, we have a problem. Where are the bicycle racks!?

This is really ironic that there is a huge bicycle on the front entrance because there aren't any bike racks.

I had to lift mine onto this rack in front of a parking spot after I waited for the previous person to take their bike down and leave...
I made Matt stand by this to demonstrate how high I had to put it to get it around a bar small enough to work with my Kryptonite lock.


And Matt put his bike on this railing around a staircase that was filled with bicycles.


But otherwise... it's so fantastic. We were able to use the East River Esplanade except for 3 tiny, peaceful, low-traffic blocks in East Harlem near the Target-Costo (& More great things to come) shopping center.



Luckily there is a pedestrian path along and above & beside the FDR. We would surely be killed if we had to ride on the FDR. We could take York & 1st Ave., but the River Path is so nice & safe.


Matt using the bike ramp on the stairs. Most people don't even realize this little metal gutter is for bicycle wheels so they don't bounce up or down the steps. Matt is wearing a tshirt by Claw Money, if you're interested. I love her stuff and I love that he's on board for supporting an independent lady like Claw.


We saw tons of other bikes, fishermen, family barbecues, roller bladers, pretty much everything outdoorsy for a Saturday afternoon.


We rocked-out with my new baby bicycle speaker on the way up. She's in the little black pouch. I'm still working on my great playlist.


Here's what the new East Harlem shopping mecca looks like from the river. It's at 117th St. and we live around 78th. So not too far. Too far to walk. We've previously taken a cab. If I didn't make us stop to take pictures & play with our speaker, it could be a very quick trip.


We saw this crazy line outside of Target/Costco and we were really thankful today that we were not having to wait for car service. It's kind of dirty that it's not Yellow Taxi's waiting to pick people up, but rather "Black cars" Which don't run on the city regulated meter system. (They can charge you out the ass and you're stranded with all your crap so you just have to suck it up and pay.)


I don't know the deal on these shuttles, but I bet they run people back and forth from the 116th street stop on the 6 train.


Here's my Schwinn with all the goods before we took off to head back home. 3 pound bag of coffee! Yay!


The heaviest thing we possibly could have bought was this 3 pack of Soy Milks. We bungeed it onto my rear rack.

My basket got filled with boxes of MorningStar Farms Veggie Sausage & Buffalo Wings. As a rule of thumb, we pretty much don't keep meat in our house. At all.

Matt has no cargo room on his road bike, so he uses his big backpack. He's got a humongous 4lb. bag of dog bones in there.


It was a super-nice ride today. Great weather, good bike path, great groceries!