Early Breakfast, Late Dinner (Happy Birthday Kat!)

Brooklyn Label
180 Franklin Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222
(718) 389-2806
www.brooklynlabel.com

Ollie's
1991 Broadway
New York, NY 10023
(212) 595-8181

TIME FOR CONFESSION: it's true, yes, that I arrived at work a little before 11:00 a.m. today on account of breakfast. I'm sorry? Well, no, I'm not at all, really--it was damn delicious.

Mint's work schedule usually grants her either Saturday or Sunday off-work, though this week the schedule Gods (Mitch and Nick, admittedly, not being names normally befitting of deities) conspired to give her neither, offering Tuesday in trade. So, with the prospect of having no free time together for the rest of the week, I decided that I was in absolutely no hurry to get to work myself. Breakfast at Brooklyn Label was in order.

Not surprisingly, the normally- packed weekend brunch spot was nearly empty at 9:00 on a weekday morning, save for a trickling crowd of coffee counter customers grabbing morning cups to-go. We grabbed a table in the corner and the service was, needless to say, quite attentive. The kitchen, too, was in its prime, being frequently subdued in both quickness and quality on a busy Sunday morning. Mint's eggs were a perfect accomplishment of over-medium, and mine, soft-scrambled with tomato, basil and aged cheddar, showcased all of their flavors with notable perfection. We were also happily offered home fries, made at the whim of the kitchen, not normally residing on the menu, which were deliciously just too crisp and served with BL's house label "Chef's Revenge" ketchup and hot sauces.

Oh, so delicious--just be careful if you bring one home...

Fast-forward eight hours. After meeting up post-work with Mint and killing a few hours with Steph (drinking, wrapping gifts for Kat, and playing Photohunt at Dive 75, then drinking and grabbing a snack at City Grill's bar) we continued wandering south through the Upper West Side, down to meet Kat & Co. at Ollie's Noodle Shop just above Lincoln Center for dinner and birthday festivities.

Now, Ollie's is many things to many people; sitting smack across the street from the Sony Lincoln Square movie theater it's a go-to spot for pre-movie munchies. Blessed with unusually large amounts of space for little more than a glorified Chinese takeout joint (including a covered public atrium with tables for those who want to forgo formalities and order from the counter), it's one of the few cheap places in this city large enough to house a dozen people at one table:

The St. Marks kids are alright; the tofu has been better

The food is what you expect, rarely much more--the lo mein is competent, the red bean buns steaming and stuffed with, yes, red bean paste, the scallion pancakes somewhat larger than elsewhere. The "sizzling" tofu platter managed to disappoint by being bland and not at all sizzling. The service is usually poor; tonight, a male waiter stalked our table as we pieced together the check. I cannot express how much I dislike that type of treatment.

But the service and the food is a footnote to Kat's birthday, her twenty-first, and an opportunity for Mint to buy her a 22-ounce can of Sapporo along with assorted Hello Kitty trinkets and a bottle of glucosamine (hey, everyone knows that arthritis really kicks in at twenty-one). And anytime a double-digited number of friends show up to celebrate your birthday, it's bound to be good time.

MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: Brooklyn Label should (finally) be announcing its new summer/debut dinner menu soon; you're better off grabbing take-out and sitting in the "outdoor" atrium rather than braving Ollie's similarly backwards idea of "service."

Garlic Knots and Board Game Night

Carmine's Pizzeria
358 Graham Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718) 782-9657
www.carminespizzeria.com

THIS WAS SUPPOSED to be the return of Mike Eats Greenpoint!, but upon calling Nassau Pizza (a phone number trusted to the point in won an spot in my cell phone) I was told by a less-than-interested robot-woman voice, "This. Number. Is. No longer. In service." Foiled!

So, I called Carmine's Pizzeria over in Williamsburg, which is located just a few steps from the Graham Avenue L-train station, in the hope they would deliver to way up yonder in Greenpoint. Why not call the previously-mentioned L.A.'s? Well, they didn't have garlic knots on the menu. A silly point, I know, but I really, really wanted some garlic knots. That, and Carmine's is some of the best pizza around these parts.

Garlic knots, hot and knotty

Of course, pizza and garlic knots are always better fresh from the oven, but with Mint's fellow St. Mark's Comics resident Kat stopping by with boyfriend Justin to play, what else, Nintendo Monopoly, delivery was the plan for dinner. Unfortunately, delivery took an hour to accomplish, which is par for the course at Carmine's, where there's always a crowd of customers lining up for pies, meaning that Monopoly didn't start till ten o'clock. Nothing like an all-night game of mortgages and property-management, I always say.

Thankfully, we chose to adopt the "short game" rules. Yes, I understand, that's fairly oxymoronic when you're talking about Monopoly. What's that--you want a recap of the game? Okay:

Justin got out to a great start, piling up the properties. I eventually coaxed him to sell me his "Luigi" for $500 (the equivalent of "Park Place" on a regular Monopoly board), which became a big deal later in the game. Kat and Mint, meanwhile, made up ground by successfully assembling trios of properties elsewhere on the board, and it seemed like they would threaten Justin's growing portfolio. But after I was able to collect all four transportation properties in a utility company trade with Justin and chanced upon buying "Mario" (a.k.a. "Boardwalk"), the money started flowing in and allowed me to end the game when Kat landed on my much-improved "Luigi." Rent: $1,400; Kat: bankrupt; game: over.

Exciting, right? Tune in next time, and perhaps Monopoly Night will become a regular MEF! installment. Loyal readers, may you only be so lucky.

MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: Yeah, now that he knows Carmine's delivers up here, and having learned Nassau seems to have rolled down its metal gates for good.

Dinner And A Movie: Fresh Co. Tortilla & "28 Weeks Later"

Peter Pan Bakery
727 Manhattan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11222

I DON'T HAVE enough time to discuss the reasons why I love Peter Pan Bakery, so let's leave it at this: if you are in Greenpoint, you should consider getting a doughnut here. If you do and are not entirely satisfied, contact me via this blog, responding in a post with picture, comment, and mailing address for your check, and I will refund your money. And don't buy a dozen doughnuts and tell me you didn't like one--what happened to the other eleven?--because I'm not giving you that much money. Maybe there should be a picture of you eating the doughnut involved too, just to make sure. Or, well, okay--I'm suspending the Mike Eats Food! Peter Pan Doughnut Challenge Money-Back Guarantee until I can set a few more ground rules. You should still try the doughnuts though. Incredible.

Now, some of you might be thinking, "gee, Mike, didn't your Menu for today state that you ate at two other places? Why aren't their addresses at the top of this post?" Well, thanks for your question, loyal reader. Here's the answer:

I don't know the address of Pad Thai. I'm not even sure "Pad Thai" is the place's real name. I was working this afternoon and ordered some take-out delivered to the office. My bad. As for Fresh Co. Tortilla, there are like 8 billion various Fresh Co., Fresca, Fresco, Fresh-e-Fresh, et. al., tex-mex joints in this city. It's like the Chinese-people-making-Mexican-food version of Ray's Pizza. In fact, on a scale of Tasti-D-Lite to Starbucks, Fresch Co. Tortilla rates about a Crown Fried Chicken.

For the purists, I'll go ahead and describe the meal anyway:

Upon entering, the sidewalk storefront's neon glow cast a soft backlight to the three tables along the restaurant's dining area. We snapped up a great table (right next to the trash can) and dropped off our stuff before sauntering back to the order counter and open kitchen. The menu was written out neatly in identical plastic letters on the big, black menu board overhead, but we quickly settled on old favorites--quesadillas! Perfect for a quick snack before the theater.

My black bean and jack cheese quesadilla was two soft tortilla shells perfectly pressed between two hot, well-greased surfaces. The cheese was melted and hot; the black beans were mushy, almost purple in color. Mint's chicken and jack cheese quesadilla looked just as hot, just as pressed between two hot, well-greased surfaces. Along with three plastic container-sealed sides of salsa, a paper bag of fresh-fried tortilla chips, and two cans of Coke-a-Cola, the meal was just enough for the two of us and only set us back a respectable $9.09.

Then we saw "zombies" do unnatural things to people in 28 Weeks Later. Kat's description of the movie was pretty much spot on. I believe she used both the words "empty" and "sour." I could not agree more with those two words as used to describe my reaction to this movie as well. That's not supposed to be a bad review. Also, I had to squint to dull the gore of what I was seeing exactly twice; I laughed once; and the people behind me who continually felt compelled to recap out loud what had happened, speculating as to what they missed by coming in late, further discussing what plot developments they might expect as the movie progressed, and who generally just offered any advice they had to the characters on the screen during any dip in the volume substantial enough to carry on the aforementioned conversations owe me $10.50.

MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: Always good to end on a positive note--yes, I love doughnuts.