Date Night is a multipart road map for everyone who wants a nice evening out, but has no time to plan it. It’s for people who want to do more than just go to one restaurant and call it a night. It’s for overwhelmed parents who don’t get out often; for friends who visit the same three restaurants because they’re too afraid to try someplace new; and for busy folks who keep forgetting all the places they’ve driven past, heard about, seen on social and said, “Let’s remember that place next time we go out.”
I told my husband Dom I loved him first. He was just supposed to be the guy I went out with a couple times to get back in the game after a devastating breakup. Fun, light and no commitment. I was shocked to find myself falling for him on our first date — at the long-defunct Nick & Rudy’s in Midtown — and spent months trying to talk myself out of it.
When I couldn’t, and I told him I loved him, he replied that other women had said they loved him before, and that he wanted to be sure before he said it to me. We laugh about this now, because he told me he loved me less than 24 hours later, and has said it at least 10 times a day ever since.
Back then, “I love you” meant “I cannot get enough of you.” Two decades later it means “I like you half the time and will stick it out the other half.” These days, I feel the most love when Dom says other three-word phrases like “I’ll clean up” and “half-price sushi.” The latter is the happy hour special every day from 3 to 6 p.m. at Punk Wok. Half-price sushi is not a good idea if it’s a sad-ass crunchy shrimp roll that’s died a slow, fishy death in a supermarket case. But it’s a fantastic idea at Punk Wok, where the freshly made Matt’s Tatts roll — crab and cucumber inside and tuna on top — is $11 at 5 p.m. and $22 an hour later.
Peruvian roll at Punk Wok
Stop 1: Punk Wok
Tucked into a first-floor corner of Sylvan Supply, Punk Wok isn’t just a fun play on words; it’s a mission. Smallish space, red-and-black, with a nice little patio. Reggae and The Strokes. Mirrored walls and a military mural along the back with the Johnny Rotten quote, “Don’t accept the old order. Get rid of it.”
If the old order is a bloated list of sushi rolls, each more overworked than the last, Punk Wok offers a blessedly restrained number of rolls, nigiri and sashimi. Dom is an anti-mayo guy, which I consider a character flaw, so we shared a hamachi roll; the Real-Deal-California (with jumbo lump crab instead of the fake stuff); the chef’s special, which on our visit was a very lightly fried smoked salmon and cream cheese roll with spicy salmon on top; and the Peruvian, by far our favorite, a tuna and avocado roll topped with bright shrimp ceviche. If more rolls had Punk Wok’s ceviche on top, I’d never need to use wasabi or soy sauce for flavor again.
Want to make it interesting? For $9 extra you can play Russian roulette with any roll, which means they inject one piece with a super spicy pepper sauce. Whoever gets the spicy roll also gets a kamikaze shot, which I can’t imagine is all that helpful.
The half-price deal doesn’t apply to three rolls on the menu, including the daily market special. Still, we were out the door for $55, including a full-price beer.
Miso tori paitan at Black Dynasty Secret Ramen House
Stop 2: Black Dynasty Secret Ramen House
Just across the courtyard and the thoughtfully preserved train tracks is Black Dynasty Secret Ramen House — secret because it’s in the Sylvan Supply outpost of Bearded Iris Brewing, and the only signage is a cool neon skull filled with ramen brains to the right of the main door.
To keep it secret-ish, simple and true to the goal of making the best ramen they can, every day, from scratch (yes, that includes the noodles), Black Dynasty focuses on the food and puts the patrons to work. We seated ourselves, ordered and paid for our food with a QR code at the table and ordered drinks separately from Bearded Iris bartenders.
From our two-top by the door, I faced Black Dynasty’s expo window, where I watched a guy wipe stray drips of broth off the sides of steaming bowls, add a square of nori and dip in the ramen spoon before handing it off for delivery. The view was interesting, but the seating was super funky. I was down low in the banquette, Dom was much higher in the chair, and the table between us was long, which made him feel a little too far away for sharing and conversation. I watched others struggle to find a groove with the seating, including a college student with visiting parents, and two nurses in scrubs just off a shift. It didn’t seem to bother the woman with Bettie Page bangs and perfect black lips. How she kept that lipstick on and slurped ramen at the same time is a mystery to me.
We had the miso tori paitan, which is pork loin and broccolini in a rich chicken broth, and vegan tantanmen with tofu. Tantanmen is the Japanese take on Sichuan dan dan noodles and ground pork. Where most tofu in ramen is presented cubed, Black Dynasty works some sort of magic to make their tofu look and taste like spicy ground pork. I don’t know what that magic is, and I don’t want to know, but it was different and damn tasty. All ramen options at Black Dynasty are infinitely customizable: If you want more or none of any ingredient, there’s a box to check for that.
Strawberry-rhubarb crumble at Answer
Stop 3: Answer
We left two to-go containers of ramen in our car and took a long, slow stroll through Sylvan Park to Answer, the neighborhood bistro that faces 46th Avenue North. The cool night and leaves in the street got us talking about fall. I said it makes me want to drink hot tea and read books under a blanket. Dom said fall makes him want to go to high school football games and egg houses. Same book, vastly different pages.
When we arrived at Answer at 7:30 p.m. on a Friday night, there was a half-hour wait for two seats at the bar. It’s a popular place, and well-suited for a one-restaurant date night or just apps, so we took a walk south on 46th to the roundabout, and our name came up shortly after we returned.
The bar is the heart of Answer, and runs almost the entire length of the restaurant’s center, which is a nice change from being separated from the rest of the restaurant. There’s plenty of other table seating around it, including the covered and heated patio out front, but the bar has a great energy, and the people-watching is top-notch.
Dessert at Answer
While we shared a strawberry-rhubarb crumble and blondie with caramel ice cream off their verbal dessert menu, we watched Vanderbilt baseball coach Tim Corbin have dinner with his wife while watching college football on his laptop. This inspired a conversation about whether I’d be annoyed if Dom watched college football on his laptop during a date night (depends on the circumstances, but probably so) and a guessing game about whether each couple around the bar was dating or married. Scrolling phones while eating or looking more than slightly annoyed = married. Talking, listening and looking at each other = dating.
I’d like to think that one of the women at the bar was there just to get back in the dating game after a bad breakup, and was quietly falling in love against her better judgment.
