After work Alias

What’s up buttercup?  TGIF much?  I did OT yesterday because my boss is putting full court press on my a$$.  Working overtime can go one of two ways, and they happen to be polar opposites.  Fortunately, picking up this extra shift did not backfire in my face.  It’s amazing how much more enjoyable work is when the unit is adequately staffed and I can actually spend time with my patients without feeling like I’m hours behind in work (novel concept huh?).  My boss is not the best when it comes to the business-minded side of things in the hospital…but maybe things are turning around?

Anyways.  I had sustenance…again packed up in two EasyLunchBoxes containers. 

                 Pita, pretz, carrots.                     Nuggets, carrots, salad.

Add in two apples, and that, my friends, is how I do 12 hours without losing my sh!t.

After the longest shift of my life, all I wanted was dinner (twss). 

I really like having things to look forward to after work (who doesn’t like a light at the end of the tunnel?).  The good news was that I had fun plans for dinner.  The bad news was that they weren’t until 9 pm…which gave me 2 hours of time to kill between the end of my shift and the dinner reservation (did I mention I was starving, too?).

I bought a pound of grapes from the fruit stand man (pretty sure that’s his official title) to tide me over on the subway ride home.  Since I didn’t get back to our apartment until 8 pm, I had approximately 4 1/8 minutes to change out of my scrubs, scrub my face down, spritz perfume from head to toe, and toss my camera in my purse before Kyle was dragging me out the door!  Now that’s what I call a quick turn-around. 

We went to a restaurant in the LES called Alias.  As much as I love the Lower East Side, it takes soooo long to get there from the Upper West Side.  But it was well worth it.  Not just for the food, but because my friends were visiting from CA!! 

We started with a few bottles of wine, some bread and a white bean dip (that may or may not have had garlic).

For dinner I got a vegetarian “burger” than I vegan-ified by omitting the cheese and mayo.

It was pretty legit!  It had layers of crunchy fried onion crisps, a tomato salsa, portabello mushrooms, and a black bean mash in between a toasty sesame seed bun.

It was perfectly hearty without leaving me feeling too full (read: I still had enough room to get my drank on).  The service was great, and everyone else seemed to enjoy their food too. 

After dinner we headed to the teacup bar (not it’s real name, but that’s what Kyle and I have always called it).  The Back Room is an actual speakeasy from the 1920’s Prohibition Era.  You enter through a metal gate that says "Lower East Side Toy Company" and follow a semi-sketchy path (down some steps, through a dark, narrow alley and up more metal steps to a door with an old-fashioned peephole) to reach the bar. 

Drinks are served in teacups (shots in espresso cups & beer bottles in paper bags…to throw off the cops of course). 

A private VIP room hides behind a fake bookshelf (which, as you can see from the pic, is guarded by a very large man). 

We stayed for one round of drinks and then moved on to Pianos, which is another one of my fave bars in all of NYC.  Love it!

After this round of drinks, my memory gets a little hazy…we moved on to another bar, but I’m not sure where exactly.  Any New Yorkers recognize this bar?

It was so creepy I couldn’t stop taking pics, but I have no clue where we were. 

Anyways, we ended up getting back home around 2:30 and I definitely fell asleep in the back of the cab on the ride home.

Sorry Elaine, but this should teach you from high jacking my camera while I’m in the bathroom   This weekend is gonna be packed with a ton of fun – I am so excited!

share this post

Share

Email This