Friday December 20
Location: Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Music: Phosphorescent
Show time: 8 PM
Venue: Music Hall of Williamsburg
Food: Fornino
Bar: D.O.C. Wine Bar
Miscellaneous: Verb Café
Indie folk singer-songwriter Matthew Houck goes by the moniker Phosphorescent, but for this show he’ll be bringing with him a full band to perform songs off his newest album Muchacho as well as his past albums. What also rocks is finding a decent pizza! Fornino offers just that, wrapped up in an original concept. Serving wood oven burning pizza, the menu is broken up into three generations, the first being your basic pizza ingredients while the second and third go off the gourmet deep end, giving you more than 20 options total. For drinks, the D.O.C. Wine Bar has a homey atmosphere and an excellent wine list of strictly Italian wines and small plates of food. If coffee is your thing, The Verb Café offers not only coffee but sandwiches, desserts, and soup. Chill at a table and write that novel, look for jobs online, or hang with a friend like everyone else there.
Friday December 20
Location: Midtown West, NYC
Music: Anamanaguchi
Show time: 8 PM
Venue: Terminal 5
Food: Eatery
Drink: Valhalla
Miscellaneous: Central Park
Everyone’s favorite chiptune band, Anamanaguchi, brings their Nintendo inspired rock to the stage at Webster Hall. With a new album out in Endless Fantasy, prepare to be blown into 8 bits. Nearby and delicious, Eatery offers a new American menu that’s asian influenced. Try the Red Curry Chicken Breast over roti pancake, with baby carrots and red curry coconut sauce ($16.95). Valhalla’s minimalist space is chill, letting the 24 brands of beer from all over the world on tap be the main attraction at this bar. While its warm out, waste a little time walking through Central Park, relax, and get out of the hustle and bustle of the city. Just watch your step. The working horses tend to leave surprises behind them!
Saturday December 21
Location: Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Music: Jonathan Toubin (Soul Clap & Dance-Off)
Show time: 8 PM
Venue: Brooklyn Bowl
Food: Blue Ribbon
Drink: Brooklyn Bowl
Miscellaneous: Bowling at Brooklyn Bowl
Dance all night to the world famous soul 45s of Jonathan Toubin (Soul Clap & Dance-Off). Plus at 1 AM there’s a Dance Contest! For dinner, check out Blue Ribbon, part of the highly rated eateries in the city, you’ll find southern fare including fried chicken and BBQ, some crazy shakes & floats, and more. For drinks, just walk about 20 feet to the bar where they offer nine draft beers from Brooklyn. Finally, and most obvious, there’s 16 lanes of bowling. While the wait is generally long, where else can you throw a strike and see a great band at the same time?
Saturday December 21
Location: Union Square, NYC
Event: The Awesome 80s Prom
Show time: 8 PM
Venue: Webster Hall
Food: Thai Me Up Sandwich Bar
Drink: McSorley’s Old Ale House
Miscellaneous: Mudd Cafe
Relive the best and worst of coming of age in high school at The Awesome 80s Prom. This interactive show is part musical and full-on party as the audience gets to drink, dance and vote for the Prom King and Queen. For eats, check out Thai Me Up Sandwich Bar, a sandwich shop offering Thai sandwiches with 7 Steamed Fried Vegetables and a choice of chicken, veggie, tofu or beef on a baguette with 3 types of sauces for $7. One of the city’s oldest bars, at McSorley’s Old Ale House you can feel the history when you enter as memorabilia, since its beginnings in 1854, are all over the walls. Aside from it being a frat hangout nowadays, it’s worth the trip. You’ve seen that orange Mudd coffee truck parked on Astor Place and on various other streets, but check out their Mudd Cafe on East 9th for coffee and a healthy, vegan, and vegetarian menu.
Sunday December 22
Location: Midtown West, NYC
Theater: No Man’s Land/Waiting for Godot
Show time: See website for schedule; Through February 1, 2014
Venue: Cort Theatre
Food: Yoshinoya Beef Bowl
Drink: Rudy’s Bar and Grill
Miscellaneous: Peking Duck House
Ian Mckellen, Patrick Stewart, Billy Crudup And Shuler Hensley star in Harold Pinter’s comedy No Man’s Land and Samuel Beckett’s classic Waiting For Godot. Sean Mathias’ productions present a startling new look at these two theatrical masterpieces. In No Man’s Land, two elderly writers, having met in a London pub, continue drinking and talking into the night. All might be well, until the return home of two younger men. Their relationships are exposed, with menace and hilarity, in one of Pinter’s most entertaining plays. In Waiting For Godot, two wanderers wait by a lonely tree, to meet up with Mr. Godot, who they hope will change their lives for the better. Instead, two eccentric travelers arrive, one man on the end of the other’s rope. The results are both funny and dangerous. Making fast food healthy, Yoshinoya serves bowls of rice, vegetables, and your choice of beef, teriyaki chicken, veggie, or a combo of meats. Super cheap, it’s a favorite spot of mine in midtown. A great dive, Rudy’s Bar and Grill serves up cheap beer by the pint or by the pitcher, and as for the grilling, that includes free hot dogs and popcorn! Though slightly on the expensive side, if you’re in the mood for duck and are a couple or in a group of four or more, Peking Duck House makes some of the best duck you will ever likely have.
