sloane and i recently made the trek up 95 to the big city, and after $38 in tolls (one way) over the span of only 200 miles we made it. we arrived late night to the remnants of a back patio feast, courtesy of our good friends and hosts nikki and mateo, who know how to wine and dine guests like no other.
in the bowels of the fort mchenry tunnel, our first of many tolls
aftermath of the dinner party, mike making sure there is enough sugar in the berger cookies.
it turns out i still hate whisky, even when it has such a classy name
space was limited in the apartment, so i gladly volunteered to crash in the garden out back. pretty sure this was my first urban hanging experience, and it was a surprisingly quiet back there
we ventured out into a warm and sunny brooklyn saturday morning. nursing our hangovers and ready to day drink and eat some food. the women went shopping while matteo and i went for booze down the street, then we all headed for red hook and some lunch.
gnomes at a bar
the lovelies at the crab shack
day drinking
the lovely miss sloane
day drinking leads to day napping in parks
nikki's find at the thrift store
we stayed in red hook for the afternoon, and had an early dinner at the hometown bbq, so we wouldn't miss the brisket - which sells out early. this place is delicious. there are no images of the food 'cause we were to busy eating it.
not to be confused with fiery ron's home team bbq
not quite as good as jb's upstate vinegar gold nugget mustard sauce, but close.
scenery in red hook
random street toilet on the way to the free ikea bus
after our fill of bbq and booze, we jumped on the free shuttle from ikea, which was right down the road, and headed back to park slope to check out nikki's new place of employment. she does marketing work for gotham greens, which is a pretty sweet company that uses rooftops in brooklyn and queens to grow veggies. we visited the newest farm on top of the whole foods in park slope. it is an interesting contrast here, a whole foods market with a sustainable greenhouse on the roof, next to a body of water that is part of the gowanus canal which - as you may or may not know - is a superfund site. they use hydroponics to grow different types of lettuce, basil, bok choy, arugula and tomatoes - it's quite impressive.
outside the green house
whole foods and the gowanus canal in park slope
i have never seen so many perfect plants together in one place, its pretty amazing
thousands of unblemished basil plants
beautiful produce
we finished the night in prospect park, listening to some music
sunday morning mateo made us a feast of home made pizza for brunch - it was amazing, as you can see below. we ate, packed up and spent the next 5.5 hours in the car fighting traffic and paying tolls on 95. we had a pretty great weekend, aside from the traffic on the way home.
pizza on the patio
this is where the magic happens....
a chef's art