Chad and I had what I think must have been a perfect New York evening last night. It started out with a lecture at NYU by Eric Ries (pictured on the left). He was speaking about his book, The Lean Startup and entrepreneurship. It was very interesting to hear him speak and explain his thoughts on how to go about starting a company. I know that must not sound very exciting to all, but as an employee of a startup company I am very interested in what others, who have been through it all, have to say. He is a very dynamic person and surprisingly humble and honest.

Then we were both starving and since someone brought pizza into the lecture room (torture), it was obvious that pizza needed to be consumed. We found a random pizza place on Yelp called John's Pizzeria of Bleeker Street. What drew us in was the fact that they very obviously listed everywhere that they didn't sell pizza by the slice, that you had to buy the whole pie. Come to find out it was established in 1929! So not only were they obviously doing something right, I was wowed by the fact that they opened up at the beginning of the Great Depression and didn't close! Impressive. In typical Chad+Michelle fashion we didn't take any pictures, but I found a picture on google of basically what we got, the sliced meatball pie.  (the picture is of half meatball, half pepperoni) The pizza was delicious and it came out super quick. Also, can I just say that as a consumer I LOVE that the New York market is saturated with pizza places? We got a large 1-topping pizza, 8 GIANT slices, for $16.00. In New York, it cost like $10 to get a McDonald's value meal, so $16 for a huge pizza is amazing.

We decided to only eat 6 of the slices  (I told you we were hungry) because on our way to the pizzeria we past quite a few very yummy looking bakeries. We ended up at Pasticceria Rocco. I knew this place  would be trouble because of the giant cookies in the window.  I got the Smore cookie, because as anyone that has heard me lament over funnel cakes at Disneyland knows, I can't turn down anything Smore flavored. Chad got the Chocolate mouse cake, which sadly I can't find online anywhere. I guess that means we should go back there someday and get another one right, so we can get a picture of this delicious treat? With treats in hand, we decided to walk to the little park we saw on the way over and eat it. Right now it's probably only about 65 degrees at night in New York so sitting outside was pretty perfect.

I wish I could find the name for the cute little park we sat in, but alas, google maps has failed me and I can't find it. So I took a screenshot of it from the satellite picture google has of it. It was a cute park, with a fountain that appeared to be leaking, well gushing out water, and other couples and random old people sitting around enjoying the warm autumn night as well. I loved that the park had a sign posted that you weren't to play music in the park or on the surrounding sidewalks from 8pm- 8am to be courteous to the neighbors. It was just one of the many cute random greenspaces you find all over New York. After eating just Chad's treat, we didn't have room for a cookie too, we headed home.

Whenever I wander through different parts of New York I always think to myself, can I live here? Well Greenwich Village, you have passed the test. Not only would I mind living there, but I think if I had the choice, and we could afford it, I'd move there right now. With your many parks, bakeries, restaurants, and cute twisting roads you have won my heart.