I never run into anyone in NYC. Even when I lived there, I don’t think I ever bumped into anyone I knew on the street unless I’d planned to meet them there. On my first day back in the city over my birthday  weekend, I was riding the subway with a friend and heading towards dumplings in chinatown for a late afternoon snack. It was the beginning of rush hour and the train was already packed with people, I didn’t have a map on me and it was impossible to try and view one on the wall, so I started having a bit of a panick attack – thinking, perhaps, that we’d missed our stop or had gone too far. So we decided to jump off at stop that I felt should be close enough to where we were going for me to navigate our way to Chinatown. Shuffling my feet within the mass crowd, trying to make my way to the stairs, I looked up and caught the eye of a guy who I thought looked just like a friend of mine. Two seconds later, said guy was stood right in front of me with the cutest little dog under his arm – he looked just like my friend, because it was my friend, Brian Cleaver, and his puppy Winston!

Instead of dumplings in Chinatown, Brian suggested we go for some east side tacos at his favourite place. After dropping off the puppy at his apartment, he lead us through LES until we reached the Essex Street Market. Taking us inside, he lead us through the market until we reached the cutest little taco stand called Brooklyn Taco Co. and oooh it was delicious! Super well priced too. Check them out HERE and go try ‘em!

Ps. That’s Winston below, isn’t he the cutest? (Image by Brian Cleaver)