Wikipages Blog

I went out with Ben and a few single friends to Luca for dinner. After we had out fill of risotto and fried olives, I suggested we head to Cavatappo (owned by the same people) for some after dinner drinks.

I love this tiny wine bar. Located in the Upper East Side, Cavatappo has an Old World feel and a very warm vibe. The interior is brick with just a couple long tables and stools. Ingenious hooks are right under the table so that you can hang up your purse (why, oh, why don’t more bars have these?) The menu includes a wide selection of white, red, and rose and sparkling wines, as well as some snacks.

It was a nice, quiet place to catch up and drink tasty wine. Ben and I were having a blast, when I noticed that my friends were getting antsy. One said to me, “We’re going dancing at this club now. Do you guys want to come?”

I suppose if you’re in the mood for a wild night, Cavatoppo is not the place. I declined the invite for dancing. Taking Ben’s hand for the journey home, I pondered the differences between single and settled sociality, and how lovely a glass of wine can be.

Last weekend, I went out with some old college friends, half of which coincidentally now live in Astoria. After a couple drinks at M.J. Armstrong’s in Union Square, we decided to head to the neighborhood favorite: the Beer Garden.

This was my first Beer Garden trip of spring and it was lovely. The weather was perfect (warm, but not stuffy), the crowd was perfect (lively, but no line), and, of course, the company was perfect. While Ben ate kilbasa, I proceeded to devour everyone’s fries at the table. We reminisced about college and stressed the importance of our old friend from DC moving to Astoria.

The night ended merrily, one of the best parts about it being the 5 minute walk home. Ah, the pleasures of a local bar!

My friend from California came into town last Friday and I wanted to take him somewhere with a great happy hour. I decided on a chic Lower East Side spot called Verlaine that serves $4 Martinis till 10pm, even on Saturdays!

Verlaine is located in the midst of the fun that is the Lower East Side. The bar is not far from Moby’s Teany, which hosted an awesome Move On bakesale in 2004 where I was served a cupcake by Jeanine Garofalo. The bar’s interior has an awesome red-tinted lighting, a chic/ vaguely artsy atmosphere, with ample seating at couches, tables and the bar. They have a food menu which focuses on Asian delights with ample vegetarian options. Their martini specialty is lychee martinis, fruity and delicious. At $4 each, you can drink three for the price of one usual Manhattan martini (though I wouldn’t recommend doing that too fast!) And if you get the lychee martini, make sure to eat the lychee. It’s delicious!

Verlaine is a good happy hour bet since it’s got a good vibe, good menu, cheap drinks, and normally seats available. Last Friday, we managed to grab enough tables and chairs to fit our party of eight. While my new friends met my old ones, I relaxed with my martini and reveled at the thought of the long weekend ahead. You really can’t get much better than good friends and good $4 martini.

We had a big night out in the East Village. After dinner at the Yaffa Cafe, we pondered where to go. For drinks, I suggested Simone’s, a chic wine bar type place. But this was turned down by those in favor of a rowdier night. We opted for Grassroots.

With a similar feel to the Peculier Pub, Grassroots is a bar bar. It’s dirty, it’s loud, and it’s a good time. It’s not the sort of place I’d order a Cosmo (not that their cosmos are particularly bad; it just doesn’t seem to fit). I ordered a vodka tonic and found seats for our crowd at one of the wooden tables.

I’d had my share of drinks at the Yaffa Cafe. So I was feeling good. Some more friends met up with us and the party got even more merry.

Ben, who isn’t much of a drinker, opted for a chemistry experiment with a couple of his friends. They gathered various discarded beverages (and a cake) from nearby tables and combined them into one super drink. The result was a strange-looking, layered substance. A frat-rat type girl who’d been flirting with the three boys wandered over and asked, “Are you going to drink that?” To which they laughed in response. We probably could have convinced her to drink it, in her state, but resisted the temptation.

The night proved a good time. So if you’re nostalgic for sticky beer floors and a good old bar, Grassroots is your spot.

Ben and I attended a gathering for web designers at Mannahatta, a chic bar in the West Village. We planned to spread the word about Wikipages to the internet community.

We arrived early to the gathering with hopes to chat with a few folks and then go home to sleep. When we got there, not many people had yet arrived. I ordered a vodka tonic, always a good standard drink, and we explored the interior. Good lighting, ample seating on these sleek couch type benches, and interesting map art on the walls.

Then we noticed a nice spread of food, out for the gathering. Hummus, pita, veggies, bruschetta, all sorts of delicious foods that nut-allergic vegetarians can eat! Having just come from work, we were starving. We helped ourselves to hummus-coated pita as people began filling up the bar. By the time our appetites were sated, the bar was packed with web designers, bloggers, and internet entrepreneurs like ourselves.

We had planned to mingle with everyone, all of whom seemed very interesting. But, as occasionally happens on work nights, my energy just felt drained. It seemed more useful to use what little I had left to go home and add Mannahatta into Wikipages. Ben was of a like mind. So having had a good drink and tasty food, we thanked the hosts of the event and headed home.

I wandered the West Village with some friends looking for a good place for an after dinner drink. Of course, ten million such places exist in the area. But they are often 1. completely packed (sometimes with a studenty or tourist crowd) 2. extremely loud 3. don’t give seating to anyone not eating. But right near Meskerem, a tasty Ethiopian restaurant, we spotted a sub-level tiny place whose name caught my eye, the Bourgeois Pig.

The interior is dimly lit, with plush couches and fringe lamps. The menu includes fondus, chocolates, cheeses, and a long wine list. Very tasty stuff! The place is tiny, but crammed with couches which allow a surprising amount of seating.

The wine and food was delicious and the atmosphere lush. I felt the need to sit on a piano and belt La Vie En Rose. It’s a nice, hidden place for a quiet drink.

The Financial District does not consist solely of skyscrapers. There’s an oasis of beautiful old buildings, including those on and around Stone Street. George Washington spoke to his troops at one of these, and you can still get a hard drink or a tasty meal there today: The Fraunces Tavern.

The Fraunces Tavern was started by Samual Fraunces, probably one of the first middle-class African Americans, in 1762. Built in the Federalist style, the tavern is brick and simple. A friend of Samuel Fraunces, George Washington and other famous revolutionaries frequented this tavern. Legend has it that their ghosts still linger there.

Now also a museum, this place is one of the oldest operating taverns in the city. A few of us decided to have a meal there after work. We had hopes to see something supernatural occur.

The interior is split into two sections: tavern and restaurant. The restaurant requires a bit of splurging. It also lacks vegetarian entrees. But the salads and soups are plenty tasty (and cheaper than the entrees, anyway!). The decor is colonial elegance, with a warm vibe.

We saw no ghosts, unfortunately. But with the tasty food and the chatter from the tavern, the restaurant radiates a cosy vibe. Perhaps it’s the presence of the ghosts, protecting their favorite drinking hole from the chaos of the outside world.

Astoria is an awesome neighborhood to live in. I love just walking through the streets and finding new places to go. Just a couple weeks ago, Ben and I discovered this little gem: The Waltz-Astoria.

A wine bar/ coffeehouse, the Waltz-Astoria is chilled out place with an artsy vibe. It reminds me of the coffeeshops I used to frequent in the 90’s, when Starbucks was the new thing. My nostalgia for those places made this one feel familiar and friendly.

With outdoor seating, a wide beverage selection, and a cosy interior, this cafe is a great hangout. The interior has a piano, shelves of books, and paintings by a local artist. It’s perfect for Ben and I, since we’re more and more often in the mood for a quiet evening. Plus, he doesn’t drink and I really do, so the cafe has something for us both!

The cafe hosts many different events. We went there on “Board Game Night”, where they have many available games to play. We settled down to some drinks (a flavored coffee for Ben and a nice red wine for me) and a game of scrabble. Ben beat me, unfortunately. It was a wonderful way to spend a peaceful evening, just steps away from our home.

We met up with some friends after work on Friday at a bar on the Lower East Side called Sweet and Vicious. One recently ex-coworker had invited people to celebrate her moving on to another company. She explained that she’d chose the spot for its happy hour, its courtyard, and its dancing.

The bar’s entrance is a large wooden door, with only a small sign. The dimly-lit interior radiates a nice vibe with a warm feel and ample seating. The courtyard is a fairly good size (nothing like the Beer Garden, of course; this is Manhattan). The whole place is great for a party gathering.

The night proved a success. A mixture of current and ex-coworkers, everyone enjoyed venting the stress of the work week. I think of it as an end-of-week purging, which stops those thoughts from invading the rest of the weekend. After three glasses of wine on a dinnerless stomach, I felt indeed very stressfree. Weekday stress purged, fun had, I went home knowing I’ll return to that Sweet and Vicious spot.

I just horrified a couple of baseball fans by telling them that I had no idea what “Game 7″ is today. Well, I never pretended to be a sports expert. But I do know a few good sports bars.

I recently went to Central Bar in the East Village for my friend Phil’s birthday. Phil is a baseball fan, a Mets fan, to be exact, and chose the place based on the ample number of big tv screens. I personally find TV screens in bars very distracting. They draw you away from socializing.

We snagged a bunch of seats around a table. (I sat facing away from the TV). The decor is a bit interesting, since it’s almost dark and gothicky. Then it has these big tv screens for watching sports, which don’t exactly seem to go together. The kitchen menu is decent (though a bit pricey), with all the usual suspects (mozzarrella sticks, buffalo wings, etc.). We got some appetizers and I got a vodka tonic. Tasty.

Phil enjoyed his birthday outing. The bar proved a fun place for sports fans and non-fans alike. Though I really don’t even know if the Mets won. Oh, well. I know they’re in Game 7 tonight. Go, Mets!