Saturday Fun Day

Day 31 of the T-90 Project:

Going to see a comedy show was on my list of things to do before I left and I got to see two: one professional and one amateur (three if you count the late night karaoke disaster that was Sing Sing this past Saturday). It doesn't get any better than that!

My friend BYOWino was taking a course at the Upright Citizen's Brigade in Chelsea and his class had a performance a few Saturdays ago. As my friends often like to do, we turned this into an excuse to day drink. Fashionista rallied a crew to meet at her apartment for some beverages at 11 a.m., but I decided I wanted a morning to myself so I could run and do some laundry before the show. Fashionista, LittleMissSunshine and JerseyBoy had some roadies for me when I got there which I was very grateful for.

The class was split into two groups. Each performed for about 30 minutes. BYOWino was in the second (and what I think was the stronger group) of the two. I was thoroughly impressed at his bravery and willingness to participate in the daunting task of improvising skits in front of a live audience. I don't think I could ever do it. Congrats, BYOWino, on a great performance! You rocked it!

After the comedy show we went to The Frying Pan where we drank for a few hours and then met up with our friend RugbyRat. He was taking us to Todd English's new brunch spot Juliet Supperclub.

I knew nothing of the place apart from it was just opening, one of RugbyRat's friends was a promoter and he'd been invited to come. We walked in and I was horrified. We were not on any list to speak of, "UHNTZ UHNTZ UHNTZ!" was blaring and the circular tables along the sparkly mosaic wall were filled with eager, scantily clad club-goers. It wasn't even four o'clock. RugbyRat's friend was nowhere to be found so we walked all the way inside to the back with eyes following us like hawks follow their prey.

A tall brunette lingering at the bar was decked out in pasty white makeup and some lacy, bejeweled get up. She looked like a cross between Courtney Love and Betty Boop. At first I thought she was a transvestite who had lost her way. Then the music started and she began to bat her angel-like wings of feathers over and across her body like they do at Le Moulin Rouge or in Vegas.

"Where the hell are we?!" Nobody said a word as we just sat and stared in disbelief and awkward amazement.

"I think they're trying to be The Box," said Fashionista.

Yup.

We were eventually seated, but not before Courtney Boop and her big eyes stripped down to nothing but fringe hanging from her nipples and she twirled her boobs so the fringe flew in a circular motion.

"Get me out of here!"

Poor RugbyRat was mortified and we finally ended up sitting down. We couldn't wait to eat and get the heck out of this place. We were definitely too old for the daytime club scene. I guess English was trying to bring back the Merkato 55 theme of clubbing during the daytime and over brunch. Bagatelle does this too, but after this experience, I had no desire to try it.

I ordered a vegetarian Benedict, BYOWino ordered waffles and Fashionista split the burger with LittleMissSunshine. I had a weak moment after hearing Fashionista, "This is one of the best burgers I've ever had in the city. Mona, you have to take a bite. Do you want a small bite? Just do it."

I thought about my not eating meat for half a second before I gobbled up a good mouthful of the burger. Wow. It was one of the juiciest, richest chunks of burger I had ever tasted. She may be right.

After brunch, Fashionista and I had about an hour to kill before we had to head to Brooklyn for our cooking class at Brooklyn Fare. TheDude had mentioned this to us over Fat Tuesday Dinner Club many months ago and Fashionista invited me to go along with her.

I knew the day was going to be a marathon and looking back I'm not sure how I made it through. After Brooklyn we had to come back to the city for a friend's engagement party. What in the --?

The cooking class was less a cooking class, more an observe and eat class. Fashionista and I were surrounded by a dozen or so people who you'd drown out with earphones if you got stuck next to them on a plane. They were networking and chatting and asking questions constantly. We, however, after a day of partying and being in the sun, wanted less socializing and more food. Our chef, Cesar Ramirez, did not disappoint. He wasn't that chatty either. He prepared our 15-course meal (each course had one bite on it per plate) in a quietly focused manner and I loved it.

It's BYOB and I highly recommend bringing a couple bottles of wine. They serve mostly fish, though there were a couple of meat dishes which I handed to Fashionista. My biggest complaint was there were about four bottles of olive oil on the shelf and I was dying to dip the bread into a plate of it but Ramirez' partner refused to grant me my olive oil dip. Odd.

After dinner, Senor Ramirez walked us to the door and thanked us for being such enthusiastic patrons. Fashionista and I laughed and expressed our gratitude to him. Fashionista mentioned TheDude, our dinner club and Ramirez claimed my blog sounded familiar. What a small world.

After Brooklyn we headed to Back Fence -- my favorite sing-along bar in Manhattan. We played some air guitar, sang some Bruce and I finally called it a night on this jam-packed day. I think I covered about five days of T-90 in one and I was zonked.