Wikipages Blog

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 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.

Last night, I went to the Cinewoman Festival at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater. A combination of independent video store, movie theater, and pizza parlor, Two Boots is a pretty cool place. Located in the Lower East Side (which I love), its name refers to the blending of Italian and Louisiana cuisine. Two Boots! (It took me a while to get it.)

The theater hosts frequent events featuring independent films. At the Cinewoman, we watched two films directed by women which discussed Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. The first was an awesome short by Rain Breaw about a Cambodian immigrant family, which showed animated flashbacks to horrors of their experiences with the Khmer Rouge. Very interesting stuff. The second was a documentary about Cambodian landmine victims directed by Alison McMahan. Pretty intense, but also very hopeful for the future. Not exactly merry movies, but both very well-done and thought-provoking.

After watching these heavy films, we headed downstairs to “Den of Cin” for the free pizza and beer that comes with the movie ticket. The place lived up to its name, serving a saucy pizza with a cajun spice twist. Delicious! I plan to return for more thought-provoking films in the future. And more pizza.