My week with Jeff...

I post this blog in honor of my friend Jeff, since he was in and my week was filled (and sponsored by) events after work with Jeff. He was in earlier in the month for work, but I had a pretty crazy schedule and was not able to meet up with him for the most part.

Monday August 14
Jeff had talked about wanting to go to a Mario Batali restaurant, so I picked on of the "less" busy and easier to obtain a reservation restuarants, Lupa Osteria Romana, which is located in Greenwich Village. We had to wait a little bit, but it wasn't too long of a wait. I definitely felt it would be worth it. Once seated we continued to drink our Savignon Blanc and decided what to order. Mario Batali's menus have a unique type of Italian fare. He tends to use unusual parts of animals that you wouldn't normally see in Italian restaurants. This place was no different. For the appertizer, Jeff wanted to try octopus, so we ordered that along with an endive salad with pecorino cheese and walnuts. The octupus was mixed with mashed chick peas. I ended up liking it more than Jeff did.

The main was even better. We ended up ordering two pastas and splitting it. I ordered the buccatini with pig jowls and he ordered the pennette with tripe (cows stomach). The buccatini was amazing, it was probably one of the best sauces that I have ever had at a restaurants. It reminded me of my mom's sauce when she used pork. It was very hearty and definitely a good choice. The pennette, while not as good as the buccatini, was still pretty good. The tripe had some hints of all spice and the sauce was a little lighter and more spicy. Definitely a reasonably priced menu with plenty of good choices. The wine list was fairly extensive with mostly Italian wines.

Tuesday, August 15
The one good thing about New York is that there are people who move here from all around the world and the US. And because of that, you have specific bars that cater to that local sports fans. This worked in our favor. The Tigers were playing Boston this night and we wanted to watch the game. It was on NESN, the New England Sports Network. One of my co-worker's boyfriends is a huge Sox fan, so he directed me to the Hairy Monk to watch the game. Sure enough it was filled with some old guys wearing their Boston caps and the game was on. Jeff met me up there with one of his co-workers, Christine. We enjoyed some bar food and Sam Adams while watching the Tigers squeak out 3-2 win.

Afterwards, Jeff wanted to go to McSorley's Ale House. I had taken the bachelor party (or at least I thought I did) to McSorley's Ale House. When we went there we had a few pitchers of Blue Moon and Guineess. When I told Jeff this, he was devastated. He explained to me the McSorley's that he remembered, where they only served dark and light beer. He was out to prove me wrong. As we took the cab there, he realized we were in the wrong neighborhood, so he asked one of the bartenders at an East Village bar where McSorley's was and the bartender mentioned it was somewhere near Bowery and 6th Street. This was not the location that we were heading to, so we walked over to the real McSorley's and Jeff breathed a sigh of relief...

This bar had so much more character than the other McSorley's that I was at. It had sawdust on the floor, two choices of beer, as expected, and it was a place were Abe Lincoln had a beer at (they even supposedly had the chair that he sat in). It was an enjoyable time and I'm glad I was able to experience the real McSorely's.

Wednesday August 16
I enjoy hanging out with Jeff, but I needed a break, as did my liver, so I stayed home and watched the Tiger game and cleaned up my place a little. Unfortunately, the Tigers lost 6-4 and the should have lost by more. Justin Verlander had one of his worst outings of the season and had no control over his pitches.

Thursday, August 17
I surprisingly received a call from Jeff. He was supposed to be heading back to Detroit today, but he had some additional work. We ended up going out to dinner again. I took him to Chumley's, an old speakeasy in the West Village. It doesn't have a sign, so if you don't know the exact address, you'll never find it. It's in between to apartment buildings, which makes it even more conspicuous. I've had a beer or two here, but never eaten dinner here. They make hamburgers and use an english muffin as a bun. I am a huge fan of the english muffin, so I had to try it. It was a very good burger. They also make their own beer so I tried out their Hefeweisen, which was pretty good also.

After dinner, we headed to Arthur's, a jazz bar in the West Village, which had a band playing. The place is decorated like it never left the 1970s, but that's what makes it so great. The trio got better as their set progressed.

Friday, August 18
After finishing up work before my vacation, I headed down to the Barney's warehouse sale to find some good shirts and ended up buying a nice pair of black shoes, which was much needed. Jeff was planning on meeting me there, but he had to work a little longer that expected, but he did end up meeting with me before I headed back to Brooklyn. We both did not want to make it a long night, because we were both leaving on a flight Saturday morning, so we started early.

We headed out with Paul and went to Soda Bar for some perogies and a few pints before going to the Alibi in Ft Greene. It's a local dive that has super cheap pitchers and a pool table. We drank a little bit there and then headed to Sputnik a little closer to Bed-Stuy. Sputnik had a hip hop DJ on the top floor and a reggae band downstairs. It was a pretty cool place in an interesting neighborhood. Unfortunately, it led to a later night than expected, so I was not looking forward to my 7:45 flight...