the plunge

tonight, we took the plunge.

three blocks south of us on seventh avenue between 21st and 22nd street lies il bastardo, a daytime club on the weekends for the presumably b&t crowd, where for $39, you can get a brunch entree and a liter of alcohol. this place is always bumpin, and when i say always, i am in no way making the slightest of exaggerations. morning, noon, and night, you name it, there are scantily clad women and their accompanying men lining up outside of il bastardo.

so it came to our surprise when our sweet, hilarious neighbors, dan and bevin, suggested il bastardo as our dinner venue tonight. they assured us despite the club-like nature on the weekends, the food was good (and surprisingly reasonably-priced). and as it turns out, the food was great! we shared the grilled octopus with arugula and lemon juice, and grape tomato salad, and both were DELICIOUS. for our entrees, kevin had the capellini bolognese with peas and mushrooms, and i had the pacherri with tomato sauce, which was pretty tasty as well (except that they left out the pancetta and proscuitto from mine).

the crazy part was that the entrees were equally or lesser priced than a glass of wine ($10)! yes, this is in central chelsea!

it was a relaxing, fun night, finally getting to know the people living on the other side of the wall! and it turns out i am bevin's first and only female friend in finance! sadly, we are bonding over their upcoming renovation of their riverside drive home, so that means they will be moving out of chelsea eventually. the silver lining is that it sounds like it will be an extensive, gut renovation so they'll be around for another year.

hopefully next time we can have them over, with baby william too. i am really enjoying getting to know our neighbors, in seattle and nyc ~ it definitely feels a bit more like home when you get to know the people around you.