Amanda had mentioned Dutch Fred’s enough times that when we opted to meet in Midtown before seeing The Play that Goes Wrong, I proposed that we go there.
I took a look at the cocktail menu
And decided to start with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
It was so good I had to use every ounce of restraint I had not to slurp it down in one gulp– fruity (in a juice way rather than a fake sugary way), bubbly and not to sweet.
Looking over the menu I saw Eggplant Chips. Hmmm. For the last year, eggplant has been the food that calls to me when my mind quiets, but have I satiated that craving? Will they just be like the veggie chips you can get in the store? Amanda said they were amazing. It didn’t take much convincing.
They were incredible. Drizzled in honey, they melted in my mouth. These little eggplant chips might be the best food I’ve had in New York.
We ordered a brussel sprouts salad to give us the illusion that we were eating vegetables, but with hidden potatoes and butter inside, it was a savory hearty meal. With the dill and the texture, this salad reminded me of the Russian Vegetable Pie my mom makes.
These little Thai deviled eggs on toast were delightful.
And the Hawaiian flatbread was surprisingly big.
Other patrons came over to ask what we had ordered. My assessment is that everything on this menu is incredible. And the Eggplant chips are always a necessity.
Oh and I also had the Red is the new Black Cocktail.
Alright, if you don’t judge me for having 3 cocktails in one night, I’ll tell you about the Rum House. We still had some time before the show so we went to check it out. The lights were dim, and the wood dark. We liked the atmosphere. To quote Amanda’s cleverness, she ordered a Galant Fox, just like our bartender. I had the Tortuga.
We waded through the bright lights of Times Square to see The Play that Goes Wrong. We’d heard it was very funny. All the signs were upside down,
Even in the Playbill
We climbed up to the top of the balcony and found our $30 seats in the second to last row. I tried to take a picture of how far we were from the stage, but my camera wouldn’t focus. And the ushers were yelling at everyone that we were not allowed to take any pictures of the stage.
We opened the program to find a program for the Murder at Haversham Manor with fake bios for the characters in the play and fake ads. In the back were the real bios.
Before the show started the “crew” was still fixing things that were broken on stage, and they ran around asking audience members if they had seen a dog that had gone missing. One of the actors came up to us and we told him we hadn’t seen the dog. He told us that there were some people who had bought tickets to the show, but he told them it was really bad and they shouldn’t see it so they went home. Did we want to come sit in their better seats since they weren’t using them?
Yes.
He took us down and showed us to our new seats, 4th row center. We couldn’t believe our luck!
View from our new seats:
And you can’t even see our old seats!
Look at those lucky ducks!
The show was incredible. I laughed for a full two hours. As a theatre person, I loved watching the characters deal with everything that could go wrong, from getting stuck in a dialogue loop that you can’t find your way out of, to prop mishaps, to missed and incorrect cues. The slapstick humor and physical comedy was on point, and probably my favorite quality of all was the choice that the characters were determined to go on, continue with the play and commit to the story and the script no matter what happened. It was just so good. Of the shows I’ve seen in the last couple of weeks, it’s my favorite (with Bandstand coming in at a close 2nd. Bandstand was so good. It was really in a category all on it’s own. I just had to give first place to the one that made me laugh so hard).