Weekend # 2: Presidents Day

Thanks to George and Abe, my second weekend in the city was a long one. It was a really good one too! I went to two jazz concerts at Lincoln Center, spent Sunday with my mother, met up with a new friend and had a great dinner on Saturday night and saw a French movie, Cache on Friday night. Before I get into the details, I just want to comment on how great a location my apartment is at. It's so easy to get around...the #66 bus is a block away which easily got me to the east side for drinks on Sunday night and the 1,2,3 lines are just two blocks away at Lincoln Center and being only 2 blocks from Lincoln Center is just perfect too!

This weekend I enjoyed two excellent meals. Saturday night my friend Maria and I wento to a restaurant called Brassiere 8 1/2 which is on 57th between 5th and 6th. I had been there about five years ago for a wine pairing dinner which was an excellent experience. Unfortunately Restaurant Associates, which owns this restaurant, does not hold these events anymore, at least not on a regular basis. The dinner was excellent. Both of us enjoyed our meals, the service and the atmosphere. Near the bar there is a lounge with very comfortable seats which we were hoping to sit on enjoying some after dinner drinks, but unfortunately they closed that area to set up for Sunday brunch. The waiter also shared with us that a scene from Sex and the City was filmed there.

The second excellent meal was enjoyed with my mother who came in from NJ to visit with me. After picking her up at the Port Authority bus terminal and showing her my apartment we walked, yes walked, from my apartment on 64th and West End to the Met. Usually not a big feat but considering the temperature was in the teens and my mother is in her 70s it was a minor accomplishment. More about the Met later, but after our visit there we walked to 3rd avenue and started looking for an Italian restaurant as my mother was in the mood for Italian. We stumbled upon a place called Tiramisu whose menu looked fine but we continued another block and found this place called Due. Due is 'two' in Italian and as this was the owner's second restaurant it was so named.

We couldn't have stumbled onto a better restaurant. My mother had a spinach stuffed ravioli dish and I had a wonderful braised chicken dish with sausage, onions and peppers. For dessert we both had the riccota cheese cake which was just delicious.

So back to the Met, it was amazing how crowded the place was. But it didn't stop us from enjoying our time there. We took the highlights tour which lasted about 90 minutes. The tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and I learned quite a bit not only about the art but also quite a bit about history too. I highly recommend the tour and plan on taking it again as there are many pieces to be highlighted and the tour guide told us there is very little overlap from one tour to the next.

The movie I saw was Cache. For those of you who have seen it please let me know. I want to talk to you about the ending!

Saving the best for last, I truly enjoyed the jazz concerts at Lincoln Center. Jazz at Lincoln Center is located at the Time Warner building at Columbus Circle. On Friday night I stayed up late and caught the after hours session at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola. Lincoln Center has three concert halls for Jazz and Dizzy's Club is set up more like a lounge night club. I was able to catch the last two songs of the previous set. The performers were Eric Reed and Cyrus Chestnut, a duet of pianists. Just excellent! The after hours performer was good but not as enjoyable as the duet.

On Saturday I attended the first performance of the Rhythm Road series. The Rhythm Road series is a government sponsored program where select bands are sent overseas to countries that have limited exposure to American jazz and uban music. The band was a latin jazz quartet call Jazzabroson and the performance was truly enjoyable.

Only four more days to next weekend. Can't wait.