Aqavit in Manhattan

Daughter's been telling us about this place for several years . . . but we could never get to NYC with the right bells on for Swedish . . . this time, we were prepared . . . as I said: "Egyptian Sea Food and Swedish Meatballs: I can blog that!"

The decor and ambience is so cool, refined, swedish modern, comfortable. . . we wanted to take our chairs with us. We had even remarked on the coincidence of The Girl with The Dragon Tatoo being out in the Theatres now, it was to be a perfect serendipitous synchronicity . . . but see earlier blog entries about the depredations imposed on us by DELTA AIRLINES / KLM, that totally ruined our plans . . . well, not totally, but instead of spending a fun-filled, yet leisurely 2 days rollicking in the auld Knickerbocker, we hadda scramble to squeeze in fast visits to Bed Bath and Beyond superstore in Chelsea and the Strand -- of course, I didn't actually make it to the strand, I couldn't find it from Union Square . . . much to my daughter's amusement, but she covered up by saying that the virgin megastore closed, and that must've confused me . . . 8^D . . . but we didn't have time for the movie, dangit . . .

So we had to go without the FSIL, he had a Mets game, but we soldiered on bravely. I ordered a bottle of Gruner Veltliner -- odd, never had a bottle before we went to Wien, and now I see it everywhere -- and a shot of Limon Aqavit, just to get the juices going. They brought us some little toasts and salmon mouse . . . I didn't get a picture ii didn't seem momentous enough, but it never fails . . .the mousse was excellent . . .

so the daughter had Swedish Meatballs. and the one I took with Linden Berries on it was just fabulous . . .

Mrs & I both had the smorgasbord . . . I love the dishes with lots of different things on them . . . and the swedish have a word for it . . . God Bless the Swedes!

On the right were Pickled Herring and Herring with salmon roe & dill, with cheese wedges and a tiny potato. . . .
In the middle were smoked salmon on some sort of hash-brown-potato-pancake and the other, gravlax, with lemon and frissee and coffee-honey-mustard.
on the left was red-beet with smoked venison, and shrimp salad on a crustini . . . my daughter was afraid I was -- disappointed -- not at all . . . it wasn't as weird as I'd hoped, if you see what I mean . . . 8^D . . .

So we didn't have dessert . . . we went back and had a flight of aqavits: the AQNY, their signature NYC Aqavit; the Mango-Lime-Chili which should be CHILI-mango-lime (we were warned, but we like spice, but WHOA!), then an Anise-fennel Aqavit that was like sweet  licqorice.

Next time, I'll just get the smorgasboard & the flight of aqavits.Fantastic place.

FSIL says the mets humiliated the Braves last night. . . new rookie I-Like-Ike Davis jacked a moonshot onto the bridge in right-center field. . . 450 ft. Kewl.