In advance of her impending birthday, I invited Katie to dinner at an isolated little tapas place in the East Village, Grape and Grain. We drank a lot of wine, split a pizza with Portobello mushrooms, roasted red peppers and garlic comfit, split a sandwich featuring roasted chicken breast, arugula, sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese/black olive spread, and an artisanal cheese plate featuring Murray’s finest, including a “smoky blue” from Rogue Creamery that’s a new favorite. Instead of going to see a movie as we’d planned originally, we had even more wire. Our server, who kept giving us free refills because we were so charming, was knowledgeable about a great many things: which wine would go best with which dessert, cheese in general, the best hipster songs to play in a candlelit restaurant (we presumed the soundtrack-playlist was emanating from her iPod) and that it was a bad idea to be checking out the cool-looking apartment on the third-floor of the building across the street because its owner has a habit of parading around naked.
Grape and Grain
- 620 E. 6th St. (between Avenues B and C)
- (212) 420-0002
- Meal 54 of 52: three-selection cheese plate ($15), pizza ($12), chicken sandwich ($10), an apple tart for dessert and like a gallon of wine.