Happy birthday to Moki, who’s handling getting older much better than yours truly. Moki and I have been friends since we first met at tennis camp in the 8th grade, and that was a long time ago.
I joined Moki and a few friends on Saturday night for a birthday dinner and drinks. Dinner was at Sala, a tapas restaurant on the Bowery.
I was still feeling full from a late lunch at Smokehouse Chili in New Rochelle (post to come later this week), but as is usually the case, all it took was Sangria and a few dishes to get the appetite revved up. Then I was back in the groove.
There wasn’t a bad dish in the bunch — we kicked off the meal with these creamy Serrano ham croquetas. Behind them you can see the fried goat cheese with honey and candied onions. I’ve expressed my love for goat cheese in previous posts, so that’s about as good as it gets for me. And somewhere in one of these pics was the tapas staple, shrimp in olive oil and garlic.
The potatoes with red pepper sauce were a hit.
So were the roasted portabella tostas.
We polished off another tosta, marinated pork loin with gruyere and piquillo peppers.
The Sangria was comfortably flowing.
“I could use one more dish,” said the birthday boy.
I agreed. We grabbed the menu and ordered one of the highlights of the night, grilled calamari in garlic, parsley, and red hot pepper sauce.
“Mmmm,” we all said.
Moki gushed, “This is maybe the best calamari I’ve ever had.”
Then Moki capped off the dinner by blowing out his birthday candle and letting us all dig into his chocolate dessert.
After dinner, we headed over to the way swanky Bowery Hotel for a drink in its luxurious lobby bar. As Moki put it, “I always think this is what the Titanic would have looked like.”
Technically we weren’t even allowed in the lobby bar — it’s meant for hotel guests only — but screw it, we were celebrating a birthday, and who was really going to stop us. A hotel employee told me I couldn’t take pictures, but not before I snapped this pic.
Manoj gave me a lesson in scotch/whiskey (I know nothing about scotch, except that it tastes like taking a bite out of an oak tree) by ordering me a Johnnie Walker Black Label on the rocks.
“It’s pretty oak-y, but it’s good,” I said, while nursing my drink and waiting for the ice to dilute it. That’s strong stuff.
Before we left, an extremely attractive blonde sat down on a couch with a group of five men.
“Doug, check out that woman over there. Is she famous?” someone asked. I tried to look over without staring. Who am I kidding, I was staring.
“No, I don’t think so. She’s really pretty though.”
She may not have been a celebrity, but that’s the sort of question that makes sense in The Bowery Hotel — it just looks like the kind of place where you’d see someone famous.
After leaving the hotel, we met up with more of Moki’s friends at Elizabeth Restaurant/Bar in Soho.
The rest is a bit of a blur…
Sala
344 Bowery
New York, NY 10012
212-979-6606
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Tags: sala, tapas, the bowery hotel