Last weekend my family came up to New York to 1) see me perform in my show, and 2) celebrate Easter with me. My dad came up a day early, and so I decided to do the unthinkable: I let him choose the day's itinerary. Honestly, I love my dad. He's a cool cat. But his idea of fun day excursions and my idea of fun day excursions don't exactly match up. Por ejemplo: Randy likes visiting war/military museums, perusing liquor stores, watching the Discovery and History Channels, and being outdoors. Granted, I like doing those things too, but I wasn't too keen on spending my Friday afternoon aboard the USS Intrepid. And it was raining that day, so a leisurely stroll through Central Park was out of the question.
Apparently my dad had been doing some research, because when I told him he had full reigns of the day, he started rattling off a mental list. And at the top of that list was a place called Astor Wines & Spirits.
Not surprised.
So we shlepped down to the East Village (where my dad did many a double take at the questionable outfits of the NYU kids...), and were greeted by this:
And then we walked in the doors, and saw this:
This picture doesn't do it justice. In case you can't tell, behind the bar in the upper left corner the store EXTENDS, both back further AND sideways. And to the right of the "Great Wines Under $10" sign is EVEN MORE WINE.
I AM MY FATHER'S DAUGHTER, MEANING I HAVE BEEN TO MY FARE SHARE OF LIQUOR STORES. BUT I HAVE LITERALLY NEVER SEEN SO MUCH ALCOHOL IN MY LIFE. Sweet Jesus there was a lot.
Oh, they even have a wall of absinthe. Watch that link and tell me absinthe isn't terror-inducing.
Anyway, the reason we came to this store was because (and Papi, excuse the butchering of this story... I wasn't really paying attention to the nitty gritty details) they carried some fancy shmancy kind of scotch. Or whiskey. I don't remember. So we make our way to the back of the store, where we find an entire wall of scotch. And whiskey. And whiskey that is spelled in a different way. And scotches locked in a glass cabinet.
And using my super detective sleuthing skills, I located this $5,499.99 bottle of scotch whiskey (is it scotch or is it whiskey? The world will never know...).
Needless to say, we didn't purchase this bottle. I can't even see my dad, the scotch (whiskey) enthusiast that he is, dropping a casual five thousand on 750mL of liquid. But we did spend a good thirty minutes browsing and comparing extravagant prices and giggling at weird Northern European village names (that was mostly just me).
After purchasing a reasonably priced bottle of something reasonably good (not that I would know what constitutes good scotch and what doesn't), we left, and started wandering through the East Village. OMG, Randy was so trendy. I'm slowly converting him into a New Yorker. Hehehehehe.
We then discovered a little place called Pageant Print Shop (69 E. 4th Street). It's like yea big, but jam packed with all kinds of random maps and prints and magazine cutouts and cool pictures. I found a really cool print of kozaks on the steppes of Ukraine (what's up, Motherland?!), and my dad found some great old maps of the Chesapeake. My ADD photo dream come true. And, surprisingly for NYC, everything was decently priced. I got a pretty big picture of some classy lady in a big hoop skirt, surrounded by military men, shooting a rifle. I thought it was a pretty accurate portrait of what my life would have looked like in the early 1800s. And, it was only $8. I win.
The storefront, and my very own Pageant Print Shop purchase!
All in all, a pretty exciting and eclectic father-daughter adventure. WHO'DA THUNK THAT RANDY WOULD HAVE BEEN UP FOR A JAUNT AROUND THE EAST VILLAGE, LAND OF QUINTESSENTIAL NEW YORK HIPSTERS? But he did. It happened. And I'm quite proud of him.
-Lida
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