I’ll admit that the volume of press releases floating across my email transom has led me to hover my mouse over the “delete all” button on a frequent basis. So much brunch. Maximum tiki. Taco overdose. Midtown pizza. But two recent announcements have rekindled my faith that at least a few people in the biz are looking out for fun-loving hedonists like me without trying to be so damned precious.
The first development is a Friday afternoon party at Butchertown Hall they are calling Fresh AF Fridays Patio Party. Appropriate party hours for an aging freelancer like me who is looking to get out of the house at 4 p.m. on Fridays and in the Uber on the way home by 8 — well, those are exactly the hours of happiness at Butchertown. The series kicked off last week and will continue through October.
Guests can enjoy rockin’ music, grilled oysters, $3 Aperol spritzers, boozy sno-cones and something they are calling “bro-cones,” so perhaps it is just a wee bit precious. But they’re also offering cold canned beers at neighbor-friendly pricing. The patio will be lined with big ol' fans to help you stay cool as you play cornhole and other outdoor games. Y’know, games like, “How many oysters can I eat?”
The second exciting weekend development is the new “BBQ in the Alley” series that Black Rabbit has started up on Saturdays,noon to 5 p.m. I spoke with chef Trey Cioccia about this as soon as I heard about it, and he told me, “We’ve been having a blast with it. I’m just out there in the alley in my shorts cooking for basically the whole neighborhood. We just want it to be a casual good time!”
The alley in question runs between Second and Third avenues north of Church Street, and show up on Google Maps as “Metro Alley.” Traditionally, it was known as “Bankers Alley,” because it was a financial landmark, the same way that Printers Alley was where the ink flowed like a river. I hereby propose that we call it “BBQ Alley,” because the smoke from Black Rabbit’s multiple wood-fired grills is like a siren call to the strip of cobbles.
The deals off the grill are tough to beat: $10 BBQ Burgers and Andouille Dogs; $4 sides of house-made chips, grilled watermelon or corn and cold canned beer. It’s all the fun of your own backyard grill party with none of the work or clean up. Count me in!
