>Woo! for Woo>>

For Lent this year, David has decided that he's going to give up buying non-local produce and meat.

I, on the other hand, have decided to give up Mass.

(I know, God is going to strike me with lightning.)

We both got up early Saturday morning and headed over to the Inwood Farmers' Market on Isham Street for some local meat and produce.

It was pretty good; there was a nice artisinal cheese guy, a wine guy, a meats guy, a beans guy, a breads guy, the yogurt ladies, the milk lady... and so on. We came home with plenty of good things and some fresh link sausages from the turkey guy too.

Sunday was M.G.'s going away party at Woo Lae Oak (she's leaving us to move on to a back of the house position at D. Posto). All the gals (and a couple of guys) met us there for the 5 to 7 o'clock happy hour. I managed to try every drink I wanted to: the Asian Glow, the Lychee Martini and the Saketini (the last one being my favorite, although the Lychee Martini could be nice as a dessert drink). And from their "Small Bites" menu, my favorite was the O Ree Mari cold duck wrap--very tasty.

At just five or six dollars per item, the "Woo Happy Hour" works out to be a pretty good deal. > >

It was nice to catch up and relax with everybody (outside of our usual front of the house posts).

Layke, one of the former maître d's at my restaurant, just returned to New York from a month long stay in Brazil (and is still jealously tan). Currently, she's temping/helping out at a new restaurant about to open in Flat Iron, but she also told me that she just interviewed for a management position at my favorite (and hippest) restaurant in Meat Packing.

I told her and Fabiana (who has plans of opening her own catering business), "Whoever becomes more successful first, we're all going to follow." (In jest of course, but we'll see...)

Our next stop after Woo was at Blue Ribbon [Brasserie].

Fabiana wanted the chicken burger and M.G. wanted the Beef Marrow, but I couldn't decide what I wanted because, as usual, I wanted to try something new. Cathy kept nudging me towards the Cheese Fondue and eventually, (they were out of foie and I had already had the sea urchin) I obliged.

It was pretty good: a simple swiss fondue with apple slices, bread cubes, breadsticks and a "bacon canapé" to share. For once, I didn't close out the place and was back home at a rather respectable hour; a gleaming beacon of rectitude was I. > >