Stopped into the fantastic Mexican restaurant Hecho en Dumbo for their showing of the Mexico/Uruguay game on June 22nd, 10:00 a.m EST. Apparently previous games had been completely packed, but even at 10 in the morning on a Tuesday the entire restaurant was filled and much of the bar, and quite a few people were eating and drinking, mostly the $3 Tecates on special, the most affordable deal I've seen on my international tour of New York World Cup. Free Herradura Anejo shots for every home team goal, too. The Mexico fans scored highest of any crowd thus far in the cheering department, and the energy level was super charged and volume high. Fun, also, to watch the game in Spanish.
A fan being interviewed for NY1's Spanish language online station, which I'd never realized existed.
Bar Manager Jack preparing a Virgin Michelada Cubana for me. Extremely weak of me to order, but you gotta be careful to not start drinking first thing in the morning every day of this month-long tour of duty. One has to wonder at the scale of the worldwide drop in worker productivity during the World, particularly in time zones where games come on at odd hours. At least in New York you've got time for breakfast before your first drink.
The Michelada mix definitely wanted the salty goodness of beer, but even with the soda substitution the mixture of tomato juice, Jugo de Maggi, Valentine Salsa Picante, Worcestershire and fresh lime juice was both invigorating and calming to the tummy.
I had to leave before the end of the game, fortunately, as it turned out, as there were apparently some long faces after the loss (although Mexico played beautifully). But I'll be back for the high stakes final preliminary bout with intimidating Argentina on Saturday. And this time I'll be drinking. And eating. J.R.
