Anyway, the Kentucky Derby came on the same day as we planned to go to the Chelsea Brewing Company on Pier 59 at Chelsea Piers. It's the only brewery in New York City. Have you ever said the word brewery out loud? Go ahead and do it now. S and I had great fun in attempting to say it right the first time every time we talked about it. It was listed on Time Out NY's list of fun dates, and S is finishing the list with R. She invited us to go along.
We somehow found the brewery. S, Eddie, and I got into the city, walked to the piers because the day was gorgeous, and then walked and walked until we ran into it. We don't know how we got there, so when R texted S to see what the cross street was, we were like, just walk and you'll find it. Great directions.
When we got there, S asked about signing up for the tour and the girl at the desk looked baffled but then pointed to the clipboard. We signed up. Then we went to go sit outside and wait. S asked, we meet back here? Again, baffled. Then the girl said, yeah?, like she was asking us if it was okay to say yes. Wow.
We waited outside in the sun and it was so so so nice. Ahhhh. I basked in the sun knowing it was all false hope, knowing that Spring was going to change at any second, back into rain and wind in the next few days, but today was a good good day. We went back inside when R arrived and waited a few more minutes. One of the girls came over and said to the people in front of us, come with me.
We didn't know if that was directed to just them or to all of us--about eight or ten in total--waiting for the tour. She walked away with just those people so we figured we weren't supposed to go. The other girl came over and said to us, follow me, and then took us exactly where the other people went. So we were supposed to go. They were not very good at this.
When we got into the brew room, we were served small cups of blonde beer. I don't like light beer, but this wasn't all that bad. Eddie opted out of tasting it. He doesn't like beer at all. We listened to all the facts and figures about beer. We smelled some hops. We watched water bubble. The guy giving the tour was the owner of the company, and though he doesn't always give the tours, he was really informative and very interesting. He told us that the brewery is the only one in NYC and that he is from Brooklyn and loves NY.
We ended the tour after about 15 or 20 minutes. He said we'd all get $4 pints--discount! Love it! AND the tour was free!
We decided to eat while we got discount beer. The server seemed confused by our wanting a flight, so we ordered three pints. I wanted to try the other flagship flavor and they were out, so I got a raspberry beer which was lighter than I thought it would be and tasted like raspberry only every third sip to me. For R, however, he tasted the raspberry right away. We split a dark stout. S got a citrus beer like Blue Moon. Eddie got a coke.
R: Those don't have bones do they?
Server: No, no bones.
R: Oh, cool, great.
Then the server served him wings that had bones in them. Yup.
My entree came and Eddie pointed out that it was the biggest meal he'd ever seen me get ever. Thanks, hon. And I pretty much finished it because it was delicious. A grilled chicken sandwich with yummy goodness all up and through it. Mmmmmm. Then Eddie said that the tour wasn't really interesting to him because that stuff doesn't interest him. S mentioned that it's cool that it's the only brewery in NYC. Eddie responded, see? now that's the kind of thing he should've said on the tour.
We all looked at him. I was like, That was the first thing he said. He goes, that shows how much I was not paying attention. Heh heh.
While we were eating, I noticed that the bar was behind and above us. I wondered aloud if the people up there were watching below them. A few minutes later, the three of them were laughing. They were like, don't look up. The people above us had put their plate of food on the ledge above my head. Stupid people. A few minutes later, they'd removed it. A few minutes after that, a man's hands appeared, leaning over the ledge. Really.
During this time, the Kentucky Derby was in full swing. Everyone was wearing a hat. All kinds of great big hats.
Next year, I'm having a Kentucky Derby party and everyone needs to wear a hat.
It took forever for the race to start. I was intent on watching because earlier in the day, I'd bed on Santiva. Why did I choose Santiva? Because, it's fun to say SANTIVA!!!!! I rooted for him the whole time. He didn't win.
The horse Eddie had chosen came in third. After he saw that Animal Kingdom won, he said, I should've chosen him since we just saw the wild cat movie. So we were a bunch of losers in the Derby but that didn't matter because we'd gotten discount beer and I was slightly buzzed and we were able to finish our meal with a special dessert courtesy of S.
Eddie was eating the outside of the pastry and asking what it was. Turns out, he really really likes white chocolate. I liked everything about it. So much so that when Eddie was done picking the white chocolate off, I kind of ate the rest of his too. Who needs a horse when you can get a double dose of dessert?
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