expensive soap habits, busy art on the walls, more chocolate shops

some thoughts between cups of tea

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I haven’t been that into new restaurants lately. I have my favorite places and I just like to go back to them - Romans, Chez Ma Tante, Buvette, my go-to diner, the Italian place downstairs, but I rarely go to a new restaurant (or a new for me restaurant) and think, wow I can’t wait to come back here. Which all changed this week after I went to Little Armenia Cafe in Greenpoint. As soon as we sat down at this place, I said, I want to have my birthday party here. (My birthday is in November.) I dated an Armenian guy for years in my early 20s and his family truly made the best food and while maybe the food didn’t quite compare to a memory (does it ever?) this cafe just had it all. Hand-written menus, busy art on the walls, different table cloths at each table.. the only person working there was the chef. Like he brought us the moderately-legible menus, told us about every single dish on them in great detail, went into the kitchen and cooked the food, brought beets and potatoes that he made extra of for the other table.. and he was just .. a person. A person making home cooked food (I recommend the lamb!) I also loved that in the bathroom there was a poster from a book that I got for my daughter - So Many Stars by Andy Warhol and his mom, Julia. It was the SO HAPPY page. I kind of stumbled in my accident because Ev, Mona, and I were on a neighborhood walk, but I recommend going out of your way to go to this place FOR A GOOD TIME!

Another local Greenpoint place that I’ve been going to lately - well, by lately I mean a total of two times - is Borough Chocolates. You heard it here first - this country needs more chocolate shops. Shops where you can select the chocolate flavor and then share a box of chocolates with your family and friends. I like pairing chocolate with black tea.

I kind of have an expensive soap habit and as I’m running low on soap at home, in the interest of saving money while still getting great soap, I visited the lavender stand at the farmers market today for the first time. Besides the fact that the girl at the stand complimented my outfit, I felt instantly grounded and put at ease by the familiar color and smell and got the honey soap.

PS »masha tea writing retreat info is here«