30 to Midnight

Whiskey Tavern, Chinatown

Friday, 6:45pm

Whiskey Tavern
79 Baxter St. (Walker St.), Manhattan

Consistently love the happy hour crowd at this bar (run by the Vig 27 people, though dissimilar, in good ways). And love+more the proximity to post-happy-hour eats. If you work near here or want to meet up before or after a meal in Chinatown, Whiskey Tavern is great for the Age-Appropriate. 

Sometimes the Tooth Fairy is Too Tired

There's a great story in my family, to most of us, about what happened the time sibling #4 lost his first tooth: the Tooth Fairy fell asleep on the couch watching some sort of made-for-tv movie. That would never happen to sibling #1. But that's exactly what happens when you have multiple childs. 

The point is, 30toMidnight is suffering from sibling #2 status while sibling #1 - ScoreboardGourmet - is having a pre-baseball-season rally. Also, it's Scoreboard Gourmet's 3rd birthday today. But don't worry, 30toMidnight has not been forgotten. Regular reporting will resume soon. In the meantime, let's show some love to the eldest child. Go read about sports+food. And let us know what you think.

Vietnamese Iced Coffee, Chinatown

A few months ago when Sara was in New Orleans she discovered there was a high percentage of Vietnamese visitors, so high that every non-English sign in the downtown Harrah's is in Vietnamese. Isn't that interesting? We think so too. Sara is pretty sure this discovery has some link to the high percentage of Cafe Du Monde in every Vietnamese restaurant in the U.S. Hmm. France in Vietnam. When did that start? Late 1850's, early 1860's. We need some more history/geography around here.

How did we get to France in Vietnam? Vietnamese Coffee in Chinatown. Wow.

Pho Viet Huong
73 Mulberry St. (Bayard St.), Manhattan

We love this drink. We love this restaurant. We love their pho and numerous other dishes. We wish they still made their spring rolls with pork, but we've learned to like the chicken. Lunchtime is nuts here (court), dinner is not exactly slow, but you can get a seat. And the ages of the diners? Mixed yet mostly Appropriate. Why is that?

Heidelberg, Upper East Side

Tuesday, 9pm

Heidelberg Restaurant
1648 2nd Ave. (86th St.), Manhattan

There are many things we can say about Second Avenue in the 80's today. Namely: Yikes! It's scary to be near the end of the parade route. But let's think about pretty much every other day of the year when Heidelberg is a bastion of AAness. We aaprove the crowd, the sausage, and the ski lodge vibe, even when it's 60-something in winter.

Summer in Manhattan is

...wonderful, in spite of the heat, but there's something extraordinarily beautiful about Central Park in leafless winter.

Louis 649, East East Village

Wednesday, 9:30pm

Louis 649
649 E. Ninth St. (Ave. C), Manhattan

We're guessing this is Loo-wee, as in Armstrong, given it's an ex jazz bar. We're also guessing this is a good date place (like, boy-girl, not friend-date, as we experienced it). AA, chill, good music, far from childs. Woo-wee. But did you know Louis Armstrong went by Loo-Wis? That's what the bar tells us. So, actually, drop your faux French-Louisiana accent...hey...we said Louis again. This is going in the Glossary.

Lou·is
  –noun
1. [loo-ee, Fr. lwee] -(“le Débonaire”; “the Pious”), a.d. 788–840, king of France and Germany 814–840; emperor of the Holy Roman Empire 814–840 (son of Charlemagne).
2. [loo-is] - a male given name: from a Germanic word meaning “loud battle.”

Robert at the Museum of Arts and Design, West Side

Friday, 8pm

Robert
museum of arts and design
2 Columbus Circle (8th Ave.), Manhattan

Generally we limit our ageism to justabouteveryoneyounger. Today we're expanding our range. The crowd at Robert, the neon-y restaurant with the insane view of Columbus Circle and the park, is really old. Really old, like bus from a nursing home old. Why? Such an unexpected Friday night site. You'd see what we were saying if Sara could ever learn to take a picture. We wanted to sit by a window and never look back, but those seats were taken and the "bar" is awkward, unexpected in a venue with "design" in its name. We hate to be so negative but our expectations were not met here. Sad. That said, true to our rules, we're calling Robert AA. Stop by if you're looking for someone to call gran.

Bark Hot Dogs, Park Slope

Friday, 4pm and 11pm

Bark Hot Dogs
474 Bergen St. (6th Ave.), Park Slope

Sara always says that the best commercially available hot dogs come from Rochester. Ok, she's been saying that for just under two years. But she appears be right. Bark has a private label dog from Hartmann's, of Rochester. It's a winner, brought down only by the lack of homemade mustard. We like Gulden's as much as the next guy (offered after the fact), but come on, what's the deal with a list of Resources (pictured) if your Kraut Dog comes with a thin line of yellow? Yellow! Still, the dog itself rocks and the $15 Friday Happy Hour would be exciting even if it wasn't mostly AA. Counter girl tells us it's "always late-20's, 30's and up" here. Late night too. We like.

Women Who Drink Gain Less Weight

Sometimes we hear Bad News, sometimes we hear Good News:

New research suggests that women who regularly consume moderate amounts of alcohol are less likely to gain weight than nondrinkers and are at lower risk for obesity.

The findings, reported this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, are based on a study of 19,220 United States women aged 39 or older who, at the start of the study, fell into the “normal weight” category based on their body mass index. Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston tracked the women’s drinking habits over 13 years. About 60 percent of the women were light or regular drinkers, while about 40 percent reported drinking no alcohol.

Read Tara Parker-Pope's entire NYTimes story by clicking the Good News link above.

The Patriot, Tribeca

Thursday, 10pm

The Patriot Saloon
110 Chambers St. (Church St.), Manhattan

Sara loves it when her AI downstairs neighbor sits outside in the space below her bedroom window and yells at his girlfriend inside. She loves it when he does it at 10:20 and 11:35, but really enjoys it most when it's Midnight, 1, 4. Yes, this really happens. She's called her landlord saying, "I swear he's not malicious, just young and unaware." Yet it continues, and it's not even spring or summer or warm enough to bring a laptop out because you simply cannot tear yourself away from your movie while you have a cigarette. Volume up. 2am. Yes.