New Year's Eve Oysters, Salad and Champagne c/o McCrossen's

For the last two years I very much enjoyed spending New Year's Eve with M&A and members of their respective families, but this year that was not to be.  I toyed with the idea of doing as I did when I first moved to Philly: pretend that the holiday was not taking place and stay safely at home, acoiding the crowds, the cold, the lack of person to kiss at midnight, and the terrible difficulty of finding a cab. No fanfare. This is an appealing approach in part because the next day is, for me, just another day at work. In other words, New Year's Day isn't a holiday, so one can't enjoy themselves too heartily if they are required to wake up at a decent hour and use their brain in any meaningful way.  While staying in certainly had its merits, I ultimately decided that I'm not getting any younger, and that I'll have plenty of years later in life to enjoy the curmudgeonly and shut-in like tendencies I've described above. So, instead, I joined up with LW and Ak for a different plan. A plan that involved leaving my house and getting a bit dressed up. But it was also a plan that allowed us to skirt some of my least favorite aspects of the holiday. It was in the neighborhood, so no worries about cabs. And we had a reservation, so no worries about finding a place to sit. You probably won't be too terribly surprised to learn that we ended up at McCrossen's. For eating, I chose to try two of their specials: the fried oysters and the salad lyonnaise. The oysters were definitely crispy, but not quite as daintily fried as the oyster that came in the chowder I enjoyed in December.

 I'm a true lover of a good Salad Lyonnais, and this one's egg to frisee ratio was pretty good. I would have actually enjoyed just a smidge more dressing.

 The one thing I'll need to do a bit more research on, is just what champagnes we enjoyed, and the order in which we enjoyed them. Over the course of our evening we consumed three bottles. All of which were good, though the first two were particularly delightful.

 I dressed myself up a bit. That bow is from a gift box. Classy.

 This was ringing in the New Year proper midnight style. You'll note that T. has both the champagne of beers and a glass of champagne. Or wait, is Miller High Life the champagne of beers? So perhaps Coors Light could be, like, the Prosecco of beers?

 Now this is a funny photograph because it seems very much like AK is trying to tell me something, and I am far more intent on a photograph.

Well it was definitely a more boisterous evening than the NYEs I've enjoyed of late. But it was a balance on the whole, or at least in many a way. In other words, I was able to function at work.