nyc yippeee

The last time I was in New York was over a year ago to celebrate Mark and Kathleen's engagement. Over a year! They're married now. Now we're married too. We went back down to New York last weekend for another engagement party—this time for Spencer and Courtney.

I love going down to New York to see Courtney & Spence. They always show us a good time and bring us to some tasty restaurants.

On Friday night, we got in to the city and went for a late dinner at The Redhead. It's this tiny little gastropub in the East Village specializing in southern comfort food. We got snacks at the bar while we waited for a table: bacon peanut brittle (yes, believe it!), house-made potato chips and french onion dip. For dinner, I got a green goddess salad with fresh spring asparagus and peas. Then the most amazing shrimp and grits I've ever had, albeit a tad salty (Oh well, a little swell in the feet won't hurt, I reckon.) Colin got fried chicken and cornbread. Spence and Court got burgers.

And we all shared a taste of the buffalo-style sweetbreads. Tasted just like chicken! Mmm. I actually liked it.

Saturday morning for brunch, we went to The Breslin at the Ace Hotel. Another gastropub kind of meal, but with more of a Brit style. It was super excellent. Get this: segmented grapefruit with ginger sugar and mint. Grilled 3-cheese sandwich with ham and toad-in-the-whole egg. (That's what Spencer & Colin got. Insane.) I got yummy poached egg atop curried lentils. Can't remember what Court got.

We shopped around for a bit to walk off brunch. Walked through a farmer's market. Courtney left us to get ready for the party. It was hot and sunny—even in mid-March. I had to strip down to a tank top.

Lots of walking. Visited the Burton store in SoHo so Col could flex his muscles. Grabbed some Cuban coffee on the way home—iced cafe con leche. Papa would've loved it.

Then it was time to get ready!

We dolled ourselves up and headed to Gemma at the Bowery Hotel for the engagement party dinner. The others were there when we arrived. Everybody looked so pretty and dapper and ready for a good time. Couples were seated opposite each other. Very proper. We decided to get tons of little plates and pass them around. Perhaps I was distracted by the company and conversation, but I can't really remember much of what I ate. The one thing I do remember was the chicken pate, which was very good. And the atmosphere was lovely.

After dinner, we went to the Bowery Electric for the party. When we arrived, there were buckets with champagne all set out in a private room. There were cute little napkins printed with Spencer and Courtney's names. There were other guests too. We danced and danced and danced. Spencer's sister earned the official title of Breeze, rightfully so. I couldn't live up to that performance. Everything else went off pretty much without a hitch with some excitement mixed in: the prom queen bachelorette entourage crashing our party, a late-night excursion up to the rooftop, some karate kicks, a few cuts and scratches, and a purse full of hot sauce:


(I can't believe that's the only photo that came out from the entire weekend.)

Woke up the next morning. Grabbed some bagels, some hot coffee. And it was time to go. Already. Boo! We'll have to go back again real soon. Love you guys.