Monday, August 2nd, 2010—Bar 204

Day 204—Sunday, August 1st, 2010
The Bourgeois Pig (Originally headed for La Palapa Cocina Mexicana)
I awoke today with the PayPal donation bell ringing. It turned out to be a generous donation of ten dollars from Ruben Sleurink who has donated in the past. Ruben lives in Holland and here’s his stated purpose on the PayPal reciept: “For my only, but best friend in NYC! One day we'll meet each other haha! Keep up the good crawling!” How cool! well Ruben, you are my only and best friend in Holland and one day we will indeed meet and I’ll buy the first round! Thank you so much! Ruben is part of a breakfast delivery service in the Netherlands, check out their website here: Desayuno.nl.

Okay, I found a cool Mexican place the other week before the Goodfellas screening. I was early for the movie, so I went across the street and had a Michelada (hello, Tiki Bar Susie!) at a Mexican restaurant across the street called, La Palapa Cocina Mexicana. It’s convienently located next to the Holiday Cocktail Lounge where I need to finish taking pictures, so I figure I’ll get all this done today. And so, it’s off we go to the East Village. And this time my camera is charged up and ready to go.

Okay, the first stop is a return visit to the Holiday Cocktail Lounge where I finished taking the pictures in there. Check out the update here: Holiday Cocktail Lounge Update. (Scroll down for the update.)

And here we are at La Palapa Concina Mexicana. I can taste the Michelada already!

Apparently a lot of other people had the same taste in mind, the place is packed. Time to move on, we'll try this place again later in the crawl.

I walked around for a block or two and stumbled upon the Burgeois Pig. I've been meaning to check this place out and now is as good of a time as any.

A dark and decadent place with a marble bar, looks like we found tonight's destination.

And the beautiful bartender, Andrea serves up a watermelon Sangria.

It hits the spot on a warm summer evening.

Matt was the waiter on duty and a friendly and nice guy.

As I'm feeling comfortable I look up and there it is, the mark of excellence: A tin ceiling!

An elegant chandelier hangs in the middle of the room.

Karen and Suzanne were enjoying a glass of wine at the bar.

There's comfortable padded throne chairs to lounge and enjoy your drink and food here.

There's marble tables and more chairs in the front of the bar and open window seating.

Kasey and Bill were enjoying food and wine and the scenery from the open window dining area.

More tables are located on a step-up portion of the bar.

George, En and Maria were having drinks at the other window booth facing the street.

Okay, back to the bar because my Sunday dinner should be arriving at any minute.

And here it is! I got the lobster bisque fondue which is served with bread points, roasted potatoes and vegetables.

I hadn't had fondue since the '70's and it was delicious. The cheesy fondue had lumps of shrimp, lobster and crab in it.

Andrea shut off my flash to get these red-light shots of me enjoying the fondue.

They turned out really cool, great job, Andrea!

Okay, the fondue's gone, which means I am too. Goodnight, everybody!

Review
As you step into the Bourgeois Pig you’ll feel as if you’re being transported into a dark and, decadent French bordello. There’s throne chairs, a marble bar, tables, velveteen banquettes and couches to relax on. The entire bar is swathed in magenta hues giving it a definite red-llight district feel. The place has a speakeasy like feel to it, but you don’t need a password to get in and the staff is friendly and unpretentious.

The bar doesn’t have a full liquor license, it’s just wine and beer here, but they make the most of it. They have three selections of Sangria, a large wine list and wine cocktails including: the Paradis which is a mixture of lustau dry amontillado, elderflower, black cherry grenadine, the Mois De Brume which is chilled lillet, brumaire pacherenc, apricot, orgeat almond, lemon, and a dash of orange bitters and the Le Marin Port Flip which mixes tawny port, espresso, demerara sugar, dark chocolate, cream and egg yolk. There’s eleven wine cocktails total and they all go for 12 bucks apiece. The beer selection is all Belgian Ales and it includes: Dekoninck Ale, Delirium Tremens, Paulwel Kwak and St. Bernardus.

The menu is French with the emphasis on cheese and fondue specialties. They include five types of bruschetta, four selections of tartines and five cheese plates to choose from. The fondue selections include: French Onion Fondue, Mozzarella, Provolone, Parmesan And Romano, Rarebit Fondue and Lobster Bisque Fondue which is shrimp, crab, cheddar in a rich lobster broth with toast points, braised vegetables and herbed potatoes.

There’s long happy hours here. On Monday and Tuesday there’s half-priced bottles of wine from 5pm to 2am. On Wednesday you get half priced mussels from 5pm to 2am. And on Saturday and Sunday from 5pm to 7pm they offer half priced bottles of wine. Stop by and dig the pig. (I stole that line from Tim Carey by the way.)

The Bourgeois Pig
111 E. 7th St. (Near 1st Ave.)
212-475-2246