Late Night at Caliente Cab

This evening after work I joined a colleague for a late dinner in Murray Hill at Caliente Cab Co., a Mexican cafe and bar on 3rd Avenue. We were wandering through the area at around 11:00 or so, and this place seemed fairly busy with lots of diners even at that hour (always a good sign -- much better than the intriguing open-but-deserted Tibetan place we passed by in the previous block).

The specialty there seemed to be the enormous frozen drinks served in tall parfait glasses. Accouterments including skewers of various fruits and other garnishes provided additional flair. Margaritas dominated the selections of course, but they had other tropical standbys like coladas and daiquiris as well. All the bounty that could spring from a bar-grade slushie machine.

Speaking for myself, the tall fruity drinks (and indeed they were tall) seemed geared more toward the Venus than Mars, and so although it shows a lack of imagination I stuck with the Dos Equis. My friend on the other hand went all out with the Pina Colada, which was such a generous quantity that he was able to continue drinking it through the entire meal, appetizer, entree, and dessert.

For the appetizer we had the fried onion rings, although they were called "Caliemarie" on the menu and were a bit more rubbery than usual. Still, they were competently fried in a spicy batter that had the desired effect of rendering the batter's underlying adherent irrelevant.

The garden burritos I had were not bad, filled simply with cheese and a variety of steamed vegetables.

The most disappointing thing was the basket of corn chips and salsa. Perhaps I have just dined at too many good Mexican places lately, but after the chips I have enjoyed at Dos Caminos and Zarela, just to name a couple, the generic foodservice-grade chips seem stale and tasteless, and the thin watery salsa didn't help things any.

Moving Day v2

This morning we enjoyed breakfast in the Club Room of the Affinia 50 hotel at 50th and 3rd Avenue. We were lucky enough to stay as guests of our moving company, in acknowledgement of their responsibility in the scheduling mishap that caused our scheduled household goods delivery to be delayed until today.

Luckily even with the complications of the long holiday weekend we were able to get everything cleared with our new building, so with luck we will have better luck today than yesterday.

The breakfast offering at the Affinia was a reasonable continental buffet, with assorted fresh fruit arranged in bowls large and small, and even some arranged on wooden skewers. There was an array of miniature pastries including little donuts, tiny croissants, and an variety of small muffins. English muffins on the other hand were conventionally sized.

Of course there were also cereals, toast, and yogurt, and even a container of hard-boiled eggs. Beverages included coffee, tea, juices, and milk.

The Club Room was set up to simulate a series of living-room-type seating areas, with lots of big padded chairs, sofas, and various side, coffeee, and end tables. Not very efficient on space, but luckily it wasn't very crowded this morning.

Moving Day

Today is moving day, so before going over to meet the movers at our new place we visited Morning Star Cafe on 2nd Avenue to make sure we have enough energy to last through all the stress of moving. We have been to several of these diner-type places since moving here, and this one is fairly typical, with a wide-ranging menu of diverse options that make it hard to believe that a single kitchen can possibly turn out an edible version of all the various choices. Breakfast is pretty straightforward, though, and that's when we usually end up at this kind of establishment.

One thing that impressed me here was the quality of the fruit salad they offer for breakfast. Usually what I get is a fairly unremarkable medley of melon (cantaloupe + honeydew), a couple of grapes, perhaps some pineapple, and then possibly a small quantity of more "premium" items like berries of some kind. I get the feeling that a large container of this preparation is made up and the beginning of the week from which individual portions are doled out (no pun intended) in ever lessening condition of quality until the beginning of the week rolls around again.

At Morning Star, though, the fruit salad seemed freshly made, at the very least this morning. And far from the usually heavy reliance on melon, this one was largely composed of nectarine and kiwi. There were also the usual suspects melon, pineapple, and grapes but combination and ratio was distinctive enough that I will remember it and return just on that basis. Little J rated their Belgian waffle with a thumbs up, and that will be the key recommendation allowing us to return as a family.

Woolworth Center

This afternoon was the long-awaited closing on our midtown condo purchase, which took place at our attorney's office in the Woolworth Center. The experience of purchasing real estate in New York has made similar transactions in Seattle and elsewhere seem like they have all the formality and structure of buying a set of hubcaps at a roadside flea market.

The experience we are used to is that the closing is a non-event. Usually we would go to the closing ourselves and meet with a bank representative whose only responsibility is to make sure that we sign all the documents in the right places.

Not so here. At this closing, all parties were actually present in the same room, including attorney and broker for both buyer and seller, as well as the bank representatives. As is apparently the custom, we all sat around a large table in a configuration that had us and our attorney on one side, the seller and their attorney (our "adversaries") on the opposite, and the neutral bank and real estate transfer representatives on either end. Makes sense for an important witness deposition in a product liability case, but it's the first time we have experienced it when purchasing a home.

Even more significant was the fact that they all seemed actually to be working out the final details of the agreement and monetary transfers, as opposed to witnessing a mere formality. Of course there was the usual marathon signing of documents, but at the same time that was going on there was simultaneous negotiation of important final terms and resolution of loose ends. I definitely had a stronger feeling than ever before that everyone was earning their respective commissions and fees.

Certainly the fact that the process here relies heavily on attorneys rather than solely on real estate brokers as is mostly the case elsewhere seems to make a difference. The lawyers add a dose of gravity and attention to detail combined with a deliberate approach that must be related to the fact that they don't receive a percentage-based commission (sorry, real estate brokers, you know it's true) that change the character of the whole operation.

In any case, after a long afternoon of alternating furious activity and waiting for reports of wire transfers, we were at last successful in getting the keys to our new place.

CPK Redux

This evening we found out that there was a hiccup in our pending real estate purchase, and so we had to pick a quick place to meet and talk. Since I was coming from work, for the sake of expediency we found ourselves at California Pizza Kitchen for the second night in a row. Tonight it served as our informal war room, from which my wife was placing and receiving calls furiously throughout dinner. I believe we all enjoyed the same entrees we had the night before, so truly it was an opportunity to compare and contrast service and food preparation on a very detailed level. All things considered, I would rate Tuesday night CPK better than Monday night CPK. The food preparation was nearly indistinguishable between the two, but the service was definitely better during the Tuesday version. Almost certainly this was due to Monday's inexperienced waiter as opposed to Tuesday's veteran.

Grand Central

After finishing our pizza we decided to walk the 20 or so blocks home rather than take the subway. On the way we stopped at Grand Central Station to see if there were any stores still open at 8:15. Banana Republic is our CPK of clothing, so for the moment it is still hard to resist the temptation to go in whenever we pass by one, which in Manhattan seems to be about every six blocks.

The Usual Pizza

We met after work at the California Pizza Kitchen near my office. This is nothing remarkable; in fact I have a feeling tha this pattern will be repeated many times over the coming months and years. Despite the fact that CPK was such a staple of our diet in Seattle, even after finding that there were locations close to both my new office and home I figured that New York has so many great pizza options that we would never want to go there. Alas, the tastes of a five-year-old are not easily changed, and the allure of the Hawaiian pizza too powerful.

On a follow-up note from a previous post, tonight when we ordered the waiter asked explicitly whether we wanted Canadian bacon or pepperoni on the Hawaiian pizza. The waiter was obviously new, so I have to assume that the difficulty we experienced last week was enough to motivate a change in policy and training.

Chaos at Whole Foods

We found out when we got to Whole Foods Market at Columbus Circle that this wasn't going to be the tranquil, relaxing Sunday evening shopping experience that we were used to in Redmond. I have been to this location a couple of times before, but apparently not when all of Manhattan is trying to pick up a bite to take home for dinner at the same time they pick up their cookie and snack provisions for the week. It was quite a scene, with the express line snaking all around the store in such a circuitous fashion that they assigned a dedicated employee to hold up a sign and mark the end of the line.

Luckily we were able to pick out the items we needed fairly quickly (mostly items to pack in J's lunch for the week). After all of the jostling in the aisles, we were relieved to see that the checkout lines were remarkably efficient, and we were through to the outside in no time.

Dinner at Time Warner Center

Finding ourselves in need of some groceries to last us through the week, we decided that none of the grocers in our neghborhood charged enough, and therefore set out for the Whole Foods Market in the Time Warner Center. Since we hadn't eaten yet and were all a bit hungry after a long day, we decided to give Landmarc a try (they always say that you shouldn't shop for groceries on an empty stomach).

The lowlight of the meal was apparently the bread, which my wife pronounced to be The Worst Bread Ever. I thought this was an unnecessarily harsh judgement, especially since I actually liked the bread. Particularly the crust, which I found to be pleasantly chewy but my wife described as "flavorless except for the disgusting burnt taste." Ah well, we agreed to disagree.

Other than that the meal was uneventful, except for the fact that little J was thrilled with the cotton candy they offered for dessert. In addition, he really liked the restrooms, which were semi-concealed by a cylindrical antechamber.

Based on J's judgement we might return, but it will take some convincing for my wife.

Rug Shopping

This afternoon's challenge was to see if we could acquire some rugs for the condo we are moving into, ideally to have in place before our furniture arrives next week. We chose to start with ABC Carpet & Home on Broadway, for which my wife had seen some online recommendations.

Indeed they had an impressive selection, although I don't envy the guys whose job it is to keep flipping through the massive piles of 10x14 rugs at the whim of casual shoppers.

We wound up puttiing one large rug on hold, but also found a nice bargain hallway runner in the downstairs remnant area that we took home with us.

Lunchtime on Sunday

Walking around looking for furnishings, we stopped in a Zaro's bakery on Broadway. J was coaxed into a toasted cheese sandwich, which I have to admit didn't look that appetizing; they had them pre-made in the deli case and toasted one for us after we ordered. Unfortunately the toasting they gave it was only enough to make the cheese slimy, with not even a hint of browning on the bread. J didn't seem to mind, though. The bread they made it on was pretty soft and squishy, which made it more kid-friendly than the crusty bread he usually gets.

Breakfast at Barney Greengrass

This morning for breakfast we headed out pretty early to go to Barney Greengrass on the west side. I have been there once before, but this is my first time with the famliy. We arrived at about 8:30AM and already the small dining room was almost full; we got the last table that would hold more than two. It was good that we didn't wait until later; clearly it was only getting busier.

While little J had to forego his usual bacon strips for Sunday brunch, he really liked the scrambled eggs and ate them enthusiastically. Of course, it probably helped that we had ordered a small black-and-white cookie to dangle in front of him until he did.