MY WEEKEND: Michael Urie

In 1998, a Texas theater student named Michael Urie discovered New York on a class trip. “It was the dead of summer, it was hot and stinky and we saw 13 shows in 10 days,” the “Ugly Betty” star recalls. “I loved everything about it!” A year later, he made

We’re avid bikers — we Citi Bike anywhere we can — and we love our dog, a 15-pound Boston terrier-Chihuahua mix named President McKinley. We got ’Kinley a bike backpack, so we can bike with her on our backs. She doesn’t like getting in the bag, but once she’s in it, she loves it. We usually bike through Central Park and cut down along the West Side Highway. We’ll even go down to Battery Place Market, which is a kind of Eataly[-like] place where you can get salted meats, coffees, sandwiches — it’s very cool. We’ll go find a spot near the river and have a picnic.

Sometimes we’ll bike down to the West Village for dinner. Our favorite place is Malatesta Trattoria. It’s all windowed doors, and they all open. Everybody who works there is Italian, and they have the sexiest accents, and every day the menu’s a little different. They have this amazing squid-ink pasta, a really good ravioli in pink vodka sauce, and a delicious tagliatelle.

We’re suckers for the original Magnolia on Bleecker Street, but not for the cupcakes — [for] the banana-cream pudding. Oh my God! I could eat a whole thing right now. After we go to Malatesta, we’ll wander over to Magnolia and then bike it off. I just went to Arriba Arriba, on Ninth Avenue, which is kind of a gay Mexican restaurant for people on their way to clubs, though I never was a big club person. They have a DJ and play a lot of disco. They played “Native New Yorker” the night I was there, and that’s my jam! And they have really good margaritas. Ryan was doing a play at the Cherry Lane and there’s a new place on the corner there, Fifty, that has really good cocktails and amazing deviled eggs. You can get one or 10 of them, but I usually do just one, because they’re so rich. We love going to the theater. I’ve been trying to see as many of the Drama Desk-nominated shows as possible, on Broadway, off- and off-off. I’m now performing in “The Government Inspector” at the Duke, which is brand new and spanking clean, but I love a theater that has character, like the Barrow Street, where I did “Buyer & Cellar.” And the Lucille Lortel — there are just so many ghosts there! It even has its own smell, its own sort of life, which I think is exciting and sexy.