Photo 180 out of 365 – “KISS”

"KISS" - Settings: ISO 800, f/1.8, 1/30 sec, 50mm lens

This mural is painted on the brick wall of Nice Guy Eddie’s in the East Village. I took this last night on my walk to the subway at 2nd Avenue – I was headed to Brooklyn to have dinner with Jess at the wonderfully delicious Lunetta on Smith Street. I like how the light coming from the upper left is highlighting the outline of the bricks, making it a more interesting photo than if I took it head-on. I also love the “I Love” scribbled in the bottom right corner. I actually didn’t notice that until I loaded the photos this morning.

Anyway, last night turned into a doozy! Our dinner at Lunetta was awesome. We started with two pieces of bruschetta – one with white beans and sage and one with Lunetta-made ricotta, honey and lemon. They were both RIDIC! The bread was crusty and soft with a yummy buttery/olive oily/sea salt taste under the toppings. OMG. I could live on that ricotta with lemon and honey!!! My heaven.

Then we split an order of the meatballs – Berkshire pork and grass-fed beef with walnuts and a toasted garlic red sauce. I could have eaten the remaining sauce like soup when the meatballs were gone. Really excellent and warm and comforting. We also split an order of the pappardelle with braised spring lamb and rosemary – which had a really deep wonderful flavor – with the pasta cooked perfectly! Have I mentioned how much I love pasta? I could live on Italian food I think. I just always crave it.

To accompany this yummy dinner, we split a bottle of Nebbiolo – an Italian red wine from the Lombardy region. And we both got a little tipsy. Before leaving, I decided to text my buddy Jon – (of Jones Street Station) – and he suggested we meet for another drink at Jake Walk. I’d been wanting an excuse to go to Jake Walk again – so off we went. It’s hilarious – Jon is like the mayor of Carroll Gardens and everyone at Jake Walk knows and loves him – which made sitting at the bar wonderfully fun. We had an assortment of drinks and some awesome roasted peppers of some sort with lemon, olive oil and sea salt – (typical spanish tapas I was told).

Then I ordered up one piece of Fourme D’Ambert – a wonderful cow’s milk blue cheese from France, which we paired with a glass of Pedro Ximenez – a sweet, dark, syrupy dessert sherry from Spain. Holy yum. That is such a good pairing. The two flavors and textures (creamy spicy salty cheese w/sweet, rich syrupy sherry) pairs amazingly and creates a whole new luscious experience in your mouth. Really – you should try it. I gave a taste to the bartender (who was the sweetest girl ever) and she was blown away. She’s totally recommending that pairing to customers from now on… especially customers on a date. It is a super sexy taste sensation!

So at around 2am, I headed home on the train back to Manhattan. The subway sucks. The F train was running as an A train and I ended up having to get off at a different stop and take a taxi home. Oh well. But what an awesome random Wednesday night! Good food, good drinks, good company… what’s better than that?

Here are a couple more photos I took on the way to the subway… I like taking photos in the dark!