A Weekend with the Rents
Yes, my parents were in town last weekend, and we actually managed to see and do quite a bit for just the couple of days they were here. Here’s a copy of the itinerary I put together for them:
Friday
The Focacceria (Italian)
The Comedy Cellar
Saturday
The Met
Carne-Vale (Brazilian)
Sunday
Brunch
Happy hour on the river
A pretty solid schedule with some wiggle room for doing other fun things like getting stuck in a cab in traffic. That’s New York for you though. Anyway, I’ll hit each point quickly so as not to completely overwhelm you
The Focacceria
Probably my favorite Italian restaraunt in the city, I highly recommend this place, and virtually anything on the menu. The Penne Vodka and Cannolis are particularly good. I love this place because the food is good, the place is never too crowded, and the service is always friendly and accomodating.
The Comedy Cellar
I saw Collin Quinn here! That makes him my first celeb sighting in the city actually, even if it was on stage. Unfortunately I have nothing flattering to say about him. He jokingly mentioned that his career must be downhill cause no one was laughing. Well, I think everyone realized that it wasn’t as much of a joke as he’d like us to believe, cause really, no one was laughing. Happily, the other comics were fantastic and my parents had a great time. It may also be worth noting that we followed this up with a random jazz place and got a little schnookered before turning in for the night. I’ll figure out the name of the place later.
The Met
After a night of strong drink, the Met was perhaps not as fun as it really should have been. This place is massively, enormously, stupendously humungous. Man is it big. Even if you were sober as a judge you wouldn’t be able to see this whole museum in a day and would be completely absurd to try, so we picked a few things that wouldn’t tax our addled brains too much: Roman sculpture, Dali, Modernism, and a healthy dose of fresh air on the roof, overlooking central park. A good time that could have been much, much better, but I suppose you just can’t have it all.
Carne-Vale
Carne-Vale is a Brazilian Churrascaria, which are typically very expensive restaraunts that serve obscene quantities of top quality meats. I’ve managed to find one that’s not quite so expensive, but still keeps the obscene quantities of good food. Maybe not the place you want to go on a first date, but it was perfect for a family of carnivores like mine. The one downside to this place is that the service can be a little hit-or-miss, but if you’re not too picky, it doesn’t exactly matter. Once you sit down, service is pretty much limited to red light, green light. Flip the card to green, and they bring more meat. Red, they don’t. Simple, effective, delicious, just the way meat should be.
Cafe des Artistes
Mother’s day brunch isn’t the time to be stingy, but we really pulled out all the stops on this one. My mother lived here in the city, once upon a time, on the upper west side, and used to dine at this restaraunt when it was presumably a little less high-brow than it is today. Thus, we decided to treat her to a prix fix brunch with champagne and a side of nostalgia. It was extravagant, delectable, but a little short in the fun department because we managed to get served by the one snooty jerk SOB on the staff. I should say that this seemed like an abberation, because his fellow waiters and hosts pretty much got us what we asked for when he consistently ignored us. Normally I wouldn’t outright complain about service, but for a restaraunt like this, with the prices being what they were, service really ought to be impeccable.
Sunset on the River
Last stop, the ferry. I decided to end the escapade with a nice riverboat tour of the city, so we hopped over to the South Street Seaport (which is an attraction in itself) and climbed aboard a New York Water Taxi. It didn’t have much in the way of frills, but we got to sit on the upper deck and look at the skyline from both the Hudson and the East River as the sun went down. They also served beer and wine for those inclined, but it wasn’t quite what i’d consider an uproarious expedition, so we kept it low key and enjoyed the view.
And that concludes 2007 parents’ weekend in NYC!