Stained Pants and Koi Fish

Family style is when you sit down at a table with people and eat food. But it is not traditional bite here bite there kind of stuff…it is reaching over the table, eating food of of your neighbors plate, spilling water, spilling beer, and going through 100 different napkins kind of stuff. And you never know who might just be at your table.

Wednesday nights in Chinatown are not very crowded unless you visit Joe’s Shanghai restaurant, famous for its soup dumplings (recommended by Steph). The line was long, and up walks these four guys all dressed in suits, with larger than life personalities. Walked right in. And then after waiting we got seated at their table.

Come to find out rather quickly that this was going to be a real family style dinner, with some complete strangers, who just cut us in line. All was forgiven when we started ordering beer and appetizers and dumplings, jellyfish, shrimp and chicken. It was clear that this wasn’t their first time at Joe’s and they taught us the ropes.

These guys were no New York joke. They were the Wall Street bankers, Manhattan apartment owners, sunset Italian wine, business golf outings, kind of guys.

We had a lot of fun at the table that night, doing family style, sharing stories, asking questions, talking about politics, laughing, bantering and getting some New York insight.

I am finding out that the table is the key to success.

-Rachael Laage