<\/p>When it comes to dining in the Big Apple, my late, wise mom used to say\u2013\n

\u201cIf you want good French food, go to France. If you want good Italian food, go to Italy. If you want good everything,\u00a0come to New York.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This week, I was reminded of just how true this is as I had the pleasure of eating out five times (a personal record, I think). Four of those meals were at three favorites: my beloved Beach Cafe, La Fonda Del Sol and Hill Country Barbecue.<\/p>\n

The fifth brought me one of the great foodie joys of being a New Yorker \u2014 discovering a fantastic new restaurant right at your doorstep.<\/p>\n

$\"JeanClaude\"$ <\/a>
Jean Claude II is utterly delightful (photo courtesy: jeanclaudenyc.com)<\/p><\/div>\n
Tuesday night, my friend Colin and I enjoyed dinner at Jean Claude II<\/a>, a cozy, charming little French bistro on the UES that I\u2019ve walked past many times. Perfect for quiet conversation, the restaurant also offers warm, attentive service and fabulous food. The escargot, saut\u00e9ed skate and chocolate mousse are all magnifique.<\/em><\/p>\n
An effervescent force of nature, Colin and I met through work a few years ago \u2014 the company he worked for was producing a photo shoot at The Westin New York Grand Central. But he was already acquainted with me\u2013<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you the<\/em> single gal?\u201d he asked, a reference to my dating blog, SingleGalNYC.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n
We immediately hit it off, as he blew me away with his creativity and extraordinary talent for completely\u00a0transforming a space.<\/p>\n
I am having the great good fortune of tapping into Colin\u2019s expertise as I continue my big home makeover project. After dinner, we spent hours going over every nook and cranny of my place. Thanks to Colin\u2019s suggestions, I have moved some furniture around so my living room already feels like it has been infused with new energy and breathing space.<\/p>\n
$\"livingrm\"$ <\/a>
The buffet and table pictured here are showcased so much more in this new configuration!<\/p><\/div>\n
The same could be said of my perspective on other areas of life. I\u2019ve never felt readier or more excited for the fresh start afforded by a new year. Those feelings only grow with each change I make to my abode.<\/p>\n
Green accent wall, here I come!<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When it comes to dining in the Big Apple, my late, wise mom used to say\u2013 \u201cIf you want good French food, go to France. If you want good Italian food, go to Italy. If you want good… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11,27,60,75,8,2],"tags":[94,79],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dining-out","category-friendship","category-living-in-nyc","category-new-beginnings","category-the-westin-new-york-grand-central","category-upper-east-side","tag-jean-claude-ii","tag-single-gal-in-the-city"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4J0fq-4o","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":277,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newyorkcitygal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}