New York, the Club Woolly Way

No, your favorite theatre hasn't moved! At the last Woolly Gala I won a trip for four to New York to see theatre, eat good food, and attend a taping of The Daily Show. On Sept 21 my girlfriend, two friends and I set off for a weekend of food, drink, drama, and Jon Stewart.

We stayed in the cool retro-modern Hotel QT, at Times Square in the middle of the Theatre District. Our Daily Show tickets were that evening. It was fascinating to see how the show is put together and the warm-up comic was pretty funny. Stewart himself also talks to the audience before the show and explains things as the taping goes along. We all were surprised how small the set is -- things really do look bigger on TV.

Over the next two days we saw several more plays. We'd arrived for the New York Musical Theatre Festival, where 30-odd budding musicals perform rough stagings in small theaters. Highlights included Smoking Bloomberg, a show about a dry cleaner angry at the city's mayor for the smoking ban's effect on her buisness.

We also saw two fully staged plays. The silly energetic Altar Boyz is a satire about a Christian boy band (with one Jewish member), lighter than helium but great for kicking off a fun Friday night. Playwright's Horizons has a fantastic production of Bruce Norris's The Pain and the Itch, a brutal yet hilarious play about a Thanksgiving dinner gone horribly wrong into disease, infidelity and death. Gee, doesn't that sound like the kind of play we need at Woolly?

With a grueling entertainment schedule we needed frequent eating and drinking to replenish our chi. As part of our auction package we enjoyed the tasting menu at Cité, with champagne and three wine courses paired with the food. Cité mixes good cooking and attention to detail with a relaxed attitude and generous pours.

The tasting menus, vegetarian and omnivore, at Devi on 8th Street, offer a parade of beautiful distinctive dishes (Mongolian Cauliflower, yum). Bond 45, just up the block from Hotel QT, is a warm, lively Italian restaurant meant for big groups with what may be the best antipasto selection in the city (roasted cipollini, yum).

Finally, a shout out to Little Branch, an old-school bar in the West Village where the cocktails are exotic and exacting. Fresh ingredients complement fine recipes. The perfectionism extends to the ice, made of filtered water in different sizes to match different drinks: a single slow-to-melt block in an Old Fashioned, tiny crisp pellets piled high in a Queen's Park Swizzle. Intoxicating yet refreshing. Get there early - like all the best bars, it's small.

I'm looking forward to my next Club Woolly Adventure!