A Ladies Night Hot Spot: The Dove Parlour

As much as I love date night with the hubs, sometimes I just need a little girl time. Whether it's touring pizza venues like Keste and Grimaldi's or brunching at Hoboken's Elysian Cafe, somehow there is always a reason for girls night. And what would it be without some serious happy hour, consisting of wine carafes and cheese platters? Now that's a ladies night that I can get down with. And I did. At West Vilage's The Dove Parlour with my friend Nicole. 

A blink-and-you-miss-it bar that's located below street level, The Dove Parlour is a fairly small locale with a bar and some low-seated tables that run along a cushioned couch. With a bit of an opulent New Orleans vibe, a darkened space lit by candles, The Dove Parlour is the simply perfect low key place to grab an affordable drink.

Their happy hour consists of a $6 drink menu, ranging from wine carafes, martinis, margaritas and cosmos. Pictured above is my glass and carafe of Syrah. And for $6? It's really a steal since you do get way more than one small glass out of the deal.

And since it's imperative to eat a little something on any ladies night, especially when there's vino involved, we opted for the cheese platter. For just $18, we got to choose 4 cheeses to accompany fresh bread and crostini, apple slices, olives, Marcona almonds, figs, and apricot jam. The ladies at the table next to us literally turned a shade of green with envy and I'm pretty sure ended up ordering one of their own.

And I should note that beyond the delectable eats and truly affordable wine, the decor is upscale yet attainable. The super chic wallpaper even featured my favorite damask-style pattern, and it was flocked, no less.

And how charming is this little fireplace? Even without a real fire inside, it still warmed up the joint and gave me ideas for any New York and beyond apartments with fake, yet pretty, fireplaces.

So that's how Nikki and I spent ladies night. Sipping vino from our own personal carafes and filling up on bread and cheese. The perfect post-work girls night, don't you think? But what I want to know from you ladies out there - how do you do girls night?

Balthazar Bar Steak & Frites

As part of Maggie's farewell, we visited her favorite New York restaurant (and home of many a Thanksgiving dinner for her and her mom), Balthazar. The famed SoHo restaurant serves up out-of-the-typical-price-range meals, especially when the raw bar is involved, but as a special occasion dinner...well, it's pretty fabulous. Especially when you can get their perfectly cooked Balthazar Bar Steak & Frites for an easy $25. Not too shabby for a juicy cut of meat in one of the best restaurants in all of Manhattan. Paired with an $8 glass of Shiraz-Grenache, I'd say that this meal was a hit. 

I must tell you that when it comes to steak, I'm a 'medium' kind of girl. While Shaun will go all-out rare, I just find something so...icky?...about meat that's still moo-ing, if you will. And medium can go either way...too rare, too done...but not at Balth (as we like to call it). Here at this delightful French bistro, Balth serves up medium steak the right way...seared on the outside and decadently pinkish red on the inside.

Oh, and I should mention that it was topped off with a giant pat of herbed butter that melted right into the steak...it's the surefire way to make just about any dish sing (and clog your arteries to boot).

Along with the steak were the highly coveted frites. Frites, if you will, is the fancy French term for French Fries...but doesn't it just sound prettier? Frites. Anyhow, they weren't quite the shoestring variety that I enjoyed so much at Skinner's Loft, but Balth dished out crispy potato fries that were perfectly seasoned and oily. Mmmm.

I would be remiss not to mention the absolutely beautiful raw bar. Though the seafood platters ranged from $70 to $115, they were gorgeous and surely a great experience. We, however, stuck to our meat 'n potatoes. But isn't it pretty to look at?

So there it is. A round up of a fabulous meal at a New York staple. There was one downside to the meal however. As I finished my glass of wine (waste not, want not), I noticed peculiar sticks of sediment in the bottom of my glass. Though the matre 'd did remove the item from my bill, I can't help but be disappointed in a place like Balthazar serving sediment-laden red wine. I know that it happens...I was just hoping that it wouldn't in a place like Balth (where they do serve bottles of vino up to $450 a pop). I won't hold it against them in the long run...after all, the meal was that good. But next time? My wine will get a proper scan.

Croque Madame at Elysian Cafe

Last weekend, in addition to spring dinner party things, I had brunch at a charming little place in Hoboken called Elysian Cafe. Though crowded on that gorgeous Sunday morning (what happened since then?), Maggie and I secured a table and thoroughly enjoyed our last Hoboken brunch together (she's moving away and leaving me, you see). Anyhow, I typically have enjoyed the eggs benedict and have tried my hardest to ignore Tony Bourdain's warnings of hollandaise sauce, but this time, I switched it up a bit and went with the Croque Madame. Yum.

The traditional Croque Madame is comprised of ham and gruyere cheese grilled on a sandwich, and topped with a bechamel sauce (read: sauce of creamy goodness) and a fried or poached egg (my favorite being the latter...oh how I love those yolks...). Though this version was anything but traditional (egg in the sandwich, rather than on, and it included spinach), it was still pretty delicious. Of course, my own personal love affair with the Croque Madame began at a tiny cafe across from the Notre Dame cathedral en Paris...in fact, I'm fairly certain that I had no clue what Gruyere cheese was and so, to me, the sandwich was like entering a new world of delicious. And since I was utterly clueless that four years post-Paris trip, I'd being singing its praises on The Avid Appetite, I neglected to snap a photo. I did, however, dig up this little gem - a view of Notre Dame from the tiny, name unknown cafe in which we delighted in a real Parisian breakfast sandwich. McDonalds, who?

Isn't she a beauty? This was, in fact, our favorite part of Paris...sightseeing from the top of Notre Dame, strolling by the Seine, and sampling pommes frites with mayo until our hearts begged no more.