Friday 5ive- April 8, 2022

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post featuring five things that caught my attention this week.

1) My birthday was on Thursday, and it's a big birthday so there are lots of festivities. My friends from the Book Cellar celebrated with a luncheon with quiche, salad, a delicious lemon blueberry cake, flowers, and gifts. It was delighftul! I came home to find three more floral arrangements- one each from hy husband, my older son and his wife, and my younger son. Our apartment smells and looks fantastic!

 2) My wonderful husband took me to dinner at The River Cafe, just over the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a lovely Michelin-starred restaurant, tucked away in the DUMBO section right on the water. The menu is a three-course prefixe and it was amazing. I had Tortelloni as my first course, handmade pasta filled with butternut squash and buffalo mozzarella, with a crispy pork guanicale that was so tasty. The Black Sea Bass second course was the best fish I've ever had. For dessert, I had the Chocolate Brooklyn Bridge, such an intricately designed dessert. The giant lobby floral display is spectacular as well. It is a special occasion splurge dinner for sure, one I highly recommend.

3) The laundry room in our apartment building got a makeover with all new machines and now there is an app that you can use to start the machines.  You can put money on the app (no more losing your laundry card), use your phone to start the machines, and even get an notification when your laundry is done. It also tells you how many machines are currently in use so you don't have to lug your laundry down the elevator to the laundry room only to find all of the machines in use. Technology can be good.

4) We're watching Showtime's miniseries Superpumped-The Battle For Uber, created by the same people who produce Billions on Showtime. Joseph Gordon Leavitt portrays Uber founder Travis Kalanick, and Kyle Chandler plays venture capitalist Bill Gurley, who heavily invested in Uber. It's a fascinating look at how Uber became the behemoth disrupter it is, and the rise and fall of Kalanick. We are really enjoying this one. 

5) I read two excellent books this week. Fiona Mozley's Hot Stew, is a fantastic novel about the residents in a building in the Soho section of London. A restaurant occupies the first floor, and a brothel takes up most of the upper floors. The owner wants to evict everyone and raze the building to build luxury condos, but the ladies who work in the brothel will not leave. Mozley brilliantly builds her story and introduces us to all the interesting characters, and how they tie into each other. Algonquin Books is on roll publishing so many powerful books like Thrity Unrigar's Honor, Elena Medel's The Wonders and Kaitlyn Greenidge's Libertie. My full rave review of Hot Stew publishes on Monday.

I read a nonfiction book from Algonquin as well. Theresa Brown's memoir Healing- When A Nurse Becomes A  Patient shares her story of being diagnosed with breast cancer and working her way through the health care system as a nurse and patient. She shares her eye-opening experiences, and many of them are not positive ones. I read this one in just a few hours, unable to put it down. My full review publishes on Tuesday. 

Have a great week everyone.

Weekend Cooking- The River Cafe in Brooklyn

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

Last Thursday, my husband and I went to see Neil Diamond perform at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, his first concert in his hometown. Before the show, we had dinner with two other couples at the River Cafe, located just under the Brooklyn Bridge.

We have walked the Brooklyn Bridge, but never wandered down to this beautiful area. We walked by the famous Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, but didn't get a treat because we didn't want to spoil our dinner.

The River Cafe is a gorgeous place. It is right on the river, and the entry is surrounded by lush greenery. A huge display of lovely flowers greet you in the entry of the restaurant. The ambiance is relaxing and beautiful.

The menu is a three-course prefix, and at $120 per person, not inexpensive. But you get the whole package here. The waiter brought the ladies a small tufted stool that he placed next to us to put our purses on. I have been to many fancy restaurants, but this was a first for me, and so appreciated.

The service was impeccable and unobtrusive. I had a glass of Chardonnay with dinner, and it was very good, smooth and light. I started with the Pear Salad appetizer, which was my favorite part of the meal and one of my favorite appetizers ever.

They placed a perfectly caramelized pear on a plate with bacon, goat cheese and toasted walnuts on  the pear, topped with frisee and covered delicately with a delicious apple cider dressing. It was heavenly.

My husband enjoyed the Wild Shrimp, Pacific Blue shrimp served Oscar style, with King Crabmeat, white asparagus and a citrus Malaise sauce.

For my entree, I had the Coquelet, a chicken dish roasted and stuffed with chestnut, porcini and sage stuffing, with tiny turnips, a small glazed carrot and a Madeira sauce on top. The stuffing was very tasty.

I chose the Pistachio Semifreddo for dessert, and it was amazing. The pistachio dacquoise came with clementine sorbet and a clementine chip. I loved how the flavors blended together.

The dinner was expensive, but I highly recommend the River Cafe for a special occasion dinner. The view of Manhattan is wonderful, and the food is incredible.

I didn't take photos of the food, as we had dining companions with us.
The River Cafe website is here, and they have terrific photos.