Bar area on first floor
Hmmmmm
Warm Pretzel Bread
I opt for originality. That means that rather than deliver yet another discourse on how much better it is to be young, I’m going to surprise you with finding the little things in getting older that can actually make you happy. I don’t mean the obvious stuff like your daughter’s smile or finding out she picks on 5-year old boys on the playground, even though she’s not even two herself. I mean the real, raw satisfaction that you feel in going out, getting drunk, and truly not going home early… TWO nights in a row.
That’s us this Saturday night.
Much to my chagrin, however, and especially after being out last night, our dinner reservation at 9:45 this evening left me hungry for something like brasserie and truth be told on a Saturday night, bras, yessiree. Come to think of it - screw it. I don’t need brasserie when we can have brassieres, Asian Fusion and seafood at Catch.
I even discovered that I prefer my brassieres on the outside rather than the in. Who knew?
Catch
Catch is right in the heart of the Meatpacking District and needless to say, comes included with the gratuitous velvet ropes, ostentatious doorpeople and very upscale entryway indicative of trendiness. Once you get in the elevator and realize just how big this mecca of a space actually is, you know you’re going to have a great time with friends, but as usually goes along with trendy dining, don’t know if you’re going to have a great meal. Our fearsome foursome had one drink at the bar, with a large glass of vodka (for me!) and a beer for the men and two more ladylike cocktails for the gals. Aside from eating some amazing warm pretzel bread with herbed butter, ordering was a total blur as I was concentrating on my manversation, letting SheView order for the table and feeling good from my pre and in-restaurant vodka cocktails. To start, we definitely had the Spider Roll (served the usual way with a Sweet Chili Garlic Sauce); MRC Roll (Seared Tuna, Shrimp Tempura, Avocado and Ponzu Butter); Crispy Shrimp with Spicy Mayo; Baked Shrimp with Olive Oil, Garlic and Country Bread and Sake Chicken Lettuce Cups. The two sushi rolls were surprisingly good and definitely qualify for the high-end of the sushi spectrum, but not quite Morimoto-caliber (but what is?). Both Shrimp dishes were excellent, with the Crispy Shrimp the likely winner of the two in what was a very close call. The Sake Chicken was filler, totally unnecessary and overmatched by its fellow dishes. For mains, we had Branzino with Vegetable Basmati, Crispy Chicken with Roasted Roots and table-sides of Brussels Sprouts and Green Beans with Napa Cabbage. At this point I was less a judge of the food and more a judge of the crowd, and there was plenty to see, hear and coolly gaze at with the eyes of a drunken thirty-something who would easily be overmatched by these female spawn of the Internet age. Or would I? Guess we’ll leave that to the imagination, which is from exactly where I think some of these outfits have been conjured. 21 Ninth Avenue | Between 13th and Little West 12th Streets (212) 392-5978
SJR