Frank and Nick, it's really great to have you.
Beyond acquiring some exciting new additions, we've had some encouraging developments on the scheduling side.
Here's the current list of attendees:
Chau
Myself
JohnC
Craig
JohnW
Adam
Gene
Kelly
Steve
Norma
Paulie
Bob
Frank
Nick
This is 14!
, but bear in mind, it's not 14 at the same places, at the same time. I think, right now, the most we'll have in one place is 11.
And here's the working schedule for Friday:
11:00 Joe & Pat's
12:00 Lee's Tavern
1:00 Nunzio's
1:30 Totonno's
2:30 Nathans
3:00 L&B
4:00 New Park (time permitting)
5:00 Barboncino
6:30 Forcella
8:00 Best
8:30
10:00 Paulie Gees
I tested Ron's (Barboncino) temperature about 5:00 and he was fine with it and excited about the prospect of having us. Adam spoke to Giulio at Forcella about 6:30, and Giulio gave that that the greenlight (THANK YOU Adam!). We have, right now, about an hour and a half of thumb twiddling in Brooklyn- if we can pick up another sit down, great, otherwise, we can look for a slice place (or two) to fill that void.
We're still working out the logistics of Staten Island in the AM (more people than cars, at the moment), but I'm not sweating that right now. The nice thing about our daytime leg is that, while we may need reservations for the Staten Island places, because of the time of the day, we might be able to get away with making them at the end of this week, so we've got time to see how the transportation pans out and as to whether or not we start in Staten Island (with cars) or in Brooklyn (using a combination of cars and mass transit).
This is still preliminary, but here's a proposal for Saturday:
11:30 Amano (when the doors open)
1:00 Pizzatown
2:00 Vesta
4:30 Mr. Bruno's
We're running low on cars here as well. The options for getting out of Manhattan and back in are quite accommodating. For those that want to join us at Amano, the train station is within eyesight of the restaurant. There's also a bus that goes in and out of the Port Authority to Vesta and I'm willing to pick up anyone that takes the path into Harrison. Like I said, lots of options. Whoever wants to come and for whatever component, I'll make sure you get where you're going, and, for those that need to get back in the city at a particular hour, I'll make sure you're on the right bus or train to achieve that end as well. In other words, if you want to join us, but aren't sure about the travel logistics, don't worry about it.
Here's everyone that's confirmed
Myself
Gene
Chau
Craig
Bob
And here's the maybes
John Conklin
Frank
Paulie
Adam
Nick
Nick/Frank, I'm putting you in the maybe column because I'm not sure if you want to do both days. Nick, with your NH/NY style-in-a-WFO aspirations, I would say Vesta should be the top of your list, with Best at #2. If you want to see the most members, though, then I'd pick Friday over Saturday. If you can do both days, we'd love to have you. This, obviously, goes for everyone- if you can swing Friday and Saturday, the more the merrier. Friday's going to have some great people and some great pizza, but Saturday will have great people and
better great pizza as well
.
Based upon 12ish hours of touring on Friday, I didn't want to overdo it on Saturday, but if there's anywhere else in Northern NJ that people want to go to later in the day/into the night, I'm game. Star Tavern isn't super far and might be worth the trip. I've been trying to get to Reservoir Tavern, but that's a bit of a trek. Also, Mr. Bruno's is pretty much an L&B clone, so doing both in two days might not be essential, but it is close to Vesta and I wanted to flesh out the trip a bit. I'm perfecting fine with just Amano, Pizza Town and Vesta.
Lastly, once we get a little more finalized, I'll edit the first post to reflect the most up to date itinerary/guest list so that people don't have to go digging for it.
