The friend I met Sunday night spent the day in The Cloisters. That place sounds fascinating. We're going to try to do this a bit more regularly (once or twice a year) now that we've discovered a few things - like the fact that most of the hotels around the Park are Starwod properties, and I met a great car for hire guy that will totally take care of me.
Friday we actually did get into Babbo. But first we went to see Million Dollar Quartet - which just great. Almost like seeing a rock show of old Rock and Roll impersonators. The cast does a full on rock out at the end, and they encored with Run Run Rudolph for the Christmas crowd.
Afterward we went to Babbo, which was easily and immediately in the top 3 meals, and probably #1 for overall dining experiences of my life. Its in the bottom floor of a townhouse near Washington Sq, and it is small. But you walk in and before you are hit by the food, the bar, and the very Italian Christmas tree with yellow lights and pears, you hear the music. It's LOUD. It's also all rock and roll we heard Nirvana, The Kinks, Bowie, and Modest Mouse, and about half that Lucinda live album. It was crazy, and the difference between that and your usual quiet as a mouse formal white table cloth meal adds to the experience, IMO. We had grilled octopus, and pigs foot for apps, mint love letters (ravioli) and beef cheek ravioli for the second course, and duck and beef tongue for the primi. A huge bottle of barosso, and I couda almost paid Tooks' mortgage for the meal
Saturday was shopping, Eataly (another Batali joint that is like an Italian market. We had monkfish liver and a salumi e formaghio platte. It was great. Then I went to meet XIX at the Oyster Bar under Grand Central, and I hope her boyfriend stayed awake through their movie, because
4 martinis later, i was glad to walk the 12 blocks to Bar Basque for dinner. That place was super space age and very cool ambience, but food wise left a little to be desired. It looked like a cool place to drink wine at 2AM and try to find a girl who is Spanish royalty or an Arabian princess. Kerry is super cool, very smart and engaging, and easy on the eyes. It was fun to meet her. We saw The Radio City Christmas Spectacular that night. Radio City is cool, and for some reason every time I go there I think of The Dead playing there and chuckle. The Xmas spectacular was what you would think it was, but the wife had never seen it in NYC and since she loves dance and Christmas as much as anything in her life, it was great to take her to see something she's literally dreamed about going to most of her life.
Sunday we did brunch at Les Halles, MoMA - which is Just. Fucking. Mindblowing. It was everything i wanted it to be and more. Seeing Pollacks, Warhols, Johns, Cezannes, Rousseaus etc up close and personal, and grasping how it these works were created, and how tactile these iconic paintings are was a great cultural moment for me. There were a lot of "Genius round the world stands hand in hand and one shock of recognition runs the whole circle round" moments for me, in seeing the influence that these works have had through the years. Particularly Rousseau, who I was unfamiliar with as an artist - his color schemes and subject matter are imprinted in so much of our popular culture.
Then we went to the Essex house to try to go to a cool English style bar a friend told us about - which has been replaced by a very swank and moderne restaurant/bar. But, our waiter was cool, and I had some salumi tartuffo, which tastes like salami and truffles, because they feed the pig truffles.
Then we went to PDT, which is a nouvelle speakeasy that you enter through a phone booth it a place called Crif Dogs. They have bacon infused bourbon and all other kinds of snooty 'artisan' cocktails. Apparently it's impossible to get in, but we had the concierge get us a table. The whole place probably seats 35 people, and they serve stuff like deep fried hot dogs with kimchi from momofuko on top - and they don't allow anyone to stand at the bar. Tres, tres hip. Which is fun for me to put on the redneck charm and act like a swell.
Then we met a friend at McSorley's - been there since 1854. Pretty cool sawdust in the floor joint that is pretty historic. Fuck, Abe Lincoln drank there.
Today we tried ton grab lunch at The Burger Joint in the Parker Meridien, but it was packed by the time we got there after spending too much time chatting with Paul Winston from Chipp tailors about making suits for President Kennedy, Senator R. Kennedy and Cyrus Vance, and visiting the family suite at The Carlyle. He now does mainly dog-motifed ties, pillows, etc, and I had put in an order for some stuff about a month back. He emailed me that it would ship today, but when I saw the address I asked if we could just pick it up. Cool, tiny shop that he and one other dude operate, and they do custom and MTM suits for pretty reasonable prices and I picked up a "FuckYou" club tie for $30 - I'll post pics, it's awesome.
And then we caught the car to LaGuardia and I'm on the way to ATL. What a fucking weekend. I don't know if I could live there, but I sure as he'll love visiting. It brings out the joyful little kid in me, in terms of opening my eyes to new experiences, and just feeling more acculturated than my usual day to day back in Bama gives me.
If you'd taken my advice and had those 4 martini's at the Roosevelt, you wouldn't have been walking anywhere
.
Sounds like a great weekend. I'm there in 5 weeks and really looking forward to it.
