Haunting The Hook -- Overlooked -- The Dirty Dozen

I've had a few friends in town over the past few weeks and it's been a reminder of how much I love my neighborhood. It's been so cool to stop in at all these local businesses that my friends are working their asses off to keep going. Of course it would help if some of my visiting friends would buy stuff!



I want to start an initiative to get friends from out of the neighborhood to come to Red Hook and spend more cash (in the bars and restaurants, sure...but not just). Could we get something like that going? Maybe a contest? Maybe it seems too insidious? Maybe run it like bingo. We make a sheet with 12 boxes in it and the first person to get twelve friends to make purchases in twelve businesses gets some kind of groovy prize. "I Did the Dirty Dozen" or something like that.



Bizzarro World Snafu at Fort Defiance yesterday. Took my pal there for brunch and was asked to sit at the bar to wait for a table. We watched three table get sat with folks who had simply walked in off the street and finally we spoke up. We did get an apology but, we were still made to suiffer the consequences of waiting to be seated, instead of having one of the other couples who had been seated with no wait having it explained to them that there had been a mistake. We ended up feeling like we had been pushy customers. We weren't even offered an explanation of how it happened. My friend inquired, even asking if we had possibly caused the confusion somehow by not being clear about our desire to be seated at a table. I'm sure when it's busy signals can get crossed. They sat us at a four top. Of course, then we felt we had to rush through brunch because we were taking up a large table. I left feeling icky. I hope nothing like that happens again.



I love Fort Defiance and the food was absolutely perfect! Advice: If you go for brunch (and you should cause it is awesome!) and are asked to wait at the bar (and you should cause the drinks are awesome!), get assurances from the waiter and the bartender that you'll get the NEXT available table and then keep an eye out for yourself.



Anyway, I had some Columbia students following me around with cameras yesterday. It was cool. Anne let us film in the back of her Tiburon, which was awfully generous of her. Completely ramdom. I will have to get them to film me buying something the next time they are here. I'll give Anne a heads up next time. I promise Anne.