Day three was spent in apathy, on the couch, working (poor word choice) off the over indugances from the day before.

We did manage to hit up the wonderful Borough. This restaurant is aiming its services at those interested the new locavore trend. All of the ingredients are locally grown and produced in New York City and used to create dishes inspired by the five boroughs. Green and delish.

On Sunday we went and a homemade brunch and pleasant morning visiting friends and relatives we headed down to Columbus Park to play Soccer.

We started that evening off at the Cub Room (which is nice but pretty unmentionable) for cocktails and then headed down the street for sushi at Blue Ribbon Sushi. From the time you walk up to the non descript restaurant front, to walking down into the little cubby hole entrance, to the impressive line of sushi chefs, you know you have stumbled upon something special. The sushi was outrageous in the best way possible. Lilly Allen eats there seven times a week. I had the pleasure of trying box style sushi (mackerel) and jellyfish sushi - two things that you can’t find in Denver (if you know otherwise, I’d love to find out about it). We finished the night off at with a couple of drinks at a bar I can’t remember the name of (too many Karin Ichiban) where we were entertaining enough for the bartender to buy us a round.

The next day I flew back to Denver thankful to have experienced a culinary New York, but also just as thankful to be home.

I had a slow leisurely morning on my second day in NYC. Taking time to enjoy my coffee, finish my book, and have a nice breakfast. Then I jumped headfirst into the chaos that is Times Square on Black Friday.

I relieved my crowd-induced-anxiety by heading over to Madison Square Park where I enjoyed the, well-disputed-best-burger-in-New-York-City, at the Shake Shack. I was a little surprised they were actually open this late in the season.

After that it was off to have a look at two of my favorite buildings in the city. The Flat Iron building
And the American Radiator building.

Afterwards I headed over to the Freemans. I wanted to check out this little secret gem hidden away in an ally of the LES. It was cool, but veering on too cool. I stayed for a couple of beers before heading to Lorely for a tall glass of German suds and the meeting of friends and family.

Then it was off to our big dinner. For reasons I won’t get into we had a “break the bank” expense budget that had to be spent and it was my girlfriend’s parents 40th anniversary. We also had reservations at Perry St. This was a Jean-Georges Vongerichten (his blog) joint. He’s is probably one of the most famous chefs in NYC. And this was probably the best meal I ate all year (and probably in the top ten meals I’ve eaten ever). We went haywire in this place ordering several appetizers, all kinds of special cocktails, desserts, wines and entrees (grilled tenderloin of beef with herbal spinach and liquid gruyere for me). It was wonderful for everyone. The restrooms were out of toilet paper though. Not the type of thing you’d expect from a place like this.

Afterwards we to Turks & Frogs which I believe was having a sewage problem. I have no idea why we stayed there so long but the experience was disappointingly if not for the company. We quickly scuttled over to The Otheroom. This place was great. The music was perfect all night, the atmosphere was fun, dim and cozy, the people were really cool, the women were hot and the men were gay (mostly). We stayed here till about three am.

Our adventure home included three taxi rides, a car accident, the new jersey transit system, some tears, getting list in Secaucus, and a $60 cab fair. Ouch.

If my previous trip to Manhattan was all about the sexiness, then this last trip was all about the foodiness.

We started off at Spitzer’s Corner where I had my first pork belly sandwich. It was good but there were way too many tomotoes on it for my taste. I can verify that the hickory smoked hamburger is incredible though. We also started with a dozen oysters from the raw bar that really hit the spot. Spitzer’s main draw, however, is not it’s food but it’s incredible selection of beer. I had a couple of the Golden Monkey Tripels which were great, but, at 10% alcohol, they quickly did some pretty good damage.

Thursday started off with a trip to the Macy’s day parade, an American Thanksgiving Day tradition. There were throngs of people and it was hard to get a decent view but it seemed like on of those things I needed to “check off my list”. I’m glad I got to see it when I did because it seems that every year the parade degenerates into more of a marching/floating advertisement and less of an actual parade. Someday it will implode on itself. Lunch involved a pretzel and hot dog street food. Dinner was, of course, the traditional turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, salad, rolls, gravy, wine combo that we have all come to know and love. Given the choice, I would take a green chili smothered burrito over turkey anyday, but I have come to terms with the traditional holiday fair and always enjoy my annual turkey meal.

On Friday after work I headed over to My Brother’s Bar to meet up with a few peeps. After a couple of beers I was able to talk everyone into going to my favorite secret bar. I’m not sure why I wanted to take everyone there, I guess because I don’t want to go by myself. When we arrived, G and I climbed the apartment stairs and knocked on the door. I could see the dim bar lights in the small gap of space between the door and it’s jamb. A high pitched woman’s voice screamed from the other side:
“What do you want?”
“We came for a beer.”
“We ain’t open.”
“OK. But we brought Mattie”
Silence.

So my plan was spoiled but I’m not surprised because, as everyone knows, secret bars are only open during weird hours. Anyway, I’m not gonna talk about my secret bar on this blog anymore for fear of other people finding out about it.

Somehow we ended up at the new Quixotes. I hadn’t been to its (semi) new location yet so it was worth checking out. The place was huge. There was free ping pong. We also got to check out a little bit of Great American Taxi. They were all right I guess, just really typical for a place like that. In the back of the place is this tape trading room/smoking lounge. The dude who worked back there was so creepy it was freaked me out a little. G didn’t want to go back there by herself. This guy refused to answer any question I gave him with more than one word, never left his computer station, and never greeted anyone who walked in. He would only engage in conversation (if you can call it that) if someone asked him a direct question. He was probably just too cool for everyone but it sure did come off sort of disturbing. It didn’t stop me from buying a live (Oct. 10th 2003) Ween CD off him though.

It’s been an eventful week. I’ve been up to a lot but don’t really feel like writing about any of it so I’ll just type out some quick highlights. Thursday evening was spent having cocktails in the old neighborhood - it was great for that reminiscing part of my brain. Later we headed over to the Oriental Theater (nice blog, great venue) for this “420″ thing that was a bit of a dud, but a decent cause.

Friday was rough but after work I rallied and met friends over at the Funky Buddha for a bit and then went home to watch movies.

Slept in Saturday and did tons of yard work (hmmm I guess that’s not a highlight). I then went off to a birthday party at Ogden Street South. It was a complete blast. Highlights include karaoke and the soon to be infamous “Nobody calls her that you fucking bitch!” episode. I’m beginning to determine that me and karaoke don’t mix well.

Sunday consisted of a 24 hour long headache (not hangover induced), another birthday celebration at the West End Tavern, and some serious couch time.