Giving Friday Another Chance

I don't go out on Friday nights.  I'm too old for that.  After a long work week, all I want to do on Friday night is go home, slap on some pajama pants, and pass out while watching my DVRd episode of Real Housewives of New York.  However, due to the fact that this Friday was Rocio's birthday, I made an exception.

The birthday festivities were set to kick off at 10 at Los Feliz, so Matt, Jen, Richard, and I went to one of my top picks, Kuma Inn, for dinner beforehand since it happens to be right next door.  Kuma Inn serves Asian tapas for a very reasonable price with - wait for it - BYOB.  BYOBs are the jewels of Manhattan.  They help keep spending in check and usually come complete with a ready-to-have-fun type of crowd.  Kuma Inn is located in a Lower East Side tenement (there is no sign for the restaurant other than the name lightly spray painted on the doorpost).  It seems a little sketchy to walk up the grimy stairs, but once at the top, you will be pleased to find a very cute little restaurant.  We came hungry, so we got 2 orders of the pork buns (a must at Kuma Inn), Chinese sausage, coconut rice, grilled octupus (crispy on the outside, tender inside), tuna tartar, pork belly, and the steamed and fried rice crepes with kuma bolognese (a new fav).  After all that and the corkage fees for 3 bottles of wine, our bill only came to $30 a person with tip.  Diners, take note: it's cash only.

We were full and tipsy; in other words, we were ready to party.  Los Feliz was solid, but we didn't want the evening to stop there so after a few drinks, we headed to The Back Room for some speakeasy action.  Speakeasys are all the rage in NYC right now.  Everyone wants to feel like they're a cut above the riff-raff, and what better way than by securing access to a secret bar?  Walk through what seems to be an abandoned building that opens into a large, velvet wallpapered, mirrored room.  To provide the full Prohibition experience, beer is served in brown paper bags and all other drinks are in tea cups.  The vibe was nice, and it's always fun to go somewhere a little different...though I don't know that I would want to balance a saucer every single weekend.  There is a second, "secret", and highly exclusive bar within The Back Room and my goal is to one day hob-knob there.  Wish me luck.

So I guess going out on Friday night isn't so bad.  I may have to re-evaluate my mandatory Friday night chill policy...

Drinking from a tea cup.  Don't worry, it's still a Jack and Diet, duh.