those who wanted to drink AND see the parade (NYC Pride '12)

 

On Pride weekend, I'd already done Joey Israel's Friday at Fairytale Lounge with Cazwell DJ-ing and Pieces's special edition of their underwear party for SEPTA's birthday. Saturday started with Bohoken and I opting out of a large brunch gathering to do our own brunch on his terrace followed by bellinis on the Christopher St Pier and wine in the park. I took a disco nap and went to Posh, which, just like everywhere else in HK, was quite crowded. 

Needless to say, neither Bohoken nor I was fully rested going into Pride festivities on Sunday. P. Willow had made a reservation for 10 of us at Agave in the Village. Great restaurant, but I was nervous about its location: less than a block from the parade. Luckily, all the other gays were more hung over than we were, and the Christopher St leg of the parade route wasn't crowded yet.

Apparently, P. Willow and a few others had done a day trip to Fire Island the previous day. One person ran into a higher up from work after having fallen off the boardwalk twice (bleeding). Another ate (literally ate) her LIRR ticket when they transferred on the way back. I suddenly felt a lot better about my slight hangover.

After brunch, we WALKED 17 streets and 2 avenues to Ilili for their Pride party. It was a great compromise between me, who wanted to drink and to not be bothered with the mess of crowds at the parade (turns out its a lot less crowded in Flatiron than in the Village), and everybody else, who wanted to see the parade. They even had a roped-off area with risers for those who wanted to drink AND see the parade. Plus no cover! They had various performers (including a belly dancer and the famed Dallas DuBois), and they featured a diverse menu of delicious signature drinks. I highly recommend the With Love from Beirut. 

After a maaahhhhhvelous kiki (I ran into a ton of familiar faces there), we cabbed it over to 11^th Ave to the Hotel Americano for the Ski Bums rooftop party. We were early as hell (DJ Justin Dawson hadn’t even set up yet), so we decided to get a table and order some appetizers and drinks before it got crowded.

I don’t know what we did to this server, but he basically ignored us the whole time. For example, both times I asked him to bring more water (fine, you didn’t notice my empty glass on your own; having to ask is no big deal), he went to grab the pitcher and served other tables. He didn’t even come to us til I asked a second time! Not to mention charging us for more pita to finish our hummus. We definitely had a chat with the manager before we left. Well, MicHELLe had a chat with the manager. Apparently, we turned down free drinks.

 

We moseyed to Gym Bar before everyone else dropped off, and I somehow figured a logical progression would be to The Ritz. It turned out to be worth the trip because they had platters of wings and ribs sitting on the bar upstairs! Did I mention I broke my no-eating-in-gay-bars rule about 14 times? Yeah.

Did I mention I hadn’t taken off work the next day? Yeah…

Oh, and bonus (because this actually happened at our brunch)! 

Click here to check out my adventures at NYC Pride '11.