Date Night: La Boqueria - Flatiron District, NY - Thursday, 8/28/2014

Her Take: August 29th is my birthday, so Nicky said he wanted to surprise me with a place to take me out to dinner! :) :) :) He always does a good job at picking places so I was excited!
Thursday, I rush home from school, get ready and meet Nicky and then hop right back on the train to the mystery place. Turns out he had TWO options so he said left or right?? We decided to go left but sadly saw that the first place, La Bota, was closed down, so we walked to the other option, (thankfully they were near each other!) La Boqueria. Both places Nicky had in mind were Spanish Tapas bars/restaurants which, if you've never had tapas, means that its basically a whole menu of appetizer sized dishes, so you would order a bunch to pick on!  We got to La Boqueria and saw that there was a wait, we went in and the hostess told us there would be a 30-45 minute wait, we said "sure!" and waited outside on a bench. Luckily, we only waited about 20 minutes, which wasn't bad at all! We walked in, the restaurant is quite small, no wonder it gets packed so quickly and believe me when I say packed, I mean PACKED! We were lead to a cute two-top towards the back of the spot and I took the "booth" side (for once!)
What I liked about La Boqueria, right off the bat, was that there were allll types of people in there. It wasn't just a restaurant for a younger scene, or just hipsters, or just older people; the crowd was very diverse and I think that's what makes the place welcoming! There are people of all kinds, from all different places and couples ranging from first dates, to married dates- and there were we, right in the middle. :)
My only complaint about La Boqueria would be that the noise level is a BIT too loud, hey I'm no grumpy old man complaining about noise, believe me I like noise, but in a nice place like this that has a great "date" atmosphere, you want to be able to hear/speak to your date! I felt like Nicky and I didn't speak, we had to scream over the din and music just to have a conversation. If it was just a little less loud in there it would have been perfect!
We looked over the drinks first and I saw they had Sangria de Mora, Blackberry Sangria, and we were sold, we got a pitcher of it and not only was the pitcher was bigger than we expected, the sangria was delicious, probably one of the best we've had!! We had picked out 7 things that really caught our eyes, so we got them all! Remember, tapas are like appetizers, so we aren't just really fat and eating the whole menu! (but we probably could have done that anyway..) We ordered the Maiz Rustido, a special that night, which was roasted corn, lime segments, with smoked pimenton oil and manchego cheese melted on top! It was AMAZING! Nicky's favorite dish! We ordered chorizo and Idiazabal cheese which is made out of sheeps milk, is semi-hard, buttery and lightly smoked. The cheese was really, really good and the chorizo was cut thinly, like sopressata, I liked it but Nicky didn't "enjoy" it. I'm proud of him for trying it though! We also order Pan Tostado: which was basically toasted bread rubbed with tomato and garlic, Patatas Bravas: diced potatoes, fried and atop a spicy tomato sauce and drizzled with fresh cream, Bombas de Barceloneta: potato and beef croquettes that also came with that same "salsa brava" (spicy tomato sauce) and fresh cream, and last but not least we ordered the hanger steak which came with their version of chimichurri salsa! Everything was excellent, literally everything, I couldn't decide which dish was my favorite! They were all so tasty and full of different flavors, textures, spices! We loved it all, I loved it all, it was the perfect birthday dinner! After eating 7 dishes, that were pretty good portions, we decided NO dessert for us because we were full and satisfied! Our waitress was sweet and she didn't seem pushy, she didn't come over too frequently (which I like, especially if you're on a date and holding hands at the table) or rush us being there were people waiting for a table. The food came out perfectly timed - not all at once, it was two dishes at a time and when we finished on they brought the other a few minutes later; so it didn't seem like they were throwing food at us, it gave us time to digest a bit between dishes!
I really really enjoyed La Boqueria, it was a great place with great food, great service, a great atmosphere and I had a great date to take me ;) Really, Nicky, you did a great job!!
I highly recommend it to everyone! As I said, mixed crowd, so anyone fits in! I told my mom about it and she wants to go! I will definitely go back!!! And can't wait to!

His Take: Happy Birthday to my dearest Ariana!  Ariana’s birthday is here and I wanted to take her somewhere special, somewhere different, and most of all somewhere I knew (or hoped?) she would like.  I know Ariana loves Mexican, South American, and Latin food.  I did my homework and looked up places, trying to find the perfect one.  I stumbled across, La Boqueria, a tapas bar located on W. 19^th street, in the Flatiron district.  Boy am I glad I stumbled across this place, but well get to that in a second!  Tapas bars for those who do not know, are places that basically serve only small dishes, roughly the size of an appetizer.  The point is to share these dishes, and as you probably guessed it, Ariana and I ordered quite a things to share!

 

La Boqueria is a nice little place that the entrance starts narrow, and the place widens up in the back.  I called to make a reservation and was told that they only accept reservations for parties of 6 or more.  Ariana and I may eat for 6 people, but unfortunately we do not count as 6 people.  The lady over the phone told me every one else is first come first serve.  Ariana and I arrived to La Boqueria and walked in to see the hostess.  Great sign already was EVERY seat was full.  This included all the tables, as well as all the seats at the bar, La Boqueria was full to capacity of people eating and drinking.  The Hostess told us it was be about a half hour wait, so Ariana and I went outside and sat on the little bench right in front.  About 15-20 minutes later the Hostess came and got us.  Not bad of a wait at all!

 

La Boqueria’s menu was full of things Ariana and I wanted to try.  I think if we could have eaten everything, we would have ordered 1 of everything!  We decided to order a pitcher of Blackberry Sangria to start while we looked over the menu.  We finally settled on 7, yes SEVEN things to order.  We ordered the Idiazabal cheese (goat’s milk), a type of chorizo, bread with tomato paste and garlic oil, patatas bravas (fried potato pieces with crema fresca and a mildly spicey sauce), hangar steak over peppers, maiz rustido (corn with manchego cheese and lime), and bombas de barceloneta (meat and cheese croquettes with that same mild spicey sauce from before).  Sounds like a lot? Well it was, we had a tough time finishing everything because the portions were a very good size!  Let me tell you, everything we ordered was excellent.  Except for maybe the chorizo, I never had chorizo before, and I did not enjoy it, so that is just me personally.  La Boqueria’s food was delicious, and I could have eaten 50 plates of the maiz rustido, I absolutely loved it.  The service was great as well.

 

Ariana did not want me to tell the waitress that it was her birthday, BORING, so she got away with it.  La Boqueria you will be seeing me again, the tapas and the service were excellent.  Our waitress brought us a little of our food at a time so we got to eat and enjoy it.  We finished our pitcher of sangria and enjoyed an amazing dinner to celebrate Ariana’s birthday!  I hope you go to La Boqueria and enjoy it as much as I did!

 

Date Night: The Chester - Meatpacking District, NY - Saturday 6/28/2014

Her Take: I love the Meatpacking District. I have to say that right from the start. It's beautiful and hip and the new fashion spot and so different from the rest of the city. So I go there a lot and I walk around, and one night I went with two of my friends and we passed this cute corner bar/restaurant while walking. What caught our attention was the outdoor patio they have framing the corner of the block and the cool, funky music they were playing. This spot was The Chester, located in the Gansevoort Hotel.

I thought to myself that I had to go to this place! (to write you guys a blog on it :)) So I kept it in the back of my mind and decided to plan out a Date Night. Lee and Dan wanted to go out before Lee left for Florida so I suggested we all do dinner in Meatpacking .. ;)
I picked a couple of places, one of which being The Chester, and left it up to them to decide where they wanted to go. They picked The Chester!! (obviously) It was meant to be, we had to try that place out.
I made the reservation for 4 at 7:00 on a Saturday night and we were all excited. That's when things started to go awry Lee told me that Dan was fixing up his car and didn't think they would be done in time to come meet us, but she would let me know. Hm..
I had to go visit my newborn baby cousin and everyone knows that when you visit family, you're gonna be there till late! So I decided to change our reservation to 7:30 (just incase) Then while at my cousin's house, Lee told me they wouldn't be able to make it so I went ahead and changed the reservation again to 2 people instead and for 8 o'clock because it was already 6 and we were all still there!!
Anyway, turns out I changed the reservation ONE MORE TIME (3 times!!) to 8:15 because at 7:45 I was still on my way home. I rushed home changed and Nicky and I jumped on the train. Luckily, Meatpacking is only 6 stops away on the L and we get there in max 10 mins! And that we did. We walked to the hostess outside and I told her we were here and if there was no available outdoor seating, it was ok. But she was very nice and said that they had reserved a table for us right outside. We took a corner two-top and the night, the view, the place was all perfect. We looked at the drink menu and they has special cocktails for the World Cup which I thought was very cute! We both order caipirihnas ! I love those, but these weren't the best. They were very strong and not sweet enough.
We ordered right away (which is a first) We started with the cheese plate; the cheese plate came so beautifully decorated with cut up apples and plated to be shaped like flowers, that I didn't wanna eat it! Just kidding, I DEFINITELY did. It came with about 4 different cheeses (brie, parmigiano, and I wasn't sure of the other two..), honey, jam, apples and crackers! It was SO good, great starter!
For entrees we both got steaks; Nicky ordered the NY Strip with a side of Truffle Fries and I the Marinated Skirt Steak in mango sauce and on a bed of chorizo. Now normally I'm not crazy about skirt steak because of the after taste, but this steak was GREAT, I couldn't taste any aftertaste, they cooked it perfectly! And the mango sauce was soo good! Only thing is I couldn't really taste the chorizo. Nicky didn't let me try any of his steak so I assume that meant that it was really good!! He said he liked it!

After slowly finishing our dinner, we hung out outside and watched the sunset; it was amazing. We had great conversations and had a wonderful night. We were there for a few hours and the waitress didn't bother us! We ordered another round of drinks and sat there soaking in the scenery, the people, the music and each other. A man walked by and dropped off two roses on the table and said "for the beautiful lady" and walked away, I was flattered until he walked right back and said "1 for $10 2 for $20 for the homeless! LOL At first Nicky was like I don't want it... ok i'll take one!! :) We left happy and satisfied with our meal and we decided to take a walk because it was such a beautiful night, we walked under the highline (must do a highline post) and walked past the stores and bars until we reached the train station. We figured "lets walk to Union Square" because it was that nice of a night! And we did! we walked and finally took the train home to meet up with Nicky's cousins for a few more drinks.. :)

GO TO MEATPACKING!!!! And try The Chester, I promise you, you will love it, not only for the food, but the scenery as well! The restaurant itself is really nicely set up! Plus, you get to dress up a little bit and look great while eating great food and feeling great!
I'll see ya there!

His Take: So Ariana loves, LOVES, the Meat Packing District in NYC!  She has been suggesting that we find a place here to go because she always has a good time in the Meat Packing District.  After looking over some menus, we settled on The Chester.  The Chester is located right underneath the Gansevoort hotel.  We made a reservation for 8:15, to enjoy a nice late dinner and a drink or two.  We dressed really nice, Ariana looked great by the way, and we hopped on the train and headed over!

The Chester is a really nice place!  Since it was a beautiful summer evening, we decided to sit outside rather than inside.  This was the perfect choice, as the weather was absolutely perfect outside!  We sat at a corner table outside just the two of us and got right into the drink menu!  We started with some caipirinhas.  I did not like mine, it was a little too strong (go on call me a whimp, but this drink was wayyyyyy too strong for a dinner drink) and there was not enough sweetener added to it, so it was too sour!  I have had caipirinhas before, and I really enjoy them, they are a good summery drink!  Ariana and I decided to start off with a cheese plate for appetizers.  We did not want to make the mistake this time of ordered too may appetizers and not enjoying our main course.  The cheese plate was displayed beautifully, and it was excellent.  The plate came with three different cheeses, which were all great, I knew one was parmigiano, I was not sure which the other two were, as the menu says it is the "chef's selection."  Not only did the dish come with cheeses, it had crackers as well as apples, blueberries, and raspberries, plus a like dipping jam!  I ate an entire apple along with my cheeses!  On to the entree, Ariana ordered the skirt steak that was marinated in a mango sauce on top of chorizo hash, and I ordered the strip steak with a side of truffle fries for Ariana and I to split!  Ariana enjoyed her steak, and mine was great as well.  The portion was a nice size and the steak and fries were tastey!  After eating Ariana and I decided to order another drink and just hang out and chat.  This time I went with a red sangria which was much much better!  We sat and drank and talked and as we did the sun began to set.  I know I know it sounds really cliche but this added to the mood as the sky is really nice while the sun sets.  A random street peddler came over and put two roses on our table and walked away.  He goes "for the pretty lady" and then a minute later he came back and said " 1 for $5 2 for $10!"  This man knows how to hustle! But he was right, of course I had to get a rose for the pretty lady, so I took one!

The Chester was really busy but they were nice enough to let us take our time with our food and drinks and let Ariana and I sit there without feeling rush or pressured to order more!  The set up was really nice and I suggest you check it out! Be warned, the Chester,and the Meat Packing District as a whole is a little more expensive than your average dinner and drinks in the city!  But it was very well worth it, especially if you had a great time like I did.  After dinner we walked around a bit and continued our great date! We plotted our next move and headed back to our neighborhood to meet some friends for drinks!  What more can you ask for? A great night out in the city, then enjoying afterwards with some friends, this is what date night is all about!  Ariana and I will head back to the Meat Packing district again, so if you are at the Chester after reading this, look out for us!

Handsome Nicky

Caipirinha

Cheese Plate beautiful Presentation

 NY Strip and Truffle Fries

Mango Marinated Skirt Steak

Double Date Night: Escape the Room NYC - Midtown, NY - Thursday 6/5/2014

His Take:  A while back I had mentioned something to Ariana that I had seen on Facebook called “Escape the Room.”  The brief description of the place basically said, you are locked in a room, 10 people total, and you have one hour to get out.  Everything in the room is or can be a clue to get you out of the room.  At that point the record of the day was 52 minutes.  I was incredibly intrigued by this and really wanted to do it.  Ariana and I kind of brushed it aside, but Escape the Room came back up during our date to Panna II (see that post as well!).  Dan, the boyfriend of Lee, the other couple we were with, had brought it up, and we decided to buy the tickets!  Long story short, we finally decided to do Escape the Room and I could not wait!

We finally were here, Ariana, her brother, Dan, Lee and I, were set to do “The Office” which was the original game made for Escape the Room.  They now have two other rooms, which I PROMISE you I am going back to do.  That’s how good this experience was, without telling you anything, I already told you I was going back!  We were put together with 2 other couples, totaling 9 players.  The employee there assured us that having 9 of us was better than just us 5. I am going to try not to give anything away here, because you really need to do everything on your own to enjoy it!  Off we went into the Office.  We were locked in!  There is a computer count down that helps with some hints and tells you the remaining time.  Literally everything in the room was a clue or led to another clue.  We were like scavengers hunting for clues or shouting thoughts out loud because in Escape the Room, you never know, anything might help.  I truly felt like Sherlock Holmes!  Escape the Room was absolutely so much fun, for one hour we searched and pulled clues from any conceivable way, one clue leading to the next and finally, WE SOLVED IT!!!  It was such an awesome experience to crack the code and Escape the Room.  Afterwards, our helper/employee came in the room and explained everything we had just solved in an nice organized order, also she told us that 85% of those who play, DO NOT escape the room, which made us feel even better!  We took our winners photo, which they posted on their Facebook account.

Escape the Room, I am hooked and next up is the Agency, which is the 8 person Escape the Room challenge!  Hopefully we will see you there!

PS: this place is now incredibly popular, and the person who runs Escape the Room told us it is best to book the tickets at least 3 weeks in advance!

Her Take: Remember in our last double date blog I said that we planned our next one? Well here it is! We planned to go to Escape the Room NYC!
Escape the Room is basically: you and your teammates are locked inside a room with a specific theme and you have 1 hour to get out using clues that are scattered all around and with hints you are given. IT IS AWESOME! Nicky had mentioned this place to me a while ago and then we forgot all about it, then Dan brought it up and that's when we were like "YES BOOK IT!!"

So Nicky, Dan, Lee, my brother Dominic (which I invited to come) and I went on June 5th, a Thursday night! We had bought tickets (which are $28 per person) for the office room. There are three rooms; The office, which was the original one and holds 10 people, the Agency, which is a spy themed room which holds 8 people and the Home which is a Victorian themed room that holds 6 people.

Being that it was only 5 of us, we shared the room with 4 other people who were very nice and helped a lot! We were a team after-all!

I have to say we had a lot of fun! I love mysteries and riddles and all that good stuff and I'd like to think i'm pretty good at them ;) I diddddd solve quite a few clues! (ehem ehem) And WE GOT OUT! the lady told us only 15% of teams get out, and we made it! Woo hoo in 53 minutes!

This post is pretty short because I don't want to ruin the experience for you if you go, which I really think you should!!! You will LOVE it, I know you will! So you'll have to find out for yourself and see if you can make it out in time!!

Escape the Room is located in Midtown on 31st between 5th and 6th and is in an apartment building up on the 11th floor, so when you go don't be confused (like we were.)
I just found out that they have a Lower East Side location too!!

I highly recommend going here! Its a different kind of date; a mystery game date and who wouldn't love one of those?? WE TOTALLY DID! And we can't wait to go back to try a different room!

Date Night: New York Comedy Club - Kips Bay, NY - Wednesday 5/28/2014

Her Take: A long, long time ago, I can still remember how the music used to make me smile... The music being the Times Square ruckus we heard on February 15th. Yes the day after Valentines Day, when we took a walk in Times Square early in the morning. We were stopped by a short stocky young man asking us "do you guys like comedy shows?" Naturally I ignored the poor kid and kept walking, but Nicky stopped and said YES I DO! So we listened to what we had to say and Nicky gave in, well, because he really does like comedy shows. This kid was selling tickets to the New York Comedy Club for $20. It was one ticket per two people and it came with a bunch of vouchers to different bars around the area. It seemed like a pretty good deal so Nicky bought it and said, we're going!
So, FOUR months later, we finally went! (because I reminded Nicky that the ticket expired June 1st and we HAD to go) But I'm glad we did because it was a lot of fun!

So May 28th, we headed out to the New York Comedy Club. It was a beautiful day to go so we took the train to 3rd avenue on the L and walked all the way to 24th street. We stopped in at one of the bars we were given a voucher for, Kipsey's, and to our surprise, it wasn't bar-like at all; it was quite nice in there, and also was a meeting spot for every elderly person in New York.
We sat down and told our waiter we had this voucher and he said something that neither Nicky nor I understood except for the "happy hour" part. So we just ordered a margarita for me and a sangria for Nicky. For food we got 2 sliders each, I got pulled pork sliders and Nicky, burger sliders, a mac&cheese to share, fries to share and I ordered a chipotle cornbread. My margarita tasted like soap, I didn't really like it, but the sangria was pretty good. When the food came out we saw that the sliders were so tiny!! And they didn't even use burger buns, they cut the end off an Italian bread for the top bun, and a slice of italian bread for the bottom bun. Weird? I thought to myself "how many loaves of bread do they go through in order to have top buns for sliders?" They were just alright. The mac and cheese i didn't like at all; it tasted like they just boiled pasta and put cheese right on top to melt while they brought it out to us. The fries were a bit soggy, and the cornbread took forever to arrive!! But when it did, I saw why; they bake it to order, and honestly, it was the best part of the meal, I really liked it!! It was delicious and warm, crunchy on top and moist inside with a slight kick and accompanied by some parsley butter; I could go for some right now!

When we were done, we hung around just reminiscing about when we first met and laughing at inside jokes. When we realized it was 8:20, we decided to start heading over to the comedy club. It was just around the corner and we walked in and checked in with the guy at the podium and then he told us we were really early (the ticket said be there by 8:30) and to go have a drink and come back because their bartender hadn't arrived yet. That's kind of messed up that the bartender wasn't there and they have to give other places money.. oh well! So we went to another bar, Rose Hill tavern, because the guy gave us a voucher for them. It was down the block, we walked in, had a seat at the bar and ordered a Stella each. (it seems Stella Artois is our beer of choice) We continued our reminiscing and we walked back at 9, where a lady showed us to our seats: on the left of the small stage. the room was small! There were about 12 small tables in there! We were required a two drink minimum and there is a waitress who comes around. Nicky got two Coronas and I got two frozen drinks: one pina colada and one strawberry colada. They were ok, definitely not worth $12 each.

The host came out and asked where everyone was from and it turned out we were the only ones from New York! Of course, they sell these tickets in the middle of the street in Times Square, the biggest tourist destination!
He made fun of us for being from Brooklyn, but he did call us the nicest people from Brooklyn ever, so I guess that's pretty sweet? He said that Nicky looks like captain hook and I looked like a prisoner because I was wearing a top with black and white stripes. (I guess sooommeeoone'sss not in the fashion loop!) He picked on us for a little, and I thought it was great! I like when people make fun of me, as strange as that sounds. Most of the comedians were funny, but there were a few who really were not. I laughed a lot and had a great time! A couple of the comedians also picked on us because they basically knew our life story since the host didn't stop talking to us and asking us questions. A nice thing was that one comedian asked how long we were together and when we said a little over a year, he made everyone clap for us :) yay!

The show ended around 11 o'clock and we walked out laughing and glad we went! Comedy shows are fun! I definitely recommend going to one!

His Take: So remember way back when on Valentine's Day when Ariana and I went to Rosa Mexicano? (if not, check that post) well the next day we were in Times Square and if you're not familiar with this, I will be your warning, there is plenty of people standing out there trying to sell you plenty of things, from photos with spiderman to tickets to plays, and most importantly for this time COMEDY SHOW tickets!  I love stand up comedy, and have always thought about going to do an open mic!  Ariana and I were stopped by one gentleman who rambled on and on about the New York Comedy Club and how we should check it out and how we would have a lot of laughs and a really good time.  Partly because I wanted him to stop talking (literally he spoke for 5-10 minutes straight) I agreed to spend the $20 on this $50 offer of admission for two at the New York Comedy Club.  Sweet!  Mind you I had already known that almost every comedy club has a two drink minimum per person, but that's not a problem for Ariana and I (especially her, trust me).  Anywho, here we are in May trying to figure out our next date and Ariana mentioned that we still had these comedy club tickets that we had to use by that coming weekend or they would expire.  Also with the tickets we were given flyers for participating bars that were close by that offered different beer and food specials.

With that being said, we decided to put these tickets to use and head over to the New York Comedy Club on Wednesday night.  The back of the ticket says reservations are required so I called and reserved a table for two.  We decided why not check out one of the participating bars and have a drink or two and some food before the show.  We settled on trying out Kipsey's, which was around the corner from the New York Comedy Club.  We walked in to Kipsey's and it was a pretty nice looking bar, and we were told to have a seat anywhere we chose and a waiter would come help us.  We sat down and thought and thought and thought what we wanted to eat and drink.  I asked the waiter a few questions about the food and the specials that were on the card about the bar.  Finally I settled on the sliders, which were on the card, but it was ONE slider.  One slider does not fill up my big toe, so i ordered two (I know what you're thinking, WOW a whole two of them!).  The slider was just ok, nothing special but it was not terrible.  Ariana ordered the pulled pork sliders, same kind of thing!  To go with those, we split an order of mac and cheese.  We love mac and cheese and Kipsey's was just ehh, it was kind of oily and not cheesy enough for my taste.  We also split an order of french fries, which if you mess up french fries, your place should not be in business.  The fries were fries that's all.  Ariana also wanted to try the corn bread so we ordered that as well.  I tried a little piece and she ate almost all of it, so I guess she really liked it.  For drinks I ordered a red sangria which was pretty good and Ariana a margarita.  I was a little disappointed with the food and the service overall, because the waiter was a little slow and the cornbread came out basically well after everything else did.  We came here to kill some time before the comedy show and grab a bite to eat so I did not expect anything special, and Kipsey's was exactly that, nothing special.  Off we went to the comedy show, but since we were early, we were told to come back, so we headed for a beer around the corner just to sit talk and laugh some more!

Finally comedy show time!  I can't lie, I was excited for the comedy show.  We were seated at a little table off to the right of the stage.  I am not sure why the New York Comedy Club required us to make a reservation considering half the place was empty by the time the show started, but I'll cut them some slack considering it was a Wednesday night.  We sat down and the waitress came over and ordered our drinks.  The drink selection was pretty good, but I kept it simple and went with a corona.  two drink minimum each, can't get too crazy ordering all kinds of things!  Ariana had a frozen drink and she seemed to like it.  We were treated to a funny comedy host who went around asking the different tables where every one was from and making jokes about everyone in between.  He was a good host and even if he made plenty of jokes about Ariana and I, well mostly me! As my mom said, I have that kind of "face."  Thanks Mom!  Any who, the show had about 6 or 7 comedians scheduled who performed for different amounts of times.  Most of them were ranged from really funny to "yeah I laughed a few times" and one was pretty boring and bad.  The show lasted about two hours and Ariana and I had met our two drink minimum requirement.  Side note, the drinks here are a little expensive, but then again, this is how the place makes most of their money considering they're selling tickets at discount prices!

All in all, if you like comedy, especially stand up comedy, check out the New York Comedy Club.  Its a cool date spot and hopefully your show is funny and enjoyable!  Here at The Dating Renaissance, we try to tell you about different dates and different places to check out, and that's what the comedy show is, just a different date that you'll enjoy!  You can skip Kipsey's before hand, it's really not worth going to, but hey if you want a quick beer and bite its not the worst place!  I would go back to a different comedy club maybe before heading back to The New York Comedy Club, just to get a different comedy feel, but Ariana and I left here happy, smiling, and laughing.  As we walked back to the train, we recalled plenty of the jokes, especially the jokes said about me (my girlfriend is so kind isn't she!) and laughed like before!

Double Date Night: Panna II - East Village, NY - Wednesday 5/21/2014

His Take:  This was an absolutely new experience for me, I had never tried Indian food before!  Panna II was definitely the right place for us to go and have Indian food for the first time.  Ariana and I decided to double date with another couple, and it was Ariana’s friend who had suggested Panna II. Located right on 1st Avenue in the part of the city known as “Little Bangladesh” is Panna II.  Cool little place, but do not be confused, this place is the restaurant towards the top right!  When you go, you’ll know exactly what I mean!  Well anyway, there is four Indian restaurants in the same building, divided by a stair case.  Head into Panna II and be prepared to a duck a little bit.  Literally you may have to walk with a slight hunch or crouch down a bit!  Hanging from the ceiling are low Christmas lights and “chili pepper” lights (literally they’re chili peppers!).  I am about 5’6 so I walked with basically no problem, but any taller and the lights would have dragged across my head.  You might think this Christmas lights/chili lights idea is kind of stupid, but I really enjoyed the look and feel of Panna II.  The place was well lit, but dim enough to make it feel a bit more “romantic” and cozy.  Only knock on the actually place was it is small so the tables are rather close.

Wait before I continue, this is VERY important about Panna II!  They are a BYOB (bring your own bottle/booze) place!  Ariana and I came with a bottle of red wine and the other couple a bottle of white!  Panna II opened the bottles for us, with no uncorking fee!  Thanks for that Panna II!  We sat down and looked over the large menu.  I was worried because I am not a fan of spicy food and here I was in an INDIAN restaurant (not to sound stereotypical but when you think Indian food, you think spicy).  Me taking charge, I was responsible for ordering the appetizers.  I had heard of “samosas” before from people I knew who had tried Indian food before, so we ordered chicken samosas, beef samosas, and veggie samosas.  The chicken and beef ones were both very tastey, but a little too full on the veggie side! I would have preffered them with more meat, but they were good none the less.  I did not eat a veggie samosa because just veggies kind of bores me, and I had more than my fair share of the chicken and beef samosas!  Also we ordered cheese poori for appetizers.  These things looked huge when they came over but they’re filled with cheese and air, and let me tell you, they were absolutely delicious.  Like really really good!

Finally onto the main course we went.  I ordered chicken tikka, cooked in a Tandoori oven (not like I knew what all this meant, it just sounded good, plus I did a little research before heading over to Panna II).  My chicken was well cooked and it was incrediblty tastey.  The chicken was cooked with a dry rub of spices and it was very flavorfull.  Ariana got the chicken makhani and she enjoyed it.  They also brought out a tray of rice for the table that went well with the chicken as well as “naan” bread.  The bread was excellent as well.

Overall, Panna II, I was impressed with your food!  Definitely a great place to go, especially if you’re a first timer with Indian food like I was.  The serving sizes were good and the bill was not expensive at all!  Now that I have tried Indian once, I would like to go back to Panna II and give something else off the menu a try!  Best I not forgot that after our meal we were all served a complimentary scoop of homemade mango ice cream, which was also very good.  Head over to Panna II and you will not be disappointed, you and your date will enjoy the meal and the scene!


Her Take: I have always wanted to try Indian food. I like trying new things and expanding my food horizons. Nicky on the other hand (if you couldn't tell already) is super picky, but he said he wanted to try Indian. Yay!  I had the restaurant Panna II written on my list of places to go but my good friend, Lee said to me she wanted to double date and go to Panna II. So I was like yay perfect, we've been meaning to go there! So we did.
Lee and her boyfriend Dan came to pick us up that night and we had brought a bottle of wine per couple since this spot is BYOB. Lee and Dan white and Nicky and I red, from this cool spot right on the corner of my house. Well the white was just for Lee because Dan isn't much of a "wine drinker". So they swept us up and we ventured in Dan's jeep to 1st avenue. We finally found a parking spot and walked a bit to the restaurant. This place is in a building that is divided into four. Each quarter is a different Indian restaurant and as we walked up the stairs people from each restaurant were grabbing us trying to get us to go to their place instead! After hustling to get upstairs, we entered Panna II and saw that this place was TINY. Of course it was, the building is shared!! We even had to duck a little to avoid getting hit with all the Christmas and chili pepper lights hanging from the ceiling. (First time Nicky and I ever had to duck for anything) but it was cute! They sat us at a table, which was tight because everything in there is packed in and tightly accommodated.
Right away they came to open a bottle of wine and asked which to open first, I said BOTH please :). They brought us 3 different "dips" and a few pieces of thin crunchy bread that looked like long nachos. Of course I was the first to break off a piece and try all the sauces and peppers they gave us. They were all delicious!
They wanted to take our order super fast, so I suggested lets get the cheese poori and some samosas: beef, chicken and veggie for apps. They were all like yea sure!? And I said we needed a little more time to order our entrees.

They brought them all really fast! The cheese poori is like a puff bread filled with cheese! Yum and the samosas are like empanadas! They were all really good. We each ordered our entrees and we all got chicken. I got the chicken makhani and everybody ended up liking my the most! ok everybody BUT Nicky, who didn't want to try it because it had "too much sauce." Along with our entrees they brought out naan bread, sort of like pita and delicious, some rice for the table (I think it was basmati) and a few more dips and cut up onions. I tried it ALL, and I really enjoyed everything, every part of the meal.


We ate and drank and laughed and it was gooooood. I wanted to take some home so my mama could try it because she was excited for us to go try indian food! So I told the waiter to pack up the leftovers and when he came back with it, another waiter brought over complimentary mango ice cream which was so creamy and delicious! I LOVE mango anything! It was a nice closure for our ethnicly awesome dinner.


After we got up, ducking a bit, and once again fighting through the "bouncers" outside, we walked back to the car and decided to go for a drink. Williamsburg it was! Since it was near us and on the way back to Lee and Dan's! We ended up going to Berry Park, which is on Berry Street between N 13th and Nassau Ave. We went straight up to their rooftop because it was beautiful out and we HAD to take advantage of it!
We sat at a quaint table and sipped on out Huckleberry Lemonades (their vodka lemonade yummy) and had some more laughs! Not only did we laugh, but we planned out a whole other night out, which you'll have to read about in our next double date post!! ;)

All in all, Panna II was excellent, if you're hesitant to try Indian, DON'T BE! You wont regret it! Head over to Panna II when you're in the East Village, you will love it!

Pre-Panna II

 The Outside

Dan and Lee

 Cheese Poori (top) and Samosa (bottom)

 Chicken Makhani

 Chicken Tikka

 Chicken Mushroom Masala

 :)

Date Night & Dessert: Cubana Social - Williamsburg, Brooklyn - Wednesday 4/23/2014

His Take: Ok so I am going to take full responsibility for this one.  I did NOT like Cubana Social.  I would not go back.  I was craving some Spanish/Latin American food and decided to look some places up not too far from where we live.  I suggested Cubana Social to Ariana and she was all for it, as we were both craving a dish called Ropa Vieja, which is a shredded beef stew.  Off we went to Cubana Social, which is actually a nice looking place where they play old movies via a projector on the wall.  We sat down right away because the place was empty.  Even if it was empty, it took our waitress a little while to bring over our menus.  Finally our waitress came again to order our drinks, I ordered their version of a Cuba Libre, figured I would try something different.  Their Cuba Libre is a drink with rum and coke with lime, Fernet Branca and other bitters, and the more I drank of it (I did not drink very much) the worse it tasted.  This is not the fault of the place, this is more on me because it was a drink I did not like.  This Cuba Libre had a weird after taste that I could not continue to drink.  I was deceived when I looked this place up on Yelp, and looked at the pictures of the food.  I love empanadas and saw that Cubana Social had them, and I thought “great, a nice appetizer as well.”  Yelp led me to believe they were a lot bigger than the really are.   We ended up ordering 3 (started with 2), 2 beef empanadas and a pork empanada.  The beef ones were just alright, and I have definitely had better empanadas elsewhere, they were not bad, but they were not anything “to write home about.”  I tried a little bite of the pork one as well, and it was more or less the same as the beef.  Obviously when it came to the main course, Ariana and I both ordered Ropa Vieja, the sole reason for us coming to Cubana Social.  I have to say I was incredibly disappointed.  Any time I have had Ropa Vieja I have tested plenty of flavors as it is a stew that should cook for a significant amount of time.  Cubana Social’s Ropa Vieja tasted like NOTHING.  It literally did not taste like anything, not like the beef, the onions, the tomatoes, or the peppers!  The dish came with white rice, black beans, and plantains.  The serving size was a pretty good portion, but how much of bland food could you really enjoy.  Ariana's dish tasted different than mine.  Ropa Vieja is a dish where the flavors all come together and mesh while it cooks, and Cubana Social’s really lacked that.  Our waitress did come over again and noticed that I was not enjoying my drink and that a barely touched it.  She was kind enough to take it off our bill without us asking, because again I ordered it, so I did not mind if I had to pay for it.  We skipped dessert as we had planned to grab ice cream somewhere else not too far from Cubana Social.  Again, it is really hard to enjoy food that lacks taste, especially when it is a dish I know and enjoy!  Cubana Social, nice looking place, but the food killed it for me here!

After our disappointing meal, we headed over to an ice cream shoppe that Ariana had heard of called Oddfellows.  I knew once we were inside why this was the perfect name, their flavors were well, ODD!  There were flavors such as Lychee, Thai Ice Cream, Burnt Marshmallow, just to name a few.  I went with a small Burnt Marshamllow, and it was delicious!  There were little pieces of marshmallows in it and it was really really good.  Ariana got Thai Ice Cream and Chocolate Chunk in a cone.  She seemed to really enjoy her ice cream as well.  The ice cream shoppe was really nice they had little tables and bar stools near the window.  They made different ice cream treats and even cater to parties.  Oddfellows was cool, and I would head back to see what other flavors they come up with!

If you take anything from this post, its simple, head to Oddfellows for ice cream, and you can skip Cubana Social, especially if you are looking for tasty Ropia Vieja!

  

Her Take: I really wanted to like this place, I really did. We were both craving some Ropa Vieja, and we found this Cuban place on the north side and said lets give it a shot! We told my dad we were going there and he said he had heard that it wasn't too good, that we would be wasting our time and that he's always right. So I got annoyed and said nope were gonna like it, you never like anything and you are too quick to judge!
We got there and the place was a nice one; good space and they had black and white movies playing on the wall from a projector. We got the menu and saw that they didn't have too many options but we decided that we would get two empanadas. Nicky originally wanted to get one and split it because he said that they looked big online. I said lets get two just incase, or even three because they had a 3 for $10 deal. He settled on two. One pork with beans and garlic and one ground beef with sautéed onions tomatoes and raisins. Our waitress came and asked if we wanted a drink and we looked over the drink list and I ordered the "Oooh I wanna take you to coco-mojito" ( a coconut mojito) and Nicky got a Cuba Libre that had fernet branca in it. We also ordered our empanadas and one ropa vieja each.
the two empanadas came before our drinks, which surprised me; I thought the food was going to take a while. Turns out the empanadas were small (what did I say?) and Nicky ordered one more beef. They weren't bad. Then our drinks came and mine was pretty good but Nicky did not like his so the waitress took it off the bill.
Our ropa vieja came and it looked decent! It came with black beans, rice and platanos. We were excited to eat it and once we tried it we kinda made the same "eh" face. It didn't taste of salt but it tasted of the acidity of uncooked tomatoes from a can. I didn't like the taste of it so I picked at the rice and beans and ate all the platanos. I ate about half of the ropa vieja because I was really hungry, but couldn't finish the rest because it was giving me a stomach ache. It was no good.
We were disappointed and lost our appetite. Turns out my dad was right....
After our disappointing meal, we were craving ice cream so I suggested Odd Fellows ice cream shop which was a few blocks away. We walked down and I saw they had extra virgin olive oil ice cream and HAD to try it!! it was weird I don't think I would get whole scoop of oil.. but anyway I got a cone with chocolate chunk and thai iced tea; it was ok, I have tasted better. But I was satisfied! Nicky got burnt marshmallow which was veryyy good!! (Nicky is a marshmallow :))

All in all our dinner was disappointing and we were hungry two hours later.. Cubana Social, we will not be going back. Food was pretty bad 2/10, service was nothing special (poor girl was nice)
But we bought a bottle of wine on the way home, drank and ate some chocolate  :)

Cuba Libre and Coco-mojito

 Ropa Vieja

 Burnt Marshmallow Ice Cream

Thai Iced Tea and Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream