"Silver Bells, Silver Bells.......

It's Christmas Time In The City"

   Nothing is more fun than New York City at Christmastime! (Think of our    favorite Christmas movie ELF). FAO Schwartz is clearly the best Christmas  toy store ! We saw all the sights: the tree, decorations, used the restrooms inside Trump Tower. Then we tried to have a drink at The Plaza- voted the best business cocktail bar in NYC. Alas, it was closed due to a holiday party! What kind of Christmas spirit is it to keep people OUT of parties?! Not to worry- it turned out even better.

We started walking down 6th Avenue and saw a sign over Pazza Notte Restaurant that looked like this. How can you pass that up?  It's an old style bar with photos of famous celebrities going back to the '30s. There's a big center bar where we plunked ourselves down. And the dashing bartender handed us martini menus. There were about 10 martini choices. DD (designated driver) had just a beer, MA is a manhattan girl (who would have thought!) and The Mighty Thor and I shared two Cosmopolitans. Then we had two Pomegranate Martinis- Thor's must have, but not my favorite (sorry). The exciting part was that our bartender, when he made other martinis for people, poured a shot of each flavor for us to taste! Mango, Lichi,  Peach, Chocolate Espresso, and best of all, I highly recommend, The French Martini: Vodka, Chambord, pineapple juice, and a topper of champagne. Definitely try it!
Pazza Notte also has an open pizza kitchen, which was right behind out seats. The sight and smell of the hand made Italian-style pizza haunted us all night. We had one of those hand-tossed, random geometry, real Italian pizzas. Vegetarian, of Course, for MA. It was so good! Note to self: Pizza and Martinis go very well together. The bartender was very busy. It was early on a Monday night and all the young suits had just gotten off work. We were lucky to get barside seats. This was a great people watching spot!  Before we left we had to take a look at the celebrity photos on the wall. Nobody there can figure out who that is in the 1935 photo of  Obama.

In true Thor style, we continued our Texas Three Step in Manhatten.

Next stop was The Heartland Brewery on 41st. heartland brewery  To my dismay it is actually quite the chain within NYC! It was packed full of happy reveler types. We got a pub table near the bar. Their beers are pretty good (see my chart- if I can get in on line, that is). It's a variety from lights and wheat all the way to stout. Something for everybody. Of course, I got the flight. The bartenders do give tastes in little tiny sampler mugs. One of which accidentally came home to Houston in my purse. Then had to be mailed back to our DD who asked me to hold it as a stocking stuffer for MA.
 They have the usual bar menu fare- nachos, wings, sliders. All good but not unique.  When we left people were clambering for our table.

The final stop was just luck. McHale's Pub, right next to our parking garage. Again, a seat at the bar. And everyone else seated there seemed to be regulars. At least everyone I spoke to (friendly bunch) lived within a block or two of the place. The bartenders seemed to know them well. Next to me was a man who was a little worried about his son, who is 30, a lawyer, and unmarried. If I had had one more drink in me I just may have given him my daughter's phone number (Sorry A). Instead, we left it up to fate and when he left we said "see you sometime in the future, when our kids introduce us to each other!". In his place sat a young financial something or other. Mid-20s. He's really from South Carolina but has come up to NY to seek his fortune and live in a tiny one room walk up. Tiny.  Thor had better luck than me. He sat next to Gwyneth (P.) and Molly (R.)- named by their similarity to other famous faces. They were all bubbly. Actors, actually. Molly had even gone on tour with a play and come to Houston. She did mention that Houston has one of the better theater districts in the country outside of NY.
But better yet..... they were eating macaroni and cheese at the bar! Late night drinking meets luscious baked home made macaroni and cheese. That set us off again on another round of bar food- veg nachos, baked brie, and mac'n'cheese. Heaven.  Oddly enough, after all that crazy food and combinations of drinks, we all felt fine!

The ride home went smoothly if you don't count that we crossed the George Washington bridge twice (running the toll). No matter, it was a rental.