Oyster happy hour at Fort Defiance is one of many things about this Red Hook bar that’s a little off the radar. Red Hook is a Brooklyn neighborhood that’s legendarily hard to get to. The closest subway stop is maybe a 15 minute walk and bus service can be spotty, even on a night when it’s not pouring rain on…
Crisscrossing New York to eat oysters is more than gastronomic exploration, it’s a celebration of New York’s history. In a story on the New York Public Library website headlined, History on the Half-Shell: The story of New York City and its oysters, Carmen Nigro writes: “the oyster reigned supreme as the quintessential New York City food long before pizza, hot pretzels, bagels,…
Sometimes making Month of Oysters work is more a game of logistics and timing than taste and aesthetics. Tuesday night I had an evening meeting so I had to work around the timing and location of that commitment. It was an engagement worth accommodating. One of my favorite authors, Richard Russo, asked for my help rounding up younger writers and…
Venue: Desnuda Location: 122 E. 7th St., East Village, Manhattan Phone: 212-254-3515 Website: http://desnudany.com/main.php Oyster happy hour: Sunday and Monday, $1 oysters all day. At their new location at 221 S. First St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn, oyster happy hour is the same thing plus $1 oysters 6-8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. When I started researching oyster happy hours for this series, it seemed Desnuda turned up on everyone’s…
Venue: The Wayland Location: 700 E. 9th St. (corner of Avenue C), in the far East Village, also known as Alphabet City, Manhattan Phone: 212-777-7022 Website: http://thewaylandnyc.com/happy-hour-menu/ Oyster happy hour: Monday-Friday, 5-7 p.m. oysters are $1 East Coast of the chef’s choice, $4-5 beers, $6 wine, $7 cocktails, $5 oyster shooters One of the sad facts of life is that happy hours are more common during…
Venue: Blue Ribbon Brooklyn Location: 280 5th Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY Phone: 718-840-0404 Website: http://blueribbonrestaurants.com/rests_brass_brook_main.htm Oyster happy hour: Oyster of the bar’s choosing for $1.50 each, $8 for a glass of l’Oiseliniere Muscadet, from opening to 6:30 p.m. seven days a week. Monday through Friday, they open at 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday you can get started at 4 p.m. Several years ago, my husband and I…
Experts point to cognitive, physical and physiological benefits when families eat together.
It also just feels good to connect.
Need some inspiration or pointers to share a meal? Check this out.
I recently celebrated my birthday with a party that featured a live blues trio and the most decadent cake I could imagine.
It represented my relationship with the Divine as well as with myself.
Giving up drinking for a month helped me see the social role we give booze, and made me feel physically better. So now what?
There’s a danger when we compare our own messy real lives with our friends’ well-curated social media lives that we’ll think we’re the only ones who spill the espresso, metaphorically.
Here’s a recap of 2018’s most popular posts about living life intentionally.
My mom planned around being the Christmas island of misfit toys. If you didn’t have a place to go or if your family left you frazzled, she’d have a snack and a beer waiting.
I have come to enjoy wine and craft cocktails, and we love the social aspect of our neighborhood bars, where we know people.
But it’s time to cut down on booze to try to get my blood pressure back where it belongs.
I love salt. Given the choice between chocolate and French fries, I’ll have fries in my mouth when I answer. I have suggested that a salt lick on a necklace, like the candy necklaces of my childhood, would be an excellent invention.
But higher blood pressure points to the need to step away from the shaker.
I would rather have the kind of home where people have a good time, without fear of ruining overly precious belongings because gravity can be a challenge and we all have accidents, than to protect purchases in their pristine condition.
Few people are brave enough to own their honest story in the way Jojo did, even fewer would put it on their business website. I asked for her permission to share her story of finding happiness through trial and error and eventually getting brave enough to listen to her heart.
I’m grateful she and Rachel both said yes so I can share with you this story of loving hard.
A few years ago, I wrote a blog post wishing we had a regular local hangout but lamenting that it didn’t seem meant to be. I thought we didn’t go out often enough to cultivate regular status, and that on those occasions we did go out, we were inclined to try someplace new instead of returning someplace. Turns out we…
We’ve been invited to join one of the elaborate villages that particularly impressed me last time, Black Rock French Quarter. A collection of camps surround a structure that echoes the design of the New Orleans French Quarter, with offerings including a bakery, a farmers market, a bath house, and our camp, Golden Cafe.
Celebrating its lucky 13th year on playa, the Golden Cafe is your home for exotic cocktails and live music since 2003.
I tried my first cleanse last year and I’m giving it another go to reboot my eating habits after the indulgence of Mardi Gras and our shared birthday month.
It’s a chilly, grey November day, and summer tomatoes are long gone. But thanks to a recent day spent in the kitchen, I’m making spaghetti sauce tonight from local, late summer tomatoes. John and I began hosting monthly spaghetti suppers in September last year, and making homemade sauce is one of my jobs for the night. I’ve experimented with various…
Preparing for our three weeks of clean living, I weaned down from two cups a day to just one. Then I started mixing decaf into my morning cup to make it half-caf.
Still, I braced for sluggishness and headaches. Instead, much to my surprise, I felt great. I didn’t have that morning fog I’d experienced for years, and had always cut through with coffee immediately upon waking up.
A few years back, when I was working longer and more stressful hours at the office, I would often come home to find my husband, John, had set out a plate of olives, cheese and crackers with a glass of wine for me. It was a kind way to welcome me home, as well as a smart move of self-preservation.…
My husband and I have thrown dinner parties for years, but I always thought of them as big social occasions — a reason to haul out John’s mom’s silver, to set a proper table with fresh flowers and present a multi-course sit-down meal. We started hosting weekday spaghetti suppers late last year, inspired by our friend Pableaux’s weekly red beans…
