Because it's summer and because I love beer gardens...
Zum Schneider, a Bavarian Indoor Biergarten on Avenue C, is not only diagonal from my apartment, but it's also one of my favorite watering hole in the east village. Hard pretzels on the table, and buxom beer maids handling up to 8 steins at a time -- what's not to love? But I can't compete with a friend J who can be found sitting inside at a wooden picnic table or outside under a blue and white umbrella with friends at any time or day of the week tackling large steins of caramel goodness. It's that kind of place.
When my sister and her boyfriend came to visit NYC, after shocking them with my small apartment full of "character" and kitchy furnishings. I figured Zum Schneider would be just the place to ease them into East Village living. And so the night unfolded....
There's nothing like a luxurious lunch outdoors to break up the work day. I think "lunch breaks" should be mandatory for all people in the media business. And around Rockefeller Center, there are a smattering of tasty lunch places that aren't too pricey, but still have great food. Plus, lunch is a great excuse to step away from your iMac. The news may never stop, but at least you can get away from your computer for awhile.
So, just as the French would like it, I snuck out of work for a 2 hour lunch al fresco at "the city's largest outdoor seating space." Maison is a great French Bar and Restaurant on the corner of 53rd and Broadway that caught my eye a while back. Unfortunately, my dining experience wasn't as good as the view. I ate the worst croque monsieur there with the best presentation. My ham and cheese sandwich arrived on an oval wooden cuttingboard with a side of french fries funneled in wax paper and perched in a metal can. I have always been a fan of Swiss cheese, but when you order a sandwich and both sides of the sandwich are coated with broiled cheese, you've got to wonder how to pick it up. Needless to say, it needed some sauce. Regardless, they have fantastic ice tea and French fries. Don't you just love it when they sprinkle parsley on the french fries? I just think it makes the fried potato sticks look all the more yummy.
As a New Yorker, one gets used to meeting friends at bars, movie theaters, or restaurants. None of this, "I'll pick you up in my Honda Civic on my way," kind of deals. We merely exchange cross streets and hope for the best.
Saturday night I'm on my way to Soho to meet friends for Thai food at Peep. It's one of those nights where so and so might come and he's bringing a friend and someone's third cousin may come to dinner, too. As I approach the restaurant, I see my friend A and run up to her saying "HI! So glad I could find you in this crowd!" (The wait is 1 1/2 hours so there's a mass of people outside) After some small talk and meeting her mom from out of town, A unabashedly goes, "I'm not meeting you here." Silence, then we simultaneously go, "Who are you meeting here?" and start laughing.
It catches you off guard, that moment when you realized that NYC is such a small world. My friend A was meeting her boyfriend at Peep for a "Meet-the-Parents" dinner while I was meeting our mutual friend, E, for a "It's Saturday Night/more liquor than food" dinner. I'm still laughing about it.
Said partners in crime: Emily, Amber and Anand
Bagel, bagel, fofagel
After 2 weeks of saving money and eating cereal at home, this morning I returned to my regular breakfast jaunt - Food Merchants.
At first sight of my sleepy eyes, the bagel guy smiles and says "Where have you been?" as he reaches for a cinnamon raisin bagel. To which I respond with a huge grin, "I've been eating cereal!" Me, being naïve and proud that I'm being economical, smile back thinking how nice it is to be missed in such a large city. Now, these bodega guys are usually keen to the ways of New Yorkers and woman in general. But, his response made me laugh out loud in a way that had people staring. He goes, "Who told you you were fat?" "Did you're boyfriend?" "You're boss?" I just started laughing and said no.
It's always fun to play a joke on someone and a recent Thursday night seemed as good a time as ever. And if you've ever lost your wallet in NYC, you know how NOT fun it can be. So after dinner at Son Cubano, I'm walking out of the restaurant and hear a girl yelling at us. I turn back thinking I have something on my skirt, but it appears that my friend, A, has left her open wallet on the table. My other friend L and I run back to grab the wallet, but decide to keep it and see how long A takes to realize her wallet is missing. We get all the way uptown to some swanky club and stand behind a velvet rope when A starts freaking out. Her boyfriend is already huffing about going back to the restaurant to look for her wallet, when we exclaim "We have it!" You can practically see all the tension evaporate from her body as her shoulders drop, but the look on her face, that was priceless.
