NYC Blogger Brunch & Birthday Weekend Recap

Hi, all! What a weekend. I will start from Sunday and work my way backwards.

Sunday: NYC Blogger Meetup Brunch

Melissa from FitnessNYC has been wonderful in organizing these meetups! We met at Counter, a vegetarian restaurant and organic wine bar. The menu looked delicious! I got there way too early because I am insane when it comes to time and have this ridiculous fear of being late. I walked around a little to kill time. While walking, I spotted two people who looked a lot like Heather and Mark from HangryPants. I wasn’t sure it was them, but I couldn’t stop staring. Then I saw the guy take out a bar and start eating it. I figured it wasn’t them since they were going to the brunch, so why would Mark be eating a bar? Well, it did turn out to be them — and Heather even posted a picture of Mark eating a bar in the exact place I saw them!

I meet up with Missy and we get to Counter and sit down at the table. I’m socially awkward so it was a little hard for me to make conversation, but after a delicious Sangria I felt better. I also met some of the girls at the dinner last week which helped. Find more pictures from the brunch here.

 

The waitress — the only waitress working in the restaurant — came to take our orders. Although I had my eye on the french toast, (French Toast a delicious vegan twist on classic french toast with banana flambé), Bethenny’s Naturally Thin words were echoing in my mind, for the following reasons:

Your diet is a bank account: The day before the brunch was my birthday, and I had two cupcakes and shared a molten chocolate cake with the boy. Following this idea, french toast wouldn’t be the smartest choice. It is all about balance.

Downsize Now *and* Cancel your Membership to the Clean Plate Club: I was hungry. There is no way I was going to be able to eat only half or even three quaters of the french toast. Also…

Know Thyself: I know myself. I know downsizing wouldn’t be something I could do on this day — so I simply ordered something lighter.

So I decided to go with something else that looked delicious! A goat cheese, spinach and kalamata olive Frittata (Frittata Du Chèvre eggs, goat cheese, spinach & kalamata olives with mesclun & home fries).

I LOVE goat cheese so I was still pretty excited about this choice. We all place our orders; I asked for no spinach in the frittata because of my GI problems. and a few minutes later the waitress comes back out. They don’t have any goat cheese; they only have swiss. Do we want something else?

I channeled Bethenny again. Bethenny would say the only way I would be satisfied is to get something I really wanted. I decided half the french toast would satisfy me more than an egg dish I didn’t really want. So I told the waitress I would like the french toast instead. And she said…  “We only had one order of french toast today and someone already ordered it.” Um. What?

A restaurant with maybe 10 brunch items on the menu doesn’t have 2 of them? On a day we had a large reservation so they knew to expect us? Keep in mind the restaurant was pretty empty aside from us. They couldn’t make sure they had everything on the menu?

I decided to go with the frittata with swiss cheese. I told the waitress I would take the swiss cheese, and reminded her that I did not want spinach. She said no problem and left.

We waited. And waited. And waited. Gradually some of the food starts to come out. We waited and waited some more. Finally the waitress brings out my food and she proudly announced “here is your frittata with spinach, no cheese!” I told her that I did want cheese but I can’t eat spinach. She said she was sorry and took it away.

More waiting. And waiting. Finally I get my food — and it has GOAT CHEESE on it! Strange, since they said they didn’t have any. I couldn’t even dig in yet because some people still didn’t get their food! Finally all the food was out and I took a huge bite of my omelet. And I tasted a familiar taste. And I look in it — lo and behold, there is lots of spinach!

Now if I remember correctly, I sent it back the last time because there was spinach in it. I explained to the waitress at that time that I couldn’t eat spinach — so what did she tell the people in the kitchen? Why did they think I sent the first one back? And as we at the table remarked, they had no idea this meal would solicit 15 food blog reviews!

So I call the waitress over and tell her, again, that I simply cannot have spinach. She apologized and said she would get me the right order. Someone else came over to me and told me my meal would be comped. I felt a little better, but I was hungry! Everyone else had their food and was eating. I was waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Everyone else finished their food. I was waiting. I decided that if the food didn’t come, I wouldn’t say anything — I would rather just go home and eat with the boy at this point. Eventually, though, my food did come.

And the order was still wrong.

There was no spinach this time — but this time the frittata was egg whites, which I didn’t ask for. I wasn’t about to complain again and I was starving, so I ate it. And it wasn’t that good. And I wasn’t satisfied.

Then I had a taste of Danielle’s french toast (she is the one who got the last order!) and Shane’s pancakes and I felt much better.

So even though Counter had horrible service and just okay food, I had a great time with the bloggers. I wouldn’t ever go back there — but I don’t want Melissa to feel bad, having picked it. She had no way to know our experience would turn out like this! I still had a great time regardless — and I used the money I saved on brunch to spring for a cab back uptown to the boy’s, where I got some much needed rest. Brunch really wiped me out! Also, a big thank you to Sarah from Tales of Expansion for her delicious cookies and Melissa for her bars and freebies!

Saturday: My birthday

Saturday was pretty low key. The boy brought out a delicious red velvet cupcake in the morning for me. I said, “Oh, red velvet!” and he said, “Yeah. You knew that? Is it a known thing?” I said, “Of course it is! You never heard of red velvet cake?” and he said, “Nope! I thought the bakery made up the name. I just got it because it looked nice.”

It was so good! This picture above isn’t mine — mine looked even better!

We did some errands during the day, including a quick stop in to see the boy’s adorable niece and nephew, where I had another cupcake that they made for me using funfetti cake mix! Mmmm. I also jogged on the treadmill for 30 minutes, which felt really great. By this point we were pressed for time and I had to go get ready for dinner at the Russian Tea Room!

The Russian Tea Room was beautiful. I can’t even begin to describe the decor and adornments, but I do suggest that everyone go there at least one time in their life! The seats were also the comfiest restaurant seats I have ever sat in. Then again, when you are paying these prices they better be!

We shared a delicious appetizer: Goat Cheese And Wild Mushroom Blinchiki – chestnut crepe filled with mixed mushrooms and melted onions with a mulberry and pomegranate reduction.

It was heavenly!

For my main course I got Kulebiaka – salmon wrapped pastry with slow cooked onions, roasted mixed baby beets, and a red beet reduction, topped with red caviar. I didn’t have the pastry part of it, but the red beet reduction was sweet and delicious! The salmon was very flavorful too. The boy got Chicken Tabaka – flattened porcini and truffle marinated poussin with butternut squash mousseline kohlrabi and wild mushrooms. For dessert we shared Wild Chocolate Mi-cuit – chocolate cake with a molten center, pistachio ice cream and raspberry syrup. I loved it! The chocolate was so rich and tasted like dark chocolate. The combination of the molten center (I love mushy consistencies in my desserts!) with the pistachio ice cream was perfect!

After we ate, we went down to the gift shop and looked at all the interesting Russian pieces. It was fascinating! We wanted to go to the top floor to see the tree of faberge eggs, but it was closed off for a private party. All in all, a great birthday!

Friday: Tapas and drinks

The night before my birthday, I celebrated with my closest friends and family for delicious tapas and sangria at Xunta.

I wanted to keep it small this year, so it was just 3 of my closest friends and my cousin. And, of course, the boy and other significant others.

We were all squished at a table and it was hard to hear across to the other side with the loud music, but it was still very fun! The waitress didn’t want to take our orders so she gave us a pen and paper and told us to write down what we want ourselves. Uhhh.. isn’t it her job to write it down? Here is a picture of Missy and her guy writing their orders down.

We all ordered some really great tapas. The highlight — and the reason I wanted to go to Xunta in the first place — bacon wrapped dates!

  

MMMMMMMMMMM. That is garlic shrimp behind them. And the boy got a Strawberry Shortcake! He tried to order dessert from the waitress, who told him they don’t have any but directed him to a bakery next door. I realized what he was doing when out of nowhere he jumped out of his seat, ran up to the waitress and started talking to her.

A strange person arrived selling plastic merchandise. Missy’s guy decided to make a purchase from this odd character. He got us these light up necklaces but after we put them on we realized they were light up Jesus necklaces! Since we are Jewish, we decided to trade them in for light-up sunglasses!

  

I wanted to include a picture of me and the boy but he is very into his internet privacy, so here is me and a yellow blob. Next to that is me with my best friend Rae.

   

It was so nice to see all my friends and my cousin! I had a really great night — and a fabulous 26th birthday weekend!

Also, the snuggie is crap it already has a hole and I wore it maybe 3 times! And congrats to Jen from PriorFatGirl who is featured in this Star Tribune article.

Thanks to everyone for all your birthday wishes!