The Grey Guide

To cap off our weekend, we went down to the LES with some friends to catch Ernie Halter rock Rockwood Music Hall. This guy is quite the performer. He was onstage solo, and managed to be funny, entertaining AND have the audience coo when he sang his epic song about his wife (and soon to be born twin girls!). When his guitar quit on him, he moved right on over to the piano and then right back on over to the Ukulele for his grand finale. The best part was that he had taken requests for his set from Twitter earlier that day and it was a neat way to see someone incorporate online and offline like that. The venue itself is pretty great. Small and intimate, but not so crowded you'd get an elbow to the face. We lucked out with seats in the back on the bar stools, but even if you'd have to stand, there isn't much of a "bad" spot to hang out to watch a show. Tickets were reasonable at $10 and the acoustics were great. Two thumbs up. 

With a recommendation from foodie friend Bev, we tried JoeDoe for brunch early afternoon on Saturday. Duck is the dish d'jour there, and so we went all out with the Corned Duck Hash with duck eggs thrown in for good measure. The waiter cracked -- "get duck wild." I'm guessing he gets to say that a lot. I had the Bloody Mary which was fairly tasty and we rounded it all out with the Challah Bread French Toast which was amazing -- crispy outsides, mellow insides, not dense or soggy at all. The place itself is takes itself a little too seriously -- the menu instructs that you may NOT take photos inside the joint, and if you're going to share a plate they'll charge you an extra $10. However, they do rock an amazing early 90s hard rock soundtrack. We give it 1.5 thumbs up. 

The Freedom Party at Le Poisson Rouge was all in all, a great time. Despite a cover ($10 each, though ladies were meant to be free until midnight) and a mandatory coat check ($3 each), the dance floor was packed, the drinks were strong, and the music -- one 90's hit after another -- was awesome. Definitely worth it. 

To kick off the Best Burger category, we went with the much lauded off-menu Bash Burger at Lure. The burger is topped with caramelized onions and bacon jam (!). We ordered it to be cooked medium and it was pretty darn delicious, though I'm still holding out to name this one the best of the best.