Blah Blog Blah: Life Cafe on a Saturday Night

Blah Blog Blah: Life Cafe on a Saturday Night

This is a very nice shot of East Village Life Cafe

Dinner Specials @ Life Cafe 983

1/14-1/20

APPETIZER

POPCORN SHRIMP 5.99
served with chipotle mayo

ENTREES

GRILLED SHELL STEAK 14.99
in a red wine, mushroom and cream sauce
with mashed potatoes and broccoli

GRILLED SALMON STEAK 13.99
with a teriyaki glaze, mixed veggies and white rice
(may contain bones)

LAMB CHOPS 12.99
in a red wine sauce
with mashed potatoes and French beans

________________________________________

NEW – Whisk(e)y Flights

Try 3 whisk(e)ys from your favorite
whisk(e)y making region

AT LIFE CAFÉ 983

From Scotland - $18
Caol Ila 12yr – Laphroaig 10yr – Macallen 12yr

From Kentucky - $14
Basil Hayden’s – Woodford Reserve – Knob Creek
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Dinner Specials @ Life Cafe 983

1/07-1/13

APPETIZER

CRAB MEAT STUFFED PORTABELLO 6.99
served over a mesclun salad

ENTREES

½ ROASTED CHICKEN 11.99
with a pineapple chutney, mashed potatoes
and green beans

BAKED COD FISH 12.99
in a miso glaze with julienned veggies and brown rice

PENNE PASTA WITH HOT ITALIAN SAUSAGE 10.99
with tomato, mushrooms, fresh basil,
all topped with goat cheese

SEITAN SAUTEE 11.99
seitan, red peppers, spinach, and edamame
served in a sweet soy ginger sauce.
________________________________________



NEW – Whisk(e)y Flights
AT LIFE CAFÉ 983
From Scotland
Caol Ila 12yr – Laphroaig 10yr – Macallen 12yr
From Kentucky
Basil Hayden’s – Woodford Reserve – Knob Creek

________________________________________

Sean O'Connor Art Show at Life Cafe 983

" Too old too soon too smart too late"

By Sean O'Connor

Jan. 6th 2010- Feb. 6th 2010

Sean O'Connor is a painter, illustrator, designer, art director and musician living in Brooklyn, NY. Originally from Ohio and mostly self-taught, Sean has spent many years drawing and painting subjects with a focus on the boring and sometimes unsettling truth of life. Expanding his creative ideas and designs he spent three years as a performance artist in the Ohio-based metal group Kaligo and drew inspiration from intense live performances. He moved to New York in June of 2005 to work in film and television. Sean's recent work reflects his career as an animation art director and painter, focusing on creating humorous characters and vivid color design. This collection represents his unique experience as an artist and musician, painting animals and people with mixed media on watercolor paper.

Sean continues to work in animation, film and photography. His most recent projects including Baskin Robins, Interview Magazine, GE, Burberry, Lancome, J Crew, GAP, Calvin Klein, Wazoo candy, Mute Math and concept design work for Curious Pictures.

www.Seanoconnor3.com

Menu Picture Riddle Answer Life Cafe East Village

The answer to last week's is Snake Bite (ouch!)

Booze Speak @ Life Cafe 983

Whiskey, Whisky, Uisce Beatha?

by Andy Mills, Bar Manager Life Cafe 983

Once upon a time, there was a powerful magician. This magician focused all the power he could muster into one magical act; the creation of usquebaugh (the water of life), today known as whiskey to some and whisky to others. The spelling of the word is a perfect demonstration of how different this stuff can be. "What's it made from?" you ask. Anything from malted barley, wheat, rye, corn and more. This fact is only the beginning of the versatility of whiskeys or whiskies. Distilleries age whiskey for different time periods, in different sized barrels made from different types of wood. They even dry the malted grains differently. Some traditional Scottish distilleries use peat moss fires to dry the stuff. Believe me, this makes a world of difference. Then, hell, they may even blend many different barrels from many different distilleries to get a particular whisky the way that it was intended to be. Johnnie Walker is a perfect example of this. The big boys, however, tend to not play these games. They give you the real deal. The single malt whisky, always expensive, usually worth the price, is a more complex, intense and usually awe inspiring drinking experience.

I took on the effort of trying to offer examples of the different flavours and textures of these amazing spirits at the cafe. I am now offering whisk(e)y flights. I have one from Scotland, and one from Kentucky, each includes three different pours of 3 of my favorite examples from the particular regions.

Scotland includes:

Caol Ila 12yr Single Malt - From Islay (Island off the coast of Scotland)

- Tastes like the island (in a good way). Light in color, brilliantly complex. Perfect balance between peat and barrel. Must try. (My favorite distillery) ;)

Talisker 10yr Single Malt - From the Ilse of Skye (also off the Scottish mainland)

- Definitely a little spicy this one here. Very medicinal, very good. This guy one the 2008 Single Malt Whisky of the Year 12yr and under award.

Laphroaig 10yr Single Malt - Also from Islay

- This is an example of the peaty side of things. I guess if I had to describe what a "peaty" scotch was, I would make you drink this very good example.

Kentucky includes:

Basil Hayden's - Small Batch Bourbon Collection

- Aged 8 years, this is one of the smoothest bourbons there is. Amazingly delicate and light bodied.

Knob creek - Another one from the Small Batch Bourbon Collection

- Aged 9 years, this is an example of an "over-proofed", meaning more alcohol, bourbon. Still surprisingly smooth, it's got a nice vanilla spice to balance out the rye it's distilled from.

Woodford Reserve

- Aged 6 years, it tastes like the wood it was aged in. This is an incredibly "woody" take on bourbon topped off with a nice sweetness.

Beer Speak @ Life Cafe 983

Why the I in IPA
by Andy Mills, Bar Manager in Brooklyn


It all started in the 18th and 19th century. As is common knowledge, the British have always enjoyed drinking fine ales. Their navy was no exception. They would ration 1 gallon of beer per sailor per day which is equivalent to 8 pints or almost 11 12oz bottles, quite a decent amount of beer I would say. This proved to be a very large problem for sailors taking long voyages into warmer climates such as India (the “I”). The popular ales of that time period would spoil in a matter of weeks, leaving sour, flat beverages for the boys to enjoy. Nutritionally speaking, beer contains essential amounts of vitamin B to long traveling sailors. What could be done? What had to be done?

Freeze it! Nope… Boil more water out! Nope… What?

More hops! Yes… More booze! Yes…

Alcohol makes it harder for microbes to reproduce, while hops discourages growth of lactic acid bacteria. These were the most effective means of beer preservation. Another neat trick was the addition of additional sugars into the beer to keep the yeast alive as long as possible, thus keeping the beer even longer. Just happens, people really enjoyed this new style of beer. Now in the United States the IPA has become one of the most popular styles in the craft beer industry.

It wasn’t a choice then… It was necessity…

Now, it’s a luxury.

Stoudts Double IPA
Adamstown, PA

10.6% ABV

Stoudts Brewing didn’t start out as a brewery and is still much, much more. It started as Stoudts Kountry Kitchen, evolved into a steak house, an antique marll, and finally, turned brewery in the late 70s. All of Stoudts endeavors have been always reaching to obtain the highest quality of craftsmanship. This beer is no different. Packing an extreme amount of hops into this one wasn’t enough. They also needed to balance it with and extreme malty backbone. Amazingly smooth for a beer with a massively high alcohol content, I highly recommend it.

Now at Life Café 983

Life Cafe 983 - Dinner Specials 10/29-11/4

APPETIZER

SOUTHWEST FRIED CALAMARI 5.99
over a bed of mesclun with a house made
southwestern dipping sauce

ENTREES

SHELL STEAK 13.99
in a mushroom and red wine sauce served with
garlic mashed potatoes and spinach

ROASTED SALMON FILLET 12.99
with sweet potato hash and an asparagus,
spinach and white bean salad

BAKED ACORN SQUASH 12.99
stuffed with spinach, roasted beets, peppers,
carrots and tofu, served with brown rice

BRATWURST PLATTER 11.99
Two brats cooked in beer served with sauerkraut,
Dijon mustard, potatoes and carrots

WORLD SERIES AT LIFE CAFÉ 983
Come watch the games @ Life Café
Drink Specials, Friendly Food, Delicious Staff

MENU RIDDLE ANSWER Life Cafe East Village

The answer to last week's Menu Riddle at the East Village Life Cafe is . . . ROCKS! As in bar drinks "on the rocks." It was on display until Monday, October 26.

If you got the answer right and left us your email address (that's readable), you'll win a free bottle of champagne! We'll notify you via email. Then call or email us back and let us know when you'll be in to enjoy it.

John's pastel drawings depict as a riddle an item from one of our menus -- the All Day, Brunch, Coffee Drinks, Dessert, any of our menus. And it could be a word, a section heading, anything! Often than not it's one of our menu items. If you study each of them enough and look for clues in his drawings, the answer is bound to pop out to you.

Thanks for playing and good luck with the next one. (John posts new ones on Fridays, unless he's late and puts one up on a Sunday, which has been known to happen from time to time.)

BEER SPEAK @ Life Cafe 983

Ultimate beer tasting…
by Andy, Bar Manager in Brooklyn


It took about 35 minutes of picking and choosing at Bierkraft + $154 and we had 35 of the world’s best beers ranging from Scheinder’s Aventius Wiezen Eisbock – Dogfish Head’s Raison de Extra (alcohol levels ranging between 6.7% and 28%!!! – average out at about 12%). This was definitely one of the best varieties of beer I have consumed in a sitting. Luckily, I happen to share it with my brother and step-father. We sat in my living room, each one of us had a chalice that we would rinse in between the next sample (at first anyway). We would take turns picking the next beer. It seemed a trend that I would go for Belgians, typically quads, and my family was going toward IPAs with west coast hop profiles. This got me thinking about my next pick.




The best match I could come up with was Houblon Chouffe, a Belgian triple abbey/double IPA blend. When I say this, it is actually NOT two different beers brewed separately and blended together. It is a meld of styles generally so far apart from each other that few would dare such a thing, but not La Chouffe. Being experts at brewing triple abbeys, they wanted to do something a little more challenging. Their take on this unique endeavor, was pure brilliance. In the United States and England, brewers tend to add hops early in the boil if not before the malt is even added, adding a stronger “bittering” effect to the beer. La Chouffe on the other hand, wanted all of the beautiful floral and pine essences that hops has to offer without making the beer overly bitter and acidic. Weighing in at 9% ABV, Houblon Chouffe hit the nail right on the head. Perfectly smooth body of a Belgian triple with a nice balance of hop, not turning the triple into the typical American double IPA. Highly recommended because hey, we were all happy!


Now available @ Life Cafe 983

ME and my BUNS: How do You Like Yours?

(and a chance to win below!!)

by John Sunderland ©
Illustration "Retro Burger" is a classic drawing from John's weekly Riddle Raffle at Life 983

I order a Life Café Burger about once a week. To me as an older Yorkshireman from England, the American Burger is an international icon and the Life Café version is an excellent example.

The nearest thing we came to real burgers in the early sixties in England was watching Wimpy, the ever-famished character on the Popeye cartoons who suffered from perpetual burger lust, suck down another one, promising to re-pay the money he’d just hustled by Tuesday or Thursday. We kids, of course, knew he really meant never. Wimpy could eat his own weight in burgers during the course of a cartoon and always got away Scott free.

“Wimpy” was also the name of a burger cafe in our northern town. A visit was something of a treat. It wasn’t overly styled as an American version, though they did do milkshakes and Coke and called chips “fries.” And they had revolving pedestal seats just like in the films. In fact, apart from cartoons, as a kid I had no real idea that the “Burger” was an American institution destined to take over the world!

The best thing about Wimpy’s though wasn’t their burgers; it was their bright colored ketchup and mustard dispensers which sat plump and heavy on the yellow Formica tables. It was risky but if you were clever, you could squeeze the ketchup bottle hard enough to make it blow little red bubbles (ketchup farts really); but get it wrong and you could erupt ketchup all over your mum’s new coat

Why I’m writing this is because as I sat at the bar of Life Café 983 last night I was mesmerized by a chap next to me by the name of Brent Herrig. He’d ordered the Life Burger and was very seriously and studiously, almost scientifically, applying a thick coating of ketchup to the under-side of the top half of the bun. Then carefully and skillfully as he held the bun in mid air he moved it in a rotational way watching closely as the thick red wave moved around glutinously within its circumference. I’d never seen anyone do that before; seems Brent had a personal thing going on, his little ritual before munching it down. I asked him how the burger was and he said the Life Café Bushwick burgers (he hasn’t been to the East Village yet) was in his top three best burgers for New York.

All you could do with a Wimpy’s burger in 1962 was see how far you could get the melted cheese to stretch in thin rubbery threads as you held the top of the bun aloft, like some hovering UFO. I could get it to stretch about a foot before the cheese cooled and went solid.

Now that I’m older and more aesthetically sensitive, I sit at the bar and see just how tall and elegant I can make my burger by piling up everything (except fries) onto the meat patty with the bun on top. I imagine it’s a design for a new building, or the leaning tower of tomato and onions. Then I sit back and marvel at my unique creation, just before it falls over.

HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR BUNS?

LIFE CAFE BURGER ARCHITECTURE CONTEST

How do you like to dress your Life Burger? Share your version in our Comments Section on the Life Café 983 Facebook Fan page for a chance to WIN YOUR BURGER, compliments of the house.

Your burger will then be featured on our specials menu with YOUR NAME attached!

Not a Facebook fan yet? Click the Badge below!

Become a Fan!

One Winner will be selected from the Facebook Fan page on November 1st, 2009. No Purchase necessary, yada yada yada!

And check out our friend Brent's amazing photography at www.brentherrig.com

LIFE IS JUST A BOWL OF CHILI at Life Cafe

Veggie Chili was the first hot item I served at Life Café in 1981. Warming, filling, loved by everyone, chili epitomized what people were looking for. Oh, and it was cheap.

To get the Cafe opened quickly I scrounged the neighborhood for snacks, the kinds of munchies loose change would buy. Dennis, a college buddy of David Life’s, arrived from Michigan about that time for a visit, curious and excited over our latest adventure, a real café in New York City.

One day Dennis and I talked about a menu. He jumped up exclaiming, “You must serve CHILI!” I was swept up by his enthusiasm and followed him into my kitchen.

“Start with cans of beans. You got fresh tomatoes? Onions? First sauté up some onions. And lots of garlic. Green pepper is good. You got celery? We can put some of that in. Where are your spices?

“Oh, Dennis, that’s too much cayenne!

“Oh, yeah. Ha, ha! I love it. Let’s throw in some black pepper too. Hot. It’s gotta be hot, hot, hot!

I didn’t serve his recipe but he convinced me about chili! I came up with my own recipe after researching the trusty old vegetarian cookbooks that had traveled with me cross-country. Dave and I were vegetarians since living in Michigan. I enjoyed discovering non-meat alternatives and experimenting with unusual ingredients. At Life Cafe, it was natural for me to serve food Dave and I liked and believed in eating. It was a challenge though to come up with menu ideas to appeal to a wider palate and to find ingredients that weren’t as readily available then as they are today.

But I had a mission. The health and fiscal advantages of vegetarianism were apparent. And I believed that by offering it on our menu showed we cared.

I charged fifty cents for Life’s Three-Bean Vegetarian Chili so our cash strapped artist and non-artist neighbors could enjoy a hot meal. I made sure that my chili was nutritious in case it happened to be the only meal someone ate that day. If a customer had an extra buck and wanted to splurge, the chili was available with brown rice and freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese for a bigger protein boost. This simple dish replenished one’s spirit with a near-to-complete protein meal.

Because it was the first item on Life Cafe’s menu and quickly became its backbone, Life’s Vegetarian Chili holds a special place on the menu for me. It’s a symbol of the ideals that Life Cafe was built upon, and serves as a reminder of where I started. It’s a symbol of what Life Cafe is about.

Life Cafe Naked Music

Yes, but it's not as racy as it sounds. Naked just means acoustic!

Join Dana McCoy
for her Monday Night
NAKED MUSIC SERIES
starts 8 pm

For more info on Dana, Naked Music and her other projects, go to http://www.myspace.com/nakedmusicseries

Columbus Day at Life Cafe

Yeah, got a day off!
Let's celebrate.

Come have brunch at Life Cafe East Village and Life Cafe 983 Bushwick
10 am

Life Cafe E Vill. WEEKLY DEALS

Five good ways to beat the recession. (Hey, we try to do what we can!)

Mondays
Half price bottle of wine when you buy 2 Big Plates or 2 Entree Specials

Tuesdays
Buy any sandwich and we'll throw in a pint of draft beer

Wednesdays
Buy any Life burger (and they're real good) and we'll throw in a pint of draft beer

Thursdays
Get a free dessert (from a choice of 3) when you buy any Big Plate or an Entree Special

Fridays
Buy Life's Wings and get half price off pitchers of Margaritas (dare you to order the suicidal!)

Life Cafe East Village Dinner Specials

We change our specials every Thursday. This is what we've cooked up for you this week, Oct. 8th thru Oct. 14.

Fresh Homemade Pasta stuffed with spinach and cheese
baked and served with fresh tomato sauce 11.99

Enchiladas Suizas
two soft corn tortillas stuffed with chicken, spinach, mushrooms, onions and topped with our own Salsa Verde and jack cheese. Served with black beans and Mexican rice 12.99

Pan Seared Pork Medallions with Red Pepper and Citrus
served with mashed potatoes and asparagus wrapped in crispy Serrano ham 12.99

Rigatoni ala Bolognese
pasta served with a classic Italian hearty meat sauce with a touch of cream 12.99