Recently I went on a trip to New York City with Bruce to take in the theatre and discover what's new and trendy in food and restaurants. Coincidentally my colleague Nancy Won, a fashion & lifestyle writer, was also there in search of fashion inspiration and to take in the new spring collections which were just appearing in the boutiques. For my latest blog entry, we've teamed up to give you the ultimate inside scoop on the hidden gems, hot spots and hipster hangouts of each of our New Yorks.

Lucy's New York

Bruce and I go to New York about 4 times a year as we have a theatre subscription to the Roundabout Theatre Company. We love the theatre but the subscription is also an excuse to see what is current in food trends and restaurants in New York. And there are so many great restaurants that to choose is virtually impossible without having some guidelines. Ours are great food, efficient pleasant service, a comfortable atmosphere and a good vibe. I love restaurants that have a real commitment to giving their customers the best value that they can. We also prefer the lower key restaurants as opposed to the big buck temples of gastronomy although they are excellent in New York, Per Se being my favourite and mostly worth the money.

Memorable meals abound in New York: Prune for its monkfish liver (and general competence in everything else); Nice Matin for its heady Provencal food; Café Gray for its risotto with mushrooms. Kittichai in the 60 Thompson Street Hotel is known for interesting Thai food and locals line up at Momofuko for noodle soup and at sister restaurant Ssam for pork heaven. I love Esca for its pristine fish baked in salt and the spicy octopus pasta, and Lupa for its incredible house made charcuterie. Babbo is a must for pastas of all kinds and Casa Mono serves up mouth-watering real tapas. You can see that I seem to have a bent to Mario Battali restaurants, he owns or is involved with Esca, Lupa, Babbo and Casa Mono but he is a superb restaurateur who knows exactly what people want and does the best job of making sure it happens.

New York also has its celebrity clubby hangouts and the latest one is the Waverly Inn, co-owned by Canadian-born Graydon Carter, who is also editor of Vanity Fair. With its unlisted phone number, known only to the chosen stylists and limo drivers, celebrities can hang out there and feel comfortable and not harassed. The celebrity vibe is so strong that paparazzi wait around out front hoping for a few shots.

Inside it is like an Olde Englishe Inne, very comfortable, low key and dominated by an Edward Sorel mural depicting pop icons of the 20th century. The food is American homey. The most expensive dish, macaroni and cheese lavished with black truffles for a mere $85.00 is not worth the money but everything else is. Excellent roast chicken, chicken pot pie, a juicy steak, tuna tartar.  The food is not going to blow your mind but it is beautifully executed. However the fellow diners might. Amongst the stick thin models and A-lister socialites I spied Clive Owen and I was over the moon.

The next night took us to Allen and Delancey where Toronto's own Lora Kirk, formerly of the Four Seasons Toronto has landed. Again a really comfortable restaurant (though the lighting is a bit dim-bring a flashlight to read the menu), lovely wood and a bar that is candlelit, meaning we all look good for a little while.

The food is upscale bistro but not necessarily French, as in beef marrow with caramelized shallots probably the dish that I savoured the most. The hamachi with drops of ginger and mirin dressing is a delicious take on sashimi and the short rib is rich and unctuous. The veal saltimbocca, veal tenderloin with a piece of braised veal on the side garnished with veggies, was the best I've had recently.

This leads into my rant about the recent trend of serving a naked piece of protein and sauce and "letting" the client choose the sides-a money grab if I ever saw one. I prefer places where the chef provides pairings that he feels work together and the diner can add on other sides if desired. As far as I'm concerned, true dining comes accompanied by beautiful sides that lift the dish from ordinary to sublime.

We stayed near the Time Warner Centre this time and lunched at Bouchon Bakery--an excellent lunch place although you have to wait in line. Owned by the Per Se and The French Laundry chef Thomas Keller, it serves an outstandingly rich chicken soup as well as juicy sandwiches.

We also had lunch at Café Gray owned by Gray Kuntz (from the now defunct St Regis Hotel) where the mushroom risotto is legendary. A second lunch at Porter House, the steak house owned by Michael Lomonaco who was the chef at Windows on the World who, by luck, was at a dentist appointment when the planes hit. Porter House's thick juicy hamburger for $15 with French fries, garnishes and a choice of sauces is now my hamburger standard. It is made with freshly ground beef and has little other seasonings aside from salt and pepper. They will serve it medium rare, if you ask-in the US you are allowed to take your own risks. We will go back for dinner on our next visit.

The big foodie restaurant where the chefs hang out is Blue Ribbon. They do not take reservations so you will likely have to line up for two hours to get in. Blue Ribbon has opened another place at 6 Columbus Circle, again with no reservations, but if you stay in the hotel it helps you to get in. A combination Japanese restaurant twinned with bistro food, it combines the best of the other Blue Ribbon restaurants. The sushi is exemplary and unusual, but only because your partner could very easily be enjoying a hangar steak or fried chicken (voted best in the city by New York magazine) across the table. Martinis and a good wine list make it a perfect after theatre dining place as it is across from Lincoln Centre.

A few other knock out restaurants: The Modern in Moma, but book at the Bar, which has a sensible approach to the small plate fad.  Appetisers are appetiser-size and the main course is half the size of a typical main so you can mix and match. Try the doughnuts for dessert. This is another good theatre choice. DB Bistro, also in the theatre district, serves Daniel Boulud's exemplary food in a more casual atmosphere with more casual prices.  His was the first double digit hamburger, $32.00 stuffed with short ribs and foie gras that so many have copied. Definitely worth it but so was the skate with brown butter sauce...and the pastas, too!

I have never been much of a dessert person as I believe in using my calories for the main event but the doughnut craze has me seduced. At many of the above mentioned restaurants they serve variations of doughnuts or churros often with chocolate dipping sauce - at The Modern three sauces including marmalade. Be still my beating heart.

Nancy's New York

New York is one of the best cities in the world for my two favourite leisure activities: shopping and eating...and, I'll be honest, that's really all I do, all day every day, whenever I go, which is generally twice a year. The museums are incredible, the sites are iconic, the spas are heaven and Broadway is out of this world but there are just so many shops, so many hidden foodie gems, so MUCH to discover and rediscover...and, let's face it, just one me.

My absolute favourite shop in New York is the high-fashion SoHo boutique Opening Ceremony, which is owned by Carol Lim and Humberto Leon. Both are blessed with impeccable taste and an avant-garde sense of style that is reflected in the uber-chic lines they carry, and especially in their own to-die-for house line. Every year, they pit US designs against designs from another country (hence, "Opening Ceremony")...and the winner? Weeeell, that would be me. I never leave New York without giving my VISA a workout at Opening Ceremony. Thankfully there are now exactly two shops (both new-ish) in Toronto that carry precious few Opening Ceremony pieces, including (there is a God!) shoes! UPC Boutique in Yorkville and (alas, just for men) Sydney's on Queen West.

This spring Chloe Sevigny, one of my personal fashion muses, teamed up with Lim and Leon to produce her own collection for Opening Ceremony (as if I needed another reason to shop there). The pieces are fun, eccentric, vintage-inspired and daring...much like Sevigny herself. She is an incredible fashion inspiration--very few can wear the pieces she does and pull it off with such panache!

By shining a light on American design, Opening Ceremony has played a huge role in the success of New York designers like Phillip Lim. Lim is one of my favourite designers right now and his boutique in SoHo is another one of my must-stop shops. And I'm so glad I stopped by when I did because he was actually at the shop directing the visual display for the front window when I was there! I couldn't have been more star-struck if he were Brad Pitt! He was wearing bright red pants rolled up so you could see his socks and a baggy olive green parachute-style jacket. It made my day.

Whenever I go to New York, I usually make myself a little shopping list of things to keep an eye out for lest I buy everything in sight. This time around, I was looking for the Band of Outsiders x Sperry collaboration boat shoes (it turned out they were available only in men's sizes and the 5s were long gone...I nearly cried), booties (I found them vintage!), a handbag (I gave up on this one after I'd blown my budget on the second day) and a wallet...which I picked up at the Comme des Garcons boutique in Chelsea. And if you know Comme des Garcons, you know that a wallet is about the only thing the average person can afford to buy there. Still, a visit is worthwhile, if not to oogle the amazingly avante garde pieces, than to experience the space itself! The entrance is a shiny, hammered aluminium tunnel that opens into a brilliant white space where curvy white modules not only create a maze-like effect but also house designer Rei Kawakubo's architectural pants, wacky off-kilter dresses and dramatic jackets bordering on couture.

Another fabulous concept shop is Thom Browne's flagship boutique in Tribeca. Known for his teeny-tiny suits with shrunken silhouettes that are a cross between PeeWee Herman and 50s insurance adjuster, Browne's collection features his signature tight jackets, skinny ties and too-short pants. He advocates the geek-chic, too-hip-to-be-square aesthetic and is a huge force behind the return of the suit. The boutique itself is deliberately easy to miss. Situated on the corner of Hudson and Franklin, the shop is unmarked and its huge windows are covered by old-school Venetian blinds, not unlike a 50s bank. Inside, the room is sparse and minimal. A large banker's desk, complete with oversized lamp, sits in one corner and acts as the cash counter while a mini "waiting area" of two leather salon chairs are set up in the opposite corner. Suits are displayed on four rolling racks with a couple of pairs of very dapper oxfords nearby. And that's it. So simple, yet incredibly creative.

Another men's shop that I love is Freeman's Sporting Club in the Lower East Side. Specializing in handmade suits and menswear with superior craftsmenship and a heritage feel, this shop feels less like a bank and more like a comfy old-world tailor's shop. The focus here is on casual, sporty suiting and apparel for those who would prefer to keep their ankles covered and their hair mused. And for perfectly mused hair, downtown dudes will line up for a cut at Freeman's old-school barbershop attached to the back of the boutique where cool kids in skinny jeans and Nike's will cut your hair to hipster perfection. In addition to the store and barbershop, owners Taavo Somer and William Tigerrt also run a super low-profile, unmarked restaurant located at the end of the nondescript alley beside the shop. This laid-back hidden gem is not only kitted out with taxidermy of all kinds, it's always brimming with fashionable Lower East Siders who come to feast on elevated American classics like macaroni & cheese and beefy hamburgers.

When it comes to hamburgers though, my favourite burger in all of New York can be found at Shake Shack, Danny Meyer's popular food stand in Madison Square Park. It doesn't look like much but people wait in line for over an hour to get their hands on a humble Shack Burger. The website is even equipped with a webcam feed so you can scope out the crowd--"plan your time, check out the line!" the site warns. Friends from Toronto have even asked me to bring a Shake Burger back for them, and yes, it really is good enough to eat a few hours and a plane ride later. Still, for me, there's nothing like sitting in the park, surrounded by the buzz of New York City, on a bright sunny day with a Shack Burger in one hand, the "custard of the day" in the other, and a shopping bag (or two) at my feet.