21 December 2008

Before London: Epicerie Café Charbon



In celebration of Mel and Spencer snagging a great flat and jobs in London, we met at Epicerie Café Charbon on the Lower East Side for drinks, conversation and dancing.


New York Magazine reviewed the hot spot as: "...an elaborately concealed restaurant and bar posing convincingly as a contiguous crèmerie (dairy), tabac (newsstand), and épicerie (grocery store)—a virtual Main Street from pre-supermarket France, transported intact to the Lower East Side." Fairly accurate, I'd have to say- although they forgot to mention the DJ- that hasn't updated his playlist since say: 1992. The servers donned LES tees and tended to exhibit more pronounced attitudes the closer to the bar that they worked. Not to mention the token server who raised his hands in the air and began to dance alone in a valiant attempt to get the stagger crew to dance as well.


The beers were cheap! Five singles for bottles and tap (even the goodies, like: Leffe Blonde!) and the night progressed nicely. As the moments passed, the beer was sloshed and the tables were moved: more people danced.


A lovely evening, although I'm excited for Mel and Spencer (and a new reason to visit London!) NYC will miss them dearly. Thank goodness for the excessive number of cabs available outside Epicerie's doors- it was a bone chilling slap of a night.

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