Last Friday, the big guy, some friends and I decided to attend the Brooklyn Mac & Cheese Cookout and Hootenanny. Okay, the hootenanny part sounded pretty lame, but how could you go wrong with mac & cheese, beer and bourbon? Debra and I were especially excited and bought our tickets in advance ($25 each, plus a seven-freaking-dollar "processing fee"), because we were stoopidly worried it would sell out. I talked my friend Rose and her girlfriend into going too, because that's the kind of friend I am.
So we get to The Yard—a very cool park-type venue on the Gowanus—and within ten seconds of arrival are extremely pissed off. . . Why? Because the beer and bourbon weren't included in our $32 dollar cover charge. We're giant suckers because we each just paid $32 for a crappy paper plate of lackluster mac & cheese (mine's way better), a pile of foul-tasting greens and a slice of apple pie with a whole-wheat crust. Seriously, the pie was so dry and tasteless—it was not unlike trying to down a slice of apple-coated sand. The beer we'd been promised turned out to cost $6 a glass, which was a bargain compared to the $8 bourbon! We would've been better off going to Dumont and sitting in the garden there. At least there, we would've had people serving us and it probably would've been cheaper.
We were all so grouchy by the time we left and—even worse—not even close to either full or tipsy.
I was hesitant to even write this, because the woman who owns Saxelby Cheese seems to be a very nice person, but I've been to three of her events now and each one was a bigger disappointment/waste of hard-earned cash than the last. I appreciate what she's trying to do, but good intentions aren't going to get mama drunk.
I want more photos of Spyro!...please!
Posted by: tracey | June 13, 2008 at 02:42 PM
did you mention that our hands were marked with a sharpie so that we couldn't get seconds?
big momma likes a second helping, ESPECIALLY when she pays $32 for a plate of food. thirty two dollars!
are you fucking kidding me!?
i should have gone with my gut instinct about thin people in the food biz. they might be nice, but methinks they just don't get it.
i can't believe we had to go out to dinner after that event.
Posted by: missziss | June 13, 2008 at 03:41 PM
I forgot about that! They should've made a little cheese stamp for our hands. At least spyro got them to give up seconds. And yes, a skinny cheese store owner makes about as much sense as a vegan butcher.
Posted by: Judy McStillCrabby | June 13, 2008 at 06:02 PM
but at least that hootenannying band was awesome and tasteful and not loud at all...
Posted by: friendrosie | June 13, 2008 at 07:37 PM
$6 for a glass of beer is horrifying. *falls over*
Posted by: Martin K | June 13, 2008 at 10:33 PM
it is when the email invite implies that it is included in the price!
sneaky, sneaky cheesemonger!
Posted by: missziss | June 19, 2008 at 10:42 AM