Brooklyn Birthday Dinner for L. c/o Bar Tabac

The season of November birthdays arrived in, well, the month of November if you can believe it. A great number of my dearest and nearest enjoy birthdays of the Scorpio and Sagittarius persuasion, and that includes one Mrs. L. I made my way to Brooklyn for L.'s b-day much as I had the year before, and enjoyed a few hours of silliness time in Fatty and L.'s apartment before the real festivities began. This time may have been spent lolling about, telling stories about this and that, putting a belt around my head in the style of a fascinator and generally just cutting loose.

But that was just a precursor to the real events of the evening: dinner and dancing. L. had a dinner with about 14 of her favorite folks at Bar Tabac. We had a nice spot in the back at a long table far away from the craziness of the first room and constantly in motion front door. Bread was served. Delicious. Delightful.

M., who was seated to my right, ordered the paté as a starter, it came with the tomatoes on its surface, but we added one of the cornichons to truly let its face shine. It was the good hearty version of paté that has a lot of texture to it and a nice earthy heartiness. Eaten with a smile of course.

I went with their friseé salad with poached egg, lardons, a few stray potatoes and a nice balsamic reduction. This salad may look simple, but once the yolk got involved its overall taste profile was off the charts as far as tastiness goes.

Fat T. loves his wife.

I went with the duck confit for my main course and boy howdy did it deliver. So rich and fallllllllll offf the bone tender! I believe this plate may have had a few lingering fries and lettuce at the end of my consuming its contents, but as far as duck was concerned only bones remained.

L. is notoriously not that interested in sweets, so when our server asked us what she might like as a birthday treat it was quickly decided that cheese, not cake, would most certainly please her. I believe that this was a very sound decision.

M. and me, holding the far corner down.

We then went to the Bell House, where I took copious photographs of shenanigans, hijinks and dancing...but share only the photograph I took in the bathroom, which makes it seem like I was all alone. Of course the reality was that there were about a million ladies all in line but the angle of the mirrors and their bodies made it seem like a ghost bathroom. Point, me.

A very lovely evening celebrating a dear friend, full of good company, great food, and music with a 'Party Like It's 1999' theme. Which is a great theme for those of us who graduated from high school in that year. Though I didn't actually do much partying then. But I can pretend that I did and then relive those days that never were at events 10+ years later and it almost becomes fact. Almost.