Over Labor Day weekend, I went to NYC with my family for a quick trip to enjoy the US Open tennis tournament. This has been a long time favorite event for my family (last years trip) and I was so excited to go again this year. One of my brothers celebrates his birthday around this time of year, so we love using his birthday as an excuse to go celebrate here.
We flew up on the Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend and arrived in NYC around 2pm.
As soon as we arrived, we headed straight to our hotel to check-in and meet up with my oldest brother who was already in town. We stayed at the Ritz in Central Park which was a wonderful location.
My Dress | Jacket | Shoes | Necklace
We were all starving for lunch when we arrived, so we walked down to Marea which was right down the street from us and had an incredibly delicious late lunch. It has a coastal Italian style menu that was mouth-watering. I can’t believe I didn’t take any photos of our food here, but we loved it! Don’t be fooled by their “spaghetti” dish. It is so much more (and better!) than your basic spaghetti.
After lunch, we walked off all of our carbs and did a little window shopping and exploring. The weather was so nice and crisp that I was very happy to have my light weight jacket.
After walking around, it was time to head back to the hotel and shower and get ready for the evening. We were headed out to go see the broadway show, Buena Vista Social Club. It was such a fun, high-energy show to watch. We had great seats and were so impressed by the talent on stage. It is a story of cuban history with tons of fun dancing and singing that will keep you entertained all night.
I wore this fun red dress from La Maregold and paired it with a belt and this adorable scarf from Coco Zentner. I also stuck with my cream colored flats for the night because we were planning to do some walking.
After the 7:30 show, we ended up having dinner at Four Twenty Five Park Restaurant. It was a late dinner, but so much fun. It felt like we ordered a ton of food, but I didn’t leave there feeling too heavy which was wonderful. We headed home after dinner to get ready for a big day at the Open the following day.
We woke up Sunday morning with zero US Open tickets in hand and only a plan to get online and see what we could buy. We knew that we wanted to be ready to depart for the Open around 9:30am, as the first match begins at 11am that day.
Thankfully, my brother got online that morning and was able to find some amazing seats for us at the Louis Armstrong stadium through Stubhub. I will go into more details about buying tickets below.
I wore this really cute Alemais dress for the tennis this year that I spotted several months back and knew I had to have it! I highly suggest wearing sneakers or some type of comfortable shoe to the Open because you do end up doing quite a bit of walking. I loved these adorable sneakers that I wore and they come in several cute color combinations.
I have received a few questions about how the tickets work for this tournament, so I will try to break it down a little for you.
You can buy general admission tickets to the tournament and that gets you on the grounds and able to walk around and see a lot of the courts playing. Then you can also purchase seated tickets at Arthur Ashe Stadium (the biggest one) or Louis Armstrong (the smaller one). We have always purchased tickets to one of these two stadiums and this year, we chose Louis Armstrong based on the line-up. For Arthur Ashe stadium, you buy day tickets which are good for around 11am to 6pm or so or you buy night session tickets which get you seats for the evening starting around 6:30pm until late into the night. Since we bought Louis Armstrong tickets this trip, we were able to stay there the entire day because they don’t kick you out until the matches in that stadium are done. We got to see four really good matches.
Dress | Hat | Shoes | Necklace
We watched the Mannarino/Lenecka match, Taylor Townsend/ Barbora Krejcikova, Taylor Fritz / Machac, and Aryna Sabalenka / Bucsa match! It was a lot of great tennis and over 10 hours of fun!
We had seats just two rows back right behind the players and ref chairs and we were seen several times on TV. My Lorna Murray bucket hat was pretty easy to spot!
We also happened to be sitting one row behind my brother’s buddy that he went to college with and his whole family. That was such a fun surprise.
After the tournament was over, we went to one of my brother’s favorite spots called Bar Pitti. Again, they had amazing Italian dishes. My SIL and I both got the truffle pasta that was incredible and my brother has the pesto pasta that was delicious too.
After dinner, we went over to Cornelia St. and had drinks at Sip & Guzzle. They are a cool craft cocktail spot.
On our last morning, we dressed and headed to brunch at La Grand Boucherie for one last meal before we left town. I highly recommend the Croque Madame from here. It was delicious. The ambiance was really cute at this spot too.
It was time to head to the airport and head home to my fam! We had so much fun and it’s so special to be able to spend this time with my brothers and Mama. I hope to be able to do it again soon!
:: NYC RECAP ::
Where We Stayed
The Ritz Central Park
Where We Ate
Marea
Four Twenty Five Park Restaurant.
Bar Pitti
La Grande Boucherie
Where We Drank
Sip and Guzzle
The US Open
What We Did
Broadway Show – Buena Vista Social Club
US Open Day Session
Walk and Window Shop Park and 5th Ave
What to Wear to the US Open
Here are a few outfit ideas that I had put together for what to wear to the US Open this year. You see a little bit of everything, but I do recommend a hat and comfortable walking shoes.
You can shop a collection of my favorites here.
