dietsch

Crawfish, jazz, rum butter, and hot barmaids

Updates have slacked off a bit. Anna, in all her kookiest of mojos, has been visiting from London, and it's kept me pretty busy. We met up with Todd and Lauren and Lorna and Jeff on Saturday evening for a trip up to Harlem to dine at Bayou and then drink at Lenox Lounge. Bayou's a charming Louisiana-themed place, with yummy food and a nice wine list. I ordered the etouffee, which was good, but not nearly as delish as what I had when visiting Louisiana back in March. Still, it's worth many repeated visits; the menu has much I'd like to sample. After dining and dessert and drinks, we left Bayou and wandered over to Lenox Lounge, a historic and groovy art deco club with an impressive history. Entering the back room required a twenty-dollar cover, so we were content to sit in the front and drink. Sean and, later, Brendan joined us, so we had a nice group going for drinks and laughs. I'm happy I got over my low-level Harlem phobia; what I saw seemed safe. Anna and I arrived early, so we walked up and down Lenox Ave. a bit. At one point, this guy walked past us, got a good look at Anna, and said, "Damn, I DO love Harlem!" We arranged to meet Lorna, Jeff, Todd, and Lauren the next morning for brunch. As we were heading in to the city, though, Lorna called to beg off. She and Jeff were driving back to Pennsylvania and had to be home earlier than they expected because of babysitter issues. But we met Lauren and Todd on the Lower East Side and brunched at 7A Cafe. Bloody Marys, Mimosas, lots of coffee, delish rum butter, and waffles and pancakes and steak and eggs and did I mention lots of coffee? We followed that up with some meanderings through the funky boutiques and shops on St. Mark's Place, and then we walked down to The Library for drinks and Two Boots pizza in a dark bar. The Library's a great bar: hot barmaids, cheap drinks, books, and a huge projection teevee with funky B movies. I love New York.