Grimaldi's/Brooklyn Bridge

I had heard on numerous occasions how Grimaldi's was THE BEST place to get pizza in New York.  After weeks of begging, I finally talked the hubs into grabbing a slice at their Brooklyn location.  We decided to leisurely make a day of it.  I just love walking around because you never know what you will see!  Our first adventure was walking through a little street fair in West Village.  There were so many people and a ton of booths to look at, but it was the food smells that got us.  We had to get out of there, otherwise we won't want the pizza.  About 20 minutes more of walking and we both caved.  So, the first stop on our stroll was at the Caliente Cab Co. for, fingers crossed, queso and margaritas.  Well, we accomplished one of the two.     

Though our quest for queso still continues, this restaurant did not disappoint.  The location was fantastic.  We were right on the curb in the busy West Village area.  It reminded us of place we went to in Amsterdam and led to great people watching.  Food wise, we got the Traditional Nachos with Cheese and they were  quite tasty.  Though, I don't really know a time when I haven't liked nachos with cheese.  Our nachos were paired with a couple of margaritas.  Initially we thought they were pretty small, but man were they potent.  It was just what we needed to continue our adventure on this gorgeous New York day.    

Our stroll to Brooklyn led us through the Columbus Park area, pictured above.  There were so many people at the park that we could hardly get around so we didn't stay.  But it was nice to see so many people out enjoying the day.  We also partly passed through Little Italy, below.  There were so many people at the markets and restaurants, I don't know how we will ever decide on a place to eat there.  Now more hungry then ever, we trekked on. 

                                             

We arrived at our final attraction before Grimaldi's, the Brooklyn Bridge.  Neither one of us had been, so we wanted to cross it off our bucket list.  It was a really neat experience, but it's one of those things that once you have done it, you're good forever.  There were so many people that it was hard to move at times.  We did do a lock on the bridge for fun, shown above.  We took a lock with us when we went to Europe, but never found the proper bridge, so we decided to do it here instead!  With spectacular views of Manhattan and Brooklyn it just seemed fitting.    

Now we finally made it to our final destination, Grimaldi's.  Trying to be prepared, I had looked up information regarding the restaurant before we got there and knew that we were in for a wait.  We spotted the restaurant and then slowly spotted the line wrapping around the side of the building (you can kind of see it on the left side of the picture below.  Like I said, we already knew it was probably going to happen, so we weren't fazed.  After waiting about 45 minutes, we made it to the front of the line!  Woohoo we were next!  We are finally going to have some of this amazing pizza!  We see the guy taking names coming our way, he asks, for the tenth time, how many people in our party then passes of over because he needs a party of 4.  It would have been one thing if they were doing that the whole time, but it didn't start until we already had paid our dues in line.  After finally finding the precious party of four that is walking past us now, the man realizes that their whole party isn't there.  A big no-no because you won't get sat until your whole party has arrived.......a little different from Indiana, my family would be in trouble.  So with reluctance the man seats us in their place and I start to put my purse on the seat next to me, only to find out, we were eating with another couple now.  We all shared a polite hello and chatted a bit about how this wasn't what we bargained for and about how many people said this place was amazing, in the top 5 of place to eat pizza in New York our seat mate stated.  We get our pizza pretty quickly, with no beer, though the website says otherwise.  I unwrap my silver wear and notice that they are filthy and it wasn't just mine, but Kevin's too.  That was enough to gross me out, so we vowed to hurry up and get out of there.  As we were getting ready to leave, the couple asks what we thought.  We told them it was alight, but not the best, even top 5 best, and that we wouldn't go back.  To which they stated the same.  We went in with such high expectations and came out defeated!  Hopefully our next adventure will be more enjoyable!