The morning began with my trip to Starbucks. It’s a brief walk just a couple of blocks away. I usually use the walk to check on the car. Especially if we don’t get a good spot near the hotel.

Once we’re we somewhat caffenated we headed out to find some breakfast. However, there was a wrinkle in our plan as it was a weekday and that meant street cleaning. In NYC they clean one side of the street one day and the other the next. This means that for a couple of hours in the morning the parking gets worse as it becomes half of what it was.

We had to move the car. So we got in and started driving around looking for a new place to park on the other side of the street. This unfortunate process ended up taking two hours. Two hours of driving up and down the streets in a 10 block area. It was terrible. I also learned that New Yorkers don’t believe in turning right on a red light as a guy yelled at me.

Driving for 2 hours can work up an appetite. We needed to find something and my first choice for brunch was packed with a 2 hour wait time. The other place that came up on my search was 5 Napkin Burger. They were right around the corner and sat us in 10 minutes.

The food was good and the place was pretty neat. The only downside was the amount of kids that were there. It was some holiday where kids weren’t in school so they were all out for lunch with grandparents and whomever.

We had awhile to go before our dinner reservations so we went to one of Maura’s favorite stores, Verameat. This time not in Brooklyn we went to their flagship store in the East Village. One of the goals with this stop was getting a Seinfeld pin that Maura had seen online.

Mission accomplished.

While in the East Village we decided to try to get into the speak easy that we missed our reservation for the previous year. They don’t open until happy hour so we had some time to kill and wanted something to eat. Near the speak easy is a coffee shop/cafe that had some good coffee called The Crooked Tree. It was a little hip spot and got out us out of the cold for bit.

After that it was time for us to go to our reservation. You have to call earlier that day and they give you a time to be there. It’s a very formal, strict policy. Which is odd since the entry way is through a phone booth in a hot dog shop. There was a line going out the door of people waiting to for their turn to use the phone booth. I wondered what the people that were just eating hot dogs were thinking was going on.

The line moved rather quickly and we got inside and a seat near the door. Please Don’t Tell or PDT as they like to shorten their name is a cool, underground bar that serves a nice blend of cocktails. I had two drinks and was feeling pretty good.

From their it was time to bust a move to Harlem. Our dinner reservation was quickly approaching so we hopped an Uber and shot north. There was another place I wanted to stop by as well while we were in Harlem. It had been on my radar for a couple of years and we just never came north.

I don’t remember where I heard of Mess Hall but I know that I liked the look and idea of it. A craft beer and cocktail bar in Harlem sounds like an interesting place to me. I had a beer and a pickle back. A pickle back is a shot of whiskey with a shot of pickle brine. Much better tasting than you would think.

Dinner time.

We thought we were ready for what the Red Rooster had for us. We weren’t quite. The food was amazing. The environment was alive and we were having a great time. It might be a new spot on our ‘must visit’ list. I know we’ll be back.