Big Nick's

Despite the last venture to Big Nick's and my subsequent food poisoning (which my daddy insists was all in my head), we went back last night.

Rewind - Last night NYU had info sessions for a bunch of their graduate programs at a building in midtown instead of at their Washington Square Park campus. Our presentation had about 10 people and the director of the program came and introduced the curriculum, the faculty, and the structure of the program. At the end, as we were all standing up to leave, I noticed that I was the shortest one in the room. By probably a foot. The guys were all obscenely tall and the girls were Amazons (aka they rowed crew). I spoke with the director, re-introduced myself and we had a real quick conversation. She = fab.

I went downstairs where they had a table of cookies. I had called Big and told her about the cookie buffet and to not worry, I was going to bring her a variety pack. I had to take the metro, so I didn't want to put the cookies in a napkin where they could be squished into a delicious crumbly mess in my turtle pack. I walked around and stumbled upon the cafe area where they had a stack of styrofoam cups. I took one and was filling it to the brim with cookies (like really shoving those suckers in there), when the director says, "You should really try the blondies. They're quite good." She is standing there. Watching me shove cookies. Into this cup. Great.

I get back and talk to Big for a bit about life goals (re: why I don't want to be a dominatrix anymore) and we head to Big Nick's. There's outdoor seating, so we bring Big's adorable Boston terrier. We're sitting outside and I'm going over the menu (because I'm the least decisive person ever), it starts to lightning and thunder. Fabulous. We can't go inside because we have the dog, and we want to eat the food there. The rain starts to come down, and since I'm sitting on the outside, the wind keeps whipping the rain into my back. By the time the food comes, I'm slightly miserable because the back of my shirt (yes, an oxford) is completely drenched and the front is dry.

But the food makes everything better. Because of the rain, I didn't take pictures, but I will describe how delicious is was.

Burger florentine - the burger is made with 100% Angus, 8 oz., and the meat is mixed with spinach, feta, olives, and scallions. I got my burger medium and it was juicy and the spinach and scallions were like melted into the burger. I couldn't really taste the olives, but the feta added that extra flavor at the end, just a really complete bite. As I ate, I started to taste the olives and the feta. I guess they were just near the center of the patty. The burger was really really good. If you ever go to Big Nick's, I highly recommend getting a burger.

Bistro burger - Big got a bistro burger with a veggie burger. It's a burger with cooked mushrooms, Gruyere, grilled onions, on toasted Challah bread. It was... I can't even describe it. It was THAT good. Like Challah bread in itself is really good. It's soft, and kinda light and eggy, which makes it absolutely to-die-for with egg and cheese. The Gruyere was melted and bound together the mushroom and onions. Big thought there was a little bit too much onion, but it was amazing. I know this because she put the rest of her burger on my plate and to keep my mind off of the rain-soaked back, I ate the rest.

When we finished, I stood up and turned around so Big could see. My front was almost 100% dry. My back, from my shirt all the way down to my shorts (because rain had slid down my back into my pants), was drenched. TYPICAL.