Shuls & Shpayz: North Of The Border

Town & Village Synagogue
334 East 14th Street, East Village

Balade
208 1st Avenue, East Village

After a few weeks off, I was asked when we would be venturing out again. Since some of my picks of synagogues and restaurants have been perceived as questionable, I wanted to phase it out a bit and see if it might come back with renewed interest, and indeed it worked. So in the last Friday of January, we would go to a service at a shul that I picked from a list of recommendations from the Summit JCC rabbi, in order to assuage our group's expectations of a familiar setting. Reform, Conservative, Unaffiliated/Traditional/Conservative, another Unaffiliated/Traditional/Conservative, Reform, repeat of second Unaffiliated/Traditional/Conservative, and now back to Conservative. It's quite safe to say that we prefer a middle-of-the-road style of worship, not too heavy on the English for prayers, yet not separating men and women with mechitza. The Town & Village Synagogue in the East Village is definitely one of the better experiences of Jewish worship in New York City. Slightly more than a half-mile, 10-minute walk from the Brotherhood Synagogue at Gramercy Park, the T&V as it is known, evoked more of that feeling for us. On the time we arrived, Neal and Julia were already there and I was coming from Queens so the 7 to the G to the L which is a PITA. I got out of the subway at 1st Avenue at 5:57, and because it was raining and misty I was disoriented first upon coming up to the street. Finally I saw where to go and briskly crossed the streets and went through the door into the lobby. Fortunately, the service had not yet begun and it was right on the 1st floor anyway. In what looked to be some sort of reception or social hall, a bunch of chairs were set up on 3 sides and a small ark placed against the Eastern-facing wall. After sitting down, we waited for a bit while longer as more and more people showed up after me and more chairs were brought out and added. The rabbi was very friendly, personally greeting and shaking almost everyone's hand to wish Shabbat Shalom; we realized that this gesture was unique among all the places we had gone to, though given it is New York City and most congregations are very large, but like Brotherhood, this one is more intimate. Finally the service began, and with a very regular rendition of Yedid Nefesh, we knew once again we had hit it right. There was not one break throughout the entire service, not even between Kabbalat and Maariv for a sermon from the rabbi, who was very spirited and paced the length of the floor from start to end. The cantor had a nice voice that lent the congregation the opportunity to accompany rather than simply be led. At the end of the service, we discovered that the synagogue has an active 20s and 30s social group that had just had a happy hour nearby the same week. Granted we are at the younger end of this spectrum, we were asked if we wanted to stay for a dinner they were hosting, which conveniently we were told, had 3 spots just open up. While it seemed intriguing, especially to possibly get to know other young Jews in the city. However, we had made a reservation at a Lebanese restaurant around the corner and would be meeting Alisa there. Meryl had been sick during the week and opted not to come out with us this Friday, which disappointed us because we had high hopes for this shul's service and she is usually one of the first to express interest about these excursions. So we told the girl who was quite spunky and reminded us of the board and activity leaders in USY that we were sorry we could not stay. But then she told us that in 2 weeks time there would be another Shabbat dinner themed around chocolate, fittingly called Chocolate Heaven. As it happens only once a year and was said to often sell out, we decided that we were seriously interested in it, so we took the flyer with us. A very quick walk around the corner from 14th Street and a couple blocks down on 1st Avenue, we arrived at Balade, a small Lebanese place in the same vicinity as the infamous Kumo Sushi where we eat all too often and all too much (so it is when you order ALL YOU CAN EAT, I will not forget the night, well Jen usually never lets me forget either, that I downed 6 rolls of raw fish, and a few sake bombs followed by frozen yogurt at 16 Handles, and as Neal put it, the sushi place probably lost money on me that night). So Balade was pretty busy near 8pm when we arrived, Alisa waited for the 3 of us at the bar which has all of maybe 6 or 7 seats (that may be being generous) when you walk in. Thankfully I had made the reservation because they had a nice table in the front waiting for us near the door. I squeezed my way in around some other table and down the bench and was delighted to find pillows on the bench so it would not be entirely uncomfortable. The place has a nice ambiance if a little loud and it smelled good as well. It has a decent 3.5 / 5 stars on Yelp! out of 100 or so reviews. The reason we ended up here is because everyone decided they didn't want anything too "adventurous." So instead of picking a place first myself as I usually do, I looked to see what national cuisines were in the neighborhood and gave choices of style so I knew which restaurant to pick. From Japan (haha no not again), Serbia, Iraq, Australia, Sri Lanka, Indian, and Lebanon, the Australian place was discounted by Alisa because it is "fast" only, and Serbia was determined to be "too heavy" irregardless of its pork-centric menu, and no one was really in the mood for the spices of South Asia, so with Middle Eastern tastes still fresh with us from a few weeks prior, Lebanese, north of the border of Israel, seemed like the logical choice. As expected, we got the usual hummus and pita. Neal decided to go for the shawarma with lentil soup and wine. There was a lot to choose from on the menu, your usual mezzes (small dishes, appetizers), salads, platters, mannakeesh, pitza, and "sandweechet" which is somewhat of Balade's own creation. I had read good things about their Shish Tawook so that is what I went for (a sandweechet featuring "Pieces of Marinated Chargrilled Chicken with Toum*, French Fries, Pickles and Mixed Greens" toum being what they call a Lebanese garlic aioli). I also went for Baba Ghanouj and an Almaza beer. While Lebanon's number 1 beer is nothing special, the Baba Ghanouj was good and it went well with the pita. The Shish Tawook sandwich was pretty good too, though not very filling. The girls stayed on the lighter side and went with falafel. All in all, everyone was satisfied with the food. However, the one major downside to this place was the service. While they refilled water glasses like it was their job, the food took absolutely forever to come out to us after we ordered. Even after a few refills of the pita, we were getting hungry and couldn't figure out what was taking so long as we had not ordered complex dishes (falafels and shawarma). And then when it was time to get the check, it was an ordeal as well. So aside from the service, Balade was just ok, wouldn't go back anytime soon, but the experience has not dampened my opinion of Lebanese food, which like I said, is not entirely different, North Of The Border.