A beautiful Saturday night led to a decision for an impromptu night out. Unfortunately not many people could join on such late notice, however, my friend Travis (purveyer of dried fruits and nuts… see next entry) did manage to make his way from NJ to the far west side. We decided to check out The Frying Pan which is an old Lightship that is current docked and converted into a bar on the Hudson River at the west end of West 26th Street. It was an awesome space, but WAY too crowded and they had a wedding going on and were getting ready for a private party, thereby limiting the space even more. Mike and I grabbed a drink while waiting for Travis and then decided that we’d be better off coming back to The Frying Pan on a weekday or weekend afternoon when it wasn’t so crazy.
So we walked just a few blocks down to Chelsea Piers to go check out Chelsea Brewing Company. I had been there late at night for drinnks and when all they had for food was brick oven pizza (which is pretty good if I remember). It’s a great looking restaurant with two levels, arching bars, and the brewing tanks behind the bar.
As it was a beautiful night, we wanted to sit outside, and while inside was instant seating, outside would take about 30 minutes. Fine! There’s a bar and, my fave, beer flights!
I’m pretty sure it wasn’t even 10 minutes later that we were told our table was ready outside and a very impressive waitress balanced our flights and brought them outside to us. The view of the marina was beautiful. Who says Jersey and the Hudson are ugly?
We were pretty hungry by this time, so we ordered an app of fresh hot pretzels (sides of honey mustard and melted cheese that tasted like cracked out velveeta… in a good way). We managed to devour the plate before I realized my camera was sitting next to me, so all you get is the empty plate. SORRY!
I went with the steak sandwich with provolone and a side of mashed sweet potatoes. The whole thing was great, and I managed to eat ALL those sweet potatoes since they were sooooo good.
Travis got the same thing but with blue cheese instead of provolone (smart) and mashed regular potatoes.
Mike went with (can you guess?) the BURGER! This one sounded especially tasty with shrooms, bacon, and swiss. It was a damn good burner with damn good fries.
Overall, you cannot beat the view and the beauty of the restaurant (even if it’s not exactly convenient) and the food is quite delicious. I was pleasantly surprised since I thought that it would be “just okay” seeing as though there is really nothing else in the area to compete with.
Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10
We decided to walk down The Highline (I LOVE THE HIGHLINE!) since Travis had never been. I like the fact that there are VERY few vendors on The Highline and no stores. One of the vendors this night was gelatto, and I couldn’t resist. It was from L’Arte Del Gelato (a known great place) and it didn’t dissapoint. I went with the chocolate chip mixed with banana. Mike chose Biscotti and Travis went with milk chocolate and banana mix. I think we were all quite happy with our selections.
Total Nom Points: 7.5 out of 10
