Saturday Picnic on the Peirs

Our friends Chris and Draper suggested we come over to their place in the West Village and get some food at Gourmet Garage and go over to the piers and have an supper time picnic.

I, of course, said I would cook and bring the food. Gourmet Garage indeed!

The piers are amazing now they have been renovated. Of course I say that like they were just renovated when in fact they have been like this for years I just never go over that far west. I'm such an East Village Lower East Side guy.

I still remember with great nostalgia the old decrepit falling down sleazy piers, ah the good old days.

Now it's all landscaped with AstroTurf and picnic benches and a police patrol in a little electric mini car to make sure you're not enjoying any wine with you meal (they give you a stiff fine if they catch you drinking - imagine in Greenwich Village you can't have wine with your picnic! So prudish and provincial. In Berlin you can walk down the street drinking a beer bottle, it doesn't seem to have destroyed the social fabric or created constant scenes of drunken disorderly conduct. The puritans are alive and well and apparently running NYC.)

Anyway, it was totally delightful sitting at the end of the pier having a nosh and watching the Hudson river pass by. It was particularly lovely to have a Summer's evening with out rain!

Selection of Marinated Olives

House Made Pickled Beets

Roast Chicken (Kosher Organic from Wise)

Potato Salad
with green beans, celery, parsley and capers in a garlic lemon mayo
Tossed Mixed green Salad
with a grain mustard and fine herb vinaigrette
Jasper Hill Farms Raw Milk Constant Bliss Home made Whole Wheat Bread
Bitter Sweet Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies