NYC has so many restaurants and bars to try out that it is hard to narrow it down! For date nights, I always pick a restaurant not too far away from the theatre in case dinner runs a bit late.
I have never had Cuban food and the restaurant Havana Central was about two blocks from where our show was playing, so my partner and I met up there a bit after work. I contacted the restaurant ahead of time to figure out the allergy situation and felt comfortable visiting; I appreciated their quick response time and support. It was pretty busy when we arrived around 5:30 pm and I think reservations would be necessary if you wanted to dine any later than that because there were lots of groups there.
We got some beef empanadas to start and both enjoyed pollo al ajillo (garlic chicken). Happy hour went until 7 pm so I took advantage of that and got a few margaritas too. Everything was delicious and came out really quickly! Though the wait time wasn’t too long, we did enjoy the lively music playing.
After dinner we had a good chunk of time left before the show, so we headed over to the only tree nut and peanut free ice cream shop in the city, A La Mode. I grabbed a classic flavor (pink sprinkle!) and a seasonal flavor (key lime pie!), and topped it with one of my favorite candies of all time, Vermont Nut Free Skippers. So delicious!
The shop has seating and is catered towards families with small children, but I still love to visit as an adult because it is so nice to know I can safely enjoy anything in the shop! I recommend calling to verify their hours because we have showed up and private events have been going on, which limited our options and seating.
From there we rushed back to the theatre to hop in line for our show. The performance we had tickets for, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, was special because Ellie Kemper guest starred in a role for that week! The show was pretty funny but I enjoyed The Play That Goes Wrong a bit more. Still recommend checking it out before it leaves Broadway later this summer.
We were quite sleepy after the show and delicious food we had that evening, so we headed home. I look forward to checking out more Broadway shows and new restaurants this year!