Month: August 2020

Dining In New York During a Global Pandemic

First off I want to say congratulations to one of my loyal stalkers on her gaining a daughter into the family. Her baby boy married my favorite flower guy (Not Ernesto my Bodega Flower guy, she is my gift flower person) this past week out west. Been a helluva good year for my PA reader.

So it has been 167 days as of today, Sunday 30 August 2020 since we have been inside a bar or restaurant having drinks and food. One would have never thought in a million years that it has almost been 6 months since we sat on barstools that aren’t in our kitchen. Its crazy.

We currently are in Phase 4 of this reopening thing. The Museums were able to open and some gym’s I believe are opening or are now open. You can tell I don’t really visit either of those. We have outdoor seating alfresco and have taken advantage of it 7 different times here in Manhattan. (Sorry Scoop, I was forgot we ate at Dominque Ansel the inventor of the Cronut)

You have to have food and drink so a couple of our Thursday Happy Hours were more for having a drink and getting a small plate to feed the dog.

To say it is a weird feeling that you are sitting on the sidewalk or bike lane is a little strange. The restaurants who have embraced it to the fullest but even they say that they are struggling. I think I saw a tweet that over 1300 NYC restaurants and bars have closed permanently. This is not a debate on opening to inside dining. I mean do it in small steps with the number of people. Or allow restaurants to block off the street a couple days of the week so they can expand their dining rooms. Once it gets colder it is going to be hard to sit outside. You know, weather.

Anyway here are some pictures of our dining so far;

What they are doing in SoHo. They should do this for all of Manhattan! But hell our mayor just got around to inspecting the schools for proper ventilation last week.

Yeah we met the Cronut guy!
Super nice, very humble and he admitted that he was hesitant at publishing a cookbook in a pandemic but with everyone stuck at home he has sold more than expected.

Met up with Z(squared) they have been inside as much and possibly more than we have.

This asshole now demands that she goes everywhere we do.

Not this time Maya, you stay in your kennel for the second time during all of this.

The world renowned Raouls NYC on Prince Street

First a classic Dry Martini with a lemon twist.

For the Gentlemen he will have Steak Au Poivre Medium Rare and a side of Pom Frites (that are sugared and Salted)

The Lady will have the Raoul’s Burger Medium

That’s about it. Best of luck to all my friends who are in the restaurant business. The sooner people start doing what they are supposed to do and wearing a mask the sooner we will be out of this shit.

The Sun of a Beach is 60! Rhino’s Birthday at the Beach!

Happy Birthday Rhino! We were so happy to celebrate this party that we drove 16 hours from Memphis just to attend the Birthday party. That is what Rhino was telling his family and Rockaway friends yesterday. We had to end up telling them that we did indeed drive 16 hours but that was 5 years ago.

Hey Otter how come you didn’t have a flag?
I mean sure you had a band but so did Rhino ***and*** he also had a DJ.
For your 60th I expect a flag.
I am sure we will be getting a FB invite next week for it. 🙂

Yes that is a 46-1 mask but to be fair he had a Hillary mask too!

If you had watch a man play the snare and bongos wearing a Kimono on the beach – you would have a BINGO

What can I say Howie Bongo is a busy man with his wardrobe changes.

Ok, I guess that is a thing. Pay no attention to those sinister clouds in the distance. It will blow over.

I mean let’s play them backwards, ok fine.

I have to say that I have seen a lot of shit throughout my life but that was a first.
Play on Howie Bongo’s Play On!

Happy Birthday John!

A Trip To Rockaway Beach

Before you start in yes, we are bad New Yorkers. We live within an hour of a beach via Train and we have visited them maybe 15 times in the 5 years we have lived here. The walls were starting to really close in on us so I mentioned that we should rent an Air BnB over at Rockaway Beach. Geranium’s company gave everyone a ‘day of pause’ on Monday so we decided that a trip for over the weekend with a Sunday Funday would be in order.

I rented an AirBnB on 97th street as BikinisForever told me that I needed to be as close to 95th street as I could. To say that the Air BnB wasn’t exactly truthful about the listing is an understatement. But really we both were so broken at that point we didn’t really care. We were at the Beach and we made the best of it.

Saturday we did the beach and had a fun time and found that a lot of the restaurants on Rockaway Beach are BYOB. That is fine but we weren’t carrying B so we found a BBQ Place that did the trick. Oh we ate there 3 times the whole week but again, we didn’t really care much by then.

Sunday we went over to Rhino’s house and chilled with him and his wife who was recuperating from a toe injury. By the way I didn’t have to give Rhino his Blog Nickname, he already was known as Rhino.

So here is where we really fecked up. Yes I am admitting that we made a HUGE error when we moved from Brooklyn back to Manhattan. Of course when you look back you think; “We had Looting going on in the streets of Brooklyn so your decision making can be somewhat skewed.” What did we do wrong?

We should have moved to the Beach instead of moving back into Manhattan.

I mean think about it. We could have gotten more square footage for our dollar. We are probably going to be working from home for at least till the end of this year. Why not live at the beach and get some rays on the weekend? Sure the winter is a bitch but it isn’t like we will be doing a lot anyway. It isn’t like there is TONS going on over here in Manhattan. Again, dumb move by us but if this thing goes long or we have a wave two we may be residents of Queens. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Yes it has been that many days since we have been removed from Normal New York Living.

We have been fortunate to visit some great places but when this email came we almost had to laugh.

She was happy to get to see Maria, Inga and Chris.

Normally the list doesn’t include COVID shit.

The guy who owns this place kinda reminds me of someone down in Belize.

Rockaway is a strange little beach town. That is why I like it so!

Another View of the Atlantic (that is fairly cold)

You have to order a hot dog when you get two Pina Colada’s with a floater. Its the rules.

So according to Andi I didn’t find the BeachTender. Labor Day we will rectify this.

Like I said, we really should have thought that out better but there is always nexttime.

A Trip To Union Square Farmers Market

I know, I am posting two times in a row. What can I say, I am in a giving mood today. Actually there isn’t a lot of content when you are sheltering in place in your studio apartment. How many of you want to see pictures of our balcony?

Anyway after I had my first cigar yesterday (cut it out Mary Y) I came back up and Geranium was up and dressed and said she wanted to go down to Union Square. It is roughly 2 miles to walk down there and since the weather was nice and humidity was low so we harnessed up the dog and off we went.

Mask Up Baby! Thankfully everyone at the Market was playing by the rules and nobody’s nose was sticking out either! See this shit does work.

All you 501 Seventh Avenue Ticket Sellers are going to be upset that your favorite salad place is kaput. Wait, none of you read this worthless dribble anyway.

This was defiantly out of sorts. We have tourists up here now? There were some folks on it. Actually it is a great way to see the city and get around too!

A fine place to drink Tito’s and copious amounts of Bud Light. They don’t seem to be open as they would have had an outdoor patio set up like the neighboring joints. God I hope they don’t go away.

The Market was organized and everyone did a good job socially distancing. It is still gives me some anxiety seeing all those people. How have we come to this now where groups of people make people have the willies?

We picked up some Bottled Grapes and Vegetables and decided to cheat and take a cab home. It has been 157 days since I last took a cab. It was clean and the driver was very nice and didn’t screw us either.

Our bounty, Radishes, Onions, Tomatoes and Grapes from Trader Joe’s Wine Shop

Leslie Goshko’s Saturday night Sid’s Gold Show. She picked that up at a yard sale in Brooklyn but was told “You may want to wash that out before you use it. I smoked crack in that bowl.” At least the seller was upfront!

Never in a million years did I imagine I would be doing this.

No it isn’t a Tiki Torch from ‘those fine individuals’ but the flame from meditation garden.

Maya was over the 2 mile walk needless to say

I hope you have a good Sunday. It is raining and is chilly today. Perfect Day to Take a Nap and then Day drink.

TODAY IS EXTRA SPECIAL

TODAY IS SATURDAY AND CANDLELIGHT VIGIL OF ELVIS WEEK!

When WWOZ did Jazz Fest “Festing in place” it was great and a return to normal but from home. It is great that the guys at Elvis Presley Enterprises are doing the same. If you can tune in. Here are some pictures on my phone and yes I owe you the review of our trip to the beach. This week was a bitch for both Geranium and I.

After 172 Days I got a proper haircut from my guys on First Avenue. I had to walk there in a monsoon mind you but it was great seeing Mark and it was great to hear that his father is ok too. Mark did tell me that my wife did a great job with my hair. “You still have both ears”

These Two Knuckleheads. No doubt if they could they would be camped out front of 3734 Elvis Presley Boulevard.

Got to love those Construction guys from Long Island. They don’t put up with Shit!

One of my Go-To’s in the UES for a double espresso. Damn

One of the famous diners that I don’t eat at. “B” means Beware!

I have never not seen this street packed.

Now where am I going to find Zucchini flowers for an appetizer?

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Meat “Guido” the New Balcony Grill In Our Lives (did you see what I did there KLCMan?)

I can’t recall how many years ago it was but we came up to New York to go on a “Cruise to Nowhere”. We stayed with ole 9 toenail Baby out in Long Beach. We had a great day at the beach and ended up cooking dinner at her place. Baby had some thing that needed to be cooked on the grill so she asked me if I would go get her grill pre-heated.

I walk out there and take the cover off and there wasn’t any charcoal, No Propane just a grounded plug. How in the hell is this electric? This can’t be any good. I mean it has the same element as a frigging stove. I pride myself on having the ability to cook on Charcoal, wood, Propane, Natural Gas, hell I have even done the Carson Rodizio and there is no way in fucking hell I will ever have an electric Grill.

We had hotdogs on Friday night and steak last night our our Weber 1400 and it was amazing.

Boys I know that Ground Service is Day Definite but that needs to be in Apartment 5C Now!

You always have to have a sacrifice to season the grill. Spam was our first choice.

I mean I love those grill marks! If you don’t know how to do this shoot me a message.

They asked what time dinner was. We are going to rig up a rope and pulley system

Steak turned out pretty good along with our Rao’s Meatballs and Marinara

Other neighbor – Your grill is smoking. Isn’t that the point?

So there are some who name their grills. The Asian Fireman has ‘Blue’ and there are some others. Since my Grilling Consigliere Guido suggested some electric grills, I figured I would honor him with the name.

Wonder how in the hell I am going to do Ribs on this sucker?

Today Is Saturday!

Well we survived another one. Is it just me or are these Ground Hog Days really starting to fly by? I guess with no past vacations or outings all the days blend together. It was YEARS ago when we went down to Mexico with Val-O-Rie and RJ in early February.

Anyway here are some pics from this past week.