Ink48 Makes Me Never Want to Leave My Room

Ahhhh it’s so much fun to visit a tradeshow instead of being a part of its inner fabric and having a booth! I got here just in time yesterday to walk up on stage and talk to a packed house about a topic that’s dear to my heart, travel writing.  After the show, we cabbed down to the lower east side, where a gathering was held at Lolita’s.  It was many familiar Twitter faces, Gary Arndt, a full-time traveler, and Matt Knepes, likewise, and David Farley, well-known travel writer, and the charming Julia Dimon, travel TV host.   And one-time prolific travel book blogger, Jen Leo, too!

Part of the fun of being in the city is that it’s the magnet…it’s where people all see each other and I got another treat. Janis Turk, one of our favorite GoNOMAD writers, joined us at Lolitas!  After a few drinks, it was time to dine…but where?  We were lucky that Janis had brought along a friend, a tall fellow who works in publishing at Wiley Books….he had read about a cool Italian place just a few blocks away.

Out came the army of Androids and iPhones, we’d find this place, called Mangiami, god damn it! And we did, a tiny sliver of a place where the staff was friendly, the prices cheap (under $16!) and you had to shimmy past a long table to get into the tiny bathroom.

We enjoyed our repast, didn’t drink too much wine, and grabbed a cab back up to 11th Ave to this very cool hotel, called Ink48.  It’s a new Kimpton Hotel, and they do cool very well. Not as ‘cool’ as a place I stayed in Cancun where that house music never stopped and people sort of sneered at you. Here it’s cool but my kind of cool. The couch in the room I want to take home, a one-armed divan propped up against these windows…well you can see the view. I am giddy that I am staying another night!