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.

Yesterday I went to see the new Simpsons movie. Definitely worth my $6.00. But I’m a fan of the Simpson and laughed throughout the entire movie, so my opinion is probably a bit biased. Still, I recommend you go see it. Stay through the credits to hear the Springfield Anthem, afterall, the music is one of the best parts of the Simpsons. In celebration here are some pictures I took a few ago of the 7-11 they turned into a Kwik-E-Mart here in Denver.

The guys down at Westword like to make fun of this security guard for some reason. He actually had a pretty tough job the night I was there, the drunks were out in full force.

By the way, the title to this post is the emoticon for “Homer”.

A while back SE was in town. We took a little architectual rehab tour of the Lodo area. While walking around, we tried to see if the Denver Gas & Electric (which is now a datacenter) building was lit up. Everyone was dissapointed that it wasn’t. Well now for the holidays it’s been lit up again (Denver has lots of great christmas lights). So this one is for you SE…