The official birthday is tomorrow, but I have to work late, so the birthday dinner was tonight. Spaghetti with meat sauce and a big ol’ white wine sausage. The sausages came from Reading Terminal Market. I made the sauce.
Tomorrow is the big day. And it’s election day here in Pennsylvania. If you want to give Victor a nice birthday present, vote for Bernie. A big win would be a really nice gift!
And back to the birthday boy…
We did a fun-filled weekend in New York. Stayed at The Grand Hyatt, met up with great friends, saw Kinky Boots, a great dinner in Little Italy, bought lots of new clothes, and, in general, just had a grand time.
I worked for Hyatt for 8 years and came close to opening the Grand Hyatt back circa 1980. I had put in 2 transfer requests – one to NYC and one to Boston. NYC was still under construction and Boston came through, first. When we checked in, I turned on the ol’ charm at the front desk and for 15 minutes had the agent in hysterics. We talked old Hyatt, fun, birthdays, marriage, sleazy Times Square back in the day… we had a blast! She upgraded us to a Grand Club Over-sized King, sent up wine and cheese, we got early check-in and late check-out…
It’s difficult to say how different my life would have been had I moved to New York City in 1980. I’m rather pleased things turned out the way they did.
Friday night we saw Kinky Boots. I had heard of the show and figured it would be pretty good. I had no idea just how much fun it was going to be! No photos of the actual show – that’s just not done – but what an excellent Drag Show! There was some definite talent on that stage.
After the show, the actors did a collection for BC/EFA – Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. We have been supporters for years, so I dropped a twenty into the bucket and got a new apron for work!
Too much fun!
Saturday was spent downtown, for the most part. We started off at Eataly, walked the Highline Park, went to Chelsea Market, had lunch at Park, and ended back at the hotel with time to change and head to Pete & Jenni’s room for the birthday bash pre-party.
Festive! Wines and cheeses and crackers and meats…
And wine…
Quite a bit of wine, in fact…
And then we were off to Little Italy for dinner…
We’ve eaten in almost every restaurant on Mulberry Street at one time or another and have never had a bad meal. We’ve just gravitated to whichever looked promising that night. This time had a great dinner at Da Nico. We played the Birthday Boy card, again – it was easy since Victor was wearing a huge “It’s My Birthday” button – and got a great table for six outside in the back patio.
Victor ordered the special – a seafood linguine with a spicy red sauce…
That bowl is the size of a family pasta bowl you get with the four bowls for eating. It was freaking huge. It easily had a pound of linguine underneath the whole lobster, shrimp, clams, mussels, squid…
Mine was paltry by comparison – a breaded veal cutlet with arugula, tomatoes, and onions. Damn, it was good! Even the flippin’ mashed potatoes were perfect! Every meal was good, the wine was good, the service was good, the prices were good. Dinner for six with bottles of wine, appetizers, coffees and espressos and after dinner drinks was under $400.00.
We had freebie appetizers and desserts – the staff came out and sang Happy Birthday – it was fun. The waiter was a hoot – typical flirting Italian – it was a good time, indeed.
But all good things must come to an end… It was back to the hotel, up early, a bit more shopping, and then on to Amtrak…
Home, Blanche, and Nonna awaited us.
I thought we needed to keep the Italian theme going, so Spaghetti was called for! We actually don’t have spaghetti very often, anymore, because Nonna no longer likes it. Go figure. So she got her pasta and we had ours.
But we all had dessert – Cannoli Cake to keep with the theme…
I bought it. Every now and again we need a bakery cake, ya know?!?
So Victor’s now on Medicare and I have another year to go. We’re having fun and that’s really all that matters…
Here’s to more adventures – culinary and otherwise…