Manhattan. We Have Landed!

I love Manhattan!! Home of Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Wigstock, the Meatpacking District and Sex & The City. Come on, what gay man wouldn't?

So, after years of trying to convince Boo into a jaunt in New York City, I finally got him onto the plane for a quick visit to the Big Apple. Naturally, our plane was delayed in Chicago for 2-3 hours. So, all my planning to arrive in Manhattan early enough to enjoy our first evening was all for naught when we finally arrived at our Upper West Side B&B apartment around 10.30 that night.

We did not test the waters to see if NYC is truly the city that never sleeps. After a quick settling in and bite to eat, it was off to bed in preparation for the days and nights to come.

We did, however, keep a brisk pace on our first day. There were scrambled eggs and smoked salmon at the legendary Barney Greengrass to start. No wine though. Then it was off to the first of the trip's museums. That evening, we met up with Boo's old family friend, Berra Yogi. Both Boo and I (separately), and various friends of our's, have been treated to Ms. Yogi's famous tours of her home town, but this was our first time together. First stop was Union Square and Greenwich Village, where we dove right into that great New York tradition - pizza.

John's Pizzeria has been serving up pie for near on 80 years and is well-known as not being a by-the-slice joint. It is known for line-ups and occasional celebrity spottings though. Despite Berra Yogi's protestations that the evening's pizzas didn't live up to expectations since the tomatoes just weren't ripe enough, Boo and I had no problem eating more than our share of our two pizzas.

84. 2007 Arboreto Montepulciano d'Abruzzo (DOC - Italy)

It seemed natural to order an Italian with pizza and this was an easy choice - since I think it was the only red wine sold by the bottle. The number of choices didn't matter in the least as the wine works exactly as it was supposed to. I don't think that this wine is available back home in Vancouver, but that might be because it's all going to NYC. When I Googled the wine, it seemed like most sites were all related to the Five Boroughs. It even got a mention as a perennial best seller by the NY Times.

I'm not sure I enjoyed seeing the price you could pick it up for in the local stores (under $10) - considering what we paid for it in the restaurant. Welcome to New York City dining, I suppose. I didn't know that then, however, and we did have our first bottle from the Big Apple.

I was hoping for many more.