New York City

I’ve lived in New York City from 2011 - 2017 and absolutely loved it. It’s one of my absolutely favourite cities in the world. This list is a selection of places I went to that I enjoyed enough to do more than once.

Coffee

Sweetleaf

A regular spot for coffee and quick snacks. They mostly have sweet stuff and the location and coffee is great.

Brooklyn Roasting Company

They (used to?) have a really nice location in Dumbo near the Etsy office. So it was basically the default place to get coffee for me for quite a while.

Food

Peter Pan’s Donuts

I used to live on the block of Peter Pan’s Donuts and definitely ate way too many donuts during that time. They have both bagels and donuts in the classic varieties and definitely recommend going there.

Eagle Trading Company

I used to live close by this place and had breakfast there every weekend basically. They have a variety of really good sandwiches and decent coffee. And the atmosphere and staff is great.

Black Forest Brooklyn

German food in Brooklyn and it’s as legit as it gets. Coming here for food really felt like coming home. I don’t remember if there are many vegan options but the Schnitzel is great.

Smorgasburg

The Smorgasburg open air food market in Williamsburg always has a great mix of different things to try. It’s generally pretty crowded but worth it to find a variety of food things to try.

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream

I went to their Greenpoint location a lot and my favourite was the vegan peanut butter milkshake. Works well when it’s hot outside.

La Bagel Delight Dumbo

This was a regular place I went to when I didn’t eat breakfast at home. They are usually pretty busy around breakfast and lunch time and have a huge variety of bagels, spreads, and toppings.

Calexico

Another regular dinner (or lunch) place was Calexico for me. A burrito is always a good choice for me and their nachos are also delicious. They also had a cart in Dumbo occasionally which was perfect to also get lunch during the workweek there.

Bakeri

Bakeri has really good bread and other baked foods like croissants, danishes, and sweet as well as savory options. And the location in Greenpoint is super cute.

Baker’s Dozen

Baker’s Dozen has a large variety of bagels and toppings and the most energized staff I’ve ever seen. I’ve definitely gotten bagels there while the whole crew was singing along to a Good Charlotte song on the radio.

Front Street Pizza

Another one close to the Etsy office that I’ve gotten a ton of lunches in. The slices are great, but so are the (veggie) burgers.

Shake Shack Burgers

Shake Shack was the burger place I definitely tried to not go to too much. They were also close to the office which made it really hard. And having a milkshake and a shack stack was just a really tempting offer for lunch.

Parks and Outdoor Spaces

Brooklyn Bridge Park

I spent a lot of time there walking around on 1:1s, hanging out, and playing basketball. They had improved it a ton while I was living there and it was always really nice to have such a great park close to the office.

Prospect Park

Prospect Park is a pretty well known park in Brooklyn and rightfully so. It’s pretty big and really nice to walk with lots of bike riding options.

Highline

The High Line is a nice park to walk built on a historic, elevated rail line.

Misc

East River Ferry

I used to take the ferry to work every day and it was the best commute I ever had. Especially on sunny days it’s such a great view along the Manhattan skyline and the Brooklyn waterfront.