Sachin Agarwal: January 2007

Last Thursday Roy and I went to Tabla for lunch. It's not indian food, but American/French food with Indian spices and twists. I've never had food like this before and I really liked it. All the indian influences were well blended with the other flavors. The restaurant interior was beautiful, reminding me of the Gaudi architecture I saw in Barcelona.

At the end of lunch, Roy and I each got a $24 gift certificate to go back for dinner. Dinner there is pretty expensive so I'm not sure if I'll use it, but it's a good idea on their part.

That night a bunch of Phi Psis went to Calle Ocho for dinner. It's all the way on the Upper West Side. The interior of the restaurant is spacious and very cool. The food was good, and even though it was restaurant week, the portions were HUGE. I had to take my dessert to go.

We were again surprised with $25 gift certificates to go back. There were 6 of us there so that means we got $150. We checked and we can use them at the bar :).

Friday a bunch of us went to Indochine for some French Vietnamese food. The food was good all around, but not great. The cocktails were very good. The service was horrible. Overall a good restaurant, but nothing special that makes me want to go back.

On Monday a bunch of us went to Gramercy Tavern for lunch and once again it was great. I think what I ordered didn't turn out particularly amazing, but everyone else had some unique and delicious food. I had cranberry bread pudding for dessert and loved it.

Last night for dinner we went to Artisanal. Wow! They are famous for their cheese so we ordered their large cheese and meat plate to start. Every cheese was delicious. After that we had the restaurant week menu, so an appetizer and main course. Everyone's food was top notch. The cod was the softest fish I've ever had, it melt in your mouth. At that point I had no room for dessert so I took my piece of cheesecake home. I had some today and it was great!

I highly recommend both of these restaurants.

This weekend was all about the music. We went to shows on Friday and Saturday nights at two venues I had never been to before.

Friday
Roe on the Rocks Planned Parenthood Benefit at The Knitting Factory
The Wrens, Takka Takka, and The World Without Magic
The Wrens kicked ass. Bunch of old dudes but they rocked hard and put on a great show.

Saturday
Bowery Ballroom
Ollabelle / Kaki King / Hem / Vienna Teng / Ane Brun
Best venue in NY. Vienna Teng and Hem were good. Kaki King was interesting.

Restaurant week starts tomorrow! A bunch of people are taking long lunches to go to Gramercy Tavern for lunch tomorrow. I had to wake up at 6am last month to get that reservation.

On Friday night at 11pm Joe and I jumped on the last bus to Atlantic City from Port Authority. The bus only costs $31 round trip, and Bally's gives you a $20 reimbursement in cash.

When we got to Atlantic City, we immediately knew we would be disappointed. Coming from New York, and having spent lots of time in Las Vegas, there was no way Atlantic City would live up to our expectations.

Despite it being MLK weekend, and supposedly sold out, the place looked deserted. The boardwalk had few pedestrians. Most of the large hotel/casinos had been bought out by Bally's, and several were shut down. The rides on the boardwalk weren't even operating.

I probably will never go back to AC again unless I'm strictly looking to play a little blackjack and then head back. There's really no other reason to go there. But even the blackjack sucked: 8 decks, very low deck penetration (they stop dealing with 3 decks left in the shoe), and at Tropicana you weren't allowed to sit down mid shoe. They are getting strict!

In other news, I went to the Letterman taping on Wednesday which was super cool. It's taped at the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway. The set is amazing. And on Friday night (just before AC) I saw Janeane Garofalo at Comix, a very cool comedy club.

2006 was a great year. It was incredible living in New York and working at home. I got the chance to experience the best of the city without it being crammed into a weekend. Before I moved to New York, I liked the city based on a couple short visits. Now I LOVE New York.

I was in California and Arizona over the winter break. The weather was perfect and I could drive my mom's MINI around everywhere with the windows down. We went to Arizona for a week so I hung out with my cousins there. I even saw Corinne for a night in Tempe.

Then I went back to LA for the New Year's celebrations. On Saturday night Alvaro had a dinner party at his house (thanks, Alvaro!) and on Sunday night Becca had a New Year's gathering at her place (thanks, Becca and Lindy!). It was perfect to spend New Year's Eve with so many friends.

I don't have any definite plans for moving back to California yet, but February 2008 will make 2 full years in the city. I am pretty sure at that point I will have accomplished everything I wanted to see in New York. I am getting through my New York to-do list pretty quickly.

Click here for pictures of winter break 2006







Update: More pictures can be seen here, on Nikhil's website