And the Asian Saves the Day ...

I consider myself fortunate to not have to be one of the tourists who look at their maps and try to navigate the city in 4 days or less missing many of the great and interesting sights. New York is there for my taking! I can spend an entire day getting lost on just one street or one avenue walking in and out of all the little shops. I do find myself envious of those time crunched tourist in a way. They have the vim and vigor I lack. Just like anywhere you come to call home, you have those Saturday’s where you wake up, look out the window and think, “Leave me alone, today I’ll stay under the covers and watch ABC Family, eat a 3 Musketeers Bar in bed and stalk the same 30 people on facebook.” That was me just 3 short hours ago. After moving to a new apartment and interviewing for a permanent job all in the same week, walking around in 90 degree weather was not written after “Eat 3 Musketeers bar in bed” on my to do list, which, was already crossed off. It was time to get out of bed and do something.

The first 30 minutes of my neighborhood exploring made me realize, if we had a couch, today would be the first of many where I would declare to hate it. It was hot, none of the eateries I was coming across appeared to serve fountain diet coke and I felt like my entire body was built of lead. First, I walked south 4 blocks then west 2 blocks, then south again where I found a store called “Surprise! Surprise!” I hate surprises. More than surprises though, I hate not knowing what the surprise in question is so of course, I went in. “Surprise! Surprise!” is literally a store filled with overpriced crap during my visit I noticed a selection of lamps, none of which were the same, already built cheap furniture and a huge selection of glassware. As I walked around this ridiculous store, I was hardly surprised to find most of the merchandise for sale appeared to have fallen off a truck headed to a respectable retail location that doesn’t have a hand painted sign. Browsing around this store just filled me with more hate and confirmed the fact that my original plan of candy, bed and facebook was the winner. However, the thought of backtracking unhappily to my apartment and climbing the 3 flights of hot stairs only to shower again and wait for my room to cool back down seemed more daunting than continuing to walk south and further explore the area. So, I continued to walk south …

I stumbled into Cooper’s Square which I declared on the phone with my brother to be stupid and vacant except for a bar called, “The Asian Pub”. I walked past “The Asian Pub” 3 times thinking about how much of an oxymoron this was. On my 3rd walk by I noticed they had a fantastic little garden draped in grape vines, a fountain in the center and a charming brick patio. The enchanting patio and the fact that they had $3 Lychee martinis was enough to coax me inside. I saw ‘day saver’ written all over the little Asian Grandmas face that greeted me when I walked in. Even though Saturday’s are not their day to serve brunch Grandma agreed to make an omelet for me, my bill turned out to be $10 - for brunch and 2 martinis, the tables around me offered excellent eaves dropping and the patio offered an escape for all my early morning hatred. Thanks to the Asian Pub for turning my day around!

My hearty brunch served up by the Asian grandma!

Chips and Salsa at an Asian Pub ...