La Birreria

I think I should change my blog to something along the lines of "Reasons I love Mario Batali". Here's yet another post of another Batali experience that impressed!

I've been waiting for the Eataly beer garden to open semi-patiently. If it was half as cool as Eataly itself, I knew it had to be good. It finally opened about a week and a half ago and my friend Nicole was 5th on line when I met her. They took our name and cell phone number down on an ipad- so advanced! They sent us a text when our table was ready. Pretty perfect, considering you can have a glass of wine while you walk around the place.

The Pretzel bread was deee-lish

We got up there before sunset, the sun was gleaming off the Empire State building (perfect view) and the Credit Suisse cathedral top that overlooks Madison Square Park. It was beautiful. Eataly brews their own beer up there. I don't even like beer, but this beer was definitely worth drinking. I tossed the allergy out the window (or off the side of the building) and started with a great light ale, then gradually worked our way through more darker beers. We ended with a darker brew with "Christmas spices" that was pretty fab.

We shared meat and cheese plates, sausages (what's beer without sausage?), mushroom salads, and shrimp. The meats, cheeses, and mushrooms were the star.

Bologna and Bacon!

Lydia was there on opening night. She agreed so nicely to take a picture with us... such a great ending to a wonderful night!

The First Anniversary- Sagaponack and Babbo in NYC!!

After a few hours at Laguardia last Thursday night, realizing we were never getting out to San Fran, we planned an impromptu anniversary weekend by going to Sagaponack. Thank God for family! Joe and I spent 2 wonderful days in the Hamptons with Matt and Nicole and little Matthew, then came back to NYC for a lovely dinner out and city exploration.
I'm covering a lot in this post, as not to force myself to have to write multiple posts.

We arrived, after getting over our initial disappointment of not being in SF, with the little one and his mom waiting patiently on the porch. All was immediately A-OK.

We basically spent the next 2 days or so, staring at Matthew. We went to Channing's Daughter Winery on Saturday, and tasted some lovely local LI wines (surprisingly very good). We ate some lobsters and mussles and waited patiently for the sun to come out. It came out on Sunday about 30 minutes before we were set to leave and head back to the city. Thank you.

A few shots from Sag.

Joe and I decided to go back to the city and spend the rest of the weekend in quiet NYC. The city is the best when everyone leaves for a long weekend in the summer. We decided to take advantage of that and attempt to get into Babbo, a Batali restaurant that we've tried MANY times to get reservations. We walked in and decided to stand in the corner and wait the hour and a half the host told us it would be before anything opened up. It was already that crowded at 5:30pm, which if you know NYC nightlife is about 3:30pm everywhere else. Coincidentally, there ended up being a cancellation right away. Convinced the host tested us, if we were prepared to stand and wait in a corner, he'd have to give us that last available table. It worked.

We then proceeded to have one of the best meals of our lives.

The indoor camera setting STILL needs work, but here are some shots of the feast. 

Grilled octopus with a spicy limoncello vinaigrette.

Then we split 2 pasta dishes- this was the homemade Garganelli with Funghi Trifolati

This was the amazing lamb brain homemade ravioli with lemon and sage- yes, lamb's brain.

Brasato al Barolo- braised beef with mushrooms over polenta

Joe ordered pork jowl!!! Flavor punch of greatness

Recommendation from the water: Maple and mascarpone cheesecake- to die for!

 

Thank you Mario Batali for the experience that was Babbo. Can't wait for my next opportunity to sneak in.
Overall a fantastic anniversary weekend on a whim!