Central Park | Blue Smoke | Danny Meyer | Eli Zabar

NIGHTLIFE
"After dinner, you could go to a jazz club called Blue Smoke. It's also a barbecue restaurant that's really fun and has great barbecue. The jazz club is downstairs. It's another one of Danny Meyer's restaurants."

SUNDAY

BRUNCH
"There are two wonderful neighborhood restaurants for brunch. One is E.A.T., owned by Eli Zabar. It's probably one of the world's most expensive coffee shops, but everything they do is just delicious. Great potato pancakes with applesauce and French toast and homemade granola. And scrambled eggs with salmon and onions. Right next door is the E.A.T. Boutique, which has all kinds of unusual things for kids and young-at-heart grownups. Or there's Le Pain Quotidien, between 84th and 85th on Madison. It's a bakery with fabulous breads and croissants and tarts. They have a long common table where everybody sits around and has bowls of steaming cappuccino. It's great for brunch or a light lunch."

SIGHTS
"For me, Central Park is the heart of New York. The zoo is great. It's very much an enlightened zoo and beautifully designed. Whether you're an adult or child, it's fun to go to the penguin house, especially if you can time it to when the penguins are being fed. The rainforest is a fabulous exhibit there, too. There's a little sailboat pond for kids on 72nd Street just off Fifth that's a beautiful spot. The Alice in Wonderland sculpture is at the end of the pond, and a statue of Hans Christian Andersen. From there, you can walk straight uptown through the park along the reservoir on the bridle path, which is absolutely gorgeous, especially in the springtime when the cherry trees are in blossom. You can walk to the Conservatory Garden, up at 105th Street, which is one of the prettiest gardens around that not too many people know about."