So yesterday, January 17th was my better half's birthday. We had a nice quiet celebration with family, had a delicious italian dinner and some yummy ice cream cake after. We were slightly comatose by nighttime but we were happy and then the JETS won! What a Sunday! I slept like a baby and so did he!
Today we decided to extend his birthday celebation in conjunction with Martin Luther King Day by having lunch at Blue Ribbon Bakery & Cafe on 35 Downing Street in the West Village (first photo, outside corner view). We arrived at about 1:30 in the afternoon. It was busy when we got there with 3 couples waiting ahead of us and some people eating at the bar. Our preference is to sit downstairs because its more private, much cozier with the smaller dining rooms and brick walls so we waited 30 minutes for a table. We took seats at the bar and ordered up some bloody mary's(second and third photos). WOOHOO, were they spicey! Got horseradish anyone???
We were pretty hungry after 20 minutes and eventually got seated. On the way downstairs I spied a big plate of fried chicken with mashed potatoes, gravy and greens and my choice was made before we even got the menu! It's been a long time since I indulged in fried chicken and this looked too good to pass up. I did glimpse at the menu once were seated just to make sure there wasn't something on there I would rather get but the chicken was engrained in my brain. For the record the greens were Collard Greens. My better half ordered the Grilled Steak sandwich cooked medium(sixth photo). It comes with horseradish cream, tomato and onion rings on ciabatta.
The plate of fried chicken was pretty big (fifth photo)and our waiter probably had doubts that I, a petite female of small stature would have a big enough appetite to finish the whole plate. He guessed wrong! If there's one thing my friends and family know about me, it is that I do NOT eat like a bird. I can eat! I would have included an "after" picture of the descimation of my meal but I'll leave that to the imagination. The fried chicken was not only delicious it was crispy on the outside, moist on the inside and not greasy. It's served with a side of honey for dipping, which I thought was a nice touch because with the salted collard greens, the crisp chicken and honey you get a little bit of sweet and salty altogether. The mashed potatoes were creamy and simply delicious.
I didn't bother tasting the steak sandwich off his plate because I wanted him to enjoy all of it, which he said he did. I did pick at a couple of the onion rings, needless to say, they were yums! We even ate a sampling of the bread and butter that accompanied our meal. Not that we weren't full just that we had to taste it. The bread was great...fresh crusty outside with nice nooks and crannies inside. We didn't order any additional alcohol or dessert because we would have needed a nap!
The total cost was $70.17 before tip and not including our bloody mary's. Not too bad!
(Fourth photo: large metal ice bucket with opened bottles of wine chilling, view of upstairs dining area in the background)
We started walking east on Downing Street and noticed a handwritten sign and colored baloons right outside a cellar door which read "Come in and get a 10 minute massage for $4". It turned out to be a chiropratic office so as a fun, spontaneous treat we went in, filled out a basic questionaire about our general physical health and then got our 10 minute massages. We each added an extra $4 so they would turn on the stretching bench (not the technical term for it). It's basically a massage bench in which the lower half below your waist moves, kind of like it's bucking! Yeah sounds weird but it works great at stretching the lower portion of your spinal column. It felt great! I could've fallen asleep but the masseuse kept me chatting.
Afterwards we did some quick shopping in the Bloomingdales men's department for a nice winter puffy jacket and we called it a day and went home. A good way to end the day!
