Celebrating Birthdays: Dinner at GoodFellas, L.E.S (NYC)

One of my closest/best friends Dr. Lopez celebrated a “milestone” birthday last week and I just wanted to share some of the happenings of her day. As per her request, we had a “low key” celebration consisting of happy-hour wine and dinner at this amazing spot down by the Lower East Side which I will elaborate more on below. Before meeting for wine, she had an eventful day consisting of a nice massage and cupcake-shopping (yes there is such a thing! ha!). She got herself a dozen cupcakes from a popular spot downtown (cant remember the name) but check these out:

 

There were called "banana boat" flavor or something like that. I have no idea. All I know is that I got' a taste, died, went to heaven and came back. I was going to "save" it for next day but I nearly inhaled it that never happened. And yea, by the way--- it was so hot that day that the poor icing was melting so that's why they look a little "off". And, dont panic! she bought the cupcakes to share  with friends and family not all for her. Not that there's anything wrong with that. 

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After my shift at jail work ended, I met up with her sister, and her sister’s husband to continue the celebration. Just a quick recap on our friendship: I mentioned this recently on the blog but I’ve known this girl since freshman year of high school. She was part of my “high school clique”. We then ended up going away to college very close to each other which kinda’ made us each other’s “support system”. 

We’ve been through so many ups and downs and pretty much several “friendship cycles”: periods of being tied to the hip and periods of not talking to each other for months! We knew each other before first kisses, first dates, first heartbreaks, first crushes, first real jobs, career changes, coming of age events and everything in between. We know too much about each other to ever be enemies LOL (joking). Anyways, I love this girl to death and she is definitely in my “friend for a lifetime” list (if there is such a thing!).

So, after having some nice wine at a nice spot called "Inoteca" we then walked over to the restaurant portion of the night: A placed called “Goodfellas “. It was my first time there and it was recommended by my friend’s sister. We were immediately served some complementary (and yummy) olive-oil and nice Italian bread while we chatted and browsed the menu:

I  made up my mind to go for something I would truly enjoy (not something that simply looked “healthy” which is what I am used to doing). After a whole lot of browsing I opted for the veggie delight pizza topped with fresh mozzarella, plum tomato, broccoli, zucchini, and seasoned mushrooms..

…O.M.G. What a delight! I knew I made the right choice as soon as I took the first bite. Out of habit, I am used to “blotting” my pizza with a napkin before eating it but I immediately realize there was no blotting necessary. The pizza had absolutely zero “random grease” hanging around (for lack of a better word) and was simply topped with delicious cheeses, mushrooms, and other veggie-type delicatessens. No complaints.

It looks big but it was more of a "personal size" pie. I ate a little less than half of this rich and satisfying dish and paired it up with some cool chardonnay. It was perfect. I took the rest to go for lunch/dinner the next day. I also had a taste of my friend’s chicken parm with penne which was also to die for. Cant wait to go back that spot!

As it is tradition with all birthdays, we embarrassed her with a loud and obnoxious happy-birthday chant and then we enjoyed a nice slice of cheesecake on the house:

Also amazing. 

And here we are (bday girl is the one on the left):

 

Cheers to life-long friendships, delicious food and delicious-looking restaurant owners! By the way, our server (which apparently was also the owner) was super nice and super HOT. Did I mention hot? like, model hot? ok. I'm done :D

Tell me--- whats your favorite Italian restaurant and/or Italian dish?