last night (she said)

forgive the strokes reference, i’m tired and hungry. and i just stubbed my toe on my behemoth of a con law book.

but enough whining. last night was fun. chris came over, and he husband and i went over to colin and sam’s – stopping to get food first, of course. for me it was a fresh, tasty salad from the lovely salad queen (cheerful bright interior, generally friendly staff…and their green goddess dressing is tops). the boys got hefty spinach lasagna from tony’s pizza, served piping hot in a thick, tempting pool of melted cheese and tomato sauce. definitely not for the small of appetite.

and to finish it all off, naturally, we went to ralph’s. my half chocolate cupcake/half birthday cake creme ice was delightful (and awoke in me a newfound love for sprinkles!), chris got some chocolate-y mix and husband got a chocolate ice cream that was so incredibly thick and yummy…mm, it was perfection.

then to colin’s and sam’s, where we saw t and julio. we downed some beers and watched some college basketball before deciding to find a new bar to add to our repertoire. so it was over to havermeyer, where we wandered for a bit before finding a lonely little spot advertising three dollar beers. three dollar beers! of course we had to give it a chance.

turns out three dollar beers (standard selection of mass-produced light beers) weren’t the only price-conscious offerings – they also had beer+shot specials for five bucks (six if you wanted to replace the bud light with a stella). lovely exposed brick walls were hung with two super-sweet flat-screen plasma t.v.’s…that weren’t even plugged in! guess they were just there for decoration. we settled down in the front area, where a long bench, topped with cute pillows (more apropos of a coffee shop, perhaps, than a bar) lined one wall. nothing too special, but a good place to start the night.

from there, it was a hop, skip and a jump (though it seemed longer in the cold and wind!) to the iconic spuyten duyvil, which was pa-a-acked (par for the course). j’adore spuyten duyvil (some claim it stems from the dutch for “in spite of the devil” or “spite the devil” – see the wikipedia entry on the bronx neighborhood of the same name).

despite being filled to the brim, the place still manages to be inviting and fun, and the characters inside make decent fodder for people-watching. we snagged a corner between the bar and a pile of miscellaneous coats (we ended up playing coat-check of sorts for people coming to claim their outerwear…one lady even tipped us!)

when it comes to fancy beers, i don’t know that spuyten duyvil can be beat. a few unfiltered wheat beers; a platter of sheep’s milk cheese, salty charcuterie slices and a smear of pate (perfectly accompanied by slices of light, fluffy bread and a heaping bowl of spicy olives); good friends and good music; all in all, have to say, it was a pretty good night.

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