For the second year in a row, some friends and I got together for our Saturday afternoon matchbook hunt in New York City on Memorial Day weekend. And, again this year, we had good weather. Actually, we spent our whole afternoon in Greenwich Village between 14th Street and Houston. Our first stop was at The Meatball Shop (box) on Greenwich Avenue. We had meatballs and a chocolate float. Our second stop was at Fiddlesticks (lipstick box) where I had the Shepherds Pie for lunch. Next up was Gusto (box), a good place for an Italian beer on tap. From there, it was on to Sant Ambroeus (box), followed by Extra Virgin (box) and Sevilla, for hydration, some alcoholic, some non-alcoholic.
From there, we headed to Kingswood (box) for more liquid refreshment. We had good views of the Freedom Tower rising in lower Manhattan at various places in the Village. My wife and I plan to visit the memorial park later this year. Then, we opted for Babbo (box [with jester smoking a cigar]) for prosecco then on to Blue Hill (lipstick box) for appetizers. We stopped at the Mermaid Inn (full-length book) on MacDougal Street, but with a thirty-minute wait, we had to move on for the next course, settling for just a beer. More "hydration" at Market Table, then to the otheroom for another beer. Last May our last stop was at Crispo (box) but no matches were available. They said they did reorder. We were hoping that was the case, but we've all heard that before. Well, they did, so this was the place for a salad before catching my train at Penn Station.
This was an extremely good afternoon for matchboxes and matchbooks (and food, beer, and wine, too) in New York City.
