bklyn.

Bonjour, mes amis! Hopefully, you all had a wonderful weekend filled with lots of sipping and sampling- I know I did! Yesterday, my friend, Aggie, and I trekked out to Brooklyn to check out the Bastille Day petanque (a game similar to bocce) tournament and street festival hosted by Bar Tabac. Bastille Day is the French celebration of the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution and the creation of the modern nation. Enough with the history lesson, we Americans basically use Bastille Day as an excuse to sip pastis and reply "tres bien" or "oui, oui" to every question asked of us- so that is exactly what we did.

Aggie and I started our Brooklyn adventure off with brunch at Bino, an adorable spot right on Smith Street. We had mimosas (obviously necessary since champagne is French, right?) and some genuinely good food. We were brought a complimentary order of artichoke bruschetta that was incredible. I am not usually a fan of artichokes because they are too vinegar-y for me, but these were perfectly flavored and olive oil soaked. For my meal, I ordered the chicken cotelleta panini- a scrumptious sammie of chicken, grilled eggplant and red onions and aioli on toasted ciabatta. It definitely hit the spot. Aggie went with more typical brunch fare and ordered the poached egg with creamy polenta, which she said was fab. One thing that especially got my attention at Bino was the friendliness of our waiter. I hate to say it, but the city is slightly lacking when it comes to nice and helpful wait staff (I usually feel like I am crazy for even needing to read a menu), so it was quite a refreshing experience to have a waiter who smiled and went out of his way to just be nice. Good stuff, Bino!

Once we ambled down Smith Street a ways to the petanque tournament, we were obviously ready for another drink. We stopped by the Sud de France booth and were offered samples of one of the best roses I have had (Domaine de Raissac Cabernet Rose) and an organic chardonnay. Then we moved on to the real deal and both got a cup of hoegaarden, a Belgian beer (okay, I won't lie, the only reason we ordered this was because Chris L. on this season's Bachelorette talked about Belgian white beer on the latest episode....c'mon I know there have to be some Bachelorette fans out there- I swear that is not that creepy! wait, it's not, right?). We had planned to get pastis, but considering we had no idea what it actually was, decided it was a safer bet to stick with beer. Come to find out, pastis is an anise- and licorice root-flavored liquor so I am thinking we made the right choice. Then we just soaked up the sun and slurped up our hoegaarden, which, by the way, is a terrible name.

Vive la France!