wwcitizen: (S&M In Ptown)

The subject covers two aspects of Ptown: 1) Provincetown, MA, in the winter when tourists aren't around... and 2) Matthew acting in an episode of a TV show called Off Season.
It's exciting to be in Ptown in the winter! We had a big, blustery, SNOWY winter storm Sunday - all day. And we made the absolute best of the day. We got up late and played on our pads for a while. The snow outside piled up to about 10"!!  Eventually, I dug us out to the road. Not a big deal, since the snow was fresh and light. But I had a small, trunk-ready shovel, so I had to be careful not to throw out my back. :-)
On Saturday, we drove around and took pictures, but it was dreary and rainy. We had our postponed anniversary dinner at Ross's Grille, which was fantastic! To drink, we had a bottle of Pouilly-Fuissé Chardonnay. For dinner, it was raw oysters first, then locally sourced, sauteed mussels & clams - delicious broths! Our entrees were the Cape Cod Seafood Stew.  The Off Season dictates what restaurants stay open throughout the season, and which ones close for a while after the tourist season and WHEN they close before the tourist season starts up again.  Ross's Grille closed the day after our meal and we were served the last mussels, clams, and stews that they had. We really lucked out!
Sunday night, our dinner was at the Bistro @ Crowne Pointe, which is less than a block up the hill and has GREAT views of the Pilgrims' Monument, the Town Hall, and other historic buildings. We had Cake Chardonnay with deviled eggs, Italian bread, steamed mussels, and New England clam chowder for apps. Then, of course, we HAD to have a New England steamed lobster. Really great dinner, too.
Both nights we took in the "leftover" Ptown nightlife, which was light but fun and totally cozy. Most bars have a warm, cozy and glowing fireplace. The fireplaces reminded me of places in Germany, Austria, and Prague.
All throughout the weekend and in the weeks leading up to today, Matthew & I have been running over his lines over and over again.  It's been really fun.
Monday, we relaxed and got Matthew ready for one of his scenes. The shoot started at 3pm, so I drove around Ptown on my own to take pictures of the town with the snow. It was a bit disappointing because the incessant high winds blew away most of the snow in the course of the day.
I think I got some really great shots that capture the winter Provincetown, which most of the people that come to Bear Week every summer never see or can imagine.  Matthew hadn't messaged or called that he was done, so I went to the Governor Bradford pub for a glass of Chardonnay.  I had never been in that bar before; it's quite old and charming in its own right but I think there's no A/C in the summer, which is always the first and major deterrent.
While sipping my wine at the bar, I had probably the funniest experience ever by myself in Ptown - EVER!!: 4 fishermen in from their boats at the corner of the bar trying to outdo each other with their impressions of the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz. It was so difficult not to even crack a smile in the hopes that they wouldn't stop on my account and that they might take on other characters with their (pretty decent) impressions.
I made my way to the location of the shoot taking place in a restaurant that was new to us, Sage. Matt did an excellent acting job; members of the crew were very impressed and came to me tell me they were. *happy dance*
So, this trip we went to places and areas of town that we'd never visited before. We went to the Shipwrecked Lounge, the Porchside Lounge, The Little Bar at A-House, the Governor Bradford bar, the Squealing Pig, Sage, the town's US Post Office, the very end of Commercial St, and areas of the Province Lands and National Parks that were new to us.
All in all it's been amazing trip and it does not feel like 6 days. Given our druthers, Matt and I would probably want to stay until Sunday but he has to get back and teach on Thursday evening. Can't wait to review and post some pictures of Ptown in the winter!

wwcitizen: (Easter Bunny with Hat)
We've been having a wonderful weekend!!  The weekend started out on Friday with us getting our hair cuts.  We were about 2 weeks overdue for those.  Friday night, we visited our friends Tommy & Brian for Easter Egg coloring.  It was so much fun, and best to do with friends.
This is Brian with his most fabulous egg ever!  It's fun how some dying elements just happen and then if you take advantage of them - juuuuust right - you can make something amazing out of it! Brian cooks a mean Cornish hen and Tommy makes delicious guacamole! YUMMY!
That was the culmination!  Beautiful eggs, tons of colors, lots of creativity, and fun with friends. (Plus, I love Matt's face here: "That's enough pictures, Stephen!")

Yesterday, Matthew and I slept a long, long time. We didn't eat ANYTHING all day till dinner at Tony's di Napoli. There we met up with [info]squirreltot*, [info]texwriterbear, [info]super_sean for the first time ever along with another Texan friend, Shane. Unfortunately,[info]allsmilesbear didn't make it out, but [livejournal.com profile] mat_t did! [info]jimwnyc and [info]tinman11201* came out, too, and we met THEM for the first time in person, too!  It was a lot of fun, great food, and great company.

Dinner was arugula/pear salad, grilled shrimp, (libations - goes without saying), broccoli rabe, escarole and beans, veal salimbucca (thinly pounded veal cutlet with provolone and prosciutto) over spinach, chicken scarpiello with potatoes, peppers, and Italian sausage, and lobster raviolis with vodka penne. Don't forget the amazing Italian bread, and dessert: NY cheesecake, tiramisu, an ice cream cake (on the house), and cannolis.  Oh, and libations. Most everyone got appletinis.

Here are a few pictures from the evening (including some of the damage). More pictures from the dinner, you can find here.
 

Afterwards, as everyone else retired for the evening, Matthew and I dashed off to Ty's for a nightcap. We hadn't been out in the city since about February, so were pretty overdue.  There we were glad to run into our buddy, Chris. Such a sweetheart.

Today, we're heading up to the Ramsay, NJ, for Easter Dinner at about 3:00 with Matt's family; we're not hosting this year (don't get me started!).  I'm kind sleepy from all this weekend activity so far; might have to go take a nap before breakfast and lunch!

Someone brought Easter Bunny Ears to the bar. Of course, I had to take advantage of them!!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!
wwcitizen: (AnimatedFace)
Do you ever encounter people in various situations in public and think well after the encounter, "What I should have said was..." and fill in the blank. Over and over again.

Saturday night we ended up in a (very, very straight) speak-easy in the West Village, where we've been before, for a martini. It's a really cool place - during the week. We've loved going there. We've never been there on a Saturday night at midnight on a rainy evening.

Lo and behold, the place was PACKED. It can't hold, really, more than about 50 people total and there must have been 30 people in the front around the bar.


Fig. 1

We put my name in with the hostess for a table - a 20-minute wait that turned into a 35-minute drink from the bar on one of the waiting couches (left). At the bar, the cool bartender was in the process of making cool drinks. I waited patiently behind this guy leaning on the bar; let's call him "ASS" (fit the bill). "ASS" very rudely started having a conversation across in front of me to his buddy (Ass' Friend). "ASS" was yelling in my face/right ear to his buddy and making strange cracks about the crowd around us. Two very thin, small girls (Skinnies) moved to my right behind the people to my right into a space at the bar where I was trying to get to order my drink, but I didn't want to be rude.

I made a move to stake my spot at the bar (politely saying "'scuse me), to make sure I was next in line to order, logically thinking "ASS" had already ordered. He had not. The bartender asked me what I wanted to drink and I ordered two Polish vodka martinis, straight up with a lemon twist. "ASS" turned to me and said pretty loudly with a very rude tone, "So, you're in a different line?"

Me: Looked blankly at ASS.
ASS, increasing in rude tone and smugness: "So, you're in a different line than us?"
Me: "Are you saying something?" and looked at the bartender to complete my order.
ASS, still rude and smug: "So, you're gonna place your order now?"
Me: "Oh, you didn't order yet? Those aren't your drinks right there in front of you? Please..."

I made the 'be-my-guest' gesture for "ASS" to take the stage for the bartender.

Bartender, looked exasperatedly at "ASS": "You can all order your drinks; I can handle the orders."
ASS, still astoundingly smug, "I just thought..."
Me: "Please order, pal, and make sure you get your order in. Move on..."
Bartender: mouthed to me "Thanks."

I tipped the bartender a little extra for having to put up with "ASS", knowing full well he remembered my face.

What I should've said to "ASS" was, "Dude, you can go fuck yourself with the lead pipe in the Drawing Room, because you don't have a CLUE."

That line woke me up this morning and I couldn't go back to sleep for the life of me. I thought of like 10 other lines, but that one stuck out as the best of them all.

The drinks were simply amazing. Some of the best martinis in Manhattan; some of the best I've ever had. We never got our table, so we cancelled our place, and bid our empty glasses adieu. Adieu till a week night for sure! We went to Ty's afterward to make sure we had a good time before heading home.

Y, NC?

May. 2nd, 2010 03:00 pm
wwcitizen: (Martini Steve)
Yesterday was fun!! [livejournal.com profile] devil_cub52, Ed, Matt, and I all met for dinner at Rub, a southern BBQ place in Manhattan on 23rd St. Unbeknownst to us, Nick & Ed love the food there as much as Matt and I do! The only problem there is the acoustics. We were in the far back of the restaurant and I had thought it would work out just fine; however, we ended up yelling - literally YELLING - at each other for conversation. We were exhausted by the time we finished dinner. We were also astounded how much quieter it was ON THE STREET than in the restaurant.

We all had some form of roasted meat after the Fritos pie and fried green tomatoes (some of the best we've had ever!). Matt & I also got the St. Louis BBQ ribs - delish!! There was no room for dessert and we were really ready to get out of the deafening reverberating cacophony. So we left there in search of a bar for after-dinner drinks and ended up at Boxers, a new bar on 20th between 5th and 6th Avenues (so new, it's not on Google Maps yet!). Had a great time, lots of good conversation, and big hugs.

After taking the obligatory LJ photos, Nick and Ed took off to go see the new Freddie movie. We'll see them again, though, on Tuesday, when [livejournal.com profile] durabear comes to NYC and we all meet up again for dinner with [livejournal.com profile] perkbear - hopefully at Tony's Di Napoli again!



(Boy, I got a big German head... physically and otherwise!)

Funny enough, later on in the evening, Matt and I met a Fred and an Alfred at Ty's!! For some reason, too, we kept running into southerners, and specifically guys from NC. Our waiter at Rub was from Greensboro, Fred at Ty's was from Raleigh, we met another guy from Raleigh named Tim, and a couple of people we met had either lived in or moved to NYC from Tennessee. An odd contingent of NC and southern-related folks yesterday for sure. Even one of the guys we met was from Alexandria, LA, and is moving to Dallas in the next couple of weeks!

This is Bo, y'all. Ain't he cute? And he's as sweet as pie!


These are new southern friends (Jimmy in the blue, Tim in the pink linen, Bo and his friend, Izzy(?), and Abry (moving to Dallas soon)), and Matthew with David Rodriguez.


Cops on horseback keeping the peace. There was a major bomb scare at Times Square and apparently no trains were running through midtown (weren't sure about the tunnels). At that point, we just stayed in the bar, ordered more drinks, hugged everyone around us, and said, "Yeah... we'll wait this one out. Cheers!"

wwcitizen: (Default)
Last night after dinner (at Outback - our favorite, more pedestrian restaurant), we went to Target for water filters, and then headed up River Road in Edgewater to go to this hot, hot, hot wine store - that also has a bar behind (somewhat hidden) the store. We've only gone in there for wine or spirits a couple of times. When we first went in there, we stumbled across about 10-15 REALLY hot Russians. Or were they Turks? Well, they were actually (and still are) Lebanese!! Hot, cuddly, furry Lebanese from north of Beirut in the olive oil region (which is why I looked up Turkish Oil Wrestling in YouTube this morning and got REALLY sidetracked from my usual email checking - some of you might have gotten the link; if not, here is the link.)

We went to the store simply to purchase some wine for the weekend, because (oddly) we were almost done with all the 65+ bottles of wine we had in our kitchen area. I've been enjoying 1-2 glasses of wine per night for a little while, and we were out of town last weekend, when we normally would have shopped for more bottles of wine. While we were in this little wine store, I asked one of the proprietors (Tony) if he knew what vineyard name replaced Rabbit Ridge's name around 2002 (I'd heard the vineyard wasn't selling anymore and that they had to change their name).

Rabbit Ridge is a vineyard I "discovered" while at Lazy Bear in California back in 2002, but the vineyard had some legal problems. Since that year, I have seen fewer and fewer selections of Rabbit Ridge on the East Coast in wine stores.

So, we were in this wine store and I was talking to one of two Tonys - the daddier one. As I completed my purchase, he suggested that we pop round to the bar for a wine tasting. We threw our purchased wines into the car, and settled in for a glass of wine. Matt had a pinot noir and I had a cabernet. Both were really good, but mine definitely had more body. Then, speaking of body, we noticed the other, younger Tony.

The younger Tony is a cute, cuddly, hairy-chested Lebanese fellow who started up this wine shop a couple of years ago. When he and his business partner (the older Tony) came over, they brought tobacco pipes with them. These were reminiscent of pipes I had seen and used in Yemen in 1994, but shorter. He was lighting the coal that goes on the top of the pipe when I saw him and we struck up a conversation. I took the sucking end of the pipe after Tony had primed it, put on my plastic cover, and took a drag. I wasn't sure if I had gotten any smoke at all until I blew. A long stream of light, fruity smoke came out of my mouth. It was wonderful and I immediately got turned on for some reason. Not sure why - possibly the wine, the smoking, the Lebanese guys introducing us to the wine bar (for free!!)... don't know. Possibly the combo.

Interesting thing is, I had resolved not to drink any wine yesterday. But, lo and behold, the universe and these Lebanese business owners had different agendas. I went with it, and had fun.
wwcitizen: (BearFlag)
COME ON OUT!!! Food and no cover!!






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Stephen Lambeth

May 2017

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