SoulCycle, Hudson Hotel and La Esquina

How was your weekend? Are you catching up on sleep like I am?? I slept until 8:30 this morning, which is pretty late for me. And I went to bed by 10 and took 2 naps yesterday! Why am I so tired? Well I had an amazingly fun bachelorette party this past weekend for one of my very best pals Lauren.

First, let’s back track…. Friday I went in to the city to a SoulCycle Soulbands class. Fox 5 news was actually filming the class for a segment. I don’t watch Fox news, so I’m not sure who the person was who was taking the class, but she was blonde. All I know is that the camera was in my very sweaty face a couple of times, so it should be awesome to watch. It was a great class with Mb, she’s an incredible, incredible instructor. She’s SUPER motivating and runs around the room dancing. After SoulCycle I went out to Long Island because I didn’t feel like hanging around my hot, small apartment.

Saturday I woke up around 8 and went right out for a 6 mile run with Danny. We just went to the park near us. Honestly, I wasn’t very motivated to run and it was one of those days I felt I was pretty quiet to start out because I really didn’t want to be out there. I knew I would be better once I got going and I was. That’s why I love running with a partner, they just keep you going. After my run I got ready to go into the city to meet at the Hudson Hotel on the west side.

Hudson Hotel

Hudson Hotel Lobby

The lobby of the hotel is all covered with leaves and vines which makes it really green (obviously), open and pretty. It took them awhile to get us checked in and we had some problems with getting our rooms and our luggage to the rooms (because we had to check it in first and leave it while we got mani/pedis). It ended up being fine and we had two rooms. One of our rooms was 2 queen or full beds (not sure which one) and the other was supposedly a king size bed, but it looked like a queen. The room with the double beds was MUCH better, about 2x the size of the single bed room. The rooms were nice and very clean and had an ipod dock and stereo which was great for us. The bathroom also had Aveda products in it, which I loved.

We went off for manicures and pedicures at a nail place Lauren picked out. We all decided to get fun colors.

Nice right? Then we stopped at Whole Foods to get some food from the hot bar. I didn’t take a picture, but I basically filled my container with seaweed salad, edamame, red quinoa, tofu and lots of other goodies. I <3 the hot bar. I could go there everyday. We went back to the hotel to get ready to go out and start our celebration.

We got into cabs and headed downtown to La Esquina soho. None of us have ever been there before and we were all really excited. There are 3 parts to La Esquina. The taquiria, which is kind of an upscale fast food taco stand. Then there is the cafe, which you can go to have lunch or dinner, seems really nice, but pretty casual and then there is the brasserie, where we went. You walk through the taquiria, down the steps, through the kitchen and then to the restaurant. It is lit by candles, dark and very cozy. We were off to the side in a private area, where there were two tables. We sat at one and then there was another party at the other. To get this table you have to call exactly one month before to get the reservation. You also have to sign a contract and put a credit card down.

The food was unbelievable and worth telling you everything we ate. The server asked if there were any vegetarians or vegans at the table and I just said I don’t eat meat but I eat fish. They were very nice and said there was plenty of fish included. You don’t choose what you eat, they just bring everything out family style, but trust me it’s all fantastic and so many different things. To start they put out salads with goat cheese, tortilla strips, corn, avocado and it was very lightly dressed, which is how I love it.  We ordered white sangria and margaritas, which were perfect.

Next was chicken tacos, beef tacos, mahi mahi ceviche and crab on a tostado. No words. Then was steamed string beans, black beans, chicken, steak and grilled shrimp. The serving size for everything was perfect. Not too much, not too little (there were 10 of us). For dessert there was ice cream on top of brownie bowl, cheesecake flan and panna cotta with sugared almonds. I could eat here everyday. I left feeling full, but not stuffed and very happy. I wish I took pictures but my battery was low because I forgot my charger. Bad blogger, I know. But really, you NEED to go here.

We finished the night going around to a couple of different bars and then we scored a limo ride back to the hotel. We paid for it, but we randomly found it on the street. Oh yea, we saw Russel Brand also. We chased after him on the street, but he actually went into La Esquina for dinner, so we didn’t get him to take a picture with the bachelorette.

It was a super fun night as it always is when you’re with great friends. Oh yea, I kept the tassels on after trying the dress on. It looked good with them and I didn’t want to mess with it. I asked all of the girls and they said keep them. I know they were honest and not just saying it. Also, if you ever stay at the Hudson Hotel, don’t eat the breakfast there. It’s ridiculously expensive and not that good.

Hope you had a great weekend! I am going to do some workout dvd, maybe core fusion again. Have a great day!

Tagged as: health-fitness, nyc, restaurant, spin