NYC Trip- Housingworks Bookstore Cafe, Food Emporium 32 & Chocolate Mania

Hello!

A couple of weeks ago I took a trip to New York city with my mom and close family friends. We took the trip so our family friends can go to the Empire State building, walk around Times Square and visit Madame Tussauds.

My family actually used to live in Queens and having attended a University just across the river in North Jersey so close to the city, I love venturing out and finding new places that I've never been before rather than the regular tourist-y locations. I knew that we were going to end up at Times Square because I wanted the three girls that came with us to have the opportunity to take pictures and experience Times Square to the fullest. As soon as we got off the bus at Port Authority we headed down to the Empire State Building. My mom and I have been  to the observation and the top of the Empire so we decided to venture out to the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in SoHo.

Housing Works Bookstore Cafe 

Prior to our trip knowing that my mother and I were not going up to the Empire State, I began looking at different places that we can go to that would please both of us. My mom wanted to sit at a starbucks and I really wanted to go to a bookstore or second hand book/thrift stores. Housing Works became our number one choice because it had both a bookstore and a cafe.

From the Empire State building we took the subway to Broadway and Lafeyette and the store was just one block away from the Subway station (which was great because it started raining!).  Before I get into the store and the rest of the trip, I would like to note that Housing Works Bookstore & Cafe is a volunteer and donation based store and all of the proceeds go to Housing Works. If you are interested in learning more about Housing Works and what they are doing to combat Homelessness in the City and advocate for HIV/AIDS patients please visit www.housingworks.org.

Housing Works Bookstore and Cafe

When I walked into the bookstore I got so excited because it was absolutely beautiful. All types of books covering literally the whole store floor to ceiling. I felt the store/cafe was a quintessential New York City spot. It's got the charming, historical quality to it with the wooden shelves and beams and stairs with a mix of industrial touches. Although natural lights only come from the giant double story windows up front, the store was very bright and welcoming.

View as you walk in through the door (no seen- register counter)

We got there exactly as they opened the door so there were only a couple of people in the store. There is plenty of seating in the cafe section of the store and all the staff were very helpful and courteous. They carry lots of second hand books and most of them seems to be in very good condition.

View from the back of the store in the Cafe/Seating area

The bookstore has a second level balcony that has more books on both sides of the wall with additional seating by the window.  



Second level Balcony

I ended up purchasing two books from the store and my mom picked up two vinyl records. As you can see the books were in near perfect condition. If you are interested in the books, they will be in my upcoming "Reading List" post.

Cake Boy & The Walk -In Closet

Food Gallery 32 - Koreatown 
After our mini adventure in SoHo we met up with the family at Food Gallery 32 in Koreatown for lunch which is only two blocks away from the Empire State. A couple of the girls are picky eaters so going to a place like this rather than a sit down restaurant saves quite a few bucks and everyone can also get a variety of different things from different vendors. The food vendors are spread out among three different floors ranging from traditional Korean food to sushi, Asian fushion, noodles, yogurt and a bakery on the third floor.

Food Gallery 32 First Floor

My mom and I both ordered the Bimbimbap with Beef Bulgogi that came with a few banchan (side dishes). I think the portions of the Bimbimbap and the banchan are small compared to a similar food court style vendor at HMart but everything was tasty.

Bimbimbap Bulgogi

Ended up ordering these buns too!

Spicy Pork Buns

The place is nice if you are interested in grabbing a quick bite while wandering around the city because sit down restaurant can be quite pricey. My recommendation for a sit down Korean restaurant in Koreatown would be Kunjip just a few doors down from Food Emporium 32. Kunjip serves traditional Korean food with generous portion and lots of delicious banchan. I was introduced to Kunjip through my best friend when we went to see Cinderella on Broadway earlier this year.

Times Square- M&M World & The Hersey's Company 
After a quick meal we made our way to Times Square by foot. These folks really had no idea what they got themselves into picking me as their guide. After taking a couple of mandatory tourist photos, we went to the M&M stores.

By this time the adults are okay but I can tell the girls were getting a bit restless from the trip. Nothing like walking into M&M world and waking up all the senses.

M&M World

M&M World is three stores high and sells a variety of merchandise including this "Create one of a kind mix" giant wrap around chocolate dispensers.

M&M World Chocolate dispensers

Among the I <3 (heart) NY merchandise stands the Green M&M as Lady Liberty.

Green M&M Lady Liberty

I <3 NY M&Ms

After almost an hour at the M&M World we went across the street to the Hersey's Company Store. The store is only one floor compared to M&M World's three floor stores and only offer a couple of NYC only items.

Across the street- Hersey Company

These bars are the only "NYC" theme chocolates in the store. The sleeve options are: the Empire State Building, a picture of a cab and the "big apple".

NYC only Hersey's Chocolate Bars

My take on taking kids/children to Times Square especially into stores like M&M or Hersey. Create a schedule and a budget and stick to it. I remember as a kid I see and want everything but my mom was very good at managing expectations. She would be very clear on the get go on where we were going and what item or items we (my brother and I) can get.

Waiting & Shopping in Times Square   

While my mom and the family went to Madamme Tussaud, I decided do some shopping. Unfortunately my camera battery died and my phone battery was so low that I didn't want to use the camera on my phone. I did, however, ended up going to a few of stores all in Times Square area: Sephora, Forever 21 and H&M. You might say "Jessica, there are so many other stores you can go to in Times Square!" And yes, that is very true but as I mentioned earlier we basically walked everywhere. We only took the subway to go to SoHo and at this point I was extremely tired and my legs were no longer cooperating.

At Sephora, there was a special counter from Bitten Cosmetic where you can actually make you own lipstick which was very interesting (and pricey!). I walked around for a few minutes looking for the Sephora Liquid Matte Lip Stain but there wasn't any in the display and I wasn't able to flag down an associate but no such luck so I moved on to the next store.

If you like Forever 21, the Times Square store is any Forever 21 lovers dream. The store sits on 91,257 square feet of property  and has 4 floors. They had great clearance that day and I ended up buying a headband and a black sleeveless top.

H&M wasn't all that interesting and I ended up at the Starbucks and redeemed my star reward free drink offer.

That pretty much ended my day trip to NYC. After my mom and the family finished their tour of the wax museum we went back to port authority, grabbed some food and snacks for the road and waited till we had to board the bus.

Thank you so much for reading this rather lengthy post. As always, if you have any questions or comments please post them below!

Until next time,

Names and locations mentioned on this post: 

Empire State Building 
350 5th Avenue, NY, New York 10118

Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
126 Crosby Street, NY, New York 10012

Food Gallery 32 
11W 32nd Street, NY, New York 10001

Kunjip 
9W 32nd Street, NY, New York 10001

M&M World
1600 Broadway, NY, New York 10019

Hersey's Companny Chocolate World
1593 Broadway, NY, New York 10019

Sephora Times Square 
1500 Broadway, NY, New York 10036

Forever 21 Times Square
1540 Broadway, NY, New York 10036

H&M Times Square 
1472 Broadway, NY, New York 10036

Starbucks Times Square (One of many)
1585 Broadway, NY, New York 10036

Madame Tussauds Wax Museum
234W 42nd Street, NY, New York 10036

Port Authority Bus Terminal 
625 8th Avenue, NY, New York 10018