How about Roosevelt Sports Bar in Queens?
I'll actually be moving to Queens (but not Flushing) on that very day (so not sure if I'll be able to make it).
I like Fresh Salt and haven't been in a while so I'm fine with that. On the other hand, if the preponderance of us who are coming live uptown we could try to break free of the benevolent tyranny of the Salt. No, I'm just kidding, of course. Fresh Salt it is.
Come to think, the Upper West Side would be more convenient for you, me, Blandings... I don't have a go-to bar on the UWS, though.
I don't either, really, but there's got to be somewhere. I mean there's the long communal table one can sit at at Landmarc, which is super convenient as it is on top of the Columbus Circle stop on A/B/C/D/1. They have decent cocktails though I don't know about the beer selection.
The real problem is that most other bars are terribly noisy, and I don't hear well.
I am your sister in poor hearing. We tried The Ginger Man a couple of times back in the day, and I was smiling blankly at people while wishing I could lipread better.
We have lovely smiles but are better known for our badinage, which means we've got to be able to hear.
And who would sex Mutombo must first hear his call.
Landmarc isn't too loud, I think. Or we could go to that place on 85th St. Blandings recommended to me a while back. Oh hey I like how that came out. It could be "that place on 85th Street that Blandings recommended" or "that place on 85th that Saint Blandings recommended." Um anyway it was quiet.
I'm not sure why I am continuing to talk about this since we will obviously end up at Fresh Salt.
I can't remember what book it was with a character who worked for a phone book publisher commenting on the Church of All Streets and the Fifth Saint Bar and Grill.
If there's a quiet place on 85th, that gets me home much faster, and I'm all for that.
11: Little, Big. I'm almost sure.
3: Oh good, I'm glad to hear people actually like Fresh Salt, rather than grimly enduring it for the sake of sociability.
BTW, if anyone has any suggestions for other bars or restaurants I should check out while I'm there, I'm all ears. I've got a list the length of my arm at the moment, but that's mostly compiled from anonymous Internet recommendations.
Yeah, meetups at Fresh Salt have consistently been better than meetups elsewhere. It really is all about the noise level.
Betraying my total goddamn squareness, but if you want places to talk, aren't there coffeehouses in New York? Which are great for the purpose as long as you avoid open mic night?
I heartily endorse 18.
Hm, New York has a grillion good restaurants. One thing I love is the David Chang places. Noodle Bar for reasonable, Ssam Bar for a bit of a spend, and Ko if you are feeling fancy and are good at logging in at the exact right second to get reservations at a tiny restaurant.
I hate it when people who don't even live in my city know more about the cool hidden spots.
Pretty bold of Raines Law Room to open a fancy cocktail place right near the Flatiron Lounge.
We don't have to go to
Fresh Salt
To have a good time, no no.
We can dance and party
All night
And drink some cherry wine, yeah yeah.
20.2: I would love to go to Ssam Bar or Ko, but unfortunately my girlfriend is vegetarian and would thus starve. Is Noodle Bar actually worth it? The reviews I found were basically "good but not remarkable".
What is so mystifying about that song is that cherry wine (even if not a euphemism) is surely one of the most direct routes to taking your clothes off ever invented.
23: No! She should go! David Chang is all about accommodating vegetarians!
(Lies. All lies.)
I like Noodle Bar but acknowledge that it is maybe a little bit hit or miss. Like the ramen is problematically salty. The Momofuku restaurants are, though, truly not good for vegetarians, as you say. Lemme see if I can think of somewhere good for leaf-eaters and animal-eaters alike.
25: I'd forgotten until I looked at the menu recently that Chang made a big stink a few years ago about how much he hates vegetarians. Oh well.
Anybody been to Acme or Aquavit? I'm mostly looking for stuff I can't get out here (although part of me totally wants to go to Mission Chinese Food).
I always try to get old-school Italian or French food in NY, for similar can't-quite-get-that-here reasons. I've been to Aquavit a few times, although I think most recently 5 years ago, and it was really excellent. Easily satisfied the can't-get-that-here thing.
Josh, there's a fantastic vegetarian place called Dirt Candy in the East Village.
I'm pretty sure Aquavit is closed.
Wait it totally is not closed. Sorry about that. I liked it when I went.
30: Their website is still accepting reservations...
I've been to Aquavit, but that was maybe a decade ago.
It was good, Josh. You really missed out.
I haven't been since they switched chefs (which was a few years ago now), but Café Boulud is very good at feeding both vegetarians and people looking for duck and foie gras, etc.
Dirt candy is so good.
I haven't been to Aquavit in years, but while it had been tired for a long time, I hear from friends I trust that under the current chef it's as good as it's ever been.
Do not go to Pure Food and Wine.
Do go to Ten Bells and Terroir.
Also maybe a tapas/pintxos crawl hitting Txikito/El Quinto Pino/Tia Pol (which you could combine with a visit to the High Line).
37: I have a soft spot for Pure Food and Wine, but I would only ever go there in the summer when you can sit on their lovely patio and drink sangria. (Also, who wants to eat cold, or at best warm, food when it is cold out?)
Tia Pol is great but always packed.
Alas, I will only be getting to New York the next day. 24 hours too late!
41: We'll actually be in town until the 4th...
Based on my dinner last night, I can also highly recommend Empellon Cocina.
7: I believe I met many of you at The Ginger Man. It was a nice place, but once it filled up, there was no talking to anyone farther away than your elbow.
That was also a good shopping day for me. Damn I miss UNIQLO.
Definitely don't take a vegetarian to Fette Sau. I think the only thing on the menu I would eat was bread.
41, 42: Should we reschedule? I'd thought Ajay was coming to NY at the end of November, not the beginning.
Damn I miss UNIQLO.
I am super-excited that we finally have one here, but I'll probably make it the one in NYC before ours; it's been crazy busy since it opened. They had a tiny little pop-up store for a few months before the full opening, which only had maybe 5 things on sale, and it was still mobbed.
Saturday or Sunday is probably fine but I'm somewhat unlikely to schlepp to Fresh Salt on a weekend. It's like an hour away.
Well, yeah, same here; all the arguments in favor of Wednesday do still hold. But if Thursday worked better for everyone else, while I can't make it, it might be an improvement otherwise.
Saturday or Sunday probably better for me this time. Friday is very iffy.
I thought the point of considering rescheduling was to add Ajay, which would mean Saturday. Why do we need to mess with it otherwise?
53: Don't know, but they recently had a zeppelin flying around advertising their new SF location. They tried to fit so much on the side it was practically illegible at a normal viewing distance on a sunny day; I had to squint for some time even to see the brand name.
(First time I learned anything from a YouTube comment: the only comment on this video was from the airship proprietors identifying themselves, so I avoided calling it a blimp and found a better photo.)
52: Yeah, but I thought ajay was able to attend simply if it was later than Friday, which is why I mentioned Sunday as well, since you had only said you couldn't be there Saturday.
53: High-quality, stylish, relatively-inexpensive clothes. (Kind of "Japanese Gap", only more fashionable than that sounds.) Also good for slimmer folks.
55: Well, we leave mid-day on Sunday, so unless folks want to have breakfast it's probably not the best choice.
Ah, I see. Sorry for contributing to muddle.
58 yeah, me too. So what's it gonna be?
Wait, November 2nd now? OK, can't do that.
And, yes, I will be in NY at the end of November. Last week of...
What's the current thinking on this? Are we back to the OP's 11/2 @ FS?
And I though Botanica's backroom was loud.
If it doesn't happen the terrorists will have won. Didn't Blandings say he was still up for a meetup?
Blandings is UWS, yes? Anybody want to set up a competing Brooklyn meetup?
If it doesn't happen the terrorists oil companies will have won.
Lee just bought our airline tickets for NYC in December. I am so excited about meetup prospects, which I'm assuming is because you are so fantastic and not because my life is so pitiful.
I'm ordinarily in Brooklyn but not there now.
The city might be a little too disastermath for a meet-up.
Getting from Brooklyn to the UWS (and back) would be a huge pain since there's no subway service between downtown Brooklyn and 34th.
69.2, 70: Right. That said, if the two or so people whose locations and transportation options would make it feasible for them to join me and JM for a drink want to do something, we can certainly manage it.
71: Meet-up at the Marathon generators!
69 & 70 at least make me feel a bit better about our decision to give up on trying to make it to NYC. Still bummed to be missing y'all, though.
(BTW, does anybody remember where exactly the Flophouse was? It occurs to me that we may have been right near it recently.)