Departed Malden real early (5am), 1st Orange Line to Back Bay for 6 am Amtrak to Penn Station. Overall Amtrak Regional Train was a great experience. It took about 4 hours, arrived at Penn. Our hotel was the Courtyard by Marriot on 30th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues (135 West 30th St), a few blocks from Penn Station. We were checked in early (around 11 at this point), got settled and left to begin our short trek around the city.
Our first stop was a small "Burger Joint" at the Le Meridian aptly called “Burger Joint at the Le Meridian”. The place was very small, located discretely behind a red curtain with a small burger shaped neon sign directing the way. If one didn't know where to look, it would easily be missed. Luckily for us a few friends directed me the way to its location. We ordered our burgers and split a fry. I got “The Works” which came with Lettuce/Tomato/Pickle/Ketchup/Mustard/Mayo. Overall the burger was “good” but I don’t really know what the fuss was about. It was cooked well, tasted great, but I didn’t really see anything that would give it elite status among the burgosphere. Sherilyn got a burger with lettuce, tomato, pickle, ketchup.
After here we left to go to the Daily Show taping (11th Avenue between 52nd and 53rd). We got in line around 12:30, they gave out “tickets” at 2:30. We waited for the two hours, shuffling around due to an Egg throwing incident that rendered a portion of the queue unqueueable. We got our tickets (#13 and #14 “yellow tickets”, excited we left to waste some time for a couple of hours. Generally we walked around, got some water and sat in park til 4:30 when the taping actually began its process. People were let in according to tickets (Pink-Yellow-Blue), ending at capacity. We were given seats, sat around a bit and eventually were given the rundown on how things were going to work. A warm up comic came out to get us “ready to go”, who introduced Jon Stewart. After a brief Q&A they did the taping which started around 6pm. Melissa McCarthy was the guest. Incidentally the episode was the final one for a longtime writer, who was honored during the moment of Zen at the end. Overall I felt the experience was “good”, however the extended time waiting for various events to unfold, one could think the time was better served doing something else. Specifically speaking, we started the process at 12:30 (granted a bit early, but judging from how the line ended up looking, if we got there after 1, we may not have gotten in). This was after registering for tickets a month in advance. We sat in line for the 2 hours, wasted 2 hours (granted we could have gone somewhere, but given the location wherever we went would have to have been close), and then between waiting to get in, for the show to start, etc.. we didn’t get out till around 7. So 6.5 hours for 20 minutes worth of “air time”.
After the taping we went to dinner at a cheese and wine bar in Hells Kitchen called Casellula. This place was real cool. The menu was predominately built around Cheese (a few sandwiches & salads), but had a real incredible cheese and wine list.
We got a bottle of a Gruner Veltliner from Austria, ordered a couple of appetizers, a roasted fingerlings, sprinkled with paprika and served with a bacon jam and lime aioli, and a snapper tostada, served with avocado spread over a tortilla.
We then got a cheese flight; I remember Robila tre latte and an Epois. We followed this with a flight of 5 that we asked the fromager to pick. Each cheese was paired with an accompaniment (jam, grilled fruit, caramel, etc..) It amazed me how great some of the pairings were. Specifically one of the blue’s we got came with a sesame crisp, the other with a brittle & caramel. For dessert we got a grasshopper sundae: mint ice cream, with brownie bits and a crème de menthe sauce. It was a real great meal. We walked back to the hotel 20+ blocks and called it a night.もっと詳しく