MY WEEKEND: Tamron Hall
Tamron Hall is something of a TV triple-threat as co-host of the third hour of NBC’s “Today,” an anchor of “MSNBC Live” and host of “Deadline: Crime” on Investigation Discovery (she also recently launched the Tamron ❤ Renate Fund with Safe Horizon in honor of her sister, who was murdered, to help victims of domestic violence). The 46-year-old Texas native moved to New York nine years ago and is still checking items off her Big Apple bucket list. Here, Hall tells ANDREA MORABITO how she likes to chill out in the city.
My weekends include a lot of food and fun with friends. I live downtown, and I love walking and people-watching and just disappearing in the city. There’s a Turkish place that I stumbled on recently called Antique Garage, on Mercer Street. It’s a garage with a huge chandelier in the middle, and I just sat at the bar and had a cup of coffee and chilled out.
I try to explore something new about New York as much as possible because . . . you get in your work routine and neglect some of the things you promised yourself you’d do when you first moved. Recently we went to play shuffleboard at the Royal Palms [in Gowanus], and I fell in love. They have a rotating food truck and, lucky for me, it was a hot-dog truck — it was phenomenal.
Saturday nights are usually restaurants with friends. Pig & Khao on the Lower East Side is my favorite restaurant. It’s Asian-fusion but not in a cheesy 1980s-’90s way. It’s very small; they have an incredible playlist, mostly hip-hop. It’s some of the most delicious Asian-inspired food I’ve ever had in my life, and they have a female chef, which is awesome. I really like Mimi on Sullivan Street. I love the classics like Lupa [on Thompson Street]. Casa Mono in Gramercy remains one of the most interesting places to eat in New York — their menu rotates. And I’ve started to explore Brooklyn way more. The weekend of the marathon I went to Lilia in Williamsburg, which is really good.
I try to do pilates on Sunday mornings, and then I ride my bike to Madison Avenue Baptist Church. It’s an awesome church, an hour service, a female minister who wears cowboy boots — everything that you can imagine my church would be. Afterward, I go to brunch. I love Buvette [in the West Village]. It’s one of those New York waits, but it is worth the wait. That waffle sandwich? It’s amazing. When I get home I have to watch all the Sunday morning news programs that I’ve DVR’ed and get back into work mode.