Luxury Lifestyle: Swanky Eats at Intersect by Lexus

Buratta with roasted pears at Intersect by Lexus

If you've walked past the Soho House or NeueHouse and longed for access to the exclusive spaces, check out Intersect by Lexus. The new meatpacking space has a deluxe cafe, chic bar and ritzy restaurant, along with gallery space occupied now by the LF-1 Limitless concept SUV.

On the ground level, right across 14th Street from an Apple Store and the designer shoes and clothing store Jeffrey New York, is a cafe. You can get a perfect espresso and a pastry. There is also an extremely cool bathroom with automatic doors and high end toilets.

In New York, you get excited by clean public toilets.

Lexus LF-1 Limitless concept SUV at Intersect by Lexus

Frenchie - a bit of Paris in NYC

The restaurant upstairs will switch chefs every four to six months. Currently, Gregory Marchand from Frenchie is in charge.

As a guest of Lexus, I got the full court press at lunch. We started with fluke crudo. It had contrasting textures with raw and roasted beets, and crispy quinoa.

Crudo with beets

We also shared buratta with roasted pears and granola. The creamy cheese was excellent with the crusty whole grain sourdough.

Save room for dessert

A vegetarian main course of cauliflower steak spoke to me. It was described as having 'curry, seeds & nuts, dates.' The crispy hunk of cauliflower had to be dipped in the sauces, a vibrant yellow curry and a slightly sweet, thick date sauce. The crunchy bits and micro greens gave every bite a burst of flavor.

There was also monkfish with mushrooms and a coffee / black garlic sabayon.

For dessert, we had Banoffee - banana with dulche de leche and pecans. Again, this had a contrast of flavors and textures that made it irresistible.

Vegetarian main course at Intersect by Lexus

Swanky but less Formal Bar

At the lovely bar, in the front, you can have specialty cocktails. I have to come back later in the day to try the gin based Intersect, which includes rose, almond milk, sesame, and of the moment Aquafaba. Bar food includes a cheese plate or a lobster roll. Most of the wines are from France. The beer is from Brooklyn.

Model cars on the way to the bathrooms

Global Presence

There is an Intersect by Lexus in Tokyo, and another in Dubai.

Note: I was a guest of Lexus at lunch. Opinions and full stomach were all my own. I was not otherwise compensated.

Biking for Life with Fleet Week & Toyota

Fellow IMPA members in front of all the bikes we assembled

Biking has been part of my life forever; my mother rode me on the back of her bicycle and when I got my first 10 speed, my father gave it to me in a box and told me I could ride it when I could put it together.

Coast Guard ship, in for FleetWeek

That was the year I turned 15, and my father died. I had already signed up for an American Youth Hostels bike trip that summer, and my mother insisted I go.

I've always had at least one bicycle (until it was stolen, I had a folding commuter bike that was great for zipping around NYC in a dress) and I often include biking in a vacation. In fact, last month I spent a week cycling through Tuscany and Umbria.

So when Toyota asked me to help with a project assembling bicycles for the children of military, I jumped at the chance. As part of #FleetWeekNYC, volunteers spent a day with Coast Guard members putting together hundred of children's bikes.

I can't think of any better way to spend the time leading up to Memorial Day weekend.

Thanks to Toyota for the opportunity.

Environmental Calculus: Train vs Car

Sister cars: the new Prius Prime in white and my sister's older Prius in blue

Most trips I take, I do an environmental calculus: if I take a plane, what is my cabin footprint? If I go by train, what about the roundtrip to the train station - can I go by cab? If I have to be picked up at the other end, that's another trip. And if I drive, what's the gas mileage?

The Prius Prime makes it easy

2 weeks before we got to DC, my daughter saw this cherry tree in full bloom

But when I had the chance to drive a Toyota Prius Prime for a week, it was easy to figure out the math. The plug in hybrid gets about 25 miles in pure electric power, and over 60 miles per gallon with the gas engine. We were taking a trip to my sister's remote house in Pennsylvania, (40 minutes roundtrip for her to pick us up at the train station, and another 40 minutes to drop us off, if we drove) then on to Washington, DC. So we could charge the car up at my sister's house, then charge it in DC. And for the longer periods in the car, we would use a teensy, tiny bit of gas.

The incredible kale salad at Zaytinya - going green

In fact, my sister also drives a Prius, an older model that gets 'just' 40 miles per gallon. So driving around with her would use a lot fewer fossil fuels in the new Toyota. We drove to the new house she is building, and made it there and back on electric power.

Worried about climate change? Save gas

Zaytinya's fantastic hommus (their spelling)

One of the reasons I like to drive an electric vehicle is I worry about global warming. We had planned our trip around seeing the cherry blossoms in Washington, but with climate change, the peak occurred  weeks before normal and we missed the blossoms.

The upside was that in early spring, we were able to eat outside. DC really embraces outdoor dining, and we found sidewalk cafes everywhere.

It can be difficult to snag a table at Zaytinya, but the outdoor seating area nearly doubles the capacity. We had a vegetarian feast of small plates. Some of the dishes were: kale with smoked olives, crispy Brussels spouts, seared Halloumi cheese with dates, pomegranate, orange and mint, and beets with fennel. We had to have the creamy hommus. There was a never ending bowl of warm, freshly made pita. 

Note: Toyota loaned me the Prius Prime for a test drive. Opinions expressed are my own. 

LaLa Land: Paean to the Car

Opening dance sequence: flying above gridlocked cars. Credit: Lionsgate

You can't set a movie in Los Angeles without involving cars. American Graffiti's thin plot even revolves around the teens who cruise on Saturday nights in their souped up cars.

But LaLa Land both embraces and makes fun of LA's car obsession. The musical starts with an epic traffic jam, one of those gridlocked days when you start thinking that you will never, ever emerge from this mess. Then a woman exits her car - and starts singing. And dancing. Others join in , and suddenly a traffic jam is a chance to actually jam.

Ryan Gosling, too cool for school in his convertible Buick. Credit: Lionsgate

One malcontent doesn't get caught up in the sining and dancing: Ryan Gosling's character, Sebastian, who is too busy fiddling with the cassette )!) player in his vintage Buick. The retro car is cool - it's a convertible - but it also establishes his character as a throwback.

And the other lead, Emma Stone's character, Mia, drives a Prius. This is mocked, too - when the couple leave a party, she says her car is a Prius - and the entire valet stand is filled with Prius key fobs.

Sebastian and Mia meet when she parks her car illegally, it gets towed and she walks into the club where he works.

Though I wonder why she didn't just call an Uber.

Are You Pining for a Great New Handbag?

Instead of a bag in a car, a car in a bag

Good Housekeeping and SheBuysCars have partnered on a giveaway of designer handbags.

When my oldest daughter graduated from college, my husband and I wanted to get her something special. I suggested her first ‘real’ pocketbook and he balked - what a terrible gift, he said.

Reader, she loved it. We gave her carte blanche to choose a bag and she even chose me as her shopping partner. It was a great day of mother / daughter bonding, and my husband got to share her joy when she came home with what she deemed the perfect designer bag.

The Toyota Camry looks great with a designer bag

Some parents mark milestone for their kids with a car, but Hallie didn’t even learn to drive till she was 19 (we live in New York City, and for much of her life didn’t even own a car) and when she graduated, she moved back to the city to work for a couple of years. A car would have been a ridiculous gift.

And I remember when I had my first job, a crummy, low-paying servitude publishing job, but my boyfriend (now husband) and I were couch surfing before it became a thing, so we had disposable income to blow on the more essential items, like travel and expensive handbags.

Good Housekeeping and SheBuysCars understand that pocketbooks and cars go, well, hand in hand. I mean, what woman doesn’t throw her car keys into her pocketbook, and then think about where to place said bag once she gets into the car?

The environmentally friendly Prius

The Toyota Camry is a great car for a style-conscious woman who doesn’t want to spend everything on her drive (maybe she wants to have a few bucks leftover for, say, a nice spring bag?). The car isn’t cheap; fully loaded, it’s in the mid-30s, but it offers a lot of luxury bang for the buck. It features soft leather seats, heated steering wheel, and a wireless charging pad so you don’t have to clutter up your car or handbag toting a power cord.

For the eco-conscious, the new Prius has many luxury touches too, along with upgraded technology and safety features - and you still get amazing mileage. So you don't have to feel guilty taking it to the mall, where you can shop for, you guessed it, a new handbag.

See these cars and more at the New York Auto Show, which runs from today through April 3. And be sure to enter SheBuysCars’ promotion with Good Housekeeping, giving away a handbag a day the entire time. Just take a picture of your handbag in your car (or a photo of with one you love at the car show and tweet or post on Instagram with the hashtag #GHDrives.

There is no purchase necessary, and you can only win one bag.

Oh, and as for my daughter? When she started grad school, we bought her the car.

Note: this is sponsored post. Opinions expressed are my own.

Handbag Giveaway With Good Housekeeping And Toyota

Not my old Toyota: the 2015 Toyota Highlander

Just as I’ll always be fond of boys who wear Stan Smith tennis shoes, (as my first boyfriend did) I’ll always have a warm place in my heart for Toyota, my first car.

OK, my only car.

I learned to drive in a 1979 Toyota (yes, I am THAT old) and my mother passed it along to me when I was in college. I then dumped it on my sister since my boyfriend at the time (different boyfriend, same Stan Smith tennis shoes - go figure) had a better Toyota and we were moving back to NYC, where we only needed one car.

We owned several cars over the years, but they were never actually MY car. Now, I get to drive cars from all different brands. But I’ll always love a Toyota.

And I’ll always love to check out the hot new cars at the NY Auto Show, which starts next week at the Javits Center. We always went here when the girls were little - they loved to sit in the back of pickup trucks (city girls!) and they still do, even as young women and teens. 

My daughters, hanging out in the back of a pickup truck

When they were younger, another draw was Camp Jeep, a simulated off-road drive. Fun!

But this year is extra special. Good Housekeeping is giving away 35 designer handbags between April 3 and 12th! To enter to win, show attendees must take a photo of themselves in the drivers seat of a vehicle in a booth with the Women in the Drivers Seat plaque and tweet or Instagram it with the hashtags #GHDrives and #LetsGoPlaces.

You can get more info about the contest here.

The Toyota booth is front and center, so it should be easy to stop by and snap a selfie - and maybe win a pocketbook.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. Opinions expressed are my own.