From UES Brasseries to LES Bistros

This past Friday, a group of friends and I decided to venture down to the Lower East Side to check out something called the 2009 Rooftop Films Summer Series. Held on a rooftop either in the LES or Brooklyn, where viewers are invited to get cozy with blankets and picnic fare, Rooftop Films screens a variety of new and independent films, both feature-length and shorts, on a weekly basis from May through September. The event also features live music before the screening, as well as an open bar after. The best part? Tickets are only $9. For that price, we thought Rooftop Films sounded well-worth checking out.

Before heading downtown, I met my friend Ruth at Brasserie 360, the Parisian-themed bar and grill on the corner of 60th and 3rd recognizable for its dark wood exterior and upstairs balcony, as well as its location across the street from both Bloomingdale’s and Dylan’s Candy Bar. Since it was a warm and sunny spring afternoon, we were hoping to sit at one of the front tables, near Brasserie’s wide windows that open out onto the sidewalk. We made our request to the hostess, but it was subsequently denied when we revealed that we were there only for drinks, not dinner, and we instead seated ourselves at the long oaken bar.

Though we weren’t sitting by the windows, we were still able to enjoy the gorgeous afternoon from the bar, as the sun came streaming in and brightened the charming, European-style space. We also enjoyed happy hour prices, which generously allowed us to order glasses of wine from Brasserie’s rather extensive list for just $6 each. While we didn’t order food, we did spy a few dishes that looked quite tasty—including a basket of fries that were mistakenly placed in front of us for just a minute before being tauntingly taken to their proper patrons—and we agreed that we would have to return to Brasserie again for both happy hour specials and dinner.

When we finished our glasses of wine, we hopped on the 6 train to meet friends at the Rooftop Films location, where we were planning to purchase tickets and then pick up sandwiches and snacks for our picnic. We arrived right at 7pm, the time when tickets would be on sale at the door, to find that quite a few people had the same idea as we did. The ticket line stretched around the block, making it clear that we should have ordered tickets online beforehand—or arrived much earlier. Within a few minutes, an announcement was made that all tickets were sold out, but that there might be a few spots available at 8pm, when the doors were scheduled to open, if some advance ticket purchasers didn’t show up.

Rather than wait around for an hour on the slim chance that a bunch of people wouldn’t show, we decided to take the opportunity to explore the Lower East Side, an area I’m not particularly familiar with—and one that tends to leave me a bit turned around every time I visit, what with its lack of numbered streets and all. We wandered around for a while, browsing the area’s slew of quaint and eclectic restaurants, and, suddenly hit with a craving for Spanish food, we wound up at Paladar, the self-described Pan-Latino restaurant on Ludlow.

With bright Latin-themed décor and a lively and original menu, Paladar cured us of any disappointment that may have been lingering from our failure to get into Rooftop Films. A pitcher of sangria, several margaritas, and an assortment of tapas-like dishes later, we were quite pleased that our night hadn’t turned out exactly as we had planned. Instead of a sampling of short films, we instead sampled chicken empanadas, Venezuelan corn cakes topped with tomato and chorizo, swordfish tacos with avocado and mango salsa, wild mushroom quesadillas, and pork spare ribs with guava barbecue sauce. The food was delicious, the service excellent, and the prices very reasonable.

While we do plan to try Rooftop Films another time, it’s reassuring to know that, should we not make it in once again, we have plenty of other options.