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Let’s Get This Party Started

Good morning and happy Saturday! I can already tell this is going to be a wonderful weekend filled with a few late nights, lots of dancing, laughter, and wonderful food. Bo’s sister, Meg, and her best friend Amelia are staying with us this week to celebrate Meg’s 21st birthday! They spent the past few days visiting museums, shopping, and enjoying the city while Bo and I worked. But, as you can tell from last night’s blog post, we get to really start the celebration!

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Last night, we kicked of the celebration with a late dinner at the Hurricane Club followed by dancing at a small dive bar near our apartment.

The Hurricane Club was the perfect restaurant to bring out of town guests as the vibe was very young, the decor is beautiful, and the food and drinks are delicious! Bo and I enjoyed Friday Date Night at the Hurricane Club a few months ago and therefore new it would be perfect! Our reservation weren’t until 11:15 but we entertained ourselves in the bar area, enjoying their signature drinks and people watching.

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Meg’s red pepper drink, which came in a hallowed out red pepper, was a spicy but delicious balance to Amelia’s fruity drink in a coconut. Since I’m gearing up for the National Half Marathon next weekend, I took last night easy and tried to stick with simple drinks. I enjoyed one liquor drink at Hurricane Club, a ginger beer, cucumber, lemon, and Pims drink. It was delicious and very refreshing.

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Once again, the Hurricane Club’s delicious Pan-Asian food impressed each of us!

We started with their appetizer sampler, which was filled with their top appetizers ranging from shrimp spring rolls to ceviche.

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The shrimp spring rolls were the hit of the table, stuffed to the gills with fresh shrimp and herbs.

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Since we were celebrating, and had 5 people, we decided to split one of their huge “to share” drinks was served in a watermelon. However, the drink did not taste like watermelon, much to my surprise and delight. Instead, it was a fresh, fruit infused Kettle One cocktail with five straws for sharing. I enjoyed a few sips, but chose to stick with water during dinner. However, all the fun we had with this drink explains why I have no pictures of our actual main courses.

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We did however, enjoy the meal family style, and shared everything. The top dishes were the lobster and peanut chicken.

Of course, before we left the restaurant, there was an obligatory photo session!

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The next few hours, three to be exact, were spent entertaining a bar full of people with our singing and dancing ability. Needless to say, spending time with college kids makes you lose your inhibitions and let loose. It felt so great to just have some fun with these gals last night!

IMG_0562 IMG_0543IMG_0529 IMG_0557   IMG_0552Luckily, my 4am bedtime came complete with Zensah sleeves to ease my screaming legs, a bottle of water, and an ibuprofen. Surprisingly, I’m alive and awake right now, ready to enjoy a quick workout session and my first Equinox stretching session before spending some girl time with Meg and Amelia this afternoon shopping and enjoying a manicure.

Question: What did you do to celebrate your 21st birthday?

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Bar Boulud: A serving of classic French fare
This weekend has been absolutely wonderful thus far filled with an 8 mile long run through snowy Central Park which was tough but so gorgeous and fun since Bo and I talked the whole time , long walks through the city, apartment hunting, drinks with friends at The Red Lion,
relaxing on the couch watching The Tudors, experimenting with healthy breakfast options, and dining out! Bo and I normally only order in once per week (normally from our local favorite Shi) and dine out on Friday nights after work. However, this weekend, due to the holiday we ended up eating out both Friday and Saturday night at two wonderful restaurants, Bar Boulud and Perilla.
Bar Boulud is Daniel Boulud’s casual classic French bistro located across from The Lincoln Center in NYC. Daniel Boulud is a famous French chef and restauranter who now has restaurants in NYC, Las Vegas, Vancouver, Beijing, Palm Beach, and Miami. He opened his first restaurant, and most famous, Daniel, in 1993 after his time as executive chef Le Cirque in NYC. Bo and I have often passed Bar Boulud during our long walks and Columbus Circle ventures and finally decided Friday night that we had to try it! After a work happy hour we wandered up to Lincoln Center around 7:30 in hopes of snagging a seat even though we didn’t have reservations. We were escorted to the bar area while we waited for a table but after fifteen minutes were told that we could in fact eat at the bar if we wished. This was a perfect option as the bar area offers the full menu, a first hand look at some of the cheeses and chartucerie, and wines. We started the evening with a glass champagne and the Degustation de Charcuterie to share (3 types of pate, charcuterie, condiments, pickles, and mustard) and the escargots persillade (wild burgundy snails garlic and parsley). The pates were amazing though the chicken liver pate was definitely my favorite. The snails were a treat as i’d never tried these before and they were rich and succulent. The parsley added to the flavor against the warm snails especially when paired with the small hushpuppy like potato balls.


As for our main meal, we shared a classic French fish dish, local catskills trout, toasted almonds

roasted cauliflower brown butter, verjus. This dish was absolutely divine as they used the cauliflower in so many different ways and the fish was perfectly crisp.
Bo and I agree that Bar Boulud’s food and wine was absolute perfection. Everything we tasted was seasoned perfectly and bursting with flavor. However, it was all very classicaly prepared which means the flavors weren’t innovated (to be expected at a classic French restaurant) and the service was attentive but a bit pretentious for our liking on a Friday night after a long week. We would definitely go back but we’d probably take friends so we could make our own noise and laughter. This Friday night it was painfully quiet and reserved which was ironic since Zagat warns of the noise levels.
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