Meetings are often the bane of a developers existence when they have a ton of code to write. For me personally, I enjoy having a day without meetings so that I can focus on the code I need to write in one go. It helps to think through how I will solve the problem without worrying about pending meetings or calls that I might have.
Luckily, I didnβt have a lot to code on this day. I will be working on a new feature in the coming days to make our site work even faster so I spent the day designing the requirements and flows that will be built in to our website.
In the evening, my girlfriend, Batoul, and I indulged in a number of restaurants and bars. Each setting had itβs own allure and I wanted to document the sensations of these experiences.
Studio 151
The first place we went was a place that served temakizushi (a.k.a. temaki). In its most basic form, temaki is a sushi hand roll. The ones that we had were tuna avocado, salmon, and an uni and caviar combination. The chef takes seaweed and folds it into a cone. In the cone shape, the chef then adds the seafood mentioned above and rice. All three were delicious. In addition to these temakizushi, we also had nigiri, some edamame, and some drinks. Iβm not one for cocktails, but the spicy margarita that was made for my girlfriend was delicious.
The lights at Studio 151 were dimmed and there was a bar at the center of the restaurant. Each seating arrangement at this restaurant was different. One was fitted with leather couches and a low table and another was an omakase-style table with wooden chairs. We were sitting near the bar by a round and wobbly table on bar stools that were decorated with with gunmetal studs. The entire place was brought together with not only the bar, but also a massive 80s style poster of a naked woman. The poster was grand even though only half of it was up.
Summit Bar
Though the food was scrumptious at the place prior, my girlfriend wanted to try out another bar in the neighborhood. We ended up at a cute place called Summit Bar. The thing that made this bar stand out was the service.
Library
A place that was bright red on the inside had caught our eyes. It was also one of the few places in the East Village that had a bouncer at the front. We approach the man and learned that his name was Miles. Miles and my girlfriend talked about bison burgers versus lamb burgers for about 15 minutes before we made our way inside. The conclusion was that lamb burgers, when seasoned right is better than a bison burger that was garnished with bacon, Swiss cheese, and two other types of cheese that I currently cannot recall.
Once we got inside, we saw a sign for pickleback shots. We got the bartenders attention quickly, did our shots, and made our way to the next spot. The red lights and grungy atmosphere were nice but at this point, we were barhopping.
The Skinny Bar and Lounge
This was the last place we went. I was pulled in by my girlfriend who, at a quick glance, loved the vibe the place had to offer. In the middle of the room, there was a claw machine. We went towards that right away and tried to play the claw machine. After putting in two 1 dollar bills and tapping my credit card (which charged 5 dollars), we realized that the machine might be broken.
We walked over to the bar and talked to the bartender who told us that our assumption may be correct. Since this was the case, she forked over seven 1 dollar bills to make up for the broken machine.
The rest of the time at this bar went well. There was a blue and purple light that was cast over the room which helped us chill out for the remainder of the night.
The reason we went to all these different bars was because my girlfriend finished a coding bootcamp yesterday. A small celebration was due.