Well, 50 posts in and we're about where I expected us to be...no time, no date, no place, and no idea who is coming. Some can only do weekends, some only weekdays, so I don't think we will get this together. Anybody have any suggestions?

My suggestion would be to pick a day.... and whoever can make it, will make it.

Would you like to pick a day?;)

Barry,

I agree. For the DC/VA group, I just pick a day & time & whoever can make it comes. Simple :D

lets set up an advisory panel to decide who picks the day.

I know nothing about New York, I know nothing about you New Yawker's schedules.

I think that makes me highly qualified to sit on this panel.

Let's organize an exploratory group to pick the advisory panel, and I name Dan Bretta to chair it. Can we take a vote on Dan?

Wouldn't we need a primary before the main election?

Rothmans..
 

Hey Everyone,

Just throwing this out there... My GF is the hostess at Rothmans steak house in Oysterbay Long Island...its a really upscale steak house... Im not sure if everyone would be up for going to the Island instead of the city....

But I can get 50% off the entire bill.. including alcohol!!!

chopping that bill in half is nice :)

Heres a link to the place..
http://www.rothmannssteakhouse.com/l...and/index.html

Let me know... if Rothmans is not too far out of the way... I can make it.. along with my 50% discount for everyone.. on everything!

Jim is right. We will need a primary first. This could get cumbersome.

Jamie- thanks for the offer but you will have a very hard time getting this group out to Long Island. If I so much as suggest Brooklyn, most of them run the other way. It's a Manhattan crowd.

Barry,

I thought the ring of 50% discount might persuade a few NYC loyalists..

Theres nothing like seeing a $1,400 bill for 10 or so guys get chopped in half to $700...

well let me know where it will be ...even if not at rothmans ...and I will try to get there..

We could also try a long island dinner another night and get to rothmans that time.

I will be in Cuba from January 28 to February 5. If any Net54ers want to get together for dinner in Havana that week, please let me know ;).

(Strangely enough, I think that might be easier to accomplish than arranging a date for a NYC dinner )

Max

Long Island? We can't travel to Long Island. The first island we would have to go to would be Staten Island, I'm afraid, as Joe D is the Mayor there or something.

So is the 28th a possible date? We've got Bruce, Joe D, Barry and myself right now. Anyone else in? Should we see if we can lure Rob Lifson out of the house? We could leave a trail of Baltimore News Ruths leading from his house to Sparks -- that could work.

Barry- ya failed me...you're making me organize this thing from China? :rolleyes:

oyster bay? i hate going below 40th street in manhattan... ;) just joshin' ya Jamie...thanks for the offer, but as Barry said, he can't even get us on the A train out to Brooklyn, let alone the LIRR.

what about next wed (1/27)?

how about Merchants (they are one of the only bars in the City where you can smoke Cigars).

i'm thinking, this time, we have cigars & cognac, and order some appetizers, rather then doing a big "sit-down" dinner.

we can do a drink at my new apartment (2 blocks away), either before or after Merchants...

http://www.nyccigarbar.com/

thoughts?
MS

Hi Michael- I didn't know you could get an internet connection in a Chinese prison. As I mentioned Wednesdays are bad for me. The closest any of us have come to a consensus is Thursday the 28th. Can you do that? And you should unquestionably be handling this.

Holy crap! You could feed 50 at a good steakhouse in Nebraska for $1400.

Dan

If you are serious about Staten Island (and I know you aren't) I could lend my expertise. I know for sure we have some great Italian restaurants as well as a great Spanish restaurant called Espana. I do believe we lack in quality steakhouses...

Ultimately whatever you guys choose to do I would like to see if I could be a part of it.

hi barry- rather then getting one phone call, i opted for internet access for one hour ;)

i'm free most of next week. but i thought Joe D. couldn't do thursday?


my guess is that one week's notice is way too short for most people, and that we'll have to try to for early february

Dan,

Yea.. in NY .. at a nice place...its about $100 per person for all the food and alcohol you take down...


every meal is one T206 Southern leaguer I could have had....:cool:

Early February works for me, and it would give us more time.

Dan- I'm a New Yorker but I'm with you. I'm not interested in a restaurant that charges $140 a head. Even Peter Luger's is cheaper than that. Jamie, where did you get that number from?

edited smart ass comment.

Yes, but the problem is you need to eat that steak in Nebraska.

Doesn't Nebraska have a lot of cows?

Yes, exactly.

Yep....and we're buried under two feet of snow and at the moment teetering on disaster as the temperature is hovering at 33F and it's raining. One degree from total doom.

Seriously -- two feet of snow?

It's like early spring in New York these days. Sunny and in the 40's.

We had the worst December in my lifetime...25" combined in two knockout punch storms in back to back weeks. My kid has had SIX snow days already, add in Xmas break and he's only been to school a handful of days in the last month...it's also been as cold as I can ever remember, getting down to -20F...add on about 10 more inches of snow in two or three other minor storms and we've got a lot of snow still on the ground...fortunately the rain in the last two days has melted some of it, but it could be really bad if the temp drops down.

Jeff jokes.... but if there was no Staten Island - his pool of potential clients would be halved. I am going to buy him an "I Love Staten Island" T-shirt one day.


Staten Island can't touch Manhattan as far as restaurants go.

Even if it was magically convenient for everyone, the restaurants just can't compare.


Jeff mentioned Sparks. I've never been there - so I say that sounds like a good one. If not that place, I would vote for Ben Bensons (better than Peter Luger's in my opinion..... thats right - I said it Barry).

January 28, correct?

Sparks is where Paul Castellano was rubbed out...and you say Benson's is better than Luger's. Hmmmm- I've heard that one before.

Somewhere to the east, a little man laughs and laughs with glee.

That is totally insane, I don't know how you guys deal with this every year. The biggest misnomer living in NYC is that because it's in NY we get a lot of snow -- the opposite is true. We had a bizarrely huge snowstorm right before Christmas last month, about 10 inches or so; however, sometimes we go through an entire winter in NYC with no appreciable snowfall. The outer boroughs obviously get a lot though not Nebraska-like. Though if I recall, when I was a kid, I loved the snow and the snow days so your kid must be psyched. It just sucks as an adult.

I have never been but everyone raves about this place. If I am not mistaken, the last coal oven in the City:

http://www.grimaldis.com/2/Index.htm

Mcap- the Grimaldi's on Fulton Street is a long walk from where I live, and I've passed it many times. Every time I've seen it the line is a hundred people deep and stretches for a block. If you want to sit down and have a pie there it's like a 1-2 hour wait. It's a joke.

This is as bad as I can ever remember. We don't normally have more than one or two big snowfall events in any given Winter. We also had the coldest Summer in my lifetime...I was wearing a freaking jacket on the 4th of July and it was too cold to get into the lake. I must have made it out to about 15 minor league games and don't remember a single one where I didn't have to bring a jacket...normally I never would unless it's in May.

As far as the snow days go my kid was definitely psyched about them, but now he has to make one up already and the school system has opted to extend the school day by 36 minutes for 10 days....not quite as fun now. :D

That's okay, Karma will get Barry in the end. :D

How do we get Rob D to show up for the NYC dinner?

I would like to break bread with Rob...
but more importantly -
considering the current 'yes' list, Rob's presence would make for an awesome evening.

Tell him you're having challah and Manishevitz wine. :D

Joe,

Us white trash from Ohio would feel too intimidated travlin' to the BIG CITY for some eats. Wouldn't even know which fork to use for the greens and such.

If I am going to wait an hour to two for pizza, it better come with a Cobb Salad.

(Horrible) pun intended.

Just use the fork Bruce is lunging at you with.

Bruce is very mild mannered in person. He just gets a little wound up when he's at the computer.

Rob -

if it helps, I will pick up your share of the tab.
especially if you let me pick who you sit next to.

(I like dinner theater)

Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Thrust!

If it's early February, I'm in almost any night. And, though I'm not from "The Rock", I'm a big fan of a couple of Staten Island German places, and I can vouch that the Spanish place is good, even though a one-stop train ride from NYC gets you to Newark and the Ironbound section with some great Portuguese spots - and yes, it's safe there.

Is it safe to say - no NYC dinner on Thursday?

Doesn't look good for this Thursday, as the head count is currently at zero.

Anybody is free to resuscitate this thread, I just felt I wasn't getting anything accomplished.

I'm in. Joe D is in. Barry, you're in?

That's three.

I can make it Thursday, but where are we eating?

>>>> POST 100! <<<<<

I can make it Thursday.

Anywhere is good.