62. December 30th, 2010 Picture.

As I am sure you've noticed throughout my year of blogging, Ratty and I like to take weekend trips here and there to get out of the city.  It's fun to visit a new town, experience new places and test out new restaurants.  Ratty had come up with a great idea to head to Portsmouth, New Hampshire for the night, over New Years weekend.  We had my co-worker Jess' birthday/New Years Eve party, so we decided to go Thursday night and head back to the city on New Years Eve day.


I'd been to Portsmouth as a kid, but hadn't been in at least 20 years.  I was really excited to see how adorable it was, walk up and down Main Street and just relax.  I worked until about 1pm, and then picked up Ratty and hit the road.  Portsmouth wasn't far, probably an hour or so, so we zipped right there.  We checked in at the hotel, unpacked a little, and then walked into town to grab a bite to eat.  It was probably close to dinnertime by the time we actually sat down and ordered food, we got sidetracked at a few really awesome stores along our walk.  We wanted to order something light, so we could go out for a nice dinner later on, at least that was the plan.  Even though it was 5pm, this was our 'lunch', meaning that at some point, we'd need dinner.  This makes perfect sense to me, as I am pretty sure I inherited it from my dad.  Apparently, he'd come home from work at 4pm, eat a meal, and then be asking what was for dinner an hour later.  When my mom would remind him that he'd just eaten an hour before, he'd claim that THAT meal was his lunch and now he was ready for dinner.  I am the exact same way, it drives my mother crazy.


My idea of a light lunch was a burger, what?  I was hungry!  I'm apparently not that great at sticking to plans, but Ratty is way worse.  He ordered not one, but TWO bacon wrapped hot dogs covered in cheese.  I wish I was joking.  It was absolutely disgusting to watch him eat his meal, even though he claimed it was the most delicious thing ever.  Every time I made a face he would say something like, 'but Amy, at least I didn't get the chili.  You should be happy I didn't get the chili, because I could have!'  He said this as if he was doing me, his heart AND his stomach a favor by 'taking it easy'  I think there was enough cholesterol in that lunch to kill a small horse.  SPOILER: We weren't hungry for dinner.


In true Ratty fashion, he'd packed a bottle of champagne and some flutes in his bag, and once we were done walking around town, and done sweating out meat, we headed back to the hotel to relax, have a few glasses of wine and freshen up before heading out again.


The plan was to go to this speakeasy type of a martini bar called The Red Door and then grab a bite at one of the many restaurants in town.  Ratty's friends Chad and Christine had lived in Portsmouth when they first got married, their wedding reception was actually at the hotel we were staying at, so they recommended a few places that only the locals knew about.  We walked to the address where The Red Door should have been and were faced with a burrito place.  We didn't see any sign of a cool martini bar, and ended up pacing the block, checking to see if we'd somehow past it.  I pulled up the website on my phone, and saw that it was in fact supposed to be right where we were.  We finally buckled and asked a couple walking by and they showed us the door.  It was literally just a red door.  No sign, no number on the door, no hint at all that there was anything of note inside.

{It doesn't even LOOK red!}

We walked up to the second floor and finally saw what everyone was talking about.  It was a cool little bar, with leather couches and a dance floor, and 1 little bar with 1 bartender.  The place couldn't hold more than 75 people tops, but I got the feeling it could get crazy.  I snagged a few comfy chairs while Ratty went and grabbed us some drinks and chat with the bartender.  We hung out there, listening to the DJ who was playing the most ridiculous mash-ups that almost caused Ratty's head to explode.  Maybe he'll comment and elaborate, since I couldn't tell you one thing about the music.  We hung out for two drinks apiece before deciding to go and grab a bite someplace else.  I know I know, you're asking 'how could they be hungry again?!' And here is what I'll say to you, I have no idea.  I wasn't starving, but knowing that we wanted to stay out and have some drinks, I thought it would be in our best interested to eat something.  Like a salad.  Or a smoothie.  Or a miracle substance that could cleanse your system immediately.


Since it was the middle of winter, it wasn't surprising that a lot of places stopped serving food around 9pm or 10pm.  We'd missed service at most places, but ended up at the Portsmouth Brewery for a late night bite.  I grabbed a bowl of chili and a little salad, because somehow that seemed 'light' to me, but the absolute best part of my meal was the pretzel bread.


Now, not everyone knows what pretzel bread is, but let me tell you, it is a little piece of heaven.  It exactly what the name states, it's a roll made out of pretzel dough.  It is awesome and delicious and somewhat elusive.  I've only ever seen it at the Gamma Phi Beta Convention in Chicago, which I went to my senior year of college.  They'd serve it with every single meal we had and we'd still have to ask our server to bring back more.  We talk about pretzel bread as if it's as mystical as a unicorn, so I obviously had to take a picture.  Then post it to Facebook.  And text all my friends.

Once we finished eating, I know you're all saying 'FINALLY!', we decided to hit up a bar that was right down the street called RiRa's.  We grabbed two seats at the bar, ordered a few beers, and listened to the awesome singer that was performing that night.  The music was great, it was 2 guys, one with a guitar and one on the drums, playing every popular song ever played on the radio.  They played rap songs, pop songs, 80s, honestly they played everything!  What made it even better was that they ended the night with Bryan Adams 'Summer of '69', which made me freak out.  I love Bryan Adams, I know, totally random but totally true.


We called it a night and headed back to the hotel to get some shut eye.  Chad, Christine and their daughter Emily were coming to meet us for lunch (MORE food?!) so we needed to be refreshed in the morning!