a drive out to the beach for the day and Loi

Fred and I drove out to the beach for the day.  The last time Fred was at the beach we had a different house standing so it was good to get him out there before the summer.  It has been quite the project and I am super excited about moving back in this summer. 


While we were out there we stopped by the gift that the "beach gang" gave us for our 50th bday.  The saying on the bench is above.  The bench sits in front of Jacks coffee in Amagansett.  So if you are in the neighborhood, stop by and get a seat.  I love this gift.

We returned to the city to have dinner with our friends on the UWS...gasp.  Each neighborhood in the city is so different.  We have a lot of really good friends that live on the UWS.  We always feel like a fish out of water up there.  We took our passports with us.  Just kidding.  We had dinner at Loi.  I think out of the five times we have eaten up there in the past 20 years, we had dinner in the same exact space when it was a different restaurant. 

Loi is a Greek restaurant.  You can see the chef above.  This is one of the pages in the menu.  Each table gets a few grape leaves and a whipped yogurt with olive oil to start.  Nice touch.

We split all the appetizers.  Shrimp cooked in ouzo served over spinach.

Gigante beans cooked down in a tomato sauce and served with a thin block of feta cheese.

This was interesting.  Uni served in a lemony oil.  I just took out my uni and placed it on the small crisps of toast.  Nice.

Grilled sardines. 

Grilled octopus.  All the appetizers were well prepared, nice presentation and the service was really good. 

A whole sea bass baked in salt for two.  I didn't grab a pic of that in time but this is what they brought back to the table after showing off the fish.

I went with the roasted spring lamb and slices of potatoes. 

This is one of my favorite Greek desserts.  Phillo and custard.  Nice.

Nice meal, good friends and a change of scenery.  Beach to the UWS.  Big travel day.