Matchbook Fail/J.G. Melon

After our last team outing to the 3 Sheets Saloon, we decided to give another bar a try for our last Happy Hour. We went to The Four-Faced Liar. After a few rounds, fellow Matchbook League lady GR and I decided to split and grab some food before calling it a night. I've always wanted to check out J.G. Melon, and I saw their matchbooks on Instagram, so we decided to check it out.

The restaurant was crowded with business people, tourists, and a couple in the corner who was just eating lettuce salad (?!). We each ordered their bacon cheeseburger, and split a side of cottage fried potatoes (fries in the shape of chunky hash browns). Our food came, and it was a straight-up old school cheeseburger - very simple, no crazy garnishes or condiments, and on an extremely small plate. I don't usually notice the size of plates at a restaurant, but these look like plates from the 1950s. Kind of sad that it stands out to me, it just goes to show how American portions have gotten so out of control. But I digree.

The cheeseburger was DELICIOUS. Sometimes simple is best!

After our meal, we tried to figure out where the matchbooks were. They are typically at the hostess stand or bar, but these were nowhere to be found. We decided to ask someone on our way out. They said that only the uptown location has matchbooks. Fail!

Considering I am almost never uptown, and if I am, I most likely wouldn't grab a burger, I think I will have to kiss this matchbook goodbye. I LOVE it though. It's a great picture of an opened melon, and I like the J.G. brand on the bottom corner of it. Cute that the matchbook tips match the melon color as well!

-GK

From Matchbook Diaries

Matchbook Dining/Radegast Hall & Biergarten & Café de la Esquina (part 2 of 2)

I had wanted to check out Fette Sau after our day drink, as I love any and all Stephen Starr restaurants and some of my best meals have been in his restaurants: Buddakan for my 25th birthday, Jones and The Dandelion for brunch during a Philadelphia weekend with my bff LB, Morimoto for two team outings, Upland for dinner out with an old friend. I still need to check out Le Diplomate when I go to Washington D.C. in June, and Talula's Garden during my next trip to Philadelphia with LK.

Anyway, the group that I was with did not care about my Stephen Starr obsession, so I was overruled and we wound up at Café de la Esquina. I was a little sour at first, but then I remembered how good the tacos are (we were here before for a double date with friends), and was happy to be there again. Unfortunately, the entire restaurant smelled like vomit. I think someone took Saint Patrick's Day a little too far. Even more unfortunate than that was the fact that our noses got used to the smell within a few minutes.

However, the food was awesome. To start, we got the queso fundido and guacamole. LK and I split a bunch of tacos:
Pescado with grilled mahi
Pork Carnitas
Camarones BLT with shrimp and bacon


They were all AWESOME and went really well with the Haribo gummies and brownie brittle we ingested once we got home.

-GK

Matchbook Dining/Radegast Hall & Biergarten & Café de la Esquina (part 1 of 2)

As I've mentioned, my crew and I celebrate all major holidays together. For Saint Patrick's Day, we decided to do a day drink. We wanted to avoid the crowds of Manhattan, and decided to meet up in Williamsburg. I suggested going to the Radegast Hall & Biergarten after seeing that they have live music on the weekend! We all met up in the afternoon and circled the bar a few times. It was completely mobbed with people looking to get their drink on in honor of Saint Patrick's Day, March Madness, and bachelor parties! I found a table of guys who were paying and I told them "shotty your table!" They left and we had half the communal table to ourselves. The other half was a couple who was on a date, seemingly annoyed that a bunch of us took over their table and were loudly talking. Their food was everywhere and it got to be kind of awkward. A beer hall with communal seating is the last place to go on a date.

After a few rounds, we decided we had enough of the crowds, and went across the street to The Levee, a dive bar with really cheap drinks, and free Twizzlers and cheese balls. The guys in our group look to go to dive bars whenever possible, and they were really in their element here. I was happy just to get a cheap drink and eat about 10 Twizzlers, and handfuls of cheese balls. After a few drinks there, we were starving and headed out for some food.

I will continue with a part 2 post since part 1 is long enough!

Matchbook verdict: Embodies the look and feel of the biergarten perfectly. I love a matchbook with a crest, as seen with Peter Luger's matchbooks. The font is perfectly old-world German. I also love the matte paper that the matchbook is printed on!

-GK

Matchbook Dining/The Happiest Hour & Bar Sardine (part 2 of 2)

Bar Sardine is a restaurant that I have had on my restaurant bucket list for a while now, so it is perfect that they have a great menu, and adorable matchbooks. It is part of Happy Cooking Hospitality, which also owns Joseph Leonard, Jeffrey's Grocery, Fedora, and Perla Cafe, which are all restaurants I want to checkout.

The restaurant was packed despite it being pretty early for a Thursday night (I love early dinners). The happy host showed us to our table which was extremely cozy. GR got the booth while I got the shrunken stool.

-Deviled eggs with soy and black garlic
-Crispy pork belly with fried egg, pepper relish, chicharron
-Fedora burger with smoked cheddar, crispy potatoes, cucumbers, BBQ mayo 

Everything was crazy good. I absolutely love soy sauce eggs because they are super salty, and these were a bit spicy as well. The pork belly had this amazing pepper relish under it which was sweet and smoky. Pork belly can sometimes be too fatty, but this was crispy as well. And the burger. OMG. It was definitely one of the most interesting burgers I've ever had. It was crunchy, and had a really good bun, and a delicious sauce. People in tables around us kept asking what we ordered, and they proceeded to order many of the same things.

Matchbook verdict: I love the faded black font, and the all caps font on the back. It's classic and simple.

-GK

Matchbook Dining/The Happiest Hour & Bar Sardine (part 1 of 2)

Fellow Matchbook League lady GR and myself decided to check out The Happiest Hour and Bar Sardine for our latest Matchbook League Dinner. These two places are very close to each other, and pretty close to work. They are both on West 10th Street, and this is becoming one of my favorite areas.

There was a work happy hour at The Happiest Hour a few months back, and neither of us was able to go. We saw that they had matchbooks, and decided to check it out, then grab dinner after.

The Happiest Hour is definitely a tiki-inspired bar, but less Polynesian (such as Mother of Pearl)  and more Beverly Hills Hotel-inspired, with the palm tree wallpaper. I have been to a bunch of tiki bars, and have never walked away feeling like I spent my money on a really good cocktail. That is not the case here. Thought we just got one cocktail each, it was enough to make me change my mind. I ordered the Loose Lemon - lemon syrup, soda and lemon zest + your choice of gin, rum or pisco, and I chose pisco! I LOVE brandy in drinks. It was delicious, fresh and sweet. 

The bar definitely had an interesting crowd. Despite it being only 5:20 when we arrived, it was full of suit guys. I assumed that that the shackles don't come off until 6:30 or 7, but I was wrong! There was also a baby crawling around on the floor, and seeing a baby at a bar was very out of context for me. 

We vowed to come back soon, and made our way to Bar Sardine for dinner. 

Matchbook verdict: perfection all around. It looks a lot better in person than it does in this photo taken with my iPhone. I love the matte dark green paper used, and the gold stamped font. I absolutely adore the address on the back. Anytime I see an address written out like that, with No for number with a small o, I immediately think about all of the beautiful Instagrams I see with people taking photos of quaint West Village doors. Finally, the boy and girl flamingo drinking from a straws out of a glass that's in the shape of an hour glass. How fitting to the name of the bar!

 

-GK  

 

Matchbook Drinking/3 Sheets Saloon

3 Sheets Saloon is my team's go-to bar for Happy Hour. As I've mentioned, I work in digital advertising with a really great team. We are all around the same age, and have a lot of fun both at work and outside of work. Our old office used to be the traditional setup, with cubicles and different rows of desks. We moved offices a year ago further downtown and our new office has a startup layout, with everyone's desk in an open room. With this new setup, our team has gotten a lot closer, and we do team Happy Hours all the time now!

Despite us all being working professionals, we still enjoy cheap drinks like we are in college, and the 3 Sheets Saloon is always our answer to Happy Hour. I swore that when I moved from the Upper West Side where I practically lived at sister bar Jake's Dilemma, I would no longer frequent these college bars, but 3 Sheets Saloon keeps bringing us back. It helps that they keep giving free Happy Hours to different people at work that we all cash in on!

The last time we were there, it was for my fellow Matchbook League lady JN who moved to Australia for 6 months! Nothing like saying goodbye to America with a night out as one of the basic most American college bars in the city!

Matchbook verdict: Nothing special at all. There is no thoughtful design here, it's just a matchbook to advertise all of the different sister bars. I will say that the bar logos are pretty good. My favorite is Hair of the Dog, which I was last at after my Fonda boozy brunch!

-GK 

Matchbook Fail/12 Chairs Cafe

A fun tradition we have at work is to go out for a team lunch when we have a new person. Our last team lunch meal was at Quality Eats. This time, we went to 12 Chairs Cafe to welcome the newest member of the team (same person whose birthday we celebrated recently with baked goods from Mah-Ze-Dahr!) I chose 12 Chairs Cafe because it is close to the office, Mediterranean food usually goes over with a crowd, and I was really craving it! Plus, I saw on an Instagram account that they have matchbooks!

It was a large group of us (11 or so) so I was looking forward to trying 11 different dishes! For the table, we got:
-grape leaves
-roasted beets with goat cheese croutons
-hummus
-babaganoush

For my main meal, I ordered the lamb burger, topped with Bulgarian cheese and spicy mayo, and served with sweet potato fries.

When a restaurant does hummus and babaganoush well, it is my favorite thing, and brings me back to my wonderful trips to Israel. The lamb burger was great, but huge. My friend ordered an egg dish which she wound up not liking, so I gave her half of my burger and went to town on the tahini that came with her eggs!

The people working at the restaurant were the sweetest, and I became friendly with my waitress who is from Israel and new to NYC! We wound up becoming Facebook friends! When I asked if the restaurant had any matches, she wound up bringing me a huge box of Diamond brand matches! Matchbook fail!

Below is what it looks like only. I look the use of the symbols instead of words, and the hand-drawn symbols are pretty neat.

-GK

From matchgirl100