Friday February 22
Location: Chelsea, NYC
Music: Lady Gaga
Show time: 8 PM
Venue: Madison Square Garden
Food GoGo Curry
Drink Stitch
Miscellaneous Leisure Time Bowl
Everyone’s favorite monster, Lady Gaga
Returns to MSG for her The Born This Way Ball so grab your tickets fast before they sell out. The owner of GoGo Curry is obsessed with the Yankees Hideki Matsui and his Jersey (55). The menu’s theme is baseball and katsu, a fried meat, chicken, or shrimp cutlet served in a curry sauce is the specialty here. Portion sizes are Walk (small), Single (Med.), Double (L), and Triple (XL) and are inexpensive. The mascot, a gorilla for some reason, is plastered everywhere, making this place even quirkier. In the heart of the garment district, Stitch, a cozy after-work bar/lounge, stocks a cocktail menu with a design theme. If you still have energy and are in the mood to bowl, check out Leisure Time Bowl. Located in the Port Authority, this place is stylish and fun.
Friday February 22
Location: Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Music: Com Truise
Show time: 8 PM
Venue: Glasslands Gallery
Food: Wild Ginger Pan-Asian Vegan Café
Drink: Teddy’s Bar & Grill
Miscellaneous: Verb Café
The stage name of electronic musician Seth Haley, Com Truise makes some badass electro music and has produced and remixed for many and last year’s funk heavy album In Decay was heralded by many blogs. Also on board are DJ sets from Chrome Canyon and Airbird (Joel Ford of Ford + Lopatin). For vegetarians and those not in the mood for meat, Wild Ginger Pan-Asian Vegan Café offers Pan-Asian cuisine in a relaxed earth-toned environment with a menu featuring veggies, tofu, seitan, and soy. The best thing about Teddy’s Bar & Grill is that it’s just got this great neighborhood vibe that’s warm and friendly, while also having a great menu of drinks and American bar food favorites like burgers, salads, sandwiches, and steak. A great place to get good coffee, take a seat, and watch the passing hipsters stroll by, Verb Café even has excellent sandwiches and baked goods to snack on before the show.
Saturday February 23
Location: Lower East Side, NYC
Music: Beach Fossils
Show time: 8 PM
Venue: Bowery Ballroom
Food: San Loco
Drink: Max Fish
Miscellaneous: Sugar Sweet Sunshine
Brooklyn indie rock act Beach Fossils have been making waves with their new album Clash the Truth which shows plenty of growth since their first album, which was more of a solo project of Dustin Payseur. The band has a bright future, so see them now before they blow up. At San Loco, the Mexican food is inexpensive, you can get a heaping amount of nachos for as little as $3.75, and telling by the heavy traffic, the place is doing just fine. What I like about Max Fish is that it’s a local bar for local artists. It’s walls play host monthly for art exhibitions, there’s a pool table in the back, and drinks aren’t pricey, like many new bars springing up in this neighborhood. For one of the best cupcakes in the city, Sugar Sweet Sunshine has 10 varieties, on top of cakes. Try the Sexy Red Velvet or the Bob, a yellow cupcake with chocolate almond buttercream.
Saturday February 23
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 February 24
Location: Astoria, Queens
Event: Spacewar! Video Games Blast Off
Show time: See website for schedule; Through March 3, 2013
Venue: Museum of the Moving Image
Food: Sanford Restaurant
Drink: Café Bar
Miscellaneous: Cavo Café Lounge
Spacewar! Video Games Blast Off looks at the first 50 years of video games through the lens of Spacewar!, the first digital video game, its development, and the culture from which it sprang. In addition to a model of the original PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1) computer running a playable simulation of Spacewar!, the exhibition presents 20 playable video games ranging in platform (arcade, console, handheld, PC), genre (shooters, platformers, action, arcade) and developer (commercial, independent, experimental). While Sanford Restaurant has been around for 75 years, you’d never know it with it’s modern décor and its very forward thinking diner fare. Try the Organic Asian Noodle Salad ($14.95) or the Pork Osso Bucco ($17.95) for just a taste of the delicious dishes that this place offers. For a drink, try Café Bar for something surprisingly different. On the outside it looks upscale but inside it’s a funky mix of couches, art, coffee shop, and Ikea-like design making for a super relaxing place for a drink or meal. At Cavo Café Lounge grab some traditional Greek and Mediterranean dishes off the menu and sit inside or outdoors in their Mediterranean themed backyard that is simply amazing.
