Thursday, 10 April, 2014 – USA Food and Wine Tour
The guys go for their walk and get back early. They try to settle in for breakfast but the staff say they are too early so they go back up for a shower. Not knowing that, Julie says we should tush down which we do. When we get to the Breakfast room, none of our group are there. The first song I hear over the diner speakers is a Bob Dylan song from Blood on the Tracks. Apparently these Gen Y people are discovering before anyone else the oldie but goodies, not realising we all knew that from years ago.
Eventually all the group drifts in. The Breakfast is fixed – Orange Juice OR Coffer; Granola with Yoghurt; Eggs served with fried greens on Ricotta. It is actually quite good.
We are free until 1:00, so I go up to the room for Blog work and some nap. Julie instead pounds out towards the Brooklyn Bridge, some 5-6 miles away. She uses some sense and walks to the last Ferry stop and then takes the Ferry to the base of the Bridge.
Julie hops off the ferry and starts the walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.
She realises that she is running out of time and turns back and goes to the Ferry again.
Julie makes it back in time to head out for our next big adventure – lunch at Roberta’s Garage. The first part of the adventure is getting there. We take 4 taxis. Colin and crew go in the first; we take the second; another group for the third and Doug and crew for the last. It is a convoluted trip there as it is in an Industrial area, not on the normal maps. Our guy finds it well and we are the first one there, joined soon after by the third group. We are shown to our table and await the others. There is Beer and Wine aplenty and lots of home cured olives. Eventually, Doug’s group shows up. Still no sign of Colin.
Colin and Crew finally arrive. It seems their driver did not know anything and they ended up in Manhattan before eventually getting back. I am not sure how they found it in the end!
From here on is a collection of photos of pizza and pork / ribs.
That’s it for the lunch from hell. I have to say that the service here was better than any other place we have been. We left the book behind but a number of the guys sign a copy of the menu. Thanks guys!
http://www.yelp.com.au/biz/robertas-brooklyn-2
That is enough food for the day. Julie and I go back for a nap as we have a big night out. We are going into Broadway for a Show. We asked John, the taxi driver last night, to pick us up and he is there mostly on time. We take a ride from Brooklyn into the city. Once there, I think hair raising is the term. He is a clear expert but my God, the holes that he found / created, etc. was wow. He drops us off two blocks away and we get to our seat in plenty of time. Julie has organised us for the first row, just slightly off center – perfect seats as our view is not blocked by the Conductor who is leading a large orchestra in a pit in front of us.
The show that we see is Motown the Musical, a history of Motown and Berry Gordy Junior. See http://www.motownthemusical.com/. It is pretty good with lots of the Motown songs although a lot of them are snippets. Good show, I am glad that we made the effort. We take the underground back, the C line down to 14th street and then the L line under the river to Brooklyn. It did not take very long at all.
We are told that some of the boys went to a pub nearby for the odd drink and settled in for the afternoon. After they left there, they proceeded to the bar at the Hotel and were there for quite a while. Not so good in the morning.