A few years ago my friend Irene and I started getting together on Friday afternoons for a late lunch — not every week, but as our schedules allowed. We ran into each other at Rhinebeck (knitters: I know, shocking) (non-knitters: Rhinebeck is where the New York Sheep and Wool Festival is held, every October. What. Don’t judge.) and even then it had been a while since we’d had a lunch date, so we promised to arrange one soon. Months went by and we were busy or traveling or otherwise unavailable, so that lunch we’d promised to have back in October didn’t actually happen until today.

For my part, it was worth the wait. Irene suggested we go to the Chip Shop, and I was game because I’d heard good things but hadn’t been yet, and I do have a weakness for fish and chips. (I don’t know where it comes from. But some days, it’s the only thing that will do.)

The fish and chips were very good but that’s not important right now (and at any rate I have to say I prefer how they make it at Brooklyn Public House¹). What I hadn’t realized was that Irene had a birthday gift for me that she’d been hanging on to since March.

There’s nothing like opening a birthday gift three months after the fact. It’s like how you dream it will be when you’re a kid. “You’re 8 and three quarters today! Here’s a pony just for you!” So while I was super excited to have PRESENTS to open, I was not at all prepared for what I unwrapped.

They are FANTASTIC.

Maraschino cherries, yum!

How whimsical! How adorable! How perfectly suitable for Manhattans!

But there’s more. I also got these appetizer plates.

Olive! Get in mah belleh!

I don’t think I will ever see these and not smile or giggle outright. Especially the olive dish.

It has been a while since I’ve had people over in a party-like fashion, and probably won’t again until the end of the summer (there is a good reason for both of these things), but now I am even more prepared on the barware/snacks front. I can’t wait to use them.

(They’re from CB2, in case you were wondering.)

No related posts.