How to turn an unassuming Monday night at home into a Lucullan celebration of shellfish, alcohol and carbohydrates? Stop by Alchemy in Park Slope for their Mussel Mondays deal - a dozen mussels for $5. No, seriously. Then blow all that money you saved on one of their glorious house cocktails and an order of their otherworldy french fries. (Yes, french fries can be otherworldly. If you don't believe me, you don't deserve them.)
In our mission to build up an arsenal of reliably delicious dinner spots within a 1-block radius of our house (call us painfully lazy, but we've already found several exceptional standbys - Peperoncino, Convivium Osteria...), Mom and I stopped by Alchemy the other day and were thoroughly impressed (let's just say our meal included grilled AND smoked pork, sweet-potato-gorgonzola gratin, and a obscenely decadent, bacon-studded mac and cheese. Um, YES PLEASE!?!), so we decided to take advantage of their Mussel Mondays deal. My boyfriend came to meet us and he did the honors of ordering a dozen of each preparation (a more traditional garlic/butter/white wine potion of LOVE, and a zesty tomato-cilantro sauce that we sopped up with pretty much everything in sight - if the waiter hadn't brought over some extra bread I was worried that we might have resorted to our napkins...), and Mom and I made sure that each of our dishes included a hefty helping of fries to dredge in those heavenly mussel juices (fish and chips for her; a gutload of a chicken sandwich for me - with arugula, pickled onions, big ol' slabs of bacon and a gloriously garlic-y mayo...).
And boy, are cocktails a highlight here. Mine involved gin, pear puree, and.. rosemary?!? Um, hell yes. These people do NOT fuck around. Mom got a margarita featuring muddled strawberries and jalapeno-infused tequila... SERIOUSLY spicy and freakin' delicious. Danny got something with Maker's Mark... obviously. There was something leafy in there too, looked like mint... Once mine arrived I was too engrossed to pay attention to pretty much anything else (I swear I'm not an alcoholic...)All in all, an unexpectedly delicious Monday night. Can't wait til next Monday..... cheers!
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