Nice Long Weekend

Man, folks must have been rocking the BBQ's because the men's room at our office has been occupado all day!  The weather is finally turning up here in the tundra and it feels a little bit like summer.  After 35 straight days of rain along w/ hail, tornado winds, and the like we have had a couple nice days of 70s and sun which ain't too bad. 

So I had to work down in NYC at the end of last week and then my special lady and I took a day or so to unwind and enjoy the city.  It is that special weekend just before it becomes unbearably hot and smells like urine.  We were greeted on our trip in from the airport w/ a car engulfed by flame.  A whole f*ing car!  Baghdad style... it was crazy.  Fortunately it did not explode and we were able to make it to our hotel the Tribecca Grand.  We like that hotel but it was plain to see why we got such a solid rate... it is not the hip place to be anymore.  The space is still cool but there were families and lots of dudes w/ polo shirts tucked into jorts.  Still we had a nice stay.  A few of the highlights.

Minetta Tavern, I had heard it was good but it was not overly hyped to me which was good.  After we ate there I heard things such as "the burger is better than sex".  That is not true. It was good.  Very good in fact.  But better than sex?  You need a new partner chief!  It was a cool scene though and the beef was all very solid.  I also ate in 2 funny hotels.  In Stamford we ate at Napa & Co. which is a surprisingly good restaurant in the Marriott of all places?  Of course the Marriott also had a Porsche Cayenne to pick guests up so who knows?!  Try the foie gras meatballs or the sheep's milk gnocchi.  Both were very nice.  I also grabbed a burger w/ my buddy AG (congrats on the new baby buddy!) in the Parker Meridian in Midtown.  That place was crazy.  In the lobby of the hotel you can see a long line at all hours waiting to get back behind a velvet curtain.  All day night club?  Nope.  A dive burger joint.  Seriously, it is a shithole that they seemed to have built the hotel around.  You wait for a long time to go into the place w/ only a neon burger to lead the way.  Once inside you order from a very simple menu and fight for limited seating.  Then you tear into a delicious greasy burger and fries.  It was great.  Still not better than sex.

I would tell you about the Peking Duck House but somethings are better left unsaid.  Plus I don't exactly remember the location or much besides the delicious duck and the saki bombs.  F*ing saki bombs! 

The highlight was our bike rental.  We took out these brand spanking new and super bright orange bikes from the hotel.  Several people informed us that we were the first ever to use them as they had just come in.  Uh oh!  But it was great, we rocked these wacky ten speeds up the bike path along the West Side highway all the way up to 125th st.  It was a beautiful ride, scene, and fun way to spend time w/ the lady.  Plus we really "earned" our post ride cocktail!!!

 So There!