Last week, L&T Editors Stef Ferrari & Gia Hughes, our resident photographer Josh Telles, and myself, hopped on a plane from LA to visit the Big Apple. With only a few days to spend in New York City, Stef and I made sure to make every hour productive. For nearly a month, we planned and coordinated which stories to document during our trip. We would break up into two teams to cover more ground: Josh & Gia, Stef & myself.

With only 3 days in the city, we planned to produce around 10 stories between both teams—an ambitious endeavor even for our standard of work ethic.

So here is a look at Day One:

Wednesday, October 14
“Sorry for dusting powdered sugar all over your apartment.”

8am — My first shoot would be with Dominique Ansel at 10am in the West Village, but I headed out early while the rest of the team stayed back at the hotel. I headed down the street in the Lower East Side for an espresso, which I always tend to drink before a shoot. Drinking coffee takes far too much time (which I rarely have) and I’ve never been a fan of walking down the street with a coffee cup in my hand.

I slam my double espresso, give my thanks to the barista, and request an Uber. While I should have left to Midtown to pick up my lens rental, I looked at the opposite end of the street to find the Williamsburg bridge within walking distance. I couldn’t pass it up and gave myself 15 minutes to shoot a few quick shots for the ‘grams. Uber cancelled.

I’m now running late and traffic has built up, so I head to Midtown to pick up my lens rental I want to test out for the trip: Sigma 24mm 1.4 Art Series. While my Sigma 35mm 1.4 is my baby for most shoots, I just needed to test Sigma’s 24mm while being in tight corridors (and the verdict is: I’m buying it).

10am — With gear in hand, I arrive at Dominique Ansel Kitchen in West Village. I find the rest of the L&T team waiting for me while feasting on chocolate brownies. Josh & Gia head out to their own shoot at Fedora Bar in the area while Stef & I meet with Dominique Ansel, the man behind the cronut and countless innovative pastries that left us in a sugar high for the rest of the day #thestruggleisreal.

12:25pm — Josh & Gia return to Dominique’s Kitchen to find Stef & myself still eating sweets and pastries.

Dominique’s Mille Feuille and I got along real well.

We pack up and grab an Uber for our next stop: Brooklyn.

1pm — We meet with Jessica Gilgurd, L&T Writer and baker of delicious cookies. We’re here for a quick photoshoot of her oreshki cookies for an upcoming recipe in our winter issue of Life & Thyme. I play food stylist near her apartment window and Josh stands on what ever he can find. By the end of the shoot, I apologize to Jessica for the mess we created with powdered sugar.

2:30pm — Josh and Gia say their goodbyes and head to Leyenda, a pan-Latin cocktail bar, to document Ivy Mix. Ivy was recently named “American Bartender of the Year” at 2015 Tales of the Cocktail’s Spirited Awards.

3pm — My next stop with Stef is with Raaka, an organic bean-to-bar chocolate company based in Brooklyn. The founders give us a tour, I snap photos, then we eat chocolate.

5:30pm — My team and I are running on low steam at this point while we head out of BK and into Manhattan. Our shoots and interviews for the day have come to an end and we’re very much looking forward to an evening of good food and good company. I wanted to make it a point to meet with fellow contributors, writers, and photographers from our Life & Thyme community during our trip, so along with the fine folks at Grand Banks, we hosted an intimate gathering on their wooden schooner on the Hudson River.

At this point, I am extremely grateful and humbled for our community and everyone’s mutual love for creativity and food. With the sun setting, breathtaking views of the city, the Statue of Liberty on one end, and old & new friends huddled together with blankets on the other, I couldn’t dream for a more perfect setting. (view more photos on our Facebook page)

8:30pm — We sit and chat for hours but my iPhone alert goes off and notifies me of a dinner reservation at Frankies Spuntino, a much loved neighborhood joint by Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli (read their story in Issue Three).

We disembark the boat and head out for more food and long conversations over gnocchi and ravioli.

New York, I adore you.

Stay tuned for more recounts of our NYC travels on the Journal.