A couple weeks ago was my friend's birthday and of course I wanted to make some time to see him and my best friend. Thanks to my wonderful friends, Stephanie and Alex, I was able to spend a truly enjoyable day in New York. Keep reading to see where we explored!

Escape Games 

Located in Tribeca, Escape Games is a fun-filled escape room game company that offers four distinct experiences. Choose from John Doe, The Experiment, Outer Space or the Detective Story. Each game has their own narrative and storyline for a truly immersive and action-packed 60 minutes of game time. A great perk is that the games can be private and you can play with your own teammates which is great for company team building or a day-time excursion with friends. The escape rooms can accommodate 2-6 players with select rooms accommodating 2-7 players. 

John Doe

My friends decided on the John Doe experience. This is one of the hardest rooms they offer with it being recommended for 14 years+ strictly. Without giving away much, I can say we had a blast. Additionally, we made the top 3 escaping in roughly 25 minutes. I want to say it's all that med school/law school brain power. We had some pretty fun people to escape with. After escaping, we had some quick photo ops and were able to get a quick debriefing. The staff at Escape Games is super friendly and helpful answering all our questions and helping us take all the photos imaginable. 

Here's a quick description of the room as per the website: 

Dominique Ansel NYC

To celebrate our victory, we headed to Dominique Ansel Bakery. The Pop Fleur has been making some splashes around the internet and we decided to give it a taste. It's light and airy and tastes of fragrant peaches and yogurt. A really nice treat for a hot day that isn't too sweet. I definitely want to visit their second location to try their soft serve. In addition to those cool treats, I have my eyes on their flowering hot chocolate and cronuts. Granted, those would be more appropriate for fall and winter trips. Lastly, their matcha passionfruit mousse cake looks divine!  

Smorgasburg

Smorgasburg is a large weekly open-air market with an exhaustive list of vendors. On Saturdays, the market is open at the Williamsburg location from 11AM-6PM. Be prepared for long lines and bring cash for the vendors. Here, you can get everything from a spaghetti donut to some tasty ethnic cuisines. It's a a food festival on hyperdrive. I feel like this place is best tackled with friends who are willing to share their food. This is the best way to sample a variety of food without overeating like crazy.

Johns’s Juice

Speaking of Johns; John's Juice was my favorite stop at this food packed pop-up event. They offer juice in the shell of the fruit. For example, we ordered watermelon juice and you best believe it was served in a hollowed out melon. It was absolutely refreshing on a hot summer day. In addition, we got some fries that had some TLC in a duck fat bath as well as some thai fried chicken. 

Artists & Fleas Market

One fun marketplace for all things art, jewelry, apparel and crafts is the Artists and Fleas market in Williamsburg. Find items from books and records to dainty jewelry and accessories. On this particular trip we were taken with the cute tea bags from Ato Team Room. 

ATO Tea Room

As we entered Artists and Fleas, some fresh tea leaves caught our eyes. Upon further looking we came across some adorable tea sachets with two tea bags. The deal was impossible to pass up and the tea was aromatic and soothing. Ato Tea Room had a broad selection of tea including: Genmai-cha, Gyokuro, Hoji-cha, Sannenban-cha and Wako-cha. Each bag of tea is designed in Kyoto, Japan and contains 2 tea bags within. Some designs even remind me of the COSRX man! Ato Tea Room is super cute and I'd love to visit the actual team room sometime in the future. In the meantime, I'll sip on some great quality tea.

Tea Glossary by Ato Tea Room

• Genmai-cha: Uji Genmai Cha is a Japanese brown rice green tea, combined with roasted popped brown rice. Aromatic Flavor.
• Gyokuro: Gyokuro is a type of shaded green tea. Since it’s the highest grade of green teas, has high level of caffeine. Also, it has a noble mellow, sweet taste from nature with elegant aroma.
• Hoji-cha: Uji Hoji Cha is a Japanese green tea which is unique because it’s roasted over charcoal. It has lower caffeine.
• Sannenban-cha: Sannenban Cha is true healthy traditional Japanese green tea. It has a lovely smooth, sweet, roasted and soothing taste. Also, it has less caffeine and more minerals than other teas.
• Wako-cha: Wako-cha is considered as Japanese black tea. It’s made by Japanese tea leaf. Compare to other black tea, it’s sweeter and less bitter.

Overall I had such an amazing time with some great friends. If you ever find yourself in Williamsburg, definitely check out Smorgasburg, Artist and Fleas and even some of the delicious hand-spun lavender vanilla flavored cotton candy outside the market!

Have you ever played an escape game? Did you escape? Let me know down below! Happy Friday and hope you have an amazing weekend! 

xo, 

Christine Celine