Special NYC Restaurant Review/ Diner

 And by special review, I mean kind of ridiculous.

Welcome to flavor town.

This past weekend, I went to New York for a couple of nights. I had only been once before about 5 years ago, but now that I live within a few hours' drive, the chinabus was beckoning me. The city is full of delicious restaurants and has just about any kind of cuisine you can imagine. Walking around central park debating our next move, we come up with the brilliant idea of trying out the new Guy Fiere restaurant solely based on this newly famous review from the New York Times.

I was a bit skeptical...

...but Michael had high hopes.

If I were a bit more clever or a better writer, I would have tried to frame this review the same way. We can't all be New York Times writers.

The atmosphere of the restaurant was a bit gimmick-y, but it's in Times Square; that's how it's supposed to be. Not being able to justify spending money on actual food, we opted to go the drinks and appetizers route. I almost ordered the "nuclear waste" blue margarita, but decided that my $8 was better spent on a beer that I can drink.

Apparently, the beers are all made specially for Guy at Heartland Brewery. I opted for the "Independence Pale Ale" while Michael went for "El Jefe Weizen".  I think he picked that one just for the name. The beers were fine, and a safe choice. If I had a lot of money I would have gambled on one of the crazy cocktails, but that just didn't happen.






Deciding on an appetizer was a bigger decision. We wanted to be able to eat an actual meal later on so we didn't want to order anything too heavy. The Vegas Fries seemed like the obvious choice, especially since I am going to be in Vegas this Thanksgiving. The Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders will just have to wait until next time. Also, NYT author never received his Vegas Fries, so I thought a fair review was in order.

The fries themselves were...fine? They reminded me of some late nights in the college days, "you know what would go great on these fries??   FRANKS!". They were nothing special, but I guess we weren't expecting much either. I think the real purpose of the visit was just to say that we have been there. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is the case with many of the patrons at the place. I will not return, but I'm glad that I went. Delicious Lebanese food was had later on in the evening to make up for the visit.

These actually don't look that bad in this picture. 

Review: Diner

I think the choice behind the movie here is pretty obvious. There was a long debate about weather the movie should be diner themed, Vegas themed, road trip themed, etc. I heard great things about this one, and after seeing it on Netflix streaming (not my account), it was decided. 

Quality bros.

Taking place in 1959 Baltimore, the film centers around a group of old friends finding a place in the adult world. There is not much of a plot to the film - it mostly just highlights each character's story, with incredibly quick dialogue along the way. The friends like to meet in the Fells Point Diner, where they smoke, drink coffee, and discuss the finer things in life.

I think that the biggest strength of the movie is how believable each of the characters are acted. Even though the film is set in the '50s, the trials and the good times are still relevant today. Diner was nominated for an Oscar for the best screenplay, and for good reason. I kept thinking of it as being a smarter, older version of Noah Baumbach's Kicking and Screaming (although, I liked that one too). Trailer posted below.